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Front Row: Alan Bennett's play People; Michael Winterbottom's film Everyday

Alan Bennett's play People; Michael Winterbottom's film Everyday

08/11/2012

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Alan Bennett's play People; Michael Winterbottom's film Everyday

The verdict on Alan Bennett's new play People and Michael Winterbottom's film Everyday.

Mark Lawson reports on the opening night of People, a new play by Alan Bennett, plus he interviews Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov and reviews Michael Winterbottom's film Everyday.

With Mark Lawson, 

Alan Bennett's new play People stars Frances de la Tour as a former model living in her family's crumbling stately home. The comedy, staged at the National Theatre, focuses on the future preservation of the house, with options ranging from a heritage site to location hire for a porn film. Writer Kate Saunders reviews.

Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov - whose books include Death and the Penguin - talks to Mark about how he was almost seduced by the Writer's Union into being an official writer in the old Soviet Union, why his books might not be considered Ukrainian literature by some, and how he was helped by the protection mafia while trying to sell his books on the streets of Kiev.

Director Michael Winterbottom's latest film Everyday was filmed over five years and portrays a family living through a prison sentence, with John Simm as the prisoner and Shirley Henderson as his wife. Their children are very young at the start of the story, but visibly age in the course of the film. Writer and critic Bidisha gives her verdict. 

The powerful Mughal Empire dominated the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the 19th century. The British Library has brought together over 200 objects, including paintings and literature, to create a major exhibition examining the entire reign of the Mughals. Curator Malini Roy discusses what the exhibits reveal.



Producer Claire Bartleet.

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