Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Front Row

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

BBC Radio 4 FM

Kirsty Lang

Catherine O'Flynn

Milton Jones

Philip Pullman

Karla Sweet

Front Row: The Heat, Catherine O'Flynn, Milton Jones, Philip Pullman

The Heat, Catherine O'Flynn, Milton Jones, Philip Pullman

31/07/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The Heat, Catherine O'Flynn, Milton Jones, Philip Pullman

Arts news with Kirsty Lang, including The Heat and Philip Pullman's Cultural Exchange.

A review of The Heat, Catherine O'Flynn on her new book Mr Lynch's Holiday, Milton Jones's comedy career, and Philip Pullman chooses Georges Brassens for his Cultural Exchange.

With Kirsty Lang.

The Heat is the latest gross-out comedy from Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids. It stars one of its alumni, Melissa McCarthy, as an unorthodox cop who has to team up with an officious, highly strung FBI agent, played by Sandra Bullock. Critic Jane Graham delivers her verdict on this odd couple comedy.

Catherine O'Flynn won the Costa First Novel Award in 2008 with her book What Was Lost, set in and around her native Birmingham. Her new novel, Mr Lynch's Holiday, focuses on a decaying new development in Spain. Among the British ex-pats scratching a living there is Eamonn, who is taken by surprise when his father - a retired Birmingham bus driver - turns up out of the blue. Catherine O'Flynn reflects on her choice of locations and her research trips to a Birmingham bus garage.

Milton Jones is a stand up comedian best known for his dead pan one liners, zany shirts and sticky-up hairdo. As he prepares to take his current touring show to the Edinburgh Festival, he talks to Kirsty about life on the road, his grandfather and how Mock the Week really works.

For Cultural Exchange, His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman chooses a song by the French singer-songwriter and poet Georges Brassens (1921-1981). Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète translates as Plea to be buried on the beach at Sète, Brassens' home town. It is inspired by Paul Valéry's poem Le Cimetière Marin.


Producer Karla Sweet.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Front Row

The Heat, Catherine O'Flynn, Milton Jones, Philip Pullman

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4