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Ellie Bury

Front Row: Jennifer Saunders; The Commitments on stage; Elizabethan portraits

Jennifer Saunders; The Commitments on stage; Elizabethan portraits

09/10/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Jennifer Saunders; The Commitments on stage; Elizabethan portraits

Jennifer Saunders reflects with Mark Lawson on her career so far as she publishes a memoir

Jennifer Saunders reflects on her career so far as she publishes a memoir; Roddy Doyle's The Commitments as a stage musical; portraits of Elizabeth I, her court and contemporaries.

With Mark Lawson.

Two major exhibitions of portraits open this week. Elizabeth I and Her People, at the National Portrait Gallery, focuses on paintings of the queen and her courtiers, as well as merchants, soldiers, artists and writers, offering insight into the rise of the 'middling sort' or middle classes in late 16th Century England. The National Gallery's Facing the Modern has portraits from early 20th Century Vienna by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and lesser known female artists showing how the newly-rich industrialists used portraits to express their aspirations. Charlotte Mullins gives her verdict.on.

Jennifer Saunders discusses her life and career, from being heckled at the Comedy Store with Dawn French in the 80s to worldwide success with Absolutely Fabulous. She also talks about her little-known foray into French movies, why the French and Saunders show is over and why she might finally make an Absolutely Fabulous film.

Roddy Doyle's debut novel The Commitments was made into a hit film in 1991. Its latest incarnation as a stage musical received its premiere last night. Writer and critic Kate Mossman reviews the show.

Producer Ellie Bury.

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