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Saturday Review

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events, with Tom Sutcliffe and guests

Presenter Tom Sutcliffe and guests offer sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events

Tom Sutcliffe

Ellah Allfrey

Craig Raine

Rosie Boycott

Oliver Jones

Saturday Review: Emil and the Detectives at the National Theatre; Photorealism exhibition in Birmingham; Nebraska; The Dogs of Littlefield

Emil and the Detectives; Photorealism in Nebraska; The Dogs of Littlefield

07/12/2013

Emil and the Detectives at the National Theatre; Photorealism exhibition in Birmingham; Nebraska; The Dogs of Littlefield

BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Review, Emil and the Detectives at the National Theatre; Photorealism exhibition in Birmingham; Nebraska; The Dogs of Littlefield

Emil and the Detectives at National Theatre, and photorealism exhibition in Birmingham.

The week's cultural highlights, including Emil and the Detectives at the National Theatre, a photorealism exhibition in Birmingham, and Suzanne Berne's The Dogs of Littlefield.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Ellah Alfrey, Craig Raine and Rosie Boycott discuss the following -

Nebraska is the latest work from film director Alexander Payne, it's set in and carrying the name of his home state. Best known for his roles as menacing heavy characters, here Bruce Dern plays a old man who believes he has won a large cash prize and sets off to collect it, causing problems for his family and creating tension among his friends. It has been extremely warmly received in the USA, but what will our reviewers make of it?

Suzanne Berne's first novel won The Orange Prize in 1999; an auspicious start. Her latest, The Dogs of Littlefield, tells the story of smalltown America living under the shadow of a poisoner who is killing much-loved pets leading to rifts within the community. A mix of local townsfolk and academic observers have their theories about whodunnit and why. Can canine assassination sustain the interest of this week's reviewers?

The National Theatre has created seasonal shows in the past which have won acclaim from the press and public alike - His Dark Materials, Coram Boy and War Horse (which has become a fixture in London's West End for 6 years now). This year's offering is a stage adaptation of another favourite children's book - Emil and The Detectives - written in 1929. The cast includes more than 50 children onstage helping to tack down Emil's stolen money; could this turn out to be another War Horse?

An exhibition of photorealism at Birmingham's Museum and Art Gallery is the first major scale retrospective in Europe. The movement began in the USA in the late 60s, and was controversial and scorned by many in the art establishment of the time; but what does a modern audience who live in a high definition world make of this once-daring art?

Daniel Radcliffe makes another bid to shed the Harry Potter image with his latest film, playing homosexual poet Allen Ginsberg, in Kill Your Darlings. Telling the little-known tale of the group of beat writers who became embroiled in a gay murder in 1944, it's a big switch for Radcliffe but will he bring his fans with him?

Producer: Oliver Jones.

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