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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Front Row: Anna Jordan, Terence Blanchard, Reappraising Horror

Anna Jordan, Terence Blanchard, Reappraising Horror

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Anna Jordan, Terence Blanchard, Reappraising Horror

A re-imagined Mother Courage, a chat with Terence Blanchard, and horror reappraised

Anna Jordan re-imagines Mother Courage, and the programme chats to multi-Grammy winner Terence Blanchard. Plus, is it time for horror to be released from the film award shadows?

It was in Manchester in 2013 that Anna Jordan won the Bruntwood Prize, the UK’s biggest national competition for new plays.  She’s now back in the city with her new adaptation of a stage classic – Mother Courage.  Bertolt Brecht set his play in 17th century Europe during the Thirty Years’ War but Jordan has moved the story into the future.  It’s 2080, and Europe no longer exists, the countries have been replaced by a grid system with individuals struggling to survive between the warring factions.

Six-time Grammy-winning composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard has written the music for all of Spike Lee’s films since Jungle Fever in 1991, and this year he was nominated for a Bafta and an Oscar for his original score for Lee’s latest, BlacKkKlansman. The composer discusses his approach to his film music, and the challenge of writing the soundtrack for When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee’s 2006 documentary about the devastation of Blanchard’s home town of New Orleans.

The success of Get Out at last year’s film awards gave many horror fans a sense that the genre was finally getting the attention it deserved when it came to the big prizes. But that hope has been dashed as once again, horror has failed to be included in any of the high profile categories in awards such as the Oscars and the BAFTAs. Actor and writer Jacob Trussell, horror film and music producer Mariam Draeger, and critic Gavia Baker Whitelaw discuss why horror  should be getting more prizes at the big film awards.

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

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