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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: Local Hero on stage, the anti-climax in culture, Agnes Varda remembered

Local Hero on stage, The anti-climax in culture, Agnès Varda remembered

Local Hero on stage, the anti-climax in culture, Agnes Varda remembered

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Local Hero on stage, the anti-climax in culture, Agnes Varda remembered

Ian Rankin reviews Local Hero on stage in Edinburgh. Plus the art of the anti-climax.

Novelist Ian Rankin reviews the new stage version of Local Hero in Edinburgh, the anti-climax in culture, Agnes Varda remembered, and the National Theatre's Lisa Burger.

The 1983 Scottish film Local Hero was a much-loved comedy drama about an American oil company rep who is sent to a fictional village in Scotland to purchase the town for his company. This film has now been adapted into a stage musical at the Edinburgh Lyceum with all 19 songs composed by Mark Knopfler, who wrote the film soundtrack. So does Local Hero the musical work? Novelist Ian Rankin delivers his verdict.

After a two-year build-up, the UK will not be leaving European Union today after all. To reflect the mood of the nation, we investigate the anti-climax in art with film critic Hannah McGill and writer Matt Thorne. Why do writers and film-makers use it, what effect does it have, and what makes an anti-climax poignant or simply frustrating?  

Legendary film-maker Agnès Varda's death was announced today, at the age of 90. She was one of the key figures in the French New Wave in the 1960s, making films like Cleo from 5 to 7, Le Bonheur and The Creatures. Hannah McGill reflects on the career of the influential figure, and the first female director to receive a rare honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2015.

In the wake of the press release issued yesterday by the National Theatre for its new season - of the seven plays presented, only one was directed by woman and none was written by a woman - Lisa Burger, the newly appointed joint Chief Executive of the National Theatre, and current Executive Director, discusses whether women playwrights and directors are still having a hard time making their presence felt at the National Theatre.

Presenter John Wilson
Producer Jerome Weatherald

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