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Front Row: Danny Brocklehurst on Brassic, Why are fewer people taking English A level?, Fisherwomen

Danny Brocklehurst on Brassic, Why are fewer people taking English A level?, Fisherwomen

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Danny Brocklehurst on Brassic, Why are fewer people taking English A level?, Fisherwomen

Bafta winner Danny Brocklehurst on new comedy drama Brassic.

Writer Danny Brocklehurst on comedy drama Brassic, the decline in numbers choosing English A level, and photographer Craig Easton on his exhibition Fisherwomen.

The Bafta winning writer Danny Brocklehurst tells Front Row about the new Sky One comedy drama Brassic.  It focuses on Vinnie O’Neill whose incompetent criminal crew is involved in everything from illegal boxing matches to an underground fetish club and stealing a Shetland pony.  How did he shape some of lead actor Joe Gilgun’s teenage experiences into a six-part series?

Photographer Craig Easton discusses his new exhibition, Fisherwomen, which opens this week at the Hull Maritime Museum. From Shetland to Great Yarmouth, he has focused on the unsung workforce in fishing  – the women - in the past and the present, including a series of new portraits he’s taken of women working in the industry today.

Today is GCSE results day. For the students who’ve got the results they need, the next stop is A levels. There has been a 13% decline this summer in entries for all types of English A level. Teachers groups have suggested the decline in numbers is due to the teaching of the subject being turned into a “joyless slog” but is that fair?  Dr Jenny Stevens, an Ofqual subject expert in English teaching and a member of the English Association and Mark Lehain, director of the Parents and Teachers for Excellence campaign, discuss.

Presenter:  Kirsty Lang
Producer:  Sarah Johnson

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