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Front Row: The Chosen, Cymande, Tayari Jones

The Chosen, Cymande, Tayari Jones

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The Chosen, Cymande, Tayari Jones

Tayari Jones on American writer Diane Oliver, and Tim McKenzie Smith on his film about 1970s funk band Cymande, the most influential British band you’ve never heard of.

The Chosen, a self-funded TV drama about the life of Christ, has become an international hit with over 100 million views.  The creator Dallas Jenkins explains why he wanted to make a bingeable series about Jesus and Priest Lucy Winkett and historian Joan Taylor discuss its impact and significance. 

The 1970s Soul Funk band Cymande has had a lasting influence on music globally, but they are little known in the UK where they first formed.  Director Tim McKenzie Smith explored their music and impact in the new music documentary 'Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande' and he’s joined by two of the group’s original members, Patrick Patterson and Steve Scipio, to talk about it.

The American writer Diane Oliver died in the 1960s aged just 22 but her short stories are now inspiring a new generation.  Tayari Jones, author of the Woman’s Prize-winning An American Marriage, explains why Diane Oliver deserves a place in the in the literary canon alongside Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison.  

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner

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