Browse content similar to 15/06/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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On the review show tonight. He's got the hair and the axe, but | :00:18. | :00:28. | |
:00:28. | :00:28. | ||
can Tom Cruise cut it as a guitar legend in Rock of Ages. | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
There is Invisible Art at the Hayward Gallery, is there more to | :00:31. | :00:37. | |
it than meets the eye. A starry cast finds true love in an | :00:37. | :00:46. | |
improvised drama on BBC One. And Frances Osborne goes upstairs | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
Downton Abbey in her new novel, Park Lane. We will have live music | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
from Amy McDonald. My guests tonight are Sarah | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
Crompton arts editor of the Telegraph, the broadcaster, Mark | :01:00. | :01:08. | |
Forrest, and writer and comedian, David Schneider. We begin with a | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
jukebox musical, Rock of Ages like Mahmood and We Will Rock You, has a | :01:13. | :01:19. | |
plot wrapped around existing songs, from bands such as Def Leppard, | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
Foreigner and Journey. It opened in the West End last year, and a movie | :01:24. | :01:31. | |
version was almost inevitable. Ladies and gentlemen, the icon of | :01:31. | :01:36. | |
rock. He may not get top billing, but Tom Cruise steals the show, | :01:36. | :01:43. | |
playing Stacey Jacks, the front man of hair rockers Arsenal, he owes | :01:43. | :01:53. | |
:01:53. | :01:56. | ||
more than a little to Axl Rose of guns and Roses. Hey man? No, this | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
is Hayman! The plot revolves around sherry, played by Julian Huffa | :02:01. | :02:09. | |
small town girl from Oklahoma, who jump ones a bus to LA, and gets off | :02:09. | :02:16. | |
at SunSet Strip. What about Drew? Very expensive. Not drool, Drew. | :02:17. | :02:23. | |
She gets a job as a waitress at the Bush Bonn Rooms a club on a | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
downward slide, run by rock dinosaur, Dennis, Alec Baldwin, and | :02:27. | :02:35. | |
his side kick, Lonny, yes, it is Russell Brand. OK, call your band. | :02:35. | :02:43. | |
Guys, we're opening up for Arsenal. Owen Jones, in her first movie | :02:43. | :02:49. | |
musical since Chicago, leads an overzealous family values club that | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
wants to close down the club. But it seems she knows more about the | :02:54. | :03:01. | |
rock scene that she's railing on than she's letting on. # You're a | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
real tough cookie # With a long histor | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
# Of breaking little hearts # That's OK | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
# Let's see how you do it # Put up your Dukes | :03:13. | :03:19. | |
# Let's get down to it # Hit me with your best shot | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
# Why don't you hit me with your best shot | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
Reviveing the styles and sounds of the 80s, Rock of Ages tries to | :03:28. | :03:37. | |
recreate the magic of stadium rock on film. Are plot and character | :03:37. | :03:47. | |
:03:47. | :03:47. | ||
neglect glegted in favour of a pumping soundtrack. | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
Are you playing air guitar here, not?! Rock of Ages, did it rock | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
you? It rocked. For me, it totally rocked, and listen, I know that the | :03:57. | :04:03. | |
plot is not exactly the Usual Suspects, the characterisation | :04:03. | :04:08. | |
would, it was far worse than in a Scooby Doo episode. I mean, there | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
is so many things wrong with it. But, it worked for me. I think | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
maybe it was the music, that I would be going, God those leads are | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
so shallow, it is ridiculous, and then it is I Love Rock and Roll, | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
there was a sense where I was aware that my critical faculties were | :04:29. | :04:35. | |
being removed. But I loved the music, even though I hated it in | :04:35. | :04:43. | |
the 80s. I loved the remember formances, I - | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
- performances, and Tom Cruise was great. I can't believe he was | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
saying, I thought it was purgatorial. I didn't hate the | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
music. But I thought, the trouble was, the music had all the energy | :04:55. | :05:02. | |
sucked out of it, by these incredibly self-conscious, | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
unattractive performance, in an incredibly unattractive film. I | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
have never felt rarely in the presence of so much horror. And Tom | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
Cruise, I mean, uh. Really, the torso didn't do it for | :05:14. | :05:19. | |
you. That torso didn't do it for you? Did it do it for you? | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
Cruise wasn't bad in this at all. If you got bored of him doing | :05:24. | :05:33. | |
Mission Impossible, and wanted him to go a Mgnoliaa -- Magnolia way. | :05:33. | :05:40. | |
The problem is, if you don't gel with the music you won't like it at | :05:40. | :05:45. | |
all. Before the classical music I had to play this stuff in the 80s, | :05:45. | :05:51. | |
I tell you, nobody ever texted in for the classical stuff. That is | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
your first problem. I don't think there is the resonance that people | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
will have with the music. We have had three seasons of Glee, doing | :05:58. | :06:02. | |
this sort of thing. If you think this film we watched was a long two | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
hours, leading up to the big number, the show help stopper, which was | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
Journey, Don't Stop Believing, think where Glee started, where has | :06:10. | :06:16. | |
it gone since then. It is designed to appeal to a Glee audience? | :06:16. | :06:23. | |
think what is clever about it is it is appealling to the Gleeks, the | :06:24. | :06:29. | |
Glee audience, and their parents. And people like myself, if I may | :06:29. | :06:38. | |
use the term Proustiay reaction to seeing Tower Records and people | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
dating and going having photos in photo booths. For people of my age, | :06:42. | :06:47. | |
or just me, that sort of again disarmed me. It is just that is the | :06:47. | :06:53. | |
setting in the 80s. I appeal to my fellow panellists, didn't you think | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
there was some amazing comedy performances there. I thought Alec | :06:57. | :07:03. | |
Baldwin saved it for me. Every time he came on I felt slightly better. | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
Wonderful duet between Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand. That was a | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
moment. Nearly saved the film for me. A Birmingham Fagan-type | :07:11. | :07:18. | |
character. It was a Dick Van Dyke. Anything that saved his performance | :07:18. | :07:25. | |
was the duet that made everybody life. Paul Giametti is always great, | :07:25. | :07:35. | |
:07:35. | :07:36. | ||
he is sleazey and reptilian in that. Back to Cruise, I liked him in | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
Magnolia, something was very odd in this performance, I don't know if | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
it is par dee, I think he teeters over to him feeling he is having a | :07:46. | :07:51. | |
good time. Judge for yourself, odd or not. You know some people have | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
said you have become quite difficult to work with, that you | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
are constantly late, you reclusive, sometimes nonsensical? I will ask | :08:00. | :08:10. | |
:08:10. | :08:11. | ||
you this, have these people even met themselves? Well, I'm talking | :08:11. | :08:19. | |
about your band. Let me tell you something, I know me better than | :08:20. | :08:28. | |
anyone. Because I live in here. Chris, he's loving that, isn't he? | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
If you carry on watching it, they then go into Foreigner, and I Want | :08:33. | :08:39. | |
To Know What Love Is, in a way you have never seen it or will again. | :08:39. | :08:47. | |
He like Russell Crowe Kianu Reeves, they want to be rock stars, and | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
this is him having a go at it. People in the cinema where I saw it | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
were groaning, it is curdling into something that is not there. I went | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
to press reviewing with an audience and there was only me laughing. It | :09:01. | :09:07. | |
is out of context that piece. But I thought he really pushed it. I | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
thought it was as good as his Tropic Thunder performance. I loved | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
him in that. Obviously he was playing an alcoholic who couldn't | :09:17. | :09:23. | |
get out of bed, and yet looked like he spent every single minute in the | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
gym. He never, he doesn't run in this, like he does in all the other | :09:28. | :09:33. | |
films. There is always the torso. There is something problematic | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
about jukebox musicals themselves, some succeed, Mama Mia has. Not | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
many others have? The songs have to be almost irresistable, which was | :09:43. | :09:53. | |
:09:53. | :09:56. | ||
the thing about Mama Mia had, and others, I liked the Tower Record | :09:56. | :10:02. | |
scene, it is all set in grungy clubs and everybody is unattractive. | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
It is grunge year, but not dangerous, not really rock 'n' roll. | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
It is very sanatised? I don't think Def Leppard or Bonn Jovi were | :10:11. | :10:17. | |
dangerous, or Quarter Flash, skap harden My Heart was never a | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
dangerous song. In the same way as you see in a 70s film there is a | :10:22. | :10:30. | |
space hopper, you get the brick mobile phone and the flick, and the | :10:30. | :10:38. | |
Bonnie Tyler firm. Paul Giametti deserves a prize for his widow's | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
peak hairstyle. He deserves an award, he crosses the stage, it was | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
cringey, comedy bones. Brilliant. His pony tail was very good. But | :10:47. | :10:54. | |
for 80s music fans, definite hit, Rock of Ages is out now. When the | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
Hayward Gallery announced the latest exhibition would feature | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
Invisible Art, some people wondered if it was a joke at the public's | :11:01. | :11:07. | |
expense, with one threatening to pay his entrance fee with invisible | :11:07. | :11:13. | |
money. The idea of Invisible Art dates back decades, there is plenty | :11:13. | :11:19. | |
to look at and experience with your other senses as the show as curator | :11:19. | :11:27. | |
explains. It is an exhibition with works by over 60 artists over 50 | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
years. It is with the invisible unseen, not everything in the show | :11:32. | :11:37. | |
is invisible. There are things to look at. There are things to read. | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
That is especially important in a show like this. All this work, | :11:40. | :11:46. | |
though, really, artists like to break up our routines and our | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
habits, our conventional ways of behaving. This show addresses the | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
complacency of scene. This is a work by Tom Friedman, who | :11:54. | :12:00. | |
went to a professional witch, and asked her to curse the spear kal | :12:00. | :12:09. | |
space that rests 11-inches over this plinth. He was interested in | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
the idea that if you give an object a history, people will look at it | :12:13. | :12:17. | |
in a completely different way. Not every blank piece of paper in an | :12:17. | :12:25. | |
Invisible Art show is the same. This is a piece of an unseen green | :12:25. | :12:30. | |
colour and mental energy. There was an image there, but it has | :12:30. | :12:39. | |
evaporated. The only person who saw the image was the artist himself. | :12:39. | :12:48. | |
This is a work by Terry Bywater, it is nothing other than a dark -- | :12:48. | :12:57. | |
This is nothing other than a dark room. All the things we do in dark | :12:57. | :13:03. | |
space, all the emotions we protect and thoughts we have come out. In | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
our culture we are told what you see is what you get, these artists | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
approach things in a different way. When you read the description of | :13:09. | :13:14. | |
this piece on the wall, the title Invisible Vehicle, I, at least, | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
start to imagine that there is something in this space that has | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
weight, density, the artist didn't give us the keys, we haven't been | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
able to take it for a drive around the gallery yet. I do feel this | :13:27. | :13:35. | |
space is not empty. This in visible Labyrinth works by | :13:35. | :13:41. | |
putting on a pair of headphones that vibrate every time you hit an | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
invisible wall. Despite being a wonderfully involving experience, | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
it is a great metaphor for the creative process, and having to | :13:49. | :13:55. | |
feel your way without been able to see through the process. Admittedly | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
some of this work is deliberately provocative, sometimes mischievous, | :13:59. | :14:02. | |
I think that it is also taking on a very important task of trying to | :14:02. | :14:09. | |
get us to have a broader approach to works of art, and to what they | :14:09. | :14:17. | |
mean and how they make us think. Sar ra, you hear about an | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
exhibition like -- Sarah, you hear about an exhibition like this, it | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
could be a sense of Emperor's new clothes? It is hard to talk about, | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
without sounding like you have come out of the corner exhibition. When | :14:29. | :14:35. | |
you walk in, it does seem like an team gallery, it made me smile, it | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
was wonderful that sense it was invisible. It was cleverly mounted | :14:39. | :14:44. | |
and everything is transLuisent and pale. It works in it are | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
provocative, interesting and thought provoking. I particularly | :14:48. | :14:58. | |
:14:58. | :14:59. | ||
liked the ones where there is a suggestion that where the absence | :14:59. | :15:05. | |
of something makes you think there is something present. With the one | :15:05. | :15:08. | |
we saw there, something was there, and you think about his brain power | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
and you have to imagine what was once there. Imagination is a real | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
thing. In the same way with the Robert Barry doing the force fields, | :15:16. | :15:21. | |
a force field is a real thing, you can't see it. It seems to be you | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
look into all those invisible, visible, what is and what is not, | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
what is role and unreal. I found it really thought provoking. Quite | :15:30. | :15:36. | |
often, having a sense of the absurd about it, you mentioned smiling, | :15:36. | :15:42. | |
being in a room with two air conditioners, somebody there seemed | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
to take it very seriously and I ended up laughing. In that room | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
there is a white room with two air conditioning unit, you are | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
desperately looking for the art. I think the other people become the | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
art. I think that's interesting. What I found a bit difficult with | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
the exhibition is it became a bit repetitive, it was always saying | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
here is a different way, only slightly different way of | :16:06. | :16:10. | |
questioning our relationship with art in a gallry I also found that | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
there was times when I was laughing. I think with the Swiss guy, where | :16:14. | :16:20. | |
one of his paintings was done with brain energy and garden snails, for | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
example. I just wonder, are we meant to laugh at it? I don't know. | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
There are darker points in the exhibition as well. We saw the room | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
of black there. Which really provokes the idea of absence that | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
Sarah was talking about. This is where the exhibition started. When | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
you go into the room before, you are supported by all the wits of | :16:40. | :16:46. | |
White Paper, beautifully mounted, only so many of those will you be | :16:46. | :16:51. | |
inspired by. I went into the velvet curtain room, you stand there and | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
you are very still. I would defy anybody, however cynical, to go in | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
there and not find they are thinking about something, or | :16:58. | :17:05. | |
hearing things. This is a work of art created by James Lee Byars, | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
prefacing his own death, he is dead now? As I'm standing there, | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
somebody walks in. Very nervous because they can't see something | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
either. You are hit with the shall I stand here and they sense I'm | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
here, and we make art together. Or do I the terribly British thing | :17:22. | :17:28. | |
where I say I'm here, which I did. The more successful ones are expeer | :17:28. | :17:36. | |
yeings, part of the problems is, -- expeer earnings, part of the | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
problem is one artist asked for platform in the gallery, the only | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
requirement was that no-one should be able to see him. He spent days | :17:43. | :17:53. | |
:17:53. | :17:58. | ||
in there, he saw no-one, no-one saw him. I read the plaque about how | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
people had reacted, I loved that. If they had recreated that work | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
would that have been a good idea? There is a similar one, some of the | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
people walking around with you are an artwork. There is an artwork, | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
the spectators are paid to be there. So you do look at them, and think, | :18:16. | :18:23. | |
I wonder whether they are a speck Tate Ora not. My husband lift -- | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
spectator or not. My husband lifted an invisible statue off the plinth | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
and everybody thought he was part of the artwork. Enyou go to a | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
gallery on your own -- when you go to a gallery on your own and you | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
read all the stuff, you don't talk to people. If they are actors we | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
chat add lot. What it goes back to, it goes back | :18:43. | :18:49. | |
to the notion that the audience brings to it, the audience is a | :18:49. | :18:56. | |
completion of the artwork. Macel Du Champs said the audience has to | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
bring something and then the artwork is complete. I thought that | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
sense is really powerful, so that the room with the air conditioners, | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
one of them the air has been put through supposedly the water that | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
was used to wash dead bodies with in Mexico in the drug cartels, that | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
in itself is a powerful idea. The fact is, it doesn't have to have | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
happened, it is that you believe it has happened, that makes the work | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
powerful. So, I found all the time, that you were stepping into | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
something that you don't understand, and makes you pause and be | :19:30. | :19:35. | |
philosophical about it. It sounds like your imagination was waxing | :19:35. | :19:41. | |
and waning as you went through it reacting to wane things? I found I | :19:41. | :19:45. | |
was really doctored in the experience of the whole gallery -- | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
interested in the experience of the whole gallry I clung to what it | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
said on the walls because there was very little else. It was a | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
successful exhibition because it made me question how I am with art | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
what artists should be doing. I wondered whether each of these | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
exhibits would be more powerful when they were juxtaposed with a | :20:05. | :20:15. | |
:20:15. | :20:16. | ||
presence. There was so much absence. I went into the place where there | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
was no-one else there. I went into Tracey's room, there is nothing in | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
there but the plinth that has been cursed and the invisible car. To be | :20:24. | :20:29. | |
there complete owe on your own is a different -- completely on your own | :20:29. | :20:32. | |
is a different things to be surrounded by throngs of people | :20:32. | :20:40. | |
interacting and jumping on the car. Invisible can be seen at the | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
Hayward Gallery until the 5th of August. Love, the subject of a new | :20:45. | :20:51. | |
BBC One drama series may be just as hard to see, but its effects can be | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
devastating. But it is a theme explored in five 30-minute stories, | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
created, rather unusually for mainstream drama, Through | :20:58. | :21:08. | |
:21:08. | :21:11. | ||
improvisation. True Love features an impressive | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
cast, Jane Horrocks, David Tennant, it is written and directed by | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
Dominic Savage, all five dramas are set in his home town of Margate in | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
Kent. The idea came from, I suppose, all the other films I have made, | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
which at the heart of them they are about relationships, and how people | :21:29. | :21:34. | |
do and do not relate to each other. It is playing with those ideas. Who | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
do we really love. And making those kinds of decisions. Even the idea | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
that even with established relationships, they can be | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
something that comes in and upsets the balance of it. We believe we | :21:46. | :21:54. | |
love one but something can upset or ruin it. | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
In terms that the script o the outline is very detailed. The plot | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
-- or the outline is very detailed. The plot is all there, and I give | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
the actors enough to understand what's happening that particular | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
point in the story. But not too much that it stops them bringing | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
their own feelings into it. It is important for me that they inhabit | :22:16. | :22:22. | |
the roles in way that is personal to them. Where have you been? | :22:22. | :22:28. | |
have been living in Canada. this time? About 13 years, yeah. | :22:28. | :22:37. | |
Got a little girl. Nice. What's her name? Elli, she's four. | :22:37. | :22:43. | |
With the actors, the choosing them is key, I have to feel they could | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
be emotionally engaged in this kind of thing. There is a relationship | :22:46. | :22:51. | |
between me and them that I pick up on quite quickly there is a scene | :22:51. | :22:58. | |
in episode 2, which is Ashley Waters and Jamie Winstone, it is | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
about this passionate love at first sight thing that happens. I | :23:01. | :23:05. | |
suddenly thought, I wanted them to have fun. In the script there | :23:05. | :23:11. | |
wasn't that element there. I just thought we just do a dance scene. | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
It was really spur of the moment. The actors blended in a really | :23:16. | :23:22. | |
interesting way. The scene is full of emotion and passion and good, | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
really, almost like forbidden fun. I think all you can be is very | :23:26. | :23:29. | |
honest and sincere about what you are doing and what you want to do. | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
If those feelings that you have got have come across in the way that | :23:32. | :23:37. | |
they should, then there is nothing to fear. | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
I want to begin by asking but improvisation, I think it is much | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
more common in television comedy than it is in drama, especially | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
mainstream drama, like BBC One? was very interesting, I have done | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
improvisation in comedy, it was interesting to see this piece. I | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
felt, I should say firstly I felt it worked, it was very moorish, I | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
kept wanting to watch all of it. It went very quickly I think | :24:02. | :24:07. | |
paradoxically it is incredibly visual, it is the visual element, | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
the direction, there isn't that much dialogue, even though the | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
improvisation is the big selling point. But the improvisation | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
sometimes, it is incredibly exciting, especially in the episode | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
with Piper, I thought that worked so well. But the danger with | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
improvisation, is that we're not writers, as a writer as well, I was | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
pleased sometimes to think, give me what you have done, and let me go | :24:30. | :24:36. | |
and write it up and put some spisity in it, -- spesity in it, | :24:36. | :24:46. | |
:24:46. | :24:46. | ||
and back story and improvise more with that. I watched a little while | :24:46. | :24:53. | |
ago, as I began watching it, it got a different performance about the | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
actors, I thought perhaps they are improvising? It relies entirely on | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
the actors. It is lucky he has an incredible cast of actors. They do | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
really well with the improvisation. I didn't realise it was improvised. | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
I watched it, thinking it is wonderful, spare dialogue, and | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
there is a genuineness with about the way they are speaking. That is | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
the great strength. I think some of the performances are devastatingly | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
good. Did some of the actors rise to the challenge different to the | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
others? I simply was drawn in with them, and ended up watching all | :25:28. | :25:33. | |
five. I think the problem with the improvisation, and the very minimal | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
dialogue, is sometimes we fall back, we do it ourselves, on very, very | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
cliched forms of speech. There are a couple of these trying to say I | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
love you kind of scenes, that is something like The Only Way is | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
Margate. But the actors were so much better than those you see in | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
TOWIE they could do it with a luck on their face. I thought the | :25:56. | :26:01. | |
favourite was number 4, Jane Horrocks was great. David Tennant | :26:01. | :26:07. | |
is the big star of number 1, his dilemma is he had to walk out on a | :26:07. | :26:10. | |
marriage and that because someone he loved before came back. Horrocks | :26:10. | :26:14. | |
is having a rocky time in her marriage, her daughter is going to | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
university, she has a man come into her shop and show some interest in | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
her, it makes her re-think her life. That is a decision you can | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
improvise over 25 minutes and it works to perfection. The strength | :26:26. | :26:33. | |
of the pieces, that Dominic Savage had mapped out the story, there was | :26:33. | :26:38. | |
a safety net for the actors. A lot of the scenes are visuals, just the | :26:38. | :26:43. | |
actors' faces. Because the stories were so interesting, sometimes when | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
the improvised dialogue wasn't so interesting, like they missed you a | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
lot, and I love you, that almost seemed like a positive thing. | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
loved, that I loved the David Tennant one. I thought that David | :26:54. | :26:59. | |
Tennant one was riveting, he seemed to be completely believable that he | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
was trying to be a good man. I thought the silence he brought to t | :27:03. | :27:12. | |
and the very little that was said, was extraordinary. Did anyone see a | :27:12. | :27:14. | |
much bigger juxtaposition of the scene where everything is perfect, | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
and one phone call from the office from the receptionist and this girl | :27:19. | :27:24. | |
who you ran away from has suddenly come in. I wondered throughout all | :27:24. | :27:29. | |
the drams, sometimes the editing towards the end of it became brutal, | :27:30. | :27:33. | |
we had moodiness and stillness and suddenly the story had to be | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
wrapped up? The Billie Piper one is a good one, and different to all | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
the rest. At the beginning it is in the first scene, Piper is having an | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
affair with married man, and she has to go on a jouorn year, one | :27:45. | :27:50. | |
would think it was a big deal, -- journey, one would think it was a | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
big deal, and it happens in moments. That is a big deal for the BBC. I | :27:55. | :28:02. | |
like the fact they are really compressed emotion, and they are | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
very stylised, certain scenes seem to occur, there is a driving scene | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
in a lot of them. Margate itself becomes player. Looking more | :28:10. | :28:17. | |
beautiful. And the sky above Margate. Turner's Sky. The use of | :28:18. | :28:24. | |
music was extraordinary? I feel with all the one that is I saw, any | :28:24. | :28:29. | |
way. Their strengths and their weaknesses, sometimes the music was | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
fantastic and just right, and sometimes you thought, we have | :28:33. | :28:40. | |
understood, you don't need to lay it on. First Time Ever I Saw Your | :28:40. | :28:46. | |
Face, was crass, we don't need it. The dramas will be striped across a | :28:46. | :28:51. | |
week, do we see themes emerges or do they work as whole, or a climax | :28:51. | :28:55. | |
in the last one? Could you watch them in any order. There are | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
certain characters who do reoccur, but you wouldn't actually need them | :28:58. | :29:03. | |
to do so at all to enhance your understanding. I love these striped | :29:03. | :29:10. | |
across one week dramas I love when they give you a sense of place. I | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
loved Top Boy, they were based in Hackney. This one, telling me a lot | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
about a place I didn't know terribly well. I think they work | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
wonderfully. What about the overall theme, true love, what do you think | :29:23. | :29:25. | |
it was saying about different relationships, there were | :29:25. | :29:30. | |
concurrent themes in that? As I say, the thing I liked was the fact that | :29:30. | :29:34. | |
they seemed to be quite real people doing real jobs, working in a | :29:34. | :29:39. | |
carpet ware house, working in a boring office, trying to make their | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
marriages work. That is not what you seen on television. People | :29:42. | :29:46. | |
trying to make things work. thought the improvisation helped | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
with the sense of the ordinary, and the look of Margate and everything. | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
That was the strength of using improve adviceation there. | :29:54. | :30:00. | |
I would certainly -- Improvisation there. I would certainly say watch | :30:00. | :30:05. | |
all of them. From Upstairs, Downstairs to Downton Abbey and | :30:05. | :30:11. | |
Titanic, there is no shortage, it seems of a the class divided world | :30:11. | :30:17. | |
of Edwardian Britain. That is the theme of Park Lane, a | :30:17. | :30:22. | |
novel by Frances Osborne, will it have the success of her best- | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
selling non-fiction. Frances Osborne's previous books | :30:27. | :30:35. | |
were based on the lives of two of her great-grand mothers, one was | :30:35. | :30:40. | |
imprisoned and interned in a Japanese camp, and the other | :30:40. | :30:50. | |
scandalised by society. The next one draws on her history, | :30:50. | :30:57. | |
two young women with the upheaval of the world war. Beatrice is the | :30:57. | :31:00. | |
unmarried daughter of a businessman, who becomes jaded by the social | :31:00. | :31:06. | |
season. Below stairs, in the same Mayfair mansion, is Grace Campbell | :31:06. | :31:11. | |
a maid from Carlyle, and whose accent prevents her from being a | :31:11. | :31:19. | |
secretary. As Grace discovers dusting, Bea's involvement with the | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
suffragettes movement introduces her to a thrilling and dangerous | :31:23. | :31:32. | |
:31:33. | :31:58. | ||
Bea is swept away by the war, to work as an ambulance driver in | :31:58. | :32:03. | |
northern France, while Grace is left with a troubling secret. | :32:03. | :32:07. | |
From society drawing rooms to the trenches of France, and back to a | :32:07. | :32:11. | |
much-changed Mayfair, the narrative traces the evolution of women's | :32:11. | :32:16. | |
emancipation, the fault line between feminism and feminity and | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
the rise of the working-class movement. Frances Osborne knows | :32:19. | :32:23. | |
politics from the inside. Her father was a minister, and her | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
husband is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Frances Osborne. So does | :32:27. | :32:30. | |
she bring authenticity to this historic year of immense social | :32:30. | :32:35. | |
change, or is this simply another rose-tinted look at life above and | :32:35. | :32:42. | |
below a grand staircase. Did you find this an engaging | :32:42. | :32:45. | |
story? I must admit when you sent me the book and I saw the cover, I | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
thought it is probably a book I would run a mile out of the | :32:49. | :32:55. | |
bookshop rather than have to endure, with a debbuant in pearls looming | :32:55. | :32:59. | |
over the girl with the maid's frock, you don't get to see her face. I | :32:59. | :33:03. | |
picked it up this morning and I sat with it, and I read it all, quite | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
enjoyed it. I surprised myself. I thought back 100 yearsk back into | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
the narrative, we are in austerity, and we are all wishing we could be | :33:11. | :33:18. | |
back where a few aristocratic land lors could make things better. I | :33:18. | :33:22. | |
put it aside, -- landlords could make things better. I put it aside | :33:22. | :33:28. | |
and enjoyed it, right to the end where there is a twist. | :33:28. | :33:34. | |
historical accuracy with the move from non-foix fiction? She writes | :33:34. | :33:39. | |
well as a non-fiction writer. The problem with this is she hadn't | :33:39. | :33:43. | |
made the transition to becoming a novelist. There is an awful lot of | :33:43. | :33:45. | |
fact that comes in, it is interesting, the Suffragette | :33:45. | :33:50. | |
movement, the suffer from the Home Rule Bill brought into parliament. | :33:50. | :33:57. | |
Women in the war wore carbolic belts. The facts crowd in. No sense | :33:57. | :34:02. | |
of character there is -- there is no sense of character. I didn't | :34:02. | :34:07. | |
know who anyone was. There was the leading MP, and Frances Osborne had | :34:07. | :34:11. | |
no idea beyond a Mackintosh who he was. I wanted to know what someone | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
looked like in the book. Hats off to anyone who writes a novel, which | :34:16. | :34:21. | |
is like a terrible start, you know it is going to be bad. That is | :34:21. | :34:26. | |
quite a low base! I think the story was good, that's all right. About | :34:26. | :34:32. | |
five or six lines in there is a door handle described as "night- | :34:32. | :34:37. | |
cold and turnip-long", you think either this is the new James Joyce | :34:37. | :34:40. | |
or it is really going to be bad. It is not James Joyce. | :34:40. | :34:44. | |
I mean, it is readable, it is readable. I got to the end. Isn't | :34:44. | :34:49. | |
that what you want with this sort of book. I was frustrated, you | :34:49. | :34:55. | |
wanted someone to describe things better. There was Emily Pankhurst | :34:55. | :34:59. | |
into it, there was a moment she meets her and you know it is meant | :34:59. | :35:03. | |
to be a big deal. The women, Emily Pankhurst and the other women are | :35:03. | :35:06. | |
described as holding their heads high, the one that is had been | :35:07. | :35:16. | |
:35:17. | :35:19. | ||
force-fed, their heads even higher. It is like they were Mere cats. -- | :35:19. | :35:23. | |
mere cats. There was the horrendous description of the house in the | :35:23. | :35:28. | |
beginning and the introduction of Grace who speaks in language that | :35:28. | :35:36. | |
doesn't ring true. I managed to put aside. I put it up with fever and | :35:36. | :35:39. | |
who doesn't want another Upstairs, Downstairs, and doesn't want | :35:39. | :35:43. | |
another Downton Abbey, I surprised myself and enjoyed it to the end. | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
Why do we go back to the Upstairs, Downstairs themes, why do we like | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
this class-ridden world? I think the thing is, what I felt | :35:52. | :35:56. | |
frustrating about it, it is a fascinating period. The fight for | :35:56. | :35:59. | |
suffragettes, one of the great stories, the fact that women didn't | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
agree on how to achieve the vote, is riveting. She has all that | :36:03. | :36:07. | |
lurking in the background. You have the business of the rise of the | :36:07. | :36:10. | |
Labour Party, and the rise of socialism, there is loads of very | :36:10. | :36:13. | |
interesting things going on there. The frustration is that none of it | :36:13. | :36:18. | |
springs to life, it is all just syphers. There are great book about | :36:18. | :36:23. | |
that period where you actual low have a sense of what it is like in | :36:23. | :36:28. | |
this firmment of social change. Why is it, what is it about this | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
class world, this world of class that seems to be the zeitgeist in | :36:32. | :36:37. | |
some way to us now? What we are told, the there is truth in it, | :36:37. | :36:42. | |
because of this age of austerity, and this terrible thing, the euro | :36:42. | :36:45. | |
is going to collapse and the whole banking system collapsing tomorrow, | :36:45. | :36:50. | |
we are rushing back to no sir talgia. We love the class structure | :36:50. | :36:57. | |
we all -- nostalgia, and we love the class structure because we all | :36:57. | :37:07. | |
:37:07. | :37:08. | ||
knew we were. The Jubilee is a version of the Downton Abbey. | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
are turning this thing about the Queen into a need for a fuedal | :37:12. | :37:15. | |
system, I don't think that is there. I don't think she is particularly | :37:15. | :37:19. | |
interested, she is interested in the change happening, and the fact | :37:19. | :37:21. | |
that the class structure is beginning to collapse, which I | :37:21. | :37:27. | |
think is what makes that period so riveting, and accelerated by the | :37:27. | :37:33. | |
war. What is interesting is that you have the sympathies, we | :37:33. | :37:36. | |
shouldn't judge her as the Chancellor's wife, but her | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
sympathies are with the Suffragettes who espoused violent | :37:40. | :37:48. | |
means for a just cause. You wonder if the Osborne house is like a | :37:48. | :37:53. | |
Bercow house claim clim We will draw to an end here. --!. We will | :37:53. | :37:59. | |
draw to an end. Tomorrow June 16th is Bloomsday, the annual | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
celebration of all things Joyceian, particularly of the novel, Ulysses, | :38:03. | :38:09. | |
which is set on June 16th, 1904. This year in honour of the 90th an | :38:09. | :38:15. | |
verse reef its publication. Radio 4 is interrupting the schedule with a | :38:15. | :38:18. | |
seven-part dramatisation, set across the day. Starting in the | :38:18. | :38:24. | |
morning and ending just before the midnight news. Mr Leopold Bloom | :38:24. | :38:29. | |
eats with relish the inner organs of beasts and foul. Now in dreams, | :38:29. | :38:33. | |
silently she comes to me. I was blue mouldy for the want that have | :38:33. | :38:39. | |
pint. Yes, I said, yes, I will, yes. | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
As Joyce's characters roam around Dublin, the narrative moves in and | :38:43. | :38:47. | |
out of their minds, perhaps straight forward in a radio | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
adaptation, but more of a challenge for a television director in the | :38:51. | :38:57. | |
1960s. Could buy one of those silk petty coats for Molly, colour of | :38:57. | :39:06. | |
her new Garters. Boylen again, not sea, no think. Ever since its | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
publication, Ulysses has sparked extreme reactions, from outrage to | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
adoration, even the most creative version causing consternation, as | :39:15. | :39:21. | |
the BBC discovered in 1982. John Tidyman is the producer of the | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
three-hour musical version of Ulysses, called Blooms of Dublin. | :39:24. | :39:32. | |
Two weeks ago in Dublin he faced the indignation of the RTE singers, | :39:32. | :39:37. | |
they refused to sing what they regarded as a pro-fain, | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
pornographic and blasphemous song. # They deserved a condom | :39:41. | :39:49. | |
# A pessery too of course The members of the Irish house | :39:49. | :39:53. | |
wives association protest against the proposed broadcast...Joyce | :39:53. | :39:58. | |
a bawdy writer. He was bawdy, and it was in a natural sort of way. | :39:58. | :40:02. | |
This is, I don't know, it seems to be advocating unnatural practices, | :40:02. | :40:12. | |
:40:12. | :40:19. | ||
as you might say. Will this version enthral or enrage a radio audience | :40:19. | :40:25. | |
throughout Bloomsday. My own favourite quote is "the | :40:25. | :40:31. | |
sacred pint alone will unbind the tongue of deedless", it starts | :40:31. | :40:35. | |
tomorrow morning at 9.10. More details on the website and | :40:35. | :40:39. | |
everything on the programme. Keep tweeting and let us know your | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
thoughts about tonight's discussions. My thanks go to David, | :40:43. | :40:49. | |
Sarah and Mark, next week Kirsty will be back to look at Julie | :40:49. | :40:55. | |
Walters return to the theatre. And the follow up to The Thick Of It. | :40:55. | :40:59. | |
We end with music from the singer- songwriter, Amy McDonald, with | :40:59. | :41:04. | |
music from A Beautiful Life, the album out this week, this is Slow | :41:04. | :41:14. | |
:41:14. | :41:23. | ||
# I never knew # You before | :41:23. | :41:31. | |
# I'd been walking around # With my eyes on the floor | :41:31. | :41:37. | |
# But now you're everywhere to me # You're every face that I see | :41:37. | :41:44. | |
# Things ain't moving quick enough # For me | :41:44. | :41:46. | |
# I guess I've been running around town | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
# Leaving my tracks # Burning out rubber | :41:49. | :41:58. | |
# Driving too fast # But I gotta slow right down | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
# Back to the moment # The very start | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
# From the very first day # You had my heart | :42:05. | :42:11. | |
# But # Gotta slow right down | :42:11. | :42:14. | |
# Slow it down # Down down down | :42:14. | :42:24. | |
:42:24. | :42:30. | ||
# Wishing wanting for something more | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
# Always better than I had before # Who knew these dreams | :42:34. | :42:42. | |
# Would come true # I run the red | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
# Won't stop at night # I don't care for traffic lights | :42:47. | :42:51. | |
# Things ain't moving quick enough # For me | :42:52. | :42:56. | |
# I guess been running around town # Leaving my tracks | :42:56. | :42:59. | |
# Burning out rubber # Driving too fast | :42:59. | :43:06. | |
# But # Gotta slow right down | :43:06. | :43:10. | |
# Back to the moment At the very start | :43:10. | :43:13. | |
# From the very first # You had my heart | :43:13. | :43:18. | |
# But I gotta # Slow right down | :43:18. | :43:23. | |
# I guess I been running round town # Leaving my tracks | :43:23. | :43:27. | |
# Burning out rubber # Driving too fast | :43:27. | :43:35. | |
# But I gotta slow right down # Back to the moment | :43:35. | :43:39. | |
# The very start # From the very first dayle # You | :43:39. | :43:41. |