:00:27. > :00:36.We're back on Monday. On the review show tonight, Robert Pattinson
:00:36. > :00:41.swaps vam pieric virgins for - vampiric Virgins for Bel Ami. We
:00:41. > :00:46.talk about the fictional lives of sex offenders in the new book, Lost
:00:46. > :00:50.Memory Of Skin. Sex and society in the 18th century, a new exhibition
:00:50. > :00:55.by the Danish painter, Johan Zoffany, at the Royal Academy. And
:00:55. > :01:00.Stephen Mangan tells us about bringing Douglas Adams detective,
:01:00. > :01:05.Dirk Gently to the screen. Not pontificating over the he can
:01:05. > :01:10.electic election are John Mullan, professor of English at University
:01:10. > :01:15.College London, writer and stand-up comic, AL Kennedy, who has
:01:15. > :01:18.published six novels, most recently The Orange Prize nominated. The
:01:18. > :01:25.Blue Book, and Marcel Theroux, writer and broadcaster, whose
:01:25. > :01:29.latest book, Far North, is a futuristic novel set in Siberia.
:01:29. > :01:34.Good evening, we welcome your thoughts on the subjects, tweet us,
:01:34. > :01:42.we appreciate the feedback, most of it, at any rate. Tonight we start
:01:42. > :01:46.in Paris, in the mid-1800s, where an all-star cast, including Robert
:01:46. > :01:55.Pattinson and Christina Ricci, bring a tale of lust, adultery and
:01:55. > :02:00.ambition in Bel Ami. Set in decadant 1800s Paris, it is the
:02:00. > :02:08.story of George, played by Robert Pattinson, from ex-military upstart,
:02:09. > :02:14.to one of the richest and best connected men in Paris, by a series
:02:14. > :02:19.of mistresses. It has an impressive ensemble class. Ranging from big
:02:19. > :02:27.Hollywood hitters such as Uma Thurman, and Ricci, to respected
:02:27. > :02:32.British talent, Chris tin Scott Thomas, and Philip Glennster.
:02:32. > :02:36.is rotten with money, if you can't succeed here, lie down and die.
:02:36. > :02:40.film premier at the Berlin international film festival, and
:02:40. > :02:43.marks a debut for Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, who worked
:02:43. > :02:48.together in theatre for more than 20 years, with their own company,
:02:48. > :02:53.Cheek By Jowl. Remarkably there were many things in common to the
:02:53. > :02:58.theatre. I think, in a sense, our skills in film separated very
:02:58. > :03:02.naturally. I looked after the visual side, the space, and Declan
:03:02. > :03:07.looks after the ablgtors, that is very much -- actors, that is very
:03:07. > :03:13.much how it works in theatre. Ami tackles theme as lust,
:03:13. > :03:17.deception and emotional abuse, with Pattinson decribing George as
:03:17. > :03:21.completely amoral. There is a thread of timeless political
:03:21. > :03:26.corruption and the manipulation of the media. It springs off the page,
:03:26. > :03:29.it is an incredibly strong, powerful, fascinating story about a
:03:29. > :03:33.fascinating character. It also has incredibly contemporary relevance,
:03:33. > :03:38.in that the whole political background is so up-to-the minute,
:03:38. > :03:45.it is almost laughable. Even since we finished shooting two years ago,
:03:45. > :03:51.the unrolling story of phone hacking, a corrupt media, seem
:03:51. > :03:56.minute-by-minute more and more relevent. So does Bel Ami hold a
:03:56. > :04:01.mirror from past to present predicaments, or merely a tale of
:04:01. > :04:10.debauchry in fabulous frocks. you want to be the man who put down
:04:10. > :04:16.the Government or do you want to be a fool?
:04:16. > :04:22.The directors said they wanted the contemporary subject of political
:04:22. > :04:29.intrigue to come to the fore. Did you find it part of the film?
:04:29. > :04:34.all takes place off screen. It is the Government involved in Algeria
:04:34. > :04:38.but they could have been dealing in orange juice futures, it is all off
:04:38. > :04:42.stage and it is talking, and you don't get a sense it is at the
:04:42. > :04:46.heart of the movie. The heart of the movie is this amoral character
:04:46. > :04:49.making his way in the world. He's supposed to be making his way up
:04:49. > :04:56.from poverty, at no point do you think he has ever been poor in his
:04:56. > :05:01.lie. You think it is a gap year student who might have had his cash
:05:01. > :05:06.card retained in Bangkok and is having lots of sex. The movie has
:05:06. > :05:10.great looking actors, and in lots of scenes they are not wearing
:05:10. > :05:13.clothes. Robert Pattinson was the central vehicle for him, this
:05:13. > :05:16.ensemble cast of beautiful people around him, does he hold the
:05:16. > :05:22.centre? I don't think he does, really. It is not entirely his
:05:22. > :05:29.fault, because it is very difficult, the point of the story is that it
:05:29. > :05:37.is told from Georges viewpoint, that is how De Maupassant tells it,
:05:37. > :05:40.not in his voice but his viewpoint. This heartless person is somebody
:05:40. > :05:45.into whose mind and appetites and sympathies you are drawn. Pattinson
:05:45. > :05:51.has to do it just by lots of close- ups of his face. And not
:05:51. > :05:54.surprisingly, he can't do it. It would take a really good actor to
:05:54. > :05:58.do it. Somebody says about him as a character, at some stage late in
:05:58. > :06:03.the film, there is nobody there. And a lot of the time that is the
:06:03. > :06:08.feeling you have. Did you feel that? No, I saw a different movie.
:06:08. > :06:12.I was tired and I had a headache and it was really late at night. No,
:06:12. > :06:16.I was very prepared to think that Pattinson couldn't carry it, he has
:06:16. > :06:21.very difficult scenes as you say, he has no lines, he just has to be.
:06:21. > :06:25.I got a real sense of his absolute desperate pursuit of just anything
:06:25. > :06:30.that would mean he could survive. It is not really a film about sex,
:06:31. > :06:34.and the sex isn't about sex it is about power. A lot of that power is
:06:34. > :06:41.taken by the women. That is the whole point, the women in the end
:06:41. > :06:51.have more power. They are fantastic. You have Uma Thurman, Christina
:06:51. > :06:52.
:06:52. > :06:58.Ricci and Chris ten Scott Thomas, she has a more Kirsten Scott Thomas,
:06:58. > :07:04.she has a more difficult role. think Uma Thurman is great. I think
:07:04. > :07:11.Uma Thurman gives a confidently terrible performance. The scene
:07:11. > :07:14.where she turns the table on him, it sounds like it comes from the
:07:14. > :07:19.director's voice, there is this nullity of the Robert Pattinson
:07:19. > :07:23.character making his way, from scene-to-scene you don't know what
:07:23. > :07:27.he wants. You don't actually know in the end what he's actually
:07:27. > :07:34.driving towards? Sex, he gets plenty of it. What else does he
:07:34. > :07:38.want. He's happy in the first scene when someone gives him five bob and
:07:38. > :07:42.he can have sex with the prostitute, and then he's happy to go back to
:07:42. > :07:46.the decision. Not many actors would be prepared to be that thick. In
:07:46. > :07:51.the book he's thick, he does and says the wrong thing, he looks for
:07:51. > :07:57.the next thing and has no ambition. He has complicated feelings, and it
:07:57. > :08:01.is not that he's a brilliant Machiavellian figure in the book.
:08:01. > :08:11.There is no complication in the film. The whole point is that Uma
:08:11. > :08:16.Thurman, he's just a sieveer for Uma Thurman. Sypher for Uma Thurman.
:08:16. > :08:22.He doesn't care about anything, maybe they did the sociopath thing,
:08:22. > :08:28.there was a vacuum at the heart of the movie. This is the clip where
:08:28. > :08:33.Kirsten Scott Thomas, the final woman he seduces, and is being
:08:33. > :08:39.rejected by him. Take me with you, I need to talk to you. Remember
:08:39. > :08:43.where you are. You shouldn't have seduced me. You should have left me
:08:44. > :08:48.where I was, a happy and faithful wife. Please let me come with you.
:08:48. > :08:58.Please, just for an hour, I have something so important to tell you.
:08:58. > :09:02.Something to your advantage. It is about my husband. Kirsten Scott
:09:02. > :09:07.Thomas has got the depth to play this, and she plays the most
:09:07. > :09:11.difficult part? I find it difficult to watch her throwing her dignity
:09:11. > :09:16.away chasing after that ninny. is just a character. Where have you
:09:16. > :09:20.lived your life like that doesn't happen. He's the best looking
:09:20. > :09:25.member of the sixth form. I feel the sexual politics is at a school
:09:25. > :09:29.level, it never gets out. You have to feel with her, you have to feel
:09:29. > :09:32.that she's somebody whose dignity is destroyed. There has to be a
:09:32. > :09:36.really powerful force that makes her do that. He's very good looking,
:09:36. > :09:39.that is not enough. That is the tragedy of falling for somebody
:09:39. > :09:43.like that, who everybody around you knows it is bad news, still you go.
:09:43. > :09:49.That is what happens in life. about the direction, both the
:09:49. > :09:52.directors talk about spliting it up, they are very, very good on detail?
:09:52. > :09:57.The frocks are fantastic. We obviously disagrow about Uma
:09:57. > :10:02.Thurman. I think the direction, -- disagree about Uma Thurman. They
:10:02. > :10:06.are so concerned about how she comports herself, and the frocks
:10:06. > :10:10.and the amazing interiors, they are very, very lush, they have
:10:10. > :10:15.forgotten to talk about the part she's playing. I love that rb you
:10:15. > :10:20.see faces, there are people who -- you see faces, there are people who
:10:20. > :10:25.know about it, but you see the acting. It is very close up.
:10:25. > :10:30.That scene in the book is tremenduously moving, and his death
:10:30. > :10:34.is greatly moving. We are in this situation, we have Robert Pattinson,
:10:34. > :10:39.the Twilight crow, and mums and dads wanting to go -- crowd, and
:10:39. > :10:43.mums and dads wanting to go and they are saying I'm not sure you
:10:43. > :10:46.can go that? People saying you can't lose money with a film with
:10:46. > :10:49.Robert Pattinson in it. We haven't mentioned the script, that is the
:10:49. > :10:54.big hole in the film. The script doesn't move forward. You have no
:10:54. > :10:57.sense of his motivation, even if you did, even if you assume he's
:10:57. > :11:02.hungry for something, I don't know what it is, I don't know how he's
:11:02. > :11:07.going about getting it. It is because he's a young guy.
:11:07. > :11:13.script is insufficient. You notice the direction, the music, it is one
:11:13. > :11:19.of the films which seems to have music that desperately tries to
:11:19. > :11:26.impart drama that the script hasn't earned. I law a different movie.
:11:26. > :11:32.you would like to see -- I saw a different movie. Bel Ami is
:11:32. > :11:38.released today. Undersage sex and internet porn is hardly fodder for
:11:38. > :11:42.Richard and Judy's Book Club, but Johan Zoffany chose -- Russell
:11:42. > :11:51.Banks chose just those tough themes for his latest novel, The Lost
:11:51. > :11:56.Reflection. An unknown 22-year-old male, known as The Kid, is released
:11:56. > :12:00.from prison after committing a sex crime. He's forced to live in the
:12:00. > :12:06.Florida Causeway, one of the few places where convicted sex
:12:06. > :12:11.offenders are allowed to stay. Banks was inspired to write the
:12:11. > :12:15.book after seeing a group of offenders living below his
:12:15. > :12:23.apartment. The tunnel causeway crosss are from the mainland over
:12:23. > :12:28.to the Barrier Islands, Miami Beach. I could see the causeway, I decided
:12:28. > :12:32.to go and look in person and see who and what was there. It was a
:12:32. > :12:37.completely ragtag and bob tail of sex offenders? The Cheek By Jowl,
:12:37. > :12:42.you had serial rapists and some poor old drunk who maybe was
:12:42. > :12:47.arrested for urinating in a public place. You had this mixed bag of
:12:47. > :12:52.people, all of whom were essentially under permanent, on
:12:52. > :12:58.going surveillance. Your anti-hero is guilty of a sex offence, but
:12:58. > :13:01.still a virgin, he didn't physically touch anyone. Could you
:13:01. > :13:06.write this book about any other character, who was a legislature,
:13:06. > :13:10.who raped very young children? honest answer is I couldn't, this
:13:10. > :13:14.was the first time I felt myself blocked out. I couldn't get into
:13:14. > :13:19.his head. Not just because I didn't want to go there, but I didn't, I
:13:19. > :13:25.was unable to imagine what was on the other side of that man's face.
:13:25. > :13:30.I think it was because he had no remorse. If I can't feel affection
:13:30. > :13:35.for a character it is very difficult for me to get
:13:35. > :13:39.sufficiently intimate to write about a character. "the kid is no
:13:39. > :13:43.psychologist and has no insight into what make as sex offender
:13:44. > :13:48.offend. They are like chimps or neanderthals, who eventually would
:13:48. > :13:52.have evolved into normal human beings, if it weren't for their DNA
:13:52. > :13:57.having got scrambled some what. The kid wonders if all across America
:13:57. > :14:02.there is some kind of strange radioactive leakage, like from
:14:02. > :14:11.high-tension wires, or cellphones, or road and parking lot as falt,
:14:11. > :14:14.turning thousands of American men, young and old of all-races into sex
:14:14. > :14:22.offender, so instead of being attracted to women their own age,
:14:22. > :14:26.they are attracted to young girls and little children. "You pay no
:14:26. > :14:30.attention to the victim, why not? The victim has got plenty of
:14:30. > :14:33.attention elsewhere and by other writers and other media. For me I
:14:33. > :14:42.thought it was important to try to look at it from the point of view
:14:42. > :14:45.of the perp. Novelists have been doing that for 400 years now,
:14:45. > :14:48.looking at the world, not just through the point of view of the
:14:48. > :14:52.victim, but the point of view of the person who has hurt the victim.
:14:52. > :14:56.Alison, it is dark and distressing material he is writing about, he
:14:56. > :15:03.doesn't write about the darkest and most distressing of the characters,
:15:03. > :15:10.as he says himself, he can't do it? No, it is a strange book. I mean,
:15:10. > :15:14.word-for-word, the way he writes, he's a writer, he can do it. There
:15:14. > :15:18.are beautiful, descriptive passages, he talks about light coming off a
:15:18. > :15:22.building being chummed into the dark. He nailed it. I thought
:15:22. > :15:26.reading the first third of it, he has done a stunning book, the great
:15:26. > :15:31.American novel for this decade, he has nailed it, he cares about
:15:31. > :15:34.social issues, he's addressing where America is now, that it is so
:15:34. > :15:38.divided that people can be utterly cast out with a complete lack of
:15:38. > :15:43.justice. He's really going for it. Slowly he went further and further
:15:43. > :15:48.away, the two characters, the Kid, the sex offender and the Professor
:15:48. > :15:53.who comes in from outside. Professor, is essentially drawing
:15:53. > :15:58.the story out of the Kid? He's Watson. I found the Professor quite
:15:58. > :16:01.unbelievable for quite a lot of the time, and the Kid, I think, became
:16:01. > :16:06.less believable as things became more allegorical. There is a sense,
:16:06. > :16:10.this is to do with him trying to talk to America, that you are being
:16:10. > :16:14.shouted at any somebody who expects you to be not listening, and not
:16:14. > :16:17.sympathetic and not aware of shades of grey. He did say that he can't
:16:17. > :16:22.get inside the head of a character unless he has some sympathy with
:16:22. > :16:30.the character. In a sense, is that an Achilles heel with this book?
:16:30. > :16:34.is a bit. We must be careful with the plot, it does have a plot. But
:16:34. > :16:43.the particular offender, into sympathy with whom we have to be
:16:43. > :16:47.drawn, turns out, by my standards, not really to be a terribly
:16:47. > :16:51.challenging or worrying figure. In some ways the plot, he's actually
:16:51. > :16:57.treated rather unjustly, he has been treated rather unfairly. I
:16:57. > :17:00.agree with Alison, I think, this is really a sort of what, what the
:17:00. > :17:05.reference call a novel which has something specific to say. It is
:17:05. > :17:10.there in the title, Lost Memory of Skin. What it is saying is there is
:17:10. > :17:14.a kind of range of maladjustments which are created by people living
:17:14. > :17:20.virtually, and living just through the Internet and that's the cause
:17:20. > :17:25.of this person's sexual malaise. There difficult thing to write
:17:25. > :17:28.about would have been the humble character, or to write the Jonathan
:17:28. > :17:32.Little character, and the kindly ones, a difficult character guilty
:17:32. > :17:36.of terrible things? Yes, and I don't want to give too much away.
:17:36. > :17:41.He's struggling with his own, the author is struggling. I enjoyed the
:17:41. > :17:47.bok, it was three quarters of a terrific novel. He struggled with
:17:47. > :17:53.the character of the Professor. To me it is hukle berry fin with a
:17:53. > :17:56.massive porn collection. The kid is actually a very resourceful heroic
:17:56. > :18:01.character, and you don't know what he has done and you want to like
:18:01. > :18:07.him. In terms of plot and structure it moves really well. It is well
:18:07. > :18:13.paced. The pacing is nice. The description works really well, with
:18:13. > :18:17.the way the description is paced. I sthout it was a terrific craft -- I
:18:17. > :18:22.thought it was a terrific craftsman the writer. In the last pit about
:18:22. > :18:28.of the book he's wrestling with the revulsion and what it means for the
:18:28. > :18:33.character. Margaret Atwood says he's the writer of the dark side
:18:33. > :18:39.about the dark side. But he turned away. Essentially what he says it
:18:39. > :18:43.means is The Most Memory of Skin, is about the Internet, where nobody
:18:43. > :18:47.makes connections with each other. He's down on the Internet and down
:18:47. > :18:51.on parenting in the same way. He said he thought the problems with
:18:51. > :18:56.parenting in America is really bad? There is this peculiar thing which
:18:56. > :19:00.seems to me rather sort of evasively done about the Kid's
:19:00. > :19:05.relationship with his mother. She is basically, she is a single mum
:19:05. > :19:09.who has brought him up, in his head, and he moves around inside people's
:19:09. > :19:14.heads just as he wants to. In a rather dismaying way, sometimes. In
:19:14. > :19:19.his head the bid thinks she has been a good mum to me -- the Kid
:19:19. > :19:24.thinks she has been a good mum. But with her being promiscuous, there
:19:24. > :19:28.is a connection, when she's having it off with her boyfriends, he
:19:28. > :19:33.turns to pornography. There seems to be some sort of narrative link.
:19:33. > :19:37.He has a fairly bog standard slightly neglected childhood. You
:19:37. > :19:42.know that you can't necessarily trust what he's saying, or indeed
:19:42. > :19:46.what anybody is saying, which ultimately becomes difficult,
:19:46. > :19:50.because everybody is unhelpful, and looking at the author, helplessly
:19:50. > :19:55.unreliable. You kind of drift into fantasy. When he's trying to
:19:55. > :20:00.address something that is terribly real and he's passionate about.
:20:00. > :20:07.Professor is given slabs of theory to think. He doesn't say them.
:20:07. > :20:11.Those are surely Russell Banks theory. Who is to say about
:20:11. > :20:14.pornography and the Internet, and the extent to which we are
:20:14. > :20:18.inundated with pornography. In previous centuries nobody would see
:20:18. > :20:26.the numbers of images of naked people, people engaged in different
:20:26. > :20:29.sexual acts with the click of a mouse you can see them. The book is,
:20:29. > :20:33.perhaps heavyhandedly towards the end about the loss of innocence and
:20:33. > :20:38.the serpent in the garden of Eden? There is a lot about that.
:20:38. > :20:45.whole idea he has set out with a thesis, and interesting what you
:20:45. > :20:49.were talking about Steinbeck, he does it in a more imaginative way.
:20:49. > :20:53.Russell Banks will talk about the disadvantage in America, endlessly.
:20:53. > :20:57.The thing that wo take it beyond the thesis is really -- would take
:20:57. > :21:00.it beyond the thesis is really engaging with both people, it
:21:00. > :21:06.becomes natural and organic. Because he is, as he says locked
:21:06. > :21:11.out of both them. There is a lyricism of it, and a buetyo in it,
:21:11. > :21:18.there is a lyrical -- beauty of it, there is a lyrical quality. There
:21:18. > :21:24.is lost people, a Lord of the Flies, and Coral Island, Ien joyed the
:21:24. > :21:29.book. Before we finish -- I enjoyed the book. Before we finish, let's
:21:29. > :21:35.talk about the six-foot character that slithers along the road. The
:21:35. > :21:41.boy is so attached to the Ig uana that his mother smuggled into the
:21:41. > :21:44.country when he was a baby. There are some really good bits of
:21:44. > :21:50.description, when Russell Banks for a second forgets what he's writing
:21:50. > :21:55.about and writes. One of the great bits is when he gets the pet ig
:21:55. > :21:59.uana and it bites hard on his hand, and they have to go to hospital to
:21:59. > :22:04.get it off, and they want to kill it. It is the most intimate thing
:22:04. > :22:10.that happens to him. It is the memory of skin. The family portrait
:22:10. > :22:18.these days is likely to be a snapshot. 300 years ago it was a
:22:18. > :22:23.paint brush, easal and outfits glol lor. German painter, Johan Zoffany
:22:23. > :22:33.was a big noise in London, to imhas not been so kind to his legacy. A
:22:33. > :22:39.
:22:39. > :22:43.new exhibition at the Royal Academy I think it is a great moment for
:22:43. > :22:49.Zoffany, there hasn't been an exhibition since the 1970. Most
:22:49. > :22:55.won't know him. He's unlike Gainsborough, Reynolds, we know
:22:56. > :23:00.them well, but he's a discovery. Charles N'Zogbia arrived in a
:23:00. > :23:05.bustling London -- Johan Zoffany arrived in bustling London and made
:23:05. > :23:08.his way into society. A sexual adventure and timeless, he had an
:23:08. > :23:11.eye for British aristocracy and the capital's institutions. He looks at
:23:11. > :23:15.the world very much as an independent thinker, with a great
:23:15. > :23:19.deal of intelligence, and as an outsider, you always get the
:23:19. > :23:24.feeling that Zoffany is something of a fly-on-the-wall. He takes a
:23:24. > :23:29.view on society, on art, on traditions, that are quite
:23:29. > :23:34.individual, sometimes quite eccentric.
:23:34. > :23:39.When Zoffany first came to London he was taken up by David Garrick,
:23:39. > :23:46.the great actor and theatre manager, it was through that Zoffany first
:23:46. > :23:52.gained his own celebrity in England. He was also taken up by George III
:23:52. > :23:56.and Queen Charlotte. It was through their patronage he painted these
:23:56. > :24:02.informal, domestic portraits. Arranged by theme and featuring 60
:24:02. > :24:07.oil paintings and a small selection of drawings and prints. Society
:24:07. > :24:12.Observed is Zoffany's depiction of the rarified life at court, the
:24:12. > :24:18.tricky arristok circumstance and his work inspired by his exotic
:24:18. > :24:28.travels from Italy to India. The A Christmas Trifle is possibly
:24:28. > :24:30.
:24:30. > :24:36.Zoffany's most celebrated picture. -- the tryna -- We have grand
:24:36. > :24:43.tourists ogling Venus, not because she's an art object, but a sex
:24:43. > :24:47.object too. It is a very wry look at society. While Zoffany's
:24:47. > :24:51.detailed portrayal of the upper echelons of British society hold
:24:51. > :24:57.many historians spell bound, will this overlooked and unsung artist
:24:57. > :25:02.manage to pull in the punters. It is amazing, the Royal Academy,
:25:02. > :25:07.you have these massive queues for Hockney, and not so much for
:25:07. > :25:10.Zoffany. But there is so much to see in the small space it exists in.
:25:10. > :25:16.I hope lots of people discover Zoffany through this. He is tucked
:25:16. > :25:23.away. It is hard to find it. I think it is a wonderful little
:25:23. > :25:32.exhibition. It really justifies the things being said there about his
:25:32. > :25:39.interest. He's not a deep pierceer of the human soul, but there is
:25:39. > :25:48.enough zest, and glisening clutter of 18th century polite life to
:25:48. > :25:53.amuse and entertain any viewer. He arrives and David Garrick takes him
:25:53. > :25:58.up. It is a chance to paint this huge array of David Garrick himself
:25:58. > :26:01.and unlocks other areas? He seems to have known everyone and gone
:26:01. > :26:05.everywhere, you get his penalty through the exhibition. It is like
:26:05. > :26:15.a photo journalist being unleashed through the 18th century, and
:26:15. > :26:15.
:26:15. > :26:20.taking it on. He's interested in what people are wearing, what they
:26:20. > :26:23.clean their shoes on. Then he goes to India, and suddenly you are in
:26:23. > :26:28.this extraordinary landscape and he's recording that as well. It
:26:28. > :26:33.feels like you have gone into a time machine and come out. You like
:26:33. > :26:37.the Indian ones? It is an extraordinary time. The East Indian
:26:37. > :26:40.Company is in flow. These Masters of the Universe travelling out
:26:40. > :26:45.there to make their fortune. And Zoffany is obviously in with them
:26:45. > :26:49.and doing pictures of him, this is a cock fight he's doing one of
:26:49. > :26:54.these group portraits. All the different personalities, they are
:26:54. > :26:57.arguing about the cock. So full of, so vibrant, I didn't know there was
:26:58. > :27:00.a record of this. What is great, this particular, there is a lot of
:27:00. > :27:04.them, but the stories they tell within the paintings, that you have
:27:04. > :27:12.to be in the know, and you know you can imagine the whole, particularly
:27:12. > :27:15.in the London ones as well, all the stories going round about who is
:27:15. > :27:21.sitting beside whom in the paintings and what the hand going
:27:21. > :27:28.down there really means? He's a master of that, he's so lively, and
:27:28. > :27:33.he's intoxicated by the livingness of the people. There is a guy in
:27:33. > :27:37.one embracing this young, slightly worried looking boy. There is a
:27:37. > :27:44.Redcoat with obviously his Indian mistress, there is sexual politics
:27:44. > :27:47.going on between the colonel and others. It is so alive. He was
:27:47. > :27:50.doing this, he was doing it for money. Obviously he would be
:27:50. > :27:54.offending some people and not others, depending on the painting?
:27:54. > :27:58.The money is part of the juice of it. He comes to London because of
:27:59. > :28:02.the money. He starts off he's going to be a history painting and paint
:28:02. > :28:12.biblical subjects. He goes to Rome, to learn how to. Thank God he
:28:12. > :28:16.didn't do that? He sees these milordy, and he thinks, London.
:28:16. > :28:24.London in the 18th century, you get the impression that England and
:28:24. > :28:30.London was this vibrant place fuelled by cash. Because the
:28:30. > :28:35.Hanover ians are coming, here you have Zoffany, a fellow German, and
:28:35. > :28:41.George takes him to his bossom. Whether he's painting the Royal
:28:41. > :28:46.Family or nay bobs, you get this wonderful mixture, he's doing his
:28:46. > :28:50.job, getting paid and serving these rich people. He's not mocking them.
:28:50. > :28:58.He's naughty. He's mischievous as well as doing his bit. He haven't
:28:58. > :29:04.actually got an impage of it, there is him dressed as -- image of it,
:29:04. > :29:08.there is him dressed as a friar, with condoms hoind it? You have a
:29:08. > :29:14.Madonna and child on the front and on the back there is him dressing-
:29:14. > :29:19.up as a friar to go out to the night. There is a Tyneyo thing in
:29:19. > :29:28.the back of it -- tiny thing in the back there is a friar being tempted
:29:28. > :29:33.by naked ladies. He has fun with the painting. He's there, he's
:29:33. > :29:43.trying to flog a paint he sold, the Madonna. This gets him in trouble,
:29:43. > :29:51.the sense of naughty nis, the in the Uffizi painting you see them
:29:51. > :29:55.staring at the bum, and a notorious homosexual pointing and doing those
:29:55. > :29:59.things. Queen Charlotte was so offended he got no subsequent.
:29:59. > :30:04.fingers going up to the two guys wrestling. The gentleman with the
:30:04. > :30:07.green coat and the gentleman standing behind him has a startled
:30:07. > :30:10.expression. It is a mad painting, one of the things he was brilliant
:30:10. > :30:14.at was painting people's, he painted people's possessions, he
:30:14. > :30:18.painted people's art works. There is several paintings where actually
:30:18. > :30:25.there is a painting within the painting, he renders them
:30:25. > :30:30.beautifully. There is amazing Dutch sea scenes owned by Lord Dundos,
:30:30. > :30:36.there he is with his grandson, that one the scene is immpossibly full
:30:36. > :30:41.of stuff and people. Also, the idea that some of the Scottish paintings,
:30:41. > :30:46.and the Scottish aristocracy, obviously they spent a lot of time
:30:46. > :30:51.in London. The Drummond family is painted in London by Zoffany, but
:30:51. > :30:54.someone takes the painting north and a Scottish painter fills in the
:30:54. > :31:00.background. I'm sure he would have loved to come up, maybe he didn't
:31:00. > :31:08.have the time. He went to Calcutta, that took a while. You get the
:31:08. > :31:14.sense at the end of a very full life. It is very moving, in the end
:31:14. > :31:24.you have a doddery, his eyesight is failing, he has dementia, he has
:31:24. > :31:30.been a biggest, he has lost a son. You -- big ga mist, he has lost a
:31:30. > :31:40.son. The David and Golaith, it is coquettish? If I could adopt that
:31:40. > :31:42.
:31:42. > :31:50.position my life would be very, very different. You can see why
:31:50. > :31:56.history paintings was no much fun. It is a gland there, I don't know
:31:56. > :31:59.what it is? It looks like a gland broken off a penis. One more of
:31:59. > :32:06.Zoffany's jokes. It was in tune of those he was painting. He wasn't
:32:06. > :32:10.having a go at him, it gives you sense these were sophisticated and
:32:10. > :32:16.witty people. A Society Observed is on at the Royal Academy until the
:32:16. > :32:25.10th June. This weekend would have been the 60th birthday of writers
:32:25. > :32:29.Douglas Adams, after a successful pilot, it seems timely that Dirk
:32:29. > :32:35.Gently is back on BBC Four, reunited Stephen Mangan and Darren
:32:35. > :32:38.Boyd. Why do you think it is a bomb. I didn't say it was, I said it was
:32:38. > :32:43.a suspicious package. If we think it is a bomb we should call the
:32:43. > :32:48.bomb squad. It could be the local bomb squad who sent it to me,
:32:48. > :32:56.accidentally kill a man's wife and he might thank me, accidentally
:32:56. > :33:01.combust a man's sniffer dog and you will give never forgive you. Dirk
:33:01. > :33:06.gets his theories from quantum physics, it makes for a tricky
:33:06. > :33:10.process. He's not one to hone down on the fine details of finger
:33:10. > :33:16.prints and boring things like evidence. Douglas Adams, the
:33:16. > :33:21.originate for of hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy, died at the
:33:21. > :33:25.age of 49, his peculiarly British way of writing science fiction
:33:25. > :33:32.introduced the genre to a British audience. There is a lot of ideas
:33:32. > :33:36.in the book, the ideas of us as a nation, our foibles, our paradoxs.
:33:36. > :33:41.In his humour you are always looking to translate. It is a fine
:33:41. > :33:45.line, they are detective shows, you want an element of drama, Spence
:33:45. > :33:49.and tension. It is an interesting conundrum when you are filming, how
:33:49. > :33:56.much do you go for the comedy and the drama. Our director, Tom
:33:56. > :34:00.Shankland, has shot the three episodes as dramas. Rather than
:34:00. > :34:05.adapting the original text verbatum, the writing team have taken a more
:34:05. > :34:09.fluid approach to the scripts? books as written are almost
:34:09. > :34:12.unfilmable. Trying to turn them into a neat, one-hour television
:34:13. > :34:17.with a beginning, milledle and end and a story that is -- middle and
:34:17. > :34:23.end, and a story that is self- contained, is impossible. You
:34:23. > :34:28.wouldn't do justice to the books with that. Who is sending me a
:34:28. > :34:32.Valentine's card in April, what has led this woman to fall complete low
:34:32. > :34:39.and hopelessly in love with me. Will this latest TV installment of
:34:39. > :34:46.an Adams text, assuage the concerns of his fan base, or is it an
:34:46. > :34:51.abridgement too far. We have had the one episode, two
:34:51. > :35:01.more to come. In 2010 when they made the pilot on this, on BBC Four
:35:01. > :35:02.
:35:02. > :35:06.it got three quarters of a million. There is no question of doing a
:35:06. > :35:11.series. They are funny physical comedians, the pilot you are
:35:11. > :35:15.referring to was the most successful effort. It was a cheaper
:35:15. > :35:19.and shonky thing, blowing it up it has become more glossy, it has lost
:35:19. > :35:23.some of the charm the pilot had. It is the struggle Stephen Mangan says
:35:23. > :35:28.you have, it is essentially how do you turn Douglas Adams, essentially
:35:28. > :35:31.a huge brain, coming up with flights of fancy for its own
:35:31. > :35:37.amusement, how do you make 60 minutes of TV out of that. I think
:35:37. > :35:41.it is impossible. The thing to do would be to make it funny. I don't
:35:41. > :35:44.think there is enough jokes in it. Do you think the spirit of Douglas
:35:44. > :35:50.Adams is alive in this? I don't think he has much to do with
:35:50. > :35:59.Douglas Adams. I enjoyed it, has a lot to do with past Taoiseachs of
:35:59. > :36:09.things we are used to -- pastiches of things we are used to. Pastiches
:36:09. > :36:09.
:36:09. > :36:15.of Sherlock, Spooks and Doctor Who. It is entertaining rips and par
:36:15. > :36:20.December on some of the cliches of detective -- parody on some of the
:36:20. > :36:24.cliches on detective and drama like Sherlock. I think you are riot,
:36:24. > :36:26.Darren Boyd and Stephen Mangan are ter -- right, Darren Boyd and
:36:26. > :36:30.Stephen Mangan are terrific together, you want them to build
:36:30. > :36:40.the relationship over a longer period of time? For me it didn't
:36:40. > :36:44.make me laugh. I felt it wanted to and was trying to. It is low-energy
:36:44. > :36:48.and drawing the oxygen out of it, you have Stephen Mangan, not high
:36:48. > :36:52.energy either, up against the dramas you have mentioned. We have
:36:52. > :37:00.a high-energy, central figure, who carries one of theseam belief lent
:37:00. > :37:03.things, is he a genius -- ambivalent things, is he a genius
:37:03. > :37:09.or not at all In a drama you have to care about the characters, do
:37:09. > :37:14.they care about the characters, or are they all puppets, an hour is a
:37:14. > :37:23.long time to spend with puppets. is dark in episode two? They were
:37:23. > :37:29.trying to open it up emotionally. I noticed because you have Bill
:37:29. > :37:35.Pattinson coming in, suddenly a different approach to acting, a
:37:35. > :37:40.more dramatic approach to acting, it thraers -- flares up and that
:37:40. > :37:44.seems to do more. Maybe it is because it has this conceit, all
:37:45. > :37:49.parts of direction unknown to these. That is fine and silly, but it
:37:49. > :37:53.seems to me, however Silvio the plot, it should have had -- silly
:37:53. > :38:00.the plot, it should have had a silly logical. It should have been
:38:00. > :38:04.logical at some point? The trouble is. A witness box web of
:38:04. > :38:09.interconnecting events? I don't think Douglas Adams is a profound
:38:09. > :38:16.thinker. Steady, steady. everything is connected it becomes
:38:17. > :38:26.a meaningless thing. It is these kinds of things. That is the thing
:38:26. > :38:28.I really missed, Douglas Adams was a very serious writer, he did very
:38:28. > :38:31.melodious dialogue. He cared about the human commission and was
:38:31. > :38:36.compassionate and dark in some of the ideas he did. None that have
:38:36. > :38:40.was there. He had a real focus, it was insane, but he was really
:38:40. > :38:44.focused on how terrible human beings could be and they needed to
:38:44. > :38:48.be saved from themselves. Read Douglas Adams if you can, the first
:38:48. > :38:55.episode is on the iPlayer, episode two is on Monday.
:38:55. > :39:05.Today marked the beginning of Glasgow's festival, Aye Write, it
:39:05. > :39:07.
:39:07. > :39:13.features a host of talent, with Natalie Haines and Alex Preston and
:39:13. > :39:18.MartyFeldman. We thought it would be rude not to ask Karen Cunningham
:39:18. > :39:21.about the best of the festival. aim to bring the best of Scottish
:39:21. > :39:27.writing to the city. We are not like any other book festival, we
:39:27. > :39:31.are based in the Mitchell Library, one of Europe's largest reference
:39:31. > :39:37.libraries. It is a fantastic cultural programme, people are
:39:37. > :39:41.finding it harder to engage with the formal political process, so it
:39:41. > :39:46.is coming to a book festival like Aye Write gives them an opportunity
:39:46. > :39:51.to debate, to discuss, to argue, and to be there with like-minded
:39:51. > :39:55.people. One of our events this year is Scotland's book shelf, which is
:39:55. > :40:01.mass reading campaign. We will have 20,000 copies of a free book to
:40:01. > :40:06.give away, and a free downloadable e bok available, that will
:40:06. > :40:09.encourage people to -- e-book, available that will encourage
:40:09. > :40:18.people to read about Scotland's heritage. We have managed to bring
:40:18. > :40:24.in a last-minute event, that is John Ashton's book on Al-Megrahi,
:40:24. > :40:28.and we know it will be a particular relevance to a Scottish audience.
:40:29. > :40:36.One of the special events at Aye Write we are bringing together for
:40:36. > :40:39.the first time. The three Poet Laureates, from Wales, Scotland and
:40:39. > :40:44.the UK laureate, they all happen to be women, that will be a really
:40:44. > :40:47.special event. Aye Write runs until the 17th of
:40:47. > :40:52.March, that is all we have time for, don't forget to look at the website.
:40:52. > :40:57.We are looking forward to the literary riches on display by way
:40:57. > :41:03.of Twitter. Thanks to my guests. Next week we will be reviewing the
:41:03. > :41:13.new ITV series, Titanic, the latest crime fiction phantom, with guests
:41:13. > :41:13.
:41:14. > :41:17.including historian BettanHug hes and Ian Rankin. Taking us into the
:41:17. > :41:24.interview is another BBC Introducing acts, this time it is
:41:24. > :41:29.Dear Prudence with Valentine. # I want to place
:41:29. > :41:35.# Always out to die # The colours blink
:41:35. > :41:44.# And leave me black # Do I know
:41:44. > :41:51.# Filling every corner of my mind # I know that you hear it too
:41:51. > :41:59.# Valentine # With a heart as black as white
:41:59. > :42:08.# Through lonely eyes # We watch you from the outside
:42:08. > :42:13.# Valentine # Just let the roses die
:42:13. > :42:18.# Keep us alive # And I will keep you safe
:42:18. > :42:25.# My Valentine # Dear heart
:42:25. > :42:31.# The missing page # In the golden fairytale
:42:31. > :42:38.# A memory to thank to tell # Why
:42:38. > :42:45.# Those dancing # Whispers in the dark
:42:45. > :42:52.# But I know that you see them too # Valentine
:42:52. > :42:58.# With a heart as black as white # Through lonely eyes
:42:58. > :43:06.# With worlds from outside # Valentine
:43:06. > :43:15.# And just let the roses die # Keep us alive
:43:15. > :43:19.# And I'll keep you safe # My Valentine
:43:19. > :43:24.# Lips fade # On the fringes
:43:24. > :43:33.# On sidelines # I'll hold you close
:43:33. > :43:39.# And we can disappear # Oh oh oh
:43:39. > :43:45.# Oh Valentine # With a heart as black as white
:43:45. > :43:50.# Through lonely eyes # With what you do