16/03/2012 The Review Show

Tonight on the review show, below stpairs on the Titanic, will Julain

Fellowes -- stairs on the Titanic, will Julain Fellowes's take on the

disaster, go down as well as Downton Abbey.

Jo Nesbo sells a book every 23 second, his latest hits the shops

this week. A dancing Jeremy Paxman, and

Islamic extremists, in a polemic against multiculturalism at the

National Theatre. And the true tale of a family that rescues a rundown

zoo, from the director of Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous, Cameron

Crowe. We will look ahead to the Edinburgh Festival. Casting their

critical eyes over it, Bettany Hughes, whose books and TV series

matches painstaking research with popular appeal, she chaired last

year's Orange Prize. The arts editor of the Daily Telegraph,

Sarah Crompton, and two award- winning crime writers, Ian Rankin

of the rebus novels, and Dreda Say Mitchell, whose thrillers are set

on the mean streets of London. As ever we welcome your thoughts, get

in touch during the show. If you were looking for a radical life

change, moving to a rundown zoo, and learning how to look after 200

exotic species, might not be the first option you would come up with.

That is exactly what one man Z now director, Crowe, whose -- And now

director Cameron Crowe, whose films include Almost Famous has turned

the story into a family. Benjamin Mee uprooted his children from

their home in the south of France, to Dartmoor, to turn around the

fortunes of a delapitated zoo, within six months his wife had died

of cancer, and Mee was facing bankruptcy, as the zoo swallowed up

his savings. With the help of a dedicated team, Mee re-opened the

zoo to the public on schedule in July 23007, with over 200 -- in

July 20007, with over 200 animals. The novel, We Bought A Zoo, came

out, and Cameron Crowe has now turned it into a film, with Matt

Damon and Scarlett Johansson in the lead roles, he has changed the

story dramatically. This is Robin and Peter, they do everything.

Benjamin. This is Rosie my daughter. My big boy Dylan, and our dog, Leon.

And this is our zoo, now, I guess. So I would like to declare us all

modern day adventurers. And sponsors of animal greatness.

The film follows Mee's mixed fortunes as he battles to keep the

zoo afloat, while trying to connect with his rebellious son Dylan, who

prefers city life to the countryside. So, what do we talk

about, a new place, a new start. This is what you want, it is not

what I want. What? It's a zoo, I'm moving to a zoo. As well as

grieving for his late wife, Mee also has to get to grips with the

animal world. You like to get a little wild at night, go a little

crazy, a little crazy nightime. Crowe's last two features,

Elizabethtown and Vanilla Sky got mixed reviews, this film certainly

has a big name cast and family- friendly subject, does it mark a

return to form for Crowe, or is it a masterclass in Hollywood smalts.

Welcome to the business of live animal maintenance Mr Mee, you are

eight inches short. A tough hard-bitten crime writer

like yourself, Ian, you are not the target audience for this? It is

interesting to see Damon in a film like this, I enjoyed it. I switched

my brain off when I walked in the door, it is very sacharine, smaltzy,

and American, a lot of things are left out of shot, like animals

dying, and the fact that they are kept in cages, they keep saying

enclosures, but you can see the tigers in cages for a lot of the

shots. There is a lot they could have done with it, but they didn't

do it. Cameron Crowe had a hardness to him before, but now he's a gun

for hire, a director for hire, he hasn't been able to put his stamp

on it that would have made it an interesting film. You have a young

family yourself, would you take the young family yourself? It should be

on message to me, I love kids, animals, and I love men who don't

take no for an answer, it should have been perfect. As you said,

there is something almost missing in it, I wonder if it is because it

is such an extraordinary story, the real story is amazing, they had

incredible source material, it is almost like they didn't go through

the synaptic work of dreaming up a story. It feels like a first draft.

It is quite, it is so gentle, you collapse in your chair by the end

of it, we should be weeping throughout. I liked it but not

great. It is an interesting one, I shouldn't like to this film, I have

strong objections to zoos, that wasn't tackled T should be a film

about a man looking after animals in a zoo. It wasn't that, all you

had in relation to animals was the tiger drawn out his story as a

metaphor, that is why in some respects I really liked it, it

doesn't pretend to be something other than it is, it is a load of

sugar, a lots of hugging and learning, let's learn about

togetherness and grief. That is what it is about, really. I really

like, because I love JB Smoot, who played the estate agent, who played

Leon in Curb Your Enthusiasm, I wish we had seen for of him. There

was one thing I thought was a bit strange about this, sometimes the

depiction of women, you get these really opposite views, you get the

Scarlett Johansson, Kelly figure, tough, I can look after a zoo, be

like a fella. Then you get these images of women bringing men food

all the time. At the start you have women bringing Matt Damon, the dad,

he's on his own, food. And the 13- year-old, as well, bringing the son

food, I thought what is that about. Did it fall between two stools, so

we have a film with some very cute roles for children, but then the

grief of the money, explored through this extended metaphor of

the dying tiger? You can see the film it might have been. Cameron

Crowe apparently sent Matt Damon a copy of Local Hero, and said this

is what I want it to be. You would love it to be that, it hasn't got

the poise, it tips over into smaltz a lot. What is great about it, it

is also, I think that Cameron Crowe wanted to make a different movie,

he undercuts himself. There is a brilliant cameo for the brother.

There is a very sacharine letter from the dead wife, where she

leaves him some money, conveniently, to save the zoo, it is beautifully

undercut in the scene, because the brother said, it is a nasty bit

here, it is when it is rude about the brother, and saying don't take

the brother's advice. He managed to walk the balance to just undercut

himself enough for the film to have charm. It was a charming film, and

much to my surprise, I really did like it. You can see a scene now

that explores the relationship between Matt Damon and his brother.

The risk of stating the obvious, you are insane, OK. You are

drilling yourself into insane debt. You good? All good, thanks.

Who is that? That's Kelly. OK, here is the revised Duncan plan, dump

the animals, keep Kelly, that is true joy. It is about Rosie, she is

happy here. Rosie is seven, make her a nice zoo screensaver, she

will be just as happy. I'm trying to give them an authentic American

experience. An authentic American experience, but the original story

was a British one. Would it have been a better film if Cameron Crowe

had decided to make it more like Local Hero and set it in Europe?

don't know, America has sometimes taken this structure and did it

well, they did High Fidelity and took it to America and it worked

well. They probably thought they would get that here. They have

great actors, they just don't get terrific lines, they do

occasionally get good lines. The line about the screensaver, I

laughed out loud in the cinema. big move for Crowe, but a very big

move for Matt Damon. I know he was slightly smaltzy in Good Will

Hunting, in recent years he has been Bourne, he's not doing that

any more. He has moved gracefully from this super mass murdering hero,

into this slightly paunchy dad. We love him for it. There is a moment

at the beginning where all the wives and all the house wives in

the school are desperately trying to give him food, to feed him up

because they love him. You think he's great, Matt Damon. I think the

son is really good, Colin Ford, a real discoverry he comes out, in a

way, with one of the best lines of the show, he's so furious with his

father, he says this is all just rubbish, I wanted a bit more of

that. The real story of Ben, it is all really rubbish, it is raining

in Devon, everything is collapsing, that was the one moment of reality.

It is going to be OK for him, as a 14-year-old, he will get off with a

13-year-old girl. The film is in cinemas now, Matt Damon's next role

will be as Liberace's lover. Even more of a stretch.

The Scandinavian crime fiction wave shows no sign of slowing down.

Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo's worldwide book sales have just

topped 14 million. And from this week you will be seeing a lot of

people with their noses in the late e of his Harry Hole detective

series. Fans await the publication of a new

Nesbo novel with a dedication that would shame most Harry Potter

devotee, even his publishers find it difficult to keep up with his

soaring sales figures. Phantom begins with former detective, Harry

Hole, returning to Oslo, after a three-year absence, to investigate

the death of a drug addict. The twist is, that the suspect is

Harry's own stepson, from a previous relationship.

The Phantom Menace I had a couple of plans for -- the Phantom, I had

a couple of plans for that book, firstly to portray Harry as the

father, what kind of father figure he would be. In the previous book

we had met hareyo as the son, it is personal, it is -- Harry as the son,

it is personal, very personal. That has been the journey we have been

through with Harry during this series is it gets more personal.

There is extreme violence in previous books but Phantom is not

Had found a main artery with a corkscrew, pulled the vessel from

his neck, and it was now pumping out his life blood. Sergei had

three further thoughts before the second heart beat came, and

consciousness went. Crime novelists have often used cities as

characters in their own right, and Nesbo uses Norway's capital to

similar effect. I wanted to portray Oslo, the dark side of Oslo, I have

done that in previous books also. But I think that this time we are

going even deeper down into the cellar of Oslo. Investigating the

drug scene in Oslo, quite detailed descriptions, which is half built

on facts, half is fiction, of course. But I have never done so

detailed and thorough research ever for any of my books. So does Nesbo

bring Oslo's underbelly to life? Will his legions of fans be

satisfied with Harry Hole's latest adventures.

What did your professional crime writing eye make of this? I just

really, really loved it. I should be wearing an "I love Harry Hole"

T-shirt. I loved them so much. What I love about Jo Nesbo's work, is it

is not because it is a thriller and it is gripping and it thrills, he

just uses such beautiful, simple but dramatic language to get into

each character. With Phantom I very much got into the pilot's story,

and I shouldn't be thinking about the pilot story, I should be

thinking about sore characters, that is what he does so well --

other characters, that is what he does so well, he draws you in, and

draws you into that underbelly of Oslo. It is very interesting he was

talking about doing research, to me when you are in a city, I don't

think that type of thing is too far from you, which is a bit scary.

you agree, is he a crime writer's crime writer? I wouldn't agree as

strongly as that. He does something very interesting, which is to take

the structure and the trops of the traditional who done it, and then

take a stick of adrenalin and stick it in the eyeball. Harry Hole is

basically Jason Borne, you can kill him he won't die, you can cut his

throat, he won't die, he will sew himself up and keep going. He

doesn't go to the hospital, he goes on a run, you think why, you don't

have to go, you killed an assassin before people who know it was self-

defence, you are only going on a run because the story demands it. A

lot of it, he's clever, he has looked at thriller writers down the

ages, and looked at what has done really well in the states, and

looked at the history of Scandinavian and European crime

fiction, and put them all together, put them in a blender and come up

with this. You hadn't read Jo Nesbo before, what did you make of it?

was so looking forward to reading it, as a guilty pleasure,

immerseing myself in the dark Scandinavian world. I loved the

last third of it, I realised how clever the plot was at the end, I

didn't like the first two thirds. He's not a I go that understands

girls, I suspect. The women are lightly drawn in this. There is a

moment where the mother of one of the central characters, her son has

gone through this terrible experience, at the end she says she

will fly off to Bangkok and wait for him to enjoy it. No mother

would do that. He gets excited about the feminine side and says

the slim legs of a palm tree, I don't know what is going on there.

Female characters to the side, the character of Harry Hole, that we

have touched on, is he more than a Borne character, he's the hard-

drinking, alcoholic, loner, trouble with women, he's the kind of

detective we have seen in other books? I think he has become

slightly tedious, I have read a few of these. He's too troubled for me,

I'm bored with him and his alcohol problems and his obsession with

Raquel, and also with his Superman qualities. What I like in a

detective novel, or a crime novel is you do have a sense of the

society from which it is springing. I think Nesbo's a brilliant plotter,

he writes beautifully and directly, but I really resist this idea that

some how you get a brilliant picture of Oslo. You just get a

picture of the drugs scene, not terribly interesting. If you read

Ian you get a picture of the Scottish oil industry, if you read

Dreda you get South-East London. He's too mechanical, he knows all

the tricks, and does them beautifully. I was gripped, I

disagree, I read it in a day-and-a- half. I was so gripped by it. I

think, if you are a crime writer, or any type of writer, if you can

create a world where you make your reader feel this is authentic, I

think the reader gives you a sense, you can take the reader, you could

just go with it really. I don't feel it is authentic. Did you not

feel a sense of authenticness about when the characters were near the

canal, with the drug dealers with their Arsenal T-shirts, couldn't

you visualisia. I liked that the bad guys wore Arsenal T-shirts, as

a Spurs supporter! What did you think about the way the drug

culture was depicted? Had he done his research, it is sleazey. Why he

enjoyed immerseing himself in the world, he thinks the mind is

incredibly important, you get a sense of, and the body lets you

down. For Harry it is the alcoholism that does it for him,

and the son is done by the cravings of his body. I'm going to give that

to my teenage daughter to say drugs are bad and read these sections.

is very convoluted, towards the end I'm thinking I don't know who these

people are, there is too many characters and I don't know who

they are. Lots of little false avenues to be led down, to be drawn

back somewhere else. Also I thought some of the language was clunky. I

think the translation more than anything else. He talks about

Cockney Norwegian, I'm sure he wouldn't have written that phrase.

He did say he to end down the violence for this? I was glad. I

swore I wouldn't read another book after At Knowman, I haunted me --

the Snowman, it haunted me, I thought if I read something like

that it has to have a moral. It doesn't seem he does that, it is

all surface and clever. He has to end down the violence, I think he

felt he had gone too far. I feel that waste of timeness about it.

What is it about Scandinavian crime fiction, why have we gone for it in

such a big way? I'm not really sure, I think they put much more into

looking at society, I know some people will disagree that this book

doesn't. What I really like with Scandinavian crime, which doesn't

sound like me, it has a real feeling of Mel alcoholy, and

sadness about -- melancholy, and sadness about it, I don't want to

feel too depressed, I get drawn into it, I like the violence. It is

a crime boo, let's have some violence. I -- book, let's have

some violence in it. I'm much more squeamish than you, I was flicked

some of the pages. Phantom is available now. Murder and violence

also feature in a controversial new production at the National Theatre,

but this time the deaths aren't fictional. Can We Talk About This

is an attack on Islamic extremism and the multiculturalist policies,

which the creator believes allow violence to flourish. It is told in

part, through the medium of dance. Celebrating its 25th anniversary

this year. DV8 shows no sign of of stopping its uncompromising

approach. It was a response to clags kal ballet and other

traditional dance forms. The subgts explored are disability, sexuality,

to serial killers, evolving on stage and screen, through landmark

works like Strange Fish, and Enter Achilles.

Can We Talk About This ask the question, do you feel superior to

the Taliban. It says there is a lack of criticism of some forms of

Islam, a form of cultural relativism. My brother said when we

find you you will end up in several bin liners. Democracy and freedom

is no good for the British, no good for the freedom of Afghanistan and

we need an alternative. He said it was an obligatory to execute.

production is structured around flash points in recent history,

beginning in the mid-1980s, including the case of a Bradford

headmaster sacked for questioning multiculturalism, the scandal over

Danish cartoons over the Prophet Mohammed, the fatwah on Salman

Rushdie, and other writers who face death threats. The man who wants to

kill me because I'm an apos Tate of Islam, is inspired, inspired to do

that from the scripture of Islam. The theme of Can We Talk About This

could scarcely be more relevent. But does the production resolve the

many questions it poses about religion and freedom of expression,

or is this latest work from DV8 holding a one-way conversation.

trouble with us in the west is we have become, we succumb it pious

paralysis, where we can't even say we are superior to the Taliban.

This gives a rather different political perpect yef than --

perspective than we are used to seeing at the National, a critque

on some aspects of Islam? It is deliberately po lemic and it is

hugely important. It is -- polemic, and it is hugely important. The

moments when it is absolutely unbelievably essential and

brilliant, are the bits where it raises the question, odd for a

dance work, of what you can talk about in a society that believes in

free speech. And I think it raises really, really important issues

that haven't been raised anywhere else, about what we can say about

Islam, whether we self-censure, whether people are scared about

saying against. And sets that in the context of what happens, but

also in the context of dance. That is how it tells its story. Did you

find it as bold as important? felt it was like soapbox theatre.

Just, lecturing me over and over again. I have to say I had an issue

with this whole thing about using voices. I think you need to be very

careful. For example, when they used the voice of, you know, the

late Ray Honeyford, as we have seen, they only tell part of the story.

If you go back and look at his article he wrote in the Salisbury

Review, actually, he really attacks West Indian families, West Indian

culture, attacks the work of Lynton Johnson. They were self-sensoring

what the audience were going to be censoring what the audience were

going to hear. I was troubled by using Ray Honeyford as an heroic

figure, attacking multiculturalism. I didn't think they did their

research. What they were doing was mounting an argument, a piece of

polemic? It is interesting you have used that word, Sarah. And polemic

is a very powerful word, it comes from the Greek, it means "to do

with war", that was my only worry about it. It is an immensely

important piece of work. And drama was invent today put this kind of

controversial work out on the -- invented to put this kind of

controversial work out on the stage. It doesn't work if it is something

to fight against rather than deal with. As you say, it was, in a way,

it had to have its own agenda, and therefore it had to make its own

point. Just as a bit of performance, I think there should have been a

bit more tonality on it. I saw London Road that does it so well.

It is not a lecture, I think they really needed today think about how

were they going to try to get those voices across, in a theatrical way,

and dramatic way to the audience. It was Frank Zappa who said writing

about music is dancing about architecture. We have that here.

There is the polemic, the argument, the multicultural stuff, then there

is the dancing. I was working out is the dancing adding anything to

the argument, and is the argument adding anything to the dance. I saw

some brilliant dancing, some brilliant physical movement, people

who were at the peak of their powers. I saw things I had never

seen before, people floating across the stage, on a conveyor-belt as if.

I saw one walk up a wall. I saw a guy become a chair, a woman who

became a chair, there was no chair there and she was some how it

something down. None of it was actually added to the argument.

thing I earn joyed was the seminal discussion on Newsnight with --

enjoyed the seminal discussion on Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman, I

thought it was very clever? I think the purpose of the dance is it is

not verbatum theatre. It is to create a style and way in which to

hold the piece, the bits where they are moving around skittles and the

arguments with Jeremy, the bits where people fall to the stage or

battle, it gives you an image of what is happening, it stops it

being something else. It is quite important, I don't think he's

aiming to be like the tricycle productions of things that have

been discussions of what has happened, he's doing something

quite different. If you go to the programme, it talks about using

prominent voices, this is another issue for me, if you want to know

about an issue like multiculturalism, you have to think

about grass roots voices, that is where it is happening. There

weren't grass roots voices, for me, the production was much more about

not looking at multiculturalism, but locking at someone's notion of

Islam. -- looking at someone's notion of Islam. It would have been

a more challenging production if they did something about the great

things of Islam. That would have been much more challenging.

maybe this is me speaking as a journalist, if it had been, not

necessarily more balanced, but when you are switching your viewpoint

from one side to the other. So you don't have the sense you are being

lectured, would it have made a more sophisticated piece of drama, if

your loyalties would have to shift from one side to the other?

Absolutely, nothing comes out of nowhere, we are looking at the 30-

year period of history, where multiculturalism has been very

effective and people have criticised it in this country, we

needed a back story. Even if it could make us agree more with what

he was saying. You did get a sense of being lectured at, rather than

being encouraged into a dialogue. also wondered, I'm familiar with a

lot of the arguments about multicultural ifl, so that the

theatre regards as controversial, has been in the articles of

newspapers for several years. If they had done it, I don't know,

five or six years a perhaps it would have been an element of shock.

I think there are weaker and stronger passages, the Ray

Honeyford stuff I had the most problem with. The point he's making

is if you like, the debate is being conducted on the other side, this

is his moment. When it is about freedom of speech and when it is at

its best, is when it chael eings you on the notions, -- challenges

you on the notions that if you want to believe in a society with free

speech, you have to defend it as well. It is critical of the banning

orders, what it is really an argument for is the right to talk

about something. DV8's Theatre Can We Talk About This is at the Lilico

theatre until the end of March before moving to the Lowry and the

Brighton Dome in May. 100 years next month to the sinking

of the Titanic, to mark the centinary, ITV have enlisted

Downton Abbey creator, Julain Fellowes, to write a series that

attempts a new perspective on the disaster. The story of the world's

most famous shipwreck has been told countless time before. Noticably in

James Cameron's wildly disasterous epic, grossing a billion dollars.

Now in a new IT V mini-series, Julain Fellowes tries to breathe

new life into the tale. Titanic follows the final days of the

luxury liner's maiden joyage. The experiences of the crew and those

who travelled steerage as well as first and second class passengers.

She was in one of those suing get marches, you must be at your wits

end. We are a political family, you have always been in trade.

The series mixes the real with the fictional. The recoginsable Astors

and Guggenheims, with those whose stories haven't been told before. A

90-strong cast, includes Linus Roache and Geraldine Somerville, as

Lord and Lady Manton, and tobyo Jones as Gabriel Batistuta, a

second-class passenger with a highly-strung wife. I have to get

my jewels first. I'm not giving them up, what have I to show for

the last 20 years. Make your way to the second class deck. Our drowning

will be second class. There is multiple story arcs spanning the

class divide. Each of the four episodes shows the same scenes from

the perspectives of different characters and ends as the

evacuation of the ship begins. these ladies first class, we are

only loading the ladies from first class. Is there ice in your veins.

What is the trouble here? They are second class and ought to be on the

boat deck. Just help them and be done with it. Julain Fellowes's

writing credentials are sure to bring in an audience. Will this

familiar tale of disaster, live up to the international success that

is Downton Abbey. She can't sink. She can't float. Not for much

longer. So, we do know the story of Titanic,

Julain Fellowes is trying to do it in a different way. He takes the

same events seen through the perspective of different characters

in each episode, did it work for you? I'm so sad to say it

absolutely failed. That is what every good dramaist, and every got

historian should do, realising it is a complex world and whole

ecology of people involved in any one single event, and to see it

from a number of sides is essential. Isn't that what happens in drama,

any way. We have lively minds as a species, and imagine what is going

on in other people's minds, and we understand they are reacting to it

in a different way. To be given it in a literal form was terrible. You

rush from the embarkation to the crash with the iceberg in each

episode. You haven't got time to engage or empathise with the

characters. I kept waiting for it to hit the iceberg. One of the

exrecordry things is you have the most dramatic -- extraordinary

things is you have the most dramatic events in recent history,

and it is a splash of water and apparently you have to wait until

episode four to get the real thing. It is a bold structure but makes it

relentlessly undramatic, as soon as it gains a bit of steam, you know,

then you hit an iceberg. Any second now we will be talking about

Upstairs Drownstairs. I hated episode 1, I thought it was bity

and stilted. This is the one that focuses on the aChristo cratic.

half an hour -- AChristo cratic. And half an hour in, it was like

the iceberg, I watched them back- to-back, I saw all the things in

episode one, the tiny glances, were suddenly with the other people, it

is much more interesting. When the episodes are a week apart, as they

will be, an audience will struggle to remember the tiny glances they

saw the week before and bring it into context will be a struggle.

The steerage class, did it come alive for you? It did. Everyone

knows the story and you have to think whose Titanic story are you

telling. The first episode is the Lord and lady-la-di-da's story, I

which Linus Roache is great, but he's so stiff. There is not enough

meat for people. In the second episode, the narrative shifts back,

but to themes, that you wouldn't hear in the first one. For example,

you have people talking about the issues to do with England and

Ireland, and there is a fantastic scene with the electrician, Irish

electrician and one of the ship builders, talking about can I bring.

Can Catholics be employed? There is another scene with an Italian and

Irish migrant, talking about going to America, talking about issues of

why they have picked up and gone to America. All the issues to do with

migration. It is a much more interesting piece. What did you

make of the historical perspective? He was trying to, and Julain

Fellowes has said he was trying to write back into the story the

second class, there is an extraordinary statistic that 92% of

the men in second class drowned. That is because they are trying to

be even more gallant than those in first class, they put all their

women and children on first. As you said, the toffs gave up and jumped

in, in steerage they were so desperate they pulled themselves

off the boat. It was interesting to see them inhabiting the central

role. It is interesting, if that was Julain Fellowes going to do,

why not make the first episode about the second class passengers,

why not feel the need to have the toffs at the top again. He didn't

have the James Cameron, goodness knows, how big the budget was, but

it is a lot of money, for British television, did we see it on

screen? Not exactly. The special effects, the CGI you will think, is

that a ship, it don't look like one, and it doesn't look like an iceberg

either, which might explain why it is not so short a period of time.

The costumes are great, it is Julain Fellowes, of course they are

wonderful. The acting is clunky and the dialogue is. Lord such and such,

and lady, you will have met, he collects books. A 90-strong cast,

it is difficult to focus on any individual? Very difficult.

Historically the thing he does, this retrospective knowledge, the

second someone appears saying we have half the number of lifeboats

and you go "aha", there is a lot of dramatic irony, man cannot bring

down the ship and so on. I think the cast are a bit at sea! We still

do love our period-based class dramas, don't we. Upstairs

Downstairs. The only point is the plot has got lost in the hair-dos

and hats. We do love it. What is a shame he also missed out the fact

with the toffs they sit there eating the scones, but on the

Titanic there was a sauna and swimming pool, which had to feel

how secsive it was. Maybe -- Excessive it was. Maybe not on

their budget. If you want the hats and hair-dos

of Titanic, it is on ITV1 from the 25th. If you need any kind of

respite from the athletic extravagance za of the Olympics, as

ever the Edinburgh International Festival promises a cornucopia of

culture. It was launched this week. We asked Jonathan Mills to look

ahead. There is not a theme to the 2012 International Festival, as

people might have recognised in the past few years. We have tried to

suggest this year is to try to suggest that there is plenty to

celebrate the length and breath of the UK. One of the corner zones of

the 2012 festival is the world Shakespeare festival. It is a

collaboration between the Cultural Olympiad, the Royal Shakespeare

Company and a number of other producing partner, of which we are

very proud of the Edinburgh International Festival to be one of

them. The most large scale enterprise in celebration of

Shakespeare, would have to be 2008 Macbeth. It is an unflifpling

depiction of a very efficient killing machine a very big

rendition of the Scottish tragedy. An environmental art performance

company, we have invited them to collaberate on a large scale a mass

animation project, involving all ordinary members of the community,

for the whole duration of the International Festival. We will be

inviting people to come and animate one of our best loved landmarks,

Arthur's Seat, whether you walk around with a light suit or light

cyberor light staff, you will be -- light sabre or light staff, you

will be animating in a certain way. Asking an artistic director which

is his or her favourite show is very unfair. What really gets my

juices going is this wonderful juxtaposition of so many different

things, dance from Brazil, Israel, North America, India and Australia.

Theatre from all corners of the world. From chilli, and from --

Chile, and from Germany. A fantastic diversity of cultures.

The Edinburgh International Festival runs three months from the

9th of August. We will bring the highlights. Thanks to all my guests

tonight, Ian Rankin, Sarah Crompton, Bettany Hughes and Dreda Say

Mitchell. Can you find out more about everything on tonight's show

on the website. And we are braced and ready for all your tweets. I'm

going to be back with a Book Review Special this time next week,

discussing Andrew Motion's sequel to Treasure Island, and looking at

poetry with Peter Carey and Ben Okri and the latest comic novel. To

play us out, a new young hat, Mikill Pane hails from Dreda's

manor, East London. He's playing us out with I Can Feel It.

# Now this ain't funny but some of you might laugh

# Just a couple stories about the right path

# One day I was wondering around my park

# This kid looked down so I asked # What's wrong little man

# I see tears in your eyes # And your usually happy

# So I'm surprise # He said since the first day of

the summer holidays # I'm been knocking for my mate

# But he don't wanna may # He says he hopes I go to jail

# For stealing hard cash from the # I said life goes on son

# Awe get older your mind will grow stronger

# Many will not rot in prison # They simply got jobs as British

politicians # I want to be

# I can feel it # I can't be what I want to be

# I can feel it # Now this ain't funny

# But some of you might laugh Mark here's another story about the

right path # It was getting dark

# This little girl looked upset # I asked would you be brave and

tell me what's wrong # I would like to bury your stress

with lauflter # If your face gets any longer

# You will look like Sarah Jessica Parker

# I find the reason I'm disliked # All my friends have run from me

# I only eat once a week # Then I realised this skinny girl

# Could compete for the third world # She said she didn't want to be

like them # I said don't let your eyes water

# It is only a eat be disorder # The other girls will start to

withdrawal # When you become a catwalk model

# I can't bee what I want to be # I can feel it

# I can be what I want to be # No train can stop