16/12/2011 The Review Show

at 2011. Have a good weekend. Welcome to the last review show of

2011, over the next hour we will be revisiting an amazing colourful and

controversial year in culture. But first, here's a little something to

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 154 seconds

How to follow that, joining me under the metaphoric mistltoe are

four panelists who couldn't be more under the Christmas cheer or pros

sec co-, this is the BBC. Natalie Haynes, Paul Morley, net to mention

waiting to play us out, The Divine Comedy, Neil Hannon. Tweet us your

favourites this year, we will show the most list lucid and non-

offensive thoughts all evening. First up it is a year on screen,

silver or otherwise. The year started with a great

British bang, and Colin Firth stuttering his way to Oscar and

BAFTA glory in The King's Speech. In February, the cone brothers

returned to the Wild West, -- Coen Brothers returned to the Wild West,

swapping the Duke for the dude with Jeff Bridges. The chick flit genre

was reinvented in Bridesmaids, written and co-starring Kristen

Wiig. I'm Annie's friend. I'm not with him. I'm glad he's single, I'm

going to climb that like a tree. Gary Oldman's sexed up 70s specks,

in the Cold War tale, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Woody Allen

wise cracked his way back to form with Midnight In Paris starring

Owen Wilson. It doesn't mean we don't respect each other's views.

It was farewell to Harry Potter, as he waved his wand for the last time

in Deathly Hallows II. 2011 was also a year for cinematic

controversy, including Jodie Foster's film, Beaver, giving

shamed star, Mel Gibson, a chance for redemption. The panel were less

than impressed with Herge's Tin Tin, Tree of Life was starring Brad Pitt

and Penn, picking up the Palme d'Or prize at Cannes. The British were

coming with challenging, provocative, and thought-provoking

films, include be Shane, starring Michael Fassbender, Lynn Ramsays's

take on Lionel Shriver's take on We Need To Talk About Kevin. And the

spartan Wuthering Heights. In television, topical comedy was in

full force, with Channel 4 ray tempting to grasp the sting --

stinging nettle. A mockumentry with the delivers of the Olympic -

Olympics this year, which had a clock grinding to a halt. It is

grinding to a halt. It is sense sayingal, pretty school. Can we

have a word. Comic Strip returned to our screens

with the Hunt for Tony Blair. With Stephen Magnan playing the Prime

Minister on the run. Charlie Brooker brought us an all together

different PM in a pickle in his tribute to the Twilight series, and

Downton Abbey went to war and dominate the airwaves. When Matt

Smith swapped his trilby for Christopher and his Kind set in a

pre-war Berlin. And Dominic West made the change from Hector in The

Hour, to serial killer Freddy Mac West in Appropriatte Adult. The

demise of Taggart was announced in the summer, but our appetite for

crime drama continued to be say theed, thanks to a second helping

of the Danish drama The Killing. Finally, controversy comments from

Ricky Gervais threatened to dwarf his latest series starring Warick

Davies, Short. Goolder year on -- Life's Too Short. A golden year or

controversy to snare the viewing public?

Natalie, let's begin with film, and we have the Hurt Locker directoral

win for women, and then we have Wuthering Heights and We Need To

Talk About Kevin with Lynn Ramsays. Women for dark reality, and do you

think either of them have it to do the Oscar? I have to admit I found

Wuthering Heights a little slow- paced, which will come as a

surprise for no-one who likes I like someone to blow up every ten

minutes the adaptation of We Need To Talk About Kevin was great,

turning a great book into a good film is very rare. The reason it

works is because they took everything from the book which

works on film, and then binned everything that wouldn't work, the

fact that it is written in letters. They didn't try to replicate that

with voiceover, they went for cinematic themes, the colour red

forming a terrifying bloody theme throughout, it was a very clever

thing to do. It worked as a horror film, but the idea it was anything

about motherhood or being failed as parent, it didn't work me at all.

Part of the problem is talking about women's performance, Tilda

Swinton's performance I thought to youered over the film, Ezra Miller

who played Kevin, was too cute and emo for me to be a serial killer. I

found it more convincing in a Damien Omen III style. Coming to

actresses, Tilda Swinton, and the other big performance that a lot of

us have yet to see is Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, it is getting

plaudits because she's so good as Margaret Thatcher. I would rather

Tilda Swinton. It is the obvious, there is a lot of that about. The

familiar, the obvious in a lot of these films in terms of casting. I

got to the stage where I was seeing films this year and I thought if

Kate Winslet turns up in the next ten seconds, as she often does, I

will scream. There is an element of you are watching a lot of acting. I

often say at times like this, team America predicted this, I hope they

whipped it way, the idea it is about acting. A lot of things like

Streep and Thatcher, you are seeing actor. We had war horse films,

Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris is it a good one? It is a good Woody

Allen film, because he's being licence Allen, he's not trying

anything -- Woody Allen, he's not trying anything new, it is

Americans wise cracking in Paris. They are acting but a different

style. It is a sense of when the acting works you feel it is because

they are already on a stage we know, so we're comfortable with it.

is also a sense he's indulging in his own passions. It is like Martin

Scorsese with Hugo, these are both film makers going for their pet

passions. I loved Hugo, it was the first time I saw 3D film, employing

3D not to look into the future but to look into the past, and look

into the mechanics of how you make things, rather than painting

someone blue and making them run towards you. Films strarting to be

films about films. It is inevitable, it is the accumulation of knowledge

about everything. Now we are discussing the 34th, 40th Woody

Allen movie in the context of Woody Allen and the context of 2011, it

is the accumulation of knowledge and self-consciousness. There is a

lot of self-consciousness in Steven Speilberg's Tin Tin, and did he

bring Tin Tin to life? No, no, no. He brought it to death. He stabbed

Tin Tin through the heart, with Herge's pen. It was just abysmal,

it is not my worst film of the year, but bottom five. There was a big

finale this year, a lot of work for a lot of technicians went down,

guess what, Harry Potter finished. It had been this amazing training

ground for lots and lots of people, behind and in front of the camera.

We have watched them grow up. It has been fascinating. They have

grown up in real life, much faster than in fiction. There has been a

wind forward as Harry axe choirs insipid -- axe choirs insip sid

beards. -- -- aquires a beard. is darker because they have got

older. We are all watching everybody get older. Once upon a

time people would dissolve away in a certain life span, now it is

longer and longer. We are watching a lot of people getting old, Steven

Speilberg included. The other strong showing this year in film,

has been documentary, and one of the shocks is that Senna didn't get

an Oscar nominated. It is a disgrace. I have never seen

anything like that, it is extraordinary. It is just brilliant.

The fact is isn't on the Oscars list for things that can be seen.

There is other lists to be on that might make it in the long run

better. We are at a point where the Oscars themselves are becoming

steal to win the Oscar is not necessarily as wonderful and

celebratory as they were. We are welcome to put on the box that I

said it was the best documentary of the year. I suspect they would

rather an Oscar nomination. television great documentaries as

well, Terry Prachett. Educating Essex was one of my favourites. So

much TV tends to be cynical, talking about satire and Charlie

Brooker, that savageness, what I loved about Educating Excess, and

Frozen Planet, they had a good open heart about them and optimistic

about the human spirit. It is rare to see a documentary at 9.0 on

Channel 4 that is open-hearted and had a positive thing to say. And

the fact that seven million people watched it was really good. Is that

the same thing that makes Frozen Planet successful, because people

want to celebrate something so wonderful. It is about animals,

that helps. Everyone is in a zone now, eventhough it is more public

than it has been, if you are in that zone, fantastic, if you are in

The Only Way Is Essex, you may prefer that as a more honest

documentary about nature. What if you are in the costume drama zone,

you have had Downton Abbey and The Hour, as well, returning to

previous times? I found The Hour a bit of a letdown, it was sold as

being Mad Men for the British. totally was sold as that? That is

heart-breaking. It set itself a hurdle it didn't matched. I found

myself losing interest after one or two episodes, I preferred Abbey

Morgan's work in what she has done with Shame and the Iron Lady.

favourite period drama was The Great British Bake-Off, setting up

a nostalgic zone that might have been in the 1950s. It is like The

Apprentice says I was the worse one there. These are the things we can

agree on, good cake, whales, maybe it is about a time of division. You

want things we can all agree on. Everybody is so turbulent and

reality is so bent, you are either going to go the Charlie Brooker way

or the Bake Off way, work out how to outdo it in art or consoled.

have also the dark and gritty stuff, so Ronan Bennett has done great

this year, with The Hidden and Top Boy. That kind of drama, and on top

of that you have the Killing, there is a need to get down and really

quite intense drama and difficult drama to follow sometimes. Again

The Killing has roots in things like Murder One and Twin Peaks, it

shows people will stick around for 20 hours to watch one thing if it

is intelligent enough. The thing about the darkness, you were

talking about the constructive reality, I think Tamara Eccleston:

Billion dollar Girl has been amazing. This woman who is worth

three or four billion, living in a complete bubble of her own fortune.

Can I put on record she is not worth that. She may have it, but

she's not worth it. Before moving away from television, we should

talk about comedy, and Brooker the return of satire in the 10 O'Clock

Live. Miranda Hart has had a great year, a good year for female comics

as well. Sarah Miliken I'm told, yesterday her DVD broke the 100,000

sales units, she is the first female to do that in ten years. I

believe in other comedians working on something for HBO. A bad year

for Ricky Gervais, didn't crack it with the new comedy. When you have

a dwarf playing Ricky Gervais it is not going to work. One of the

things I liked about him is everything he did something, you

believed in him enough to win your support. He started really well

with the Golden Globes, he lost it. Have you seen Rev which defeated it

7-with quiet masterpieces which is more important about telling us

where we are, but Ricky Gervais's self-loathing and self-loving.

Let's hear it for Rev. That is the year through the camera lens, what

is going on in the wild and wonderful world of the visual arts.

For the most anticipated exhibition of the year, the national gallery

pulled off a diplomatic coup. Persuading galleries around the

world to part with some of their most priceless exhibits.

The result, a rare treat for art lovers. More than 60 works by

Rennaissance master, Leonardo Da Vinci, all in the one place.

The art is considered by many to be the most influential at work today,

Gerhard Richter, was honoured with Tate Modern survey. Panorama showed

work created over five decades, spanning personal work, exploring

the Nazi history in his own family, to paintings which ponded to 9/11,

and working created using a humble squeegee. Two more giants of 20th

century art had major retrospectives. At Tate Liverpool,

a celebration of Rene Margritte, which asked us to look at familiar

works with fresh eyes. At Tate Modern, the biggest exhibition in

50 years of work by Catalan artist, Joan Miro, more of a political

artist than previously thought. In Edinburgh, former Turner Prize

winner, Martin Creed, gave an unloved stone staircase a luxurious

and permanent makover, with 100 different types of marble.

Rounding off great year for the Scottish artist, Martin Boyce, he

had an early Christmas present, when he won the Turner Prize.

Chinese artist and dissident, Ai WeiWei, had a year of ups and downs,

the public had to look on at a distance of his carpet of porcelain

sunflower seeds following years about dangerous dust. This spring

he spent more than two months in detention, following charges of tax

evasion, in a story that prompted a global campaign for his release.

Defying the downturn, there was a spate of ambitious museum openings.

The Hepworth Wakefield provide as home for sculpture for artists with

local connections, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore foremost among them.

In Emin's old stomping ground of Margate, it is a regeneration for

the Kent coast. Here in Glasgow, the first major UK building by

Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid, The Riverside Museum, a striking mu

home for the city's trans-- new home for the city's transport

collection, attracted record numbers. As galleries and museums

mushroom across the country, does art matter all the more in troubled

times? Let's talk about the really big

exhibitions and the ones that have created such a fuss. Now there is

the Leonardo, the Mirror was huge, and the Gerhard Richter as well. Do

we need these huge exhibitions, particularly because they pull in

more money, because they are not the free parts, and there is the

exit through the gift shop? I have a feeling we will get more and more

of them. We will put more and more people through them. Sometimes they

are wonderful. I loved the Mirror, I thought it was extraordinary, he

lived a long, long life, mainted all the way through it. I learned a

lot. When I went there was few people. How do you see the Leonardo.

I went this week, my memories were of the crowds rather than the

drawings. There is not that much work there. Literally you are more

swept away by the people than the work. As I mentioned before, the

audio guide says step away so other people can have a look. It felt

more like a rock festival that people are there to commune. That

happened with the internet, because history is happening around us as

well as the present, they are joining in with the celebrity word,

becoming famous, it generates that kind of interest as Beyonce, that

is fascinating in itself what does it mean. Are you going along to the

Da Vinci and really getting inside Da Vinci's mind, or is it something

else to tick off on the cultural agenda, the anxiety you have about

missing out on something. What is interesting about the flourish of

galleries and exhibitions is now we are all curators, there is a sense

that the curator is him or herself a superstar we all want to follow.

That is beginning to happen. They are true artists in the terms of

the way they are organising history. Do you worry about going to an

exhibition with hundreds of thousands of people, you don't like

a lot of people? I don't like a crowd. When we went to the Richter,

there was a sense of scale and space, that perhaps there isn't

with the Leonardo? I would very much like to see the Leonardo, not

going through press week, I suspect it was rammed, I'm not going to go.

It is too crowded for me. The Richter is easily my exhibition of

the year, it is huge, maybe 20 rooms, it is on until mid-January.

It is just extraordinary. There are momenting of...The Scope of his

work, and you think you know what Richter does, and you go in. You go

around a corner and think I don't know. The blurring of photographs.

The clouds. There is an incredible pair of paintings one is a painting

of a Nazi guy, and one is a picture of him being held as a baby by his

aunt. Only later you find out that man was a doctor and killed his

aunt who was mentally impaired. Moving on to the on September

exhibition you have a post modernism, and you have the tomb of

the unno incraftman with the grace son Perry. Along with sal man

Rushdie's, that was my turkey of the year. There is seeorn rooms you

can go in the Tate Britain alone, where you will see a better

accumulation of the post modern spirit. Do you d'oh people feel

they have to go to it to -- do you feel people have to go to it to

dict it off? We are adoring -- tick it off? We are adoring exhibition,

it is the first time we are doing this. It has become part of the

journey, our own sort of grand, great journey we are having. What

does it mean in the long run. problem with the post modernism, it

tried to do it in a conventional way, to do it for 20yiers,

separating it out by -- 20 years, separating it out by genre. Let's

talk about Grayson Perry, he tried to do something different, he took

his own work and created new work, and put it alongside work in the

British Museum. I thought it was an incredible treat and educating?

taught you to see, it didn't just teach you to see what you were

looking at there, there was a sense in which it said it is an

exhibition, we may have come to it for all sorts of reasons, but now I

will force focus on you and force you to look at a particular piece,

and see the darkness in it, it being Perry. When you see in

museums you are looking at objects hissor clear, But because it is

Grayson Perry, and his work is layered and layered with nasty

experiences, you suddenly look again at other objects in museums

and see them as having personal histories and darknesses. If anyone

is going to comment on the oddness of the superstar expression that

you have to tick offs Grayson Perry. He has put a pot which where he has

printed the responses people might have had with the exhibition.

own version of the past is becoming more and more interesting. Newer

work is beginning to happen. Can I talk quickly about what is

happening in, as it were, the areas of the country, not the big

Metropilis, Margate because you have the controversial Turner

museum, and the Barbara Hepworth and the Henry Moore's at Wakefield.

There is a feeling all over the country people are celebrating art.

The Hepworth is a terrific addition to Wakefield, and it is the third

prong of the Yorkshire triangle. How brilliant to have a whole focal

bit. Londoners can be extremely snooty about leaving the capital.

How brilliant to find a way of going screw you London, there is

better sculpture somewhere else. Martin Boyce, third Tuner winner

coming from Edinburgh. We are in recession, so in culture, at least,

we are spending, that is what we are meant to do. If it has been a

year of blockbusters in the art world, Britain's theatres have been

going for big numbers, employing a bit of star power.

1234 Shakespeare was all over the place this year. And many familiar

faces from film and television took the leading roles. At London's

Windham Theatre exDoctor Who David tenant, at Sheffield, Dominic West

and Peters gave a high octane owe they will low. Good name, in man,

Othello. David Morrisey turned in a stellar Macbeth. Shakes beer was at

the Edinburgh Festival, with an Asian theme, with the Tempest, and

a one-man version of King Lear from Taiwan. The Pet Shop Boys

demonstrated a natural flair for contemporary dance, when they

created the music for a reworking of the fairytale The Most

Incredible Thing. In October, choreographer Ocram Khan's tribute

to his Bangladeshi roots opened. Oscar-winner Danny Boil directed

Jonny Lee Miller and Mr Cuberbatch in Frankenstein. The South Bank had

experimental writing, the Ipswich serial killers were inspiration. A

verbatim piece on the August riots was created for the Tricycle

theatre. The National Theatre of Wales put on an outdoor version of

The Passion, a modern day telling of the story of Jesus, starring

local boy Michael Sheen, staged over the Easter weekend in Talbot.

The National Theatre of Scotland staged a lock-in, when they

performed David Greg's dazzling play, The Strange Undoing of

Prudencia Heart. 2012 will be another bumpy year for Shakespeare,

curtesy of the Cultural Olympiad, but will this year stand out as one

to remember. We want it talk about Shakespeare,

because we have a lot of Shakespeare. But this year it feels

very much as if people perhaps did start in the theatre but have

become incredible celebrities through television and film, feel

they have to do the Shakespeare, they have to do it. We have had

John Sims, Michael Sheen, Lenny Henry again. We had Kevin Spacey in

Richard II I. It feels a bit like boxers who have to go for the World

Heavyweight Championship, I feel like when I have been, it has been

often more dutiful than out of desire. I don't recall, I remember

Macbeth with David Morrisey up in Liverpool, I was trying to compare

it what I had seen in the previous year, Rory Kinear had done hamlet.

I was just a bit disappointed. I thought Richard II I was very God,

that was partly because of the direction, that was a really

compelling performance. Often I'm finding these are things you should

tick off the big star with the big production. It brings people in, we

need box-office at theatres at the moment. With next year, with 2012,

it is like this is a way of branding Britain as well. It is a

way of branding the theatre. Then someone like Danny boil taking on

frain kin stein. But thin -- -- Boyle taking on Frankinstein.

taking on old stuff, the new stuff is crowded out by the stuff that is

regenerated. I loved Frankinstein in the showbiz sense. 2012, music

by Underworld, Danny Boyle has hired to be the musical directors

of the Olympic, I'm hoping Frankinstein gives us a clue about

the opening ceremony of the Olympic games, that would lift my heart.

There is a sense that sometimes you have the balance between, is it

just getting famous people to do the thing, because it will draw

audiences in, or is it a very dramatic reimagination of something.

In the Danny Boyle case, I thought it was the best thing he done. I

hope his Olympic games opening ceremony is by-election not Susan

Boyle singing Adele. What did you like? I liked two comedies, I hate

anything where there are long lost twins and somebody has a locket and

somebody has the other half, and they are about to get married, no,

we are siblings, I hate it, and yet One Man Two Governors, and Comedy

of Errors, the first one has toured on Broadway and in the West End.

They are boat great, who knew I liked James Cordon, not me. He will

be delighted to hear you do? These are comedies that were entirely

reworked. A good reworking? Governors moves to the 0s and they

go through it at a whack. How it makes it contemporary is through

the imagination, so it isn't just nostalgia. I still think there is a

minority in a very, very conservative theatre at the moment.

It is not just because the old is there, the old are producing some

of the best work around, they remember how to be avant garde. We

have had weird expectation in this country we will get exciting new

theatre from the young, despite the fact that as soon as they turn 30,

people are expected to produce just West End shows and nothing else. We

have produced wonderful conventional West End shows, but

until we take avant garde theatre as serious SAS anything else, we

won't get -- seriously as anything else, we won't get theatre going.

Outside London it is better. This year has been Anne credibly strong

year? Maybe that is right. In the end if it doesn't come from London

as well, it won't get the money. was going to saying, the thing

about One Man Two Governors, and Clydeborne park, is they make you

life, there is a forced laughter in the theatre sometimes, you paid the

money and you should find it funny. What I found good was it builds in

flexibility to the script. It allows some chance to play around

each night. I think that is something you don't so often see in

the theatre, that is what I enjoyed, when you go you feel there is an

element of something unpredictable amongst the structure. Amongst

every suggest the balance is the commercial work trying to maintain

the life commercially, and the avant garde work trying to sustain

it creativity. There is...There a third one, there is also the work

that is trying to explain very quickly, us back to ourselves, the

verbatim work, that has become a staple of theatre. The Tricycle has

led the way in that kind of work as well. It is interesting, but I

prefer the work one stage on. I prefer the work of companies like

Cardboard Citizens which, is a company of the homeless, who

produce remarkable work. Sometimes from classic texts, sometimes

devised and they work through material to get there. Why is it in

troubled times we talk about the escapist, and the stuff that

reflects the troubled times, is it pointing out to us these are

troubled times. It is partly it is much smaller, fewer people have

seen it. Back to the same thing as blockbuster exhibitions a whole lot

of people through so it makes the conversation harder when doing 20

people. Looking at Clydeborne Park talking about racism and class. It

doesn't indulge people's political niceties, and people came in droves

to see that. That won a lot of awards. It can be done if the

writing is sharp. Highlight this is year, would it be Frankinstein for

you? And Prudencia. I really loved it. Imagine going to the theatre

you sit there in the dark with a glass of whiskey, what could be

better? And you start with the board of ever and end up with Kylie

Minogue. I knew you would get Kylie in some where.

That is all we have time in the theatre tonight. Before we launch

into the books of the last 12 months, we want to remember some of

the great names who passed away in 2011, Christopher Hitchens died

just yesterday. Although he was a confirmed secularist, even he might

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 154 seconds

love this accompanyment of Silent Stars who will be sadly missed.

Books and more books from authors alive and dead w a light dusting of

controversy. In January, we started the year

reviewing the Russian thriller, Snowdrops, the debut novel from AD

Miller, one of several first timeers shortlisted for the Man

Booker Prize in October. Experience triumphed when all were trounced by

Julian Barnes, Sense of an Ending. It takes only the smallest pleasure

and main to teach us time's malleability. The Tiger's Wife was

the lauded title from a new writer, and made off with The Orange Prize

for Fiction. It is beautifully written and has a dream-like

quality to it. And it brings the Balkans into all our front rooms

with a kind of bitter sweet vivacity.

For the first time, we covered the James Tate Black Memorial Prize,

with Tatjani Soli's account of the war in Vietnam, The Lotus Eaters,

winning in the fictional catbury, and Pearl Buck, Jon Butterworth,

winning for biography. Pearl is unique in that she was the person

who explained the east to the west. In 2011, previously unpublished

work by Mervyn Peake, JacquesKeroac, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Daphne du

Maurier, enjoyed posthumous acclaim. You can't call them romantic, they

are horrific. In the first of our new book reviews shows, I spoke to

Lionel Shriver, whose critically lauded, We Need To Talk About Kevin,

became one of the most talked about films of the year. I believe that

the term Great American Novel in the US, actually bins, big fat

novel, written by a man. As film adaptations go, none has been more

powerful in recent years than Precious. I caught up with the

author, Sapphire, se Edinburgh Internationnal Book Festival, to

talk about her new novel, The Kid. He imitates his abusers who have

the power. The review show is never far away from the centre. There is

the comedy and poignancy of literary representation. If I was

an anti-Semite I would have been the best. In theory I thought I was

ready for motherhood, because I had not the slightest idea what was

involved. Has the literary world managed to stave off the economic

gloom? Some wonderful books this year, more first books for the Man

Booker, but despite the fact we had AD Miller Snowdrops, and Sense of

an Ending got there, Julian Barnes? I have loved Julian Barnes for so

long. James Cordon, Julian Barnes, Ayrton Senna? An unlikely

combination. I have on my wall the cover of Talking it Over, which

came out when I was doing work experience at school. I have been

waiting a long time this day. Sense of an Ending was a gorgeous book,

as was Pulse, the short stories. sense as soon as you needed to wait

a long time for the book, -- in Sense of an Ending, you had to

knead wait for a long time, as it was writing this book in the time

of his life for Julian Barnes? was rich in wisdom only done

through the accumulating of years. What was interesting, although it

was slim, it lingered far longer than a lot of books fatter in my

mind. It was so quotable, I have been reading out to my wife quotes

of bits and pieces t feels like this is someone who has lived and

life and is condensing it down. Also the fact it was about the

fragility of memory, I just found it really, really great. Like

Natalie, it is wonderful it became out in the same year as Pulse, you

think of short stories as the thing people try on, this is a year of

wonderful short stories, Alice Munroe's collective, and Pulse, the

sense that you cannot just distill, but leave the kind of depth charge

that Sense of an Ending brings, in a smaller mould and it is still the

same charge. Julian Barnes has been shortlisted a number of times, is

this his best book? I don't think so, but the Booker works like Best

Film with the Oscars, it is like you get it in the end. Sometimes

the big names that come forward, and produce books, and the

publishers produce books again, and the authors are dead. This has been

a year when that has been hugely in evidence, and again, these are

books worth publishing, do you think the publishers thinking we

have to screw every penny we have out of every penny we have? If you

are walking about David Foster Wallace. There is something

interesting about a time when we are haunted so much by the past,

that writers, whether they die after they have written their book

or they don't, there is still a sense they are basically haunting

us. At a time when we need that the most, eventhough writing is

threatened in so many ways, is still so powerful. For me,

something like publishing David Foster Wallace after he died, is so

important because those sentences are so much alive, that is what the

writer wants, they want to haunt us after they have gone, after the

book has died, in fact. I think it is still important they do that.

You have Daphne du Maurier and Beryl Bainbridge as well?

Absolutely. You have also people like Tea Obreht, writing wonderful

fiction now, itself about memory, it is about literally buried memory.

It is about digging up the bodies, we had a non-fiction book about

Pearl Buck, called Burying the Bones. It won the non-fiction with

that, Pearl Buck? That wasn't Claire tomorrow lin. I have

forgotten who -- Claire Tomlin. Foster Wallace is The Marriage Plot,

Eugenides is haunting that. In Sense of an Ending i felt that The

Marriage Plot was one half of a bigger book. It only talking about

people at that time, 21, 22, 23, which is where Sense of an Ending

begins. I felt in a way it was a thinner book than Julian Barnes,

even through three-times thicker. wanted to talk about Christopher

Hitchens, one of the books I was going to mention is Arguably Any

way, it is fascinating everybody feels they have a voice, and there

are thousands of bloggers who think they are Christopher Hitchens and

they are as vital, vigilence and vicious as Hitchens. They weren't,

5,000 bloggers aren't worth one Christopher Hitchens. What Hitchens

was, apart from having an opinion, and insulting people and being

bitter and twisted, or whatever it was. He could weigh words. It was

rooted in centuries of tradition of intellectual thought. I think it is

interesting at the moment where everybody can write and does write.

With Hitchens I thought what was interesting is he's pre-Google,

when you read his work you get a sense he has had so much raegd,

which is the sort of thing you can do -- reading, which is the sort of

thing you can do with a click. not rooted in centuries of history.

Will that go or will there be people to replace it in the new

world. Jeanette Winterson taking the non-fiction of Oranges Are Not

The skal only Fruit, I thought that was a most party breaking memoir,

you realise how damaging she has been ever since? It satisfied

curiosity for me. I thought it was a less satisfying read than Oranges

Are Not The Only Fruit. It was as if she had said it in an

extraordinarily good way, and the it needed to be fiction. The

unprotected version was very distressing but less convincing.

word for Adam Holloway, we waited a long time -- Adam Holling hurst,

many of us rembering how brilliant The Line Of Beauty, and thinking

the same impact would come and it didn't? It is that brilliance

existing and then it doesn't. It is how things suddenly become the

catch or they don't, how do they catch, who is makes the minds up.

Eventhough we are meant to have removed the gate keepers, I don't

think we have. There is a weird moment when something doesn't catch,

you can't quite work out why that is. And some things then do catch

over what Natalie wanted to talk about, which is the big book

festivals, they have taken off hugely, that is where a lot of

author doss catch up? It is absolutely true, if you are a

writer who doesn't like to perform, now is not a good time for you,

unless you are already famous. Book festivals have become so huge and

book events have become so huge, author who is can turn up and

deliver a show, not necessarily me. Are you saying all Holling hurst

can't do that! We don't get to debate music on the show, we like

guests like Neil Hannon, appearing later. To make up for it, here is a

reprisal of the big events of the musical calendar. A 23-year-old

English chanteuse made history last week when she became the first

female singer to become the top- selling artist, have the top-

selling album and single of the year. The song is Rolling In The

Deep, the album 21, and the artist is unmistakably Adele. # We could

have had it all This month 21 hit 3.4 million sales,

becoming the biggest-selling album of the century. It was Amy

Winehouse's LP, Back to Black, that had previously held that honour, a

position that was achieved following her tragic and untimely

death in July. This week her posthumous album,

Lioness: Hidden Treasures, entered the charts at number one. Further

confirming the singer's iconic status.

While the songwriting of Adele and Winehouse focused on the intimate,

there was one songwriter, whose outward looking musings earned her

a gold album and the prestigious, mercury prize, Let England Shake is

PJ Harvey's tenth studio LP. The world of opera experienced a number

of interesting modern influences, a film maker and former Monty Python

cast member, Terry Gilliam, directed a hit version of Damnation

of Faust for English National Opera. Fellow film maker, Nicola Fisher

tackled lust and Larsry in Borgia. More lust in the royal -- Lucrezia

Borgia, more was Anna Nicole telling the story of a former play

boy novel, a wealthy oxygen Nairian. And an early death. Then there was

Bjork's multimill I don't know -- multivisual creation. REM announced

they would be spliting up. As one legendary act called it a day,

another returned with new material. Kate Bush announced an all-new

studio album, 50 Words For Snow. 2011 proved music fans still want

to support their favourite acts. Even in this age of downloading

where YouTube hits mean more than physical album sales, as Lana Del

Ray proved with the song Video Games, which currently has over ten

million hits. What does this mean for the future. Paul, beginning

with two young women from the Brit School, Amy Winehouse, you know, a

dreadful waste this year. Let's talk about her first and then Adele,

who has been this phenomenal success. Amy Winehouse, and there

we have this posthumous album coming out. What is interesting

about both acts, is in one area of a business to some extent is in

trouble, as well as some of these other areas,s the same patterns.

These are familiar patterns. These are patterns meant not to happen

any more. A breakout act that suddenly sells millions. It is a

pleasant, middle of the road album, fusing country and soul in a very

intelligent way. But very old, very familiar. Amy Winehouse, that is a

familiar pattern too, the dead rock star dying at 27, creating an

instant myth. That is what is interesting about rock, in many

ways it is time is done as a ris- taking property. But there is

plenty of echos and haunting and regeneration to happen. I don't

know about that, it seems to me that where you have the attempt to

take rock into crossover, you have potentially some interesting stuff,

what I have actually seen is ghastly. I saw Albarn doing Dr Dee,

I would have been lynched if I express my view of t that it was

the worst thing I saw all year bar non-, nobody else seemed to think

so. It was quite dreadful. On the other hand it seems to me it ought

to be possible to keep using it providing you keep moving it into

different places. Moving what? make it not middle of the road, but

an idiom to apply elsewhere. There is incredible areas of music at the

moment. The production asked me to come up with the list of favourite

albums in a year, for the first time I was 75, you have the Bjork

and the Beyonce, you have the Julian that, you have The Fiest. At

the quiet end of music, Chris Watson, recording for the David

Attenborough programme, a beautiful album, Tim Hecker, incredible music

out there. What I always find difficult is what has gone is the

context of the music. The music itself, if you love music for its

own sake, as a decorative thing, as an inspiring thing in your love,

this is probably never a better time to be alive. My favourite

music is music that didn't seem to have needed to exist now, but any

time, if you look at GilliamWelsh's album, the new Tom Waites album has

nothing to do with now. I think the thing to defend Adele, she is one

of these people, because she's successful you get suspicious she's

any good, I think she's really good. She doesn't look the standard issue,

the magazine cover that you would normal low think, even if the

format of the music is similar she is different. Let's move on to

something unusual, let's look at the Damnation of Faust. That was

good, wasn't it. Terry Gilliam at his maddest best. By the way, could

I be more excited than now to discover he is apparently adapting

Mr Vertigo for his next project, not opera, film. It was a treat. I

loved Faust. It is true of his films and operas that it begins

with this magnificent energy, and never entirely fails, but gets a

little bit laboured and obvious at the end. But it is wonderful.

Someone flying upside down on a Swastika, what more do you want!

REM? I finally got rid of them. you have The Stones going back to

touring? It is like everything we are talking about, once upon a time

there was a beautiful life span that certain bands had, no, why

would they. They keep going. I find it incredible having got rid of

Take That, that they come back, they come back as the new skal

velvet Underground, and Gary Barlow is hailed as a modern master. This

is frightening, in terms of the softening that Christopher Hitchens

would be furious with, the softening of political per--

critical perspective. You are talking about things you like not

about the value and worth in a cultural context. We need to put up

your 75 favourite albums this year. In just a moment The Divine

Comedy's Neil Hannon will play us out. First, we are often accused of

being too serious on this show, some even say pretentious, or

pompus, here is something to prove our critics wrong.

On the review show from glaz geotonight. It is Santa-sized

sackfuls of sex. We have beaten ball bag. Oh my dear God, sugar.

have never really enjoyed watching other people have sex. There was

the transgender that looked like a slightly demented My Little Ponies.

How often have you done that? or twice, things were very crowded

at yuefrt. I did have an anus two inches from my face within minutes.

What you are hearing is Mr Hunt, Mr Hunt, oh, oh, oh. The book that

helped me a lot was Crash. breast-feeds the chimp, and gives

it dope, it is like, what on earth are you doing? That inspired me to

learn to drive. The latest addition to our team, the Beaver. Most

obedient of the panel. We will never forget matter that

and her fury friends and Germaine's sex noises, that is all. Well done

to those who braved the Glasgow weather. Thank you to my guests.

You can find a few choice added extras on the website. Including a

bonus track from the new musical Swallows and Amazons, by the one

and only Neil Hannon, to play us out with Bang Goes The Knighthood.

Good night from all the review team # Out of the station

# And through the arcade # Past the antique shops

# Of Regent's parade # To a -- an innocuous London

address # A quick glance around

# Then down the wet steps # God only knows what keeps

bringing me here # Gambling with everything

# That I hold dear # One careless word

# In establishment ears # And bang goes the Knighthood

# The wife and career # You make me feel

# Something # Feeling something

# Beats feeling nothing at all # And nothing at all

# Is what I feel # Most of the time

# If someone sees # If someone hears something

# I know it's coming # The fear is making me ill

# But then fear is part of the thrill

# They taught me discipline # At boarding school

# The consequences of # Breaking the rules

# They said we're just being # Cruel to be kind

# As they beat me to within # An inch of my life

# So chain me # Restrain me

# And teach me to kneel # Bind me and grind me