:00:11. > :00:20.This programme contains strong language.
:00:20. > :00:25.Women all the way tonight. And a couple of old eejit in a pub.
:00:25. > :00:35.James Bond is back in Skyfall, and the Bond girls are now Bond women.
:00:35. > :00:35.
:00:35. > :00:40.Take the bloody shot. I may hit Bond. Take the bloody shot. Is The
:00:40. > :00:45.End of Men on target. Sex in the City is so last century, girls,
:00:45. > :00:49.written and directed by and starring 26-year-old Lena Dunham is
:00:49. > :00:57.the comedy drama everyone is talking about. Are you asking did I
:00:57. > :01:01.always want to have sex with men? Yes. This is Wadjda, the first
:01:01. > :01:08.feature film made inside Saudi Arabia by a woman. Will it have an
:01:08. > :01:13.impact on the Kingdom's conservatives. And two talking men
:01:13. > :01:17.in a Dublin pub, Roddy Doyle's whipcracking piece of prose, Two
:01:17. > :01:26.Pints. We're joined in the pink corner by
:01:26. > :01:32.the economist columnist, Anne McElvoy, and Tim Samuels, the
:01:32. > :01:38.award-winning writer, who hosts Men's Hour. We begin with a hero
:01:38. > :01:44.who has come to embody impossible levels of pulling power, an icon of
:01:44. > :01:50.Britishness, with Scottish linage. James Bond a bit mashed up and
:01:50. > :01:55.whiskey-soaked, that is to the administrations of a nurse, and the
:01:55. > :01:58.Bond girl Naomie Harris. Three months ago you lost the drive
:01:58. > :02:01.containing the identity of every agent embedded in terrorist
:02:01. > :02:07.organisations across the globe. made a judgment call. In Skyfall,
:02:07. > :02:12.the future of MI6 is in jeopardy, following a botched assignment. In
:02:12. > :02:18.her 7th appearance as M, Judi Dench has been placed at the centre of
:02:18. > :02:23.the action for the first time, as she directs new Bond woman, Eve,
:02:23. > :02:29.played by Naomie Harris, on her first assignment. I do not have a
:02:29. > :02:33.clean shot. Repeat, I do not have a clean shot.
:02:33. > :02:41.Tunnel ahead, will lose them. you get into a better position.
:02:41. > :02:48.Negative, there is no time. Take the shot. I say take the shot.
:02:48. > :02:52.can't, I may hit Bond. Take the bloody shot. An astonishing act of
:02:52. > :02:55.terrorism in the heart of London forces M to relocate the agency. It
:02:56. > :02:59.pits her against the chairman of the Intelligence and Security
:02:59. > :03:06.Committee, played by Rarph Fiennes. Other star turns include Ben
:03:06. > :03:16.Whishaw, as the reinvented Q, and Ashraf El-Baroudi as Bond's latest
:03:16. > :03:19.
:03:19. > :03:25.them -- Javi re, Bardem as Bond's latest nemisis. I do hope that
:03:25. > :03:31.wasn't for me. No, but that is. The action sequences move from
:03:31. > :03:37.tunnels beneath London, to Shanghai skyscraper, and the wilderness of
:03:37. > :03:42.the Scottish Highlands. With director Sam Mendes, assisted by
:03:42. > :03:46.cinematographer Roger Deakins. At the film's heart is the
:03:47. > :03:50.relationship between 007 and M, both displaying a new vulnerability.
:03:50. > :03:55.007 reporting for duty. Where the hell have you been? Enjoying death.
:03:55. > :03:59.Many are hailing Skyfall as the best Bond yet, has Daniel's Craig
:03:59. > :04:09.latest outing as the most enduring action hero in cinema, left our
:04:09. > :04:14.
:04:15. > :04:19.panel shaken and stirred. That 12-minute opening sequence, is
:04:19. > :04:24.it the best Bond yet? It is hard to judge, because Bond is very hard to
:04:24. > :04:28.separate from your childhood, and the childhood Bond you saw, are
:04:29. > :04:33.always imbued with a mystery. This was great. This will be a huge hit.
:04:33. > :04:37.This felt like taking very long bath of testosterone. You quite
:04:37. > :04:44.like that? I need that. When we get to this I'm done for, and he's in
:04:44. > :04:49.trouble as well. But it felt like a man when you came out, until the
:04:49. > :04:53.neurosis came back. You felt a sense of Britishness, it felt this
:04:53. > :04:59.was a Bond which fits this year. We have done the Opening Ceremony,
:04:59. > :05:04.which felt like Britain doing what it does best, wit, irremember
:05:04. > :05:10.regins, not trying to be American - - irreference, and not trying to be
:05:10. > :05:14.American. It was the same sort of Bond in on the gag, not overcooking
:05:14. > :05:17.it, as in the Opening Ceremony. What Sam Mendes needed to do was
:05:17. > :05:23.move on the criminality, there is a different kind of evil,
:05:23. > :05:26.cyberterrorism, did that actually feel shoe-horned in, or was it a
:05:26. > :05:32.good new evil character in Javier Bardem? He's fantastic. He has it
:05:32. > :05:35.all going for him, the peroxide hair, the strange teeth, his
:05:35. > :05:39.playful way of dealing with Bond, in a sexualised way of approaching
:05:39. > :05:43.him and trying to undermine his manhood. But I think what is
:05:43. > :05:49.interesting about the film, and you see it when you see that clip that
:05:49. > :05:51.you showed there of M, Judi Dench, looking over the cop fins draped in
:05:51. > :05:55.union jacks, people will think about Iraq and Afghanistan. The
:05:55. > :05:58.sense that you are trying to do the right thing in the world, and it
:05:58. > :06:01.just keeps going wrong. And the evil you are fight something here,
:06:01. > :06:04.it is there, it is everywhere, it is very hard for the Intelligence
:06:04. > :06:08.Services to get it right. It gives them the benefit of the doubt in
:06:08. > :06:12.terms of intent, it also says how easy it is to get everything wrong.
:06:12. > :06:17.In this film everyone at the outset is in a pickle, everyone has done
:06:17. > :06:20.something wrong. I rather like that, it is a feeling. It is
:06:20. > :06:28.destablising? It beset politicians and the Intelligence Services and
:06:28. > :06:31.they can't say it to us openly. you like the whole Bond film?
:06:32. > :06:38.thought it was a very knowing film. It was brazen the way they lifted
:06:38. > :06:43.from so many other great male- orientated films Apocalypse Now,
:06:43. > :06:46.Jaws, Silence of the Lamb, it opens with a scene from the Great Escape.
:06:46. > :06:51.There was moments I was nearly crying from the emotion of it. What
:06:51. > :06:59.Anne is talking about is really how fantastic the film looks. There is
:06:59. > :07:04.so many different scenes. Roger Deakins is cinematographer par
:07:04. > :07:09.excellence. You are always looking at it, as well as the plot. It was
:07:09. > :07:15.a clever thing that it was a 12 I took my 11-year-old son, and he
:07:15. > :07:19.thought it was fantastic. The finale is Bond and the two grey
:07:19. > :07:24.warriors. Don't give away the end. His allies are clearly of the
:07:24. > :07:28.generation who first watched the Bond films. There are good gags
:07:28. > :07:34.about the early gadgetry and so forth. It seems to me, but Sam
:07:34. > :07:39.Mendes brought to this film as well, Rory Kinear and Ben Whishaw, from
:07:39. > :07:43.the stage. He plays this wonderfully whip-smart. He's every
:07:43. > :07:46.intern you ever wanted to get rid of in your office. He comess and
:07:47. > :07:52.tells you are out of date, he makes you feel 20 years older than you
:07:52. > :07:57.are. In the end he's going to play a fairly pivitol role t won't be
:07:57. > :08:00.done with exploding pens any more. That is a great line. Did you feel
:08:00. > :08:08.that Sam Mendes has pulled a switch into a new Bond, or will it be hard,
:08:08. > :08:12.moving into this era, when you have a cybergeek, as your Q? It was very
:08:12. > :08:18.believable. Every week anonymous people hack into another network,
:08:18. > :08:21.that was totally feasible. If you look at the Iranian nuclear
:08:21. > :08:26.programme being set back by a computer programme. That was a one-
:08:27. > :08:33.off, or the whole idea that we will be doing cybercrime in future
:08:33. > :08:37.Bonds? I think this has rebooted Bond T had come out of a slightly
:08:37. > :08:42.shaky phase, it is re-rooted and re-anchored Bond and placed had him
:08:42. > :08:50.back in Britain and who he was. With Daniel Craig he can go off and
:08:50. > :08:57.do the lavish adventures over seas. Has Daniel Craig come better in
:08:57. > :09:02.this one? He owns it. The last films were rom-coms with a few
:09:02. > :09:05.stuoints. This is a cross between Peter Reid and Sid James, he looks
:09:05. > :09:08.too rough to be a member of the British establishment. I thought
:09:08. > :09:12.the matter of sex thing is largely gone from the film. If anything I
:09:12. > :09:17.rather miss it, SAS we have said for years, we have had all the
:09:17. > :09:22.pieces about the terrible treatment of Bond girls. Can we have more
:09:22. > :09:28.glamorous sex. It is aimed at the kids, 12-year-olds. People are more
:09:28. > :09:33.prudish, I remember seeing the Bond films very young and there was more
:09:33. > :09:39.sex? You remember in scam diamonds are Forever, with the zip going
:09:39. > :09:44.down the back. At 13 that was turned off. They wouldn't have been
:09:44. > :09:48.a 12. Is a trick missed without the sex, I know it is a grown up film
:09:48. > :09:53.with the mummy fixation. He did have sex in it. There was a
:09:53. > :09:57.brilliant sex scene between the two male leads. It was much more
:09:58. > :10:01.homoerotic. This film is there to set the store out to the kids
:10:01. > :10:04.reading the young Bond books. was a nod to taking a film. This is
:10:04. > :10:09.a new generation in love with the character. We can talk about the
:10:09. > :10:13.fact that the film then goes to Scotland. You have concerns about
:10:13. > :10:17.that. Is that tied into the whole British thing? The British thing
:10:17. > :10:20.needed a bit more work, it was confused. Remember the bit when he
:10:20. > :10:24.says nationality, and he says English, the whole rest of the film
:10:24. > :10:30.was him to Britishness, as Tim was referring to the British cars,
:10:30. > :10:35.slightly the Del Boy nation that makes the way in the worlding, and
:10:35. > :10:41.is bucaneering, and some how gets through it t and Judi Dench reads
:10:41. > :10:46.them a bit of Tennyson, in the briefing, as you do, then we move
:10:46. > :10:50.into the Scottish last 45 minutes t even has a game keeper with the
:10:50. > :10:53.rifle cocked over his arm. I don't know what you felt, felt you were
:10:53. > :10:56.being slightly sent up in the parody of Scottishness to explain
:10:56. > :11:05.he comes from a different part of the country. I did feel a bit of a
:11:05. > :11:08.sag there. There has been an extent where Bond get flirbed out, you get
:11:08. > :11:13.theer in row sis, struggling with the work-life balance, the
:11:13. > :11:20.addiction, he's made into a three- dimensional character. Then you
:11:20. > :11:26.have the new woman and she will whip himself in shape. Bond in
:11:26. > :11:34.therapy. You heard it here first. James Bond is an alpha male, and
:11:34. > :11:38.according to a new book with an apocalyptic tightle title there is
:11:38. > :11:42.very few left. And men have been failing to adapt to the economic
:11:42. > :11:49.climate, and it is the women, who are more plastic, but some of them
:11:49. > :11:55.can't stand having to drag a useless man along with them. The
:11:55. > :11:58.contribution to the gender debate by Jo Roswell has brought countless
:11:58. > :12:01.column inches and brought much discussion. It draws on interviews
:12:01. > :12:05.to chart the demise of the traditional breadwinner, a change
:12:05. > :12:13.which has conversely benefited women, who readily adapted to their
:12:13. > :12:21.new roles in the work place. Roswell names these new MoD --
:12:21. > :12:25.Rosin names these new models Plastic women ska cap cardboard men.
:12:25. > :12:32.The Full Monty highlighted the emasculating effect of the death of
:12:32. > :12:36.industry on a set of steel works. The steries, section in the City is
:12:36. > :12:41.a changing attitudes in women, eschewing the traditional route to
:12:41. > :12:46.marriage and kids in favour of a career and financial security.
:12:46. > :12:53.it when you are the only single at a dinner party and they look at you
:12:53. > :12:59.like you are a lose, lep, whore. Rosin calls this a see-saw marriage,
:12:59. > :13:04.a merging of the roles between care childcare and work, equally shared
:13:04. > :13:07.between men and women. Despite the rising numbers of female college
:13:07. > :13:12.graduates and women as sole providers of household income.
:13:12. > :13:17.Working women take on the lion's share of chores, inflexible office
:13:17. > :13:21.hours still rule, and the gender pay gap is still an issue. Is the
:13:21. > :13:26.claim "the end of men", still a long way off?
:13:26. > :13:31.I do want to ask you if you feel under attack, but first of all, is
:13:31. > :13:38.it about the -- does the book live up to the title? The title spoils
:13:38. > :13:44.it, it reduces it to a level of boys versus girls t should be
:13:45. > :13:49.titled "In Praise of Women", and a title that promotes women, men
:13:49. > :13:54.don't care. We know women are great at doing things. I don't have any
:13:54. > :14:01.issue with the premise, I thought the book was really dated. There is
:14:01. > :14:04.a book called Stiff, made the same point 14 years ago, with a better
:14:04. > :14:07.narrative. This is layer, upon layer of research and acedemia, it
:14:08. > :14:13.is so focused about the lives of college women. To be honest, it
:14:13. > :14:17.reminded me of the days when I edited Loaded magazine, and I spent
:14:17. > :14:22.all night being hectored at the feminist student on campus, and at
:14:22. > :14:26.the end she asked me if I fancied a shag. Did that happen always?
:14:26. > :14:29.Frequently it lacked charm. Actually I found it really
:14:29. > :14:33.insulting, this was supposed to be a worldwide perspective, all the
:14:33. > :14:38.women in countries like Cuba and China. Cuba and Russia, places
:14:38. > :14:41.where women have always been equals in the work place. There is a film
:14:41. > :14:45.we will talk about later, that really puts into perspective, that
:14:45. > :14:50.this book is really about New York academic life. It seems what she
:14:50. > :14:54.does do, a bit like, she brings anecdote to this, the worlds in
:14:54. > :14:59.which she moves, and the corporate lawyers, the financial world, where
:14:59. > :15:06.you do get women who are incredibly powerful, they are in the minority.
:15:06. > :15:16.It is a real stinking piece of journalism. It selects any half
:15:16. > :15:16.
:15:16. > :19:31.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 255 seconds
:19:31. > :19:35.baked theory that men can't take It is the closest diagnosis to the
:19:35. > :19:39.Way We Live Now, in terms of where I think the employment balance is
:19:40. > :19:48.changing, and the dangers to men, particularly those who do not get
:19:48. > :19:52.the education they are going to need. Anything to do with plastic,
:19:53. > :19:56.I think Barbie and cardboard. thought the tone was a bit gleeful,
:19:56. > :20:01.setting men up against women when everyone is a sort of on the same
:20:01. > :20:06.side. Do you really think when you're female colleagues go out in
:20:06. > :20:10.broadcasting that we do not feel... He thinks the only difference
:20:10. > :20:20.between men and women is how women respond to shampoo adverts. That
:20:20. > :20:24.
:20:24. > :20:28.might even be in that book, for all we know. 15 years since the first
:20:28. > :20:33.series of the glossy sex in the City, time for Carrie Bradshaw and
:20:33. > :20:38.company to totter off. The girls are here. They are smart, smutty,
:20:38. > :20:42.struggling and engaging in very sticky and graphic sex. It starts
:20:42. > :20:52.on Sky Atlantic on Monday and comes from a talented 26-year-old who
:20:52. > :20:56.
:20:56. > :21:00.writes, directs and stars. The central character's
:21:00. > :21:05.quintessentially middle class parents reveal they will no longer
:21:05. > :21:09.support her group B lifestyle. more money. He tracks a succession
:21:09. > :21:14.of humiliating episodes in her life, beginning with the tough lesson
:21:14. > :21:19.that even as an unpaid intern, she is far from indispensable.
:21:19. > :21:24.circumstances have changed and I can no longer work for free. I am
:21:24. > :21:31.so sorry to lose you. I was just going to start you on Twitter. You
:21:31. > :21:41.have just the voice for it. I am not quitting. I know that someone
:21:41. > :21:44.was hired, so I thought... knows Photoshop. Accidental drug
:21:44. > :21:52.taking and abortions are just some of the subjects considered fair
:21:52. > :22:02.game for satire. You are pregnant but you don't want to be, so common
:22:02. > :22:34.
:22:34. > :22:40.generation, and if so, who is she speaking for? If sex And The City
:22:40. > :22:44.was super-smooth, this is rougher, isn't it? Did you have a sharp
:22:44. > :22:54.intake of breath? I had to have a cup of tea halfway through the
:22:54. > :23:01.
:23:01. > :23:07.You get your killer heels on and it is a great adventure and you
:23:07. > :23:10.celebrate with your girlfriends. Your 20s are not like that, it is
:23:10. > :23:14.the time with the messiest sex and all the wrong decisions. There was
:23:14. > :23:20.this terrific economic insecurity, of these rather privileged girls.
:23:20. > :23:23.And a very particular set of girls too. Life-long interns. They are
:23:23. > :23:27.all someone's daughters. All the actresses are from a particular era.
:23:27. > :23:31.It is a view of liberal arts college girls, it is enough to make
:23:32. > :23:35.you send your daughters off to the Midwest to do Bible studies. It is
:23:35. > :23:40.very, very funny. There is a lot you absolutely recognise. It is
:23:40. > :23:47.very tightly packed in. What did you make of it? I thought it was
:23:47. > :23:50.very clever. It is Sex in the City with Converse not Manolos, if The
:23:50. > :23:54.Strokes had made friends, that is what it is. She will become a huge
:23:54. > :23:58.hero for probably loads of women, women who wished they were still 24.
:23:58. > :24:02.I identified with her mother. The sort of intolerance of seeing these
:24:02. > :24:07.girls who actually, they want the authority of adulthood, but not the
:24:07. > :24:13.responsibility or the jobs to pay for it. The scene when the mum just
:24:13. > :24:18.loses it, and says "I want a fucking Lake House, she's playing
:24:18. > :24:22.you, she as an expert player", that is the moment I came in. Would you
:24:22. > :24:26.spend time in the company of the women? I would try to snog Marn irk,
:24:27. > :24:32.and crash and burn there. I would like to hang around with Hannah.
:24:32. > :24:35.Hannah for me transcended the genders. The others were more
:24:35. > :24:45.updated versions of Sex in the City, Hannah felt there were male traits
:24:45. > :24:47.
:24:47. > :24:51.there, she belonged to a linage with woody Alen. And Norah Ephron
:24:51. > :24:57.and Tina Fey. She was the breakthrough character, the one you
:24:57. > :25:05.could relate to, the awkwardness, ridiculous things. If you can
:25:05. > :25:15.relate to her mum. Hannah is Lena Dunham, whose series this is, this
:25:15. > :25:16.
:25:16. > :25:23.is her worrying about being really fat. Ra, rara. I think your stomach
:25:23. > :25:27.is funny. I don't want my stomach to be fun. Three or four pounds you
:25:27. > :25:31.can lose that. I don't lose it from my stomach, it is from my face.
:25:31. > :25:36.Have you tried a lot to lose weight. No I don't, because I have other
:25:36. > :25:40.concerns in my life, I apologise. It does push the envelope, doesn't
:25:40. > :25:46.it. One thing I found a bit lacking, there are no credible male
:25:46. > :25:50.character in there. You have the Emo boyfriend who is a bit odd
:25:50. > :25:58.caricature, there is the really sapy poi friend, there is a guy who
:25:58. > :26:01.won't sleep with virgins. The female characters have authenticity.
:26:01. > :26:06.She has had made it easy to like her ahead of everyone else in the
:26:06. > :26:11.programme. She's not an obvious role MoD. She's dumpy, she has bad
:26:11. > :26:15.tattoo, she doesn't dressle well, she hasn't got a job -- dress well,
:26:15. > :26:18.she hasn't got a job. There is abortion, rape, a lot of dark
:26:18. > :26:22.stuff? It is not just the dating world, is it, or the celebration of
:26:22. > :26:29.the female flesh, which I really liked. The thing about the men,
:26:29. > :26:32.which I think she has a serious point to make is the porn culture.
:26:32. > :26:38.It transcends the half boyfriend, who can't be bothered if she's
:26:38. > :26:41.there or not, unless they are having sex, and imposes his
:26:41. > :26:46.pornographic fantasies on her with no desire on her part. What worries
:26:46. > :26:51.about that, it will come in the future, I'm sure, her insecurities
:26:51. > :26:56.are allowing her to be manipulated. It is clever she's doing it now,
:26:56. > :27:02.you need a big fightback? She does need a big fightback, or have we
:27:02. > :27:08.come to the point where the freedom to have sex with you who you like,
:27:08. > :27:11.you ought to then. They seemed to be having free-wheeling sex all the
:27:11. > :27:15.time. There is probably a subliminal pressure on that
:27:15. > :27:19.generation of being offered a hook- up and having to take it. What do
:27:19. > :27:23.you feel about that, all the neurosis and the obsessions of the
:27:23. > :27:28.early 20s, the fact that the men are all crap, it might get better.
:27:28. > :27:31.In order for this to drive forward, it just can't be about sex? It will,
:27:31. > :27:35.there relationships will develop, they will get older, their work
:27:35. > :27:39.relationships will change. I think she is laying the seeds of
:27:39. > :27:44.something which, if she plays it right, and if she doesn't get too
:27:44. > :27:51.distracted from the multimillion pound book deals. She has a book
:27:51. > :27:57.deal of �3.25 million for her advice book. She has done something
:27:57. > :28:01.not dissimilar to when I launched Loaded, she sees what women are
:28:01. > :28:05.perceived to be about, and created a programme about what her friends
:28:05. > :28:09.are like. She has open the door of how a lot of women are. They are
:28:09. > :28:13.girls that go to work after spending a night to have sex. They
:28:13. > :28:16.haven't gone home to put expensive suits on and done themselves up.
:28:16. > :28:21.They are quite like women really are. What about the whole idea that
:28:21. > :28:26.it's going to have to develop and change and there's going to have to
:28:26. > :28:30.be big storylines, they can't be interns forever, is my point?
:28:30. > :28:33.don't think it needs big storylines. They live in a self-obsessed New
:28:34. > :28:37.York, Brooklyn frame of mind, it is the microstories that make up your
:28:37. > :28:42.life. You don't need the overarching plots. People like and
:28:42. > :28:45.can relate to the microstories and self-obsession, it will run this
:28:45. > :28:49.one. And the hierarchy of social network, it was face book, and then
:28:49. > :28:54.something else, oh my God you could speak to somebody, but that doesn't
:28:54. > :28:59.happen often? It feels to me more like a snapshot, has the urgency of
:28:59. > :29:05.a snapshot at the moment. I'm not sure that the characters the
:29:05. > :29:11.interrelations as an ensemble will work. She of right in the hierarchy,
:29:12. > :29:16.is it Facebook, tweet them, text them, and calling someone is a big
:29:16. > :29:20.deal. From sexually liberated Brooklyn to the conservative
:29:20. > :29:28.kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A country where cinema is officially banned.
:29:28. > :29:32.On several counts, a new film from a female Saudi director, a first
:29:32. > :29:39.full-length feature shot there. This is the deceptively simple tale
:29:39. > :29:44.of Wadjda, who want to buy a bike. Wadjda is the bright, bold ten-
:29:44. > :29:47.year-old schoolgirl at the sender of Haifaa Al-Mansour's film. Wadjda
:29:47. > :29:53.pits herself against the constraints of the conservative
:29:53. > :30:03.society in which she lives, and becomes a rebel force to be
:30:03. > :30:12.
:30:12. > :30:18.Wadjda forms a strong bond with a young boy in her neighbourhood, and
:30:19. > :30:22.watches him enjoy a level of freedom that she can only dream of.
:30:22. > :30:27.Abdullah rides a bicycle, an activity forbidden to young women
:30:27. > :30:37.and girls, for fear it will ruin their virtue. Owning a bike becomes
:30:37. > :31:02.
:31:02. > :31:06.the ultimate symbol of freedom for She observes her parents'
:31:06. > :31:13.relationship disintegrating, due to her mother's inability to bear her
:31:13. > :31:20.husband a son. Does the film's release mark a turning point for
:31:20. > :31:23.female artists in the Middle East, or is it an assault on Saudi
:31:23. > :31:29.Arabia's patriarchal society? Tim, were you absorbed by the story
:31:29. > :31:32.itself, or more the fact that what you were watching was an
:31:32. > :31:36.extraordinary feat any way? first half I was thinking, this is
:31:36. > :31:40.amazing, it has been shot and directed by a woman in a country
:31:40. > :31:44.where women can't drive or travel, people are flogged when they are
:31:44. > :31:47.rape victim, it is, ordinary this film has been shot there. It is a
:31:47. > :31:52.bit slow, yeah. But by the second half it had switched, and I thought
:31:53. > :31:59.this is a really lovely film. It is funny, it is witty. The girl jokes
:31:59. > :32:03.about, if I get to heaven will I get 70 bicycles instead of 70
:32:03. > :32:07.virgins. The parents are threatening to marry her if she
:32:07. > :32:10.doesn't behave. It stood alone for me as a good film. But set against
:32:10. > :32:14.the context of Saudi Arabia and what the director would have been
:32:14. > :32:20.up against, it was all the more special. James you have this
:32:20. > :32:25.wonderful character, Wadjda, who Yanar Mohammed herself tund up for
:32:25. > :32:30.the auditions in her -- turned up for the auditions in her Converse
:32:30. > :32:35.and she had attitude? I think you are being too polite, I think you
:32:35. > :32:38.are letting the fact that it is important for the women who made
:32:38. > :32:43.the film and politically that the first half is really dreery. It is
:32:43. > :32:47.not a 90-minute film, Anne is nodding, it was really dull. There
:32:47. > :32:51.were lots of long, lingering shots on stairwells and concrete things,
:32:51. > :32:56.when you get that out of the way, it is a really sweet film. I didn't
:32:56. > :33:01.know that some of the things you said about Saudi women, I didn't
:33:01. > :33:06.know they weren't allowed to drive. It needed editing, really. It is a
:33:06. > :33:10.40-minute play. The thing is, you can see films in Saudi Arabia, they
:33:10. > :33:13.will show this on television, so the message will get across.
:33:13. > :33:17.Saudi Arabia you can see films in secret film clubs at the moment.
:33:17. > :33:20.This has a number of releases around the world, and maybe on the
:33:20. > :33:24.television, and lots of people go to Bahrain to watch stuff for the
:33:24. > :33:27.weekend. Didn't you like the idea of the story unfolding, that you
:33:28. > :33:32.really got to know the wee girl and her mother and their circumstances?
:33:32. > :33:35.I would have started with the little boy chasing the girl around
:33:35. > :33:39.the street. How the relationships in the second half of the film
:33:39. > :33:44.become really full, and there is a deep meaningful message. The first
:33:44. > :33:51.half was a documentary, you are here is an amazing glimpse into the
:33:51. > :33:58.landscape and the bleakness, and the institutional misogyny of Saudi
:33:59. > :34:04.Arabia and the drama kits in. bicycle is the metaphor for free
:34:04. > :34:09.and everything, in the ironic conversation of before, when she
:34:09. > :34:14.falls off the bike her mother is, oh no, you have damaged your
:34:14. > :34:18.virginity, and these girls in New York are all about losing it. James
:34:18. > :34:22.is perfectly rise about the pacing ts an experience you want them to
:34:22. > :34:25.get on with it. When you think about the constraints to have the
:34:25. > :34:29.film made, it has a made for television feel. What she's
:34:29. > :34:33.pointing out, the one thing I had had forgotten I ever knew, that
:34:33. > :34:39.these girls are not only suffering, they are not only repress, they
:34:39. > :34:43.have spirit, they want to do things. We come up with the kind of wheezer.
:34:43. > :34:48.She's a hustler, she moves things around. That time when you were 10,
:34:48. > :34:52.11, 12, she thinks she knows how to get it, she will win the Koran
:34:53. > :35:01.contest. For me the film came to light, and the beauty of the Koran,
:35:01. > :35:06.that she has to learn to sing to win the money for the bike that
:35:06. > :35:09.she's not allowed to have, and it was the use of the Koran to impose
:35:09. > :35:13.these things on the women t gave the film heart. You talk about the
:35:13. > :35:17.fact that the first 40 minutes you think are so exorderry, the
:35:17. > :35:23.landscape we had never seen -- extraordinary, the landscape we had
:35:23. > :35:30.never seen. When you look at the performances, these are complete
:35:30. > :35:35.engenues, they might have seen a little bit of TV, you think of the
:35:35. > :35:39.Iran yeen balloon using children to make films a lot. She commanded the
:35:40. > :35:44.film, she commanded the film. actress, the young actress was
:35:44. > :35:51.extraordinary. She almost had a slight high school American
:35:51. > :35:57.attitude. Had her Converse been real Converse instead of fake
:35:57. > :36:02.Converse, you could see her in high school, evolving into one of the
:36:02. > :36:09.people in Girls. The fact is when she gets to puberty her life will
:36:09. > :36:13.shut down even more? Saudi Arabia is a bleak place, someone was
:36:13. > :36:19.beheaded there for sourcery, this is the first year women were
:36:19. > :36:23.allowed into the Olympic, women will be allowed to drive. The money
:36:23. > :36:29.for the film was given by one of the members of the Saudi Royal
:36:29. > :36:34.Family. It is opening up. Some of the stuff was surreal, budge
:36:34. > :36:37.together girls, don't let the devil through you, at school. I found
:36:37. > :36:42.that informative, I didn't know it was like that. It is often through
:36:42. > :36:47.culture change is made, it there a definite change, with the Olympic,
:36:47. > :36:53.driving next year, they are allowed to vote in municiple elections?
:36:53. > :36:56.have had the shock of their life, the extremism, and the Wahabyism,
:36:56. > :37:00.they are balanced between their role as the bank rollers of the
:37:00. > :37:03.Middle East, but also the place where they have embraced
:37:03. > :37:08.fundamentalism. This film has sneaked out into the gap. I don't
:37:08. > :37:12.think it can change Saudi Arabia overnight or any time soon, it is
:37:12. > :37:18.great contribution. Wadjda will be released in cinemas in the spring,
:37:18. > :37:23.put it in your diary. Finally this evening, to a new book from Booker
:37:23. > :37:26.Prize winner Roddy Doyle, which eavesdrops on two men putting the
:37:26. > :37:31.world to rights over a drink. Roddy Doyle is probably best known for
:37:31. > :37:35.his Boca that was turned into the smash hit film, The Commitments.
:37:35. > :37:39.you not get it, the Irish are the blacks of Europe, and Dubliners are
:37:39. > :37:46.the blacks of Ireland, and the north side Dubliners are the blacks
:37:46. > :37:51.of Dublin, so say it once, say it loud, "I'm black and I'm proud".
:37:51. > :37:56.has penned nine acclaimed novel, including the Booker Prize winner,
:37:56. > :38:01.Pady Clarke HaHaHa. In Two Pints he brings a series of two
:38:01. > :38:11.conversations of two men in a Dublin pub, and their musings on
:38:11. > :38:35.
:38:35. > :38:41.news stories between 2011 and Which desert? The fucking sandy one,
:38:41. > :38:45.ask fucking Peter O' Toole. James, did you get to read there
:38:45. > :38:50.through in a oneer. To read it all in one go is to spoil it. You do
:38:50. > :38:54.not want it all in one go. This is a one-a-day, it is really hard not
:38:54. > :38:59.to, you pick the momentum up, you start laughing. It is like reading
:38:59. > :39:03.a daily cartoon, it is three boxes of a cartoon strip. It is really
:39:03. > :39:07.funny, there is through the bottom of the glass view of the idiot
:39:07. > :39:11.philosopher. It is not a two-pint book, it is when you have drunk
:39:11. > :39:21.yourself back soberer, you spent all night talking rubbish and it
:39:21. > :39:24.
:39:24. > :39:29.starts to make sense. It goes from the end of the Celtic Tiger to
:39:29. > :39:36.MaeveBinchy's debt. Its about affording Magnums rather than
:39:36. > :39:41.Cornettos, and if you can't afford the Magnu it's over. If you are
:39:41. > :39:45.going to ration it or make cuts at the BBC, put a camera in a pub in
:39:45. > :39:49.Ireland and get the best context. How long would you be awake for?
:39:49. > :39:52.was thinking it was the half pint book, I was happy to sample a bit
:39:52. > :39:56.of it, and then I thought that's enough of that, thank you very much.
:39:56. > :40:00.He was shoe horning in any news story just to get a line out of it.
:40:00. > :40:03.He has a fantastic ear for dialogue, you could hear it there. It sounded
:40:03. > :40:07.like a draft of dialogue written for a much better work by the
:40:07. > :40:12.author. It is so good. You thought why are you wasting your time with
:40:12. > :40:17.this. It is like walking into a conversation. For men it is a
:40:17. > :40:19.perfect representation of a certain part of a fantastic night out.
:40:19. > :40:28.what end. A conversation you won't remember
:40:28. > :40:31.in the morning is the answer? Last of the Summer Wine meets
:40:31. > :40:37.trainspotting. In real life these guys are smarter and then they come
:40:37. > :40:42.over in this. That is the funny bit. They try to get a one-downmanship
:40:42. > :40:46.on what they know which is funnier? Did you believe them as characters?
:40:46. > :40:50.I didn't think they had had any life. They are real people. As
:40:50. > :40:53.someone who edits a lot of copy, you can read the ones where he has
:40:53. > :40:57.an ear for dialogue, some of them are real things he has heard. Other
:40:57. > :41:00.things are he has set himself the discipline to responding to a big
:41:01. > :41:07.news story every week, you can tell the ones where he has had to make
:41:07. > :41:13.the dialogue up. The humour is so acute. Whitney Houston's death,
:41:13. > :41:18.when his wife takes all the money out of the Credit Union to go to
:41:19. > :41:24.Whitney's funeral? And still there a fortnight later. The one with a
:41:24. > :41:30.storyline, he has made them up. The ones that come out of nowhere, when
:41:30. > :41:36.they decide who they are going to vote for in the euro elections,
:41:36. > :41:39.they won't vote for mart again McGuinness, because he won't --
:41:39. > :41:45.Martin McGuinness, because he won't exploit the money. There is all the
:41:45. > :41:51.Sinn Fein stuff. There is one gag about the grandson Damien, who gets
:41:51. > :41:55.weirder and weirder pets, magic realism off key. It worked best
:41:55. > :42:00.when it is really a satire about the way in pubs, people in pubs
:42:00. > :42:04.talk about world events, that was very, very good. The euro cry Isis,
:42:04. > :42:08.the way people talk -- crisis, the way people don't understand what is
:42:08. > :42:13.going on but discuss it in the pub. If it is a little thing like
:42:13. > :42:18.Damien's weird pets, who gives a toss. Do you? Find out, Two Pints
:42:18. > :42:23.is published next week. Thank you very much to my two guests tonight.
:42:23. > :42:27.Next Friday, as the US presidential election approaches I will be
:42:27. > :42:33.joinedly Lionel Shriver and others to review one of the greatest
:42:33. > :42:37.novels from one of America's chroniclers, Tom Wolfe, and look at
:42:37. > :42:40.an Obama documentary drawing huge audiences in the states. We're
:42:40. > :42:45.playing out tonight with our own music and what could be more apt
:42:45. > :42:47.for the theme of gender in tonight's show, than a classic clip
:42:47. > :42:52.from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is back in cinemas for
:42:52. > :43:02.Hallowe'en, from all of us, good night.
:43:02. > :43:12.
:43:12. > :43:19.# I'm just a sweet transvestite # From transsexual transvainia
:43:19. > :43:24.# I'm just a sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvenia
:43:25. > :43:34.# So come up to the lab # And see's what on the slab
:43:35. > :43:35.
:43:35. > :43:38.I see you shiver # With antica-pation # But maybe