:00:08. > :00:18.Tonight on the The Review Show, detectives, dancers, despots, death
:00:18. > :00:20.and destruction. Fear not, it's a fabulous way to start the weekend.
:00:20. > :00:30.Lars Von Trier's infamous comments at Cannes overshadowed his new film
:00:30. > :00:33.
:00:33. > :00:43.Melancholia, did it deserve more attention? Is evil. We didn't need
:00:43. > :00:47.
:00:47. > :00:51.to tpwreev for it. -- grieve for it. Bravura ballet on the stage at
:00:51. > :00:52.Sadler's Wells in the latest work from La La La Human Steps, but is
:00:52. > :00:55.there a concept behind the physical fireworks?
:00:55. > :00:57.Tariq Godard's new novel explores a religious uprising in Africa, does
:00:57. > :01:01.The Message show that timeliness is next to godliness?
:01:01. > :01:10.Philip Glenister is back on the BBC for the first time since hanging up
:01:10. > :01:16.his eighties car coat. Can Hidden bring him safely back to
:01:16. > :01:19.Earth? There's one problem, the woman's dead.
:01:19. > :01:29.MOBO Best Newcomer nominee Maverick Sabre plays us out, live in the
:01:29. > :01:32.
:01:32. > :01:34.Joining me here in Glasgow to mull over everything from choreography
:01:34. > :01:38.to calamity are: The writer and critic, Ekow Eshun.
:01:38. > :01:41.The playwright and librettist, Mark Ravenhill.
:01:41. > :01:45.The Daily Telegraph's Arts Editor, Sarah Crompton, and writer and
:01:45. > :01:51.historian Professor Amanda Vickery. Remember you can always add your
:01:51. > :01:54.thoughts to theirs on Twitter, we love it when they cascade in.
:01:54. > :01:57.First up tonight, the new movie from the arthouse's middle-aged
:01:57. > :01:58.enfant terrible, if that's not a contradiction in terms, Lars Von
:01:58. > :02:01.Trier. His seriously injudicious remarks
:02:01. > :02:04.about Hitler at the Cannes Film Festival rather overshadowed the
:02:04. > :02:13.premiere of his film, for which Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress.
:02:13. > :02:18.Opening here today, Melancholia is a vision of the end of the Earth.
:02:18. > :02:21.Lars von Trier Melancholia dives into the family Dee namics of two
:02:21. > :02:26.very different sisters played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte
:02:26. > :02:31.Gainsbourg. Split into two parts the film's first section follows
:02:31. > :02:35.Dunst dns as she navigates her way through her wedding reception and
:02:35. > :02:39.spirals downwards in the face of tension between her divorced
:02:40. > :02:47.parents played by John Hurt and Charlotte Rampling. I just have one
:02:47. > :02:52.thing to say, enjoy it while it lasts. I, myself, hate marriages.
:02:52. > :03:00.Gaby, please. Especially, when they involve some of my closest family
:03:00. > :03:05.members. The parents don't help the situation at the wedding. They are
:03:05. > :03:08.pretty horrible to her and, you know, she tries to rely on her
:03:08. > :03:16.father towards the end when things are falling apart. The first part
:03:16. > :03:22.of the film. He disappears. Yeah, I think, that Justine's parents are
:03:22. > :03:27.irresponsible. So, what can I say? Without talking about your mother
:03:27. > :03:33.was thrilled to do something in frobt front of the camera -- front
:03:33. > :03:38.of the camera for last. I said, why is it that you always ask me to do
:03:38. > :03:43.the voice. You never asked ask me to be in front of the cam rafplt he
:03:43. > :03:48.called my bluff and asked me to be in it and I said yes.
:03:48. > :03:52.Melancholia he reflects his own experience of depression on to the
:03:52. > :03:56.big screen as portrayed by Dunst. It's not something that sin
:03:56. > :04:02.mattically you see often because don't want to eat, they want to
:04:02. > :04:05.sleep. It's very difficult to do. Lars really made it cinematic.
:04:05. > :04:11.the wedding reception from hell isn't disastrous enough. In Act 2
:04:11. > :04:16.we witness the looming end of the world as the plants Melancholia
:04:16. > :04:19.continues on it's collision course with earth. Claire Claire, look at
:04:19. > :04:25.me, you have to trust the scientists. They say that it will
:04:25. > :04:29.hit - No, they don't. That's not true. Not the real scientists. Not
:04:29. > :04:32.the prophets of doom. They will write whatever they can to attract
:04:32. > :04:38.atenge of the the real scientists all of them agree Melancholia will
:04:38. > :04:43.pass in front of us. It will be the most beautiful sight ever. They
:04:43. > :04:48.contrast the mood of the two sister as Melancholia draws near. Claire's
:04:48. > :04:57.his steer steer ya and Justine's calm or welcome aacceptance of the
:04:57. > :05:06.end of the world. The earth is evil. We don't need to grieve for it.
:05:06. > :05:10.What? Nobody will miss it. So, Lars von Trier's stock and trade is a
:05:10. > :05:17.shock factor. This is all an altogether different mood. Did you
:05:17. > :05:23.think it was convincing? Well, I think everything turns on whether
:05:23. > :05:26.you can suspend your disbelief. For the fir haft half of the film when
:05:26. > :05:30.Melancholia is claiming Kirsten Dunst for it is own you are with it.
:05:30. > :05:33.When the planet depression is coming. In they are in a fairytale
:05:33. > :05:38.castle I was straining then to believe what was going on. By the
:05:38. > :05:43.start we start thinking, why is one sister French and why is one
:05:43. > :05:46.American? Why is nobody turning on the television? Once the doubts
:05:46. > :05:51.creep in, I think you are rather lost. He had lost you at that
:05:51. > :05:55.point? You weren't going with the whole idea this was - No, also you
:05:55. > :05:58.have to believe. I suppose to be convinced by it you have to agree
:05:58. > :06:05.with his ideological point of view, that life is hopeless. His own
:06:05. > :06:08.views are put into the voice of Kirsten Dunst. It's not a film for
:06:08. > :06:13.optimists. Only pessimistics are proved right. They seem the best
:06:13. > :06:23.prepared for the end of life. Life is evil. At the beginning it laid
:06:23. > :06:24.
:06:24. > :06:29.out in front of you a hyper real Sh re-rek meetsmelee at the start?
:06:29. > :06:34.wasn't quite spoiler, it wasn't trailers. He laid out the menu.
:06:34. > :06:38.They pair off during the film. There is that wit about Lars von
:06:38. > :06:41.Trier. He is trying to take you to the heart of depression. The
:06:41. > :06:45.keebgyness of the whole of the second half being about the world
:06:45. > :06:51.being consumed by a planet called Melancholia, there is a naughtiness
:06:51. > :06:58.and a wit about that that, I think, adds an extra dimension. Is it a
:06:58. > :07:02.real world? No, it's Lars von Trier land. It's a metaphorcle space.
:07:02. > :07:06.That metaphorical space encroachs until we are consumed by metaphor.
:07:06. > :07:11.You go with. It people related and total different accents. You go
:07:11. > :07:14.into his world. The whole idea and Ekow of exploring its own
:07:14. > :07:18.depression was done m one way in anti-Christ, it was done in a
:07:18. > :07:23.different way this time. Also, what Kirsten Dunst said was, she brought
:07:23. > :07:28.elements of her own depression to it. I thought that her - the way
:07:28. > :07:32.she handled the wedding sequence, where she was so up, was very, very
:07:32. > :07:38.beautifully done? I mean, I think it's bizarre and also beautiful
:07:38. > :07:44.film. It does - it plays by its own rules. It breaks a loft rules. It
:07:44. > :07:48.is an end to the world apocalyse movie, the reverse of most of those.
:07:48. > :07:52.Normally in an end of the world movie, the world is a beautiful
:07:52. > :07:55.place and people are good to each other. At the start you don't know
:07:55. > :07:59.the world with end. We know from the start that it will go very
:07:59. > :08:03.badly wrong wrong. We are introDawesed by Kirsten Dunst that
:08:03. > :08:08.the world is corrupt and evil and so on. The world isn't really evil.
:08:08. > :08:11.We see it through her eyes. Through this amazing first half, the
:08:11. > :08:15.wedding theme, we see all these people who should be joyious, we
:08:15. > :08:18.see them through her eyes. What we see is that they are quite flawed.
:08:18. > :08:24.They are quite corrupt in their own way. By the time that the world
:08:24. > :08:29.comes to end, at the end, it's almost a relief because we've seen
:08:30. > :08:33.this things aren't perfect. It's a traumatic end. We can go on to talk
:08:33. > :08:37.about a beautiful nend one way. What did you make the notion that
:08:37. > :08:42.Melancholia was a romantic view of depression in a way? I thought it
:08:42. > :08:47.was the most wonderful fillment. It con found your expectations. You
:08:47. > :08:52.never know what is going to happen. It starts as a social comedy with
:08:52. > :08:56.the terrible family it has symbolic images going on. It looks amazing.
:08:56. > :09:01.I felt the idea of Melancholia and the discussions about what role
:09:01. > :09:06.does rationalism have in the world was fascinating. You have, you know,
:09:06. > :09:10.you always do have in von Trier a scientists figure who believes
:09:10. > :09:14.everything will be all right. He introduces this element of doubt
:09:14. > :09:20.into it. The depressive is more prepared to cope with the ultimate
:09:20. > :09:24.reality. I thought - A relief? relief. You do think about those
:09:24. > :09:30.things. Well, for me, the planet couldn't have hit quick enough,
:09:30. > :09:33.honestly. Get it over with. Put everybody out of their miseryy. For
:09:33. > :09:40.the first half of the film I thought it enthralling. Not often
:09:40. > :09:47.you see an unblinking account of depression. Also - interesting you
:09:47. > :09:53.say that, I suppose a lot of films from the Viryin Suicides have dealt
:09:54. > :09:56.with depression not in such a seering way? They have soft focused
:09:57. > :10:00.and romanticised. Have you this plas Sid face of Kirsten Dunst she
:10:00. > :10:05.is slowly cracking. Everybody is getting angry with her and wants
:10:05. > :10:10.her to be happy. The way it pulls through. That wonderful change
:10:10. > :10:14.where Kirsten Dunst who becomes the person who is accepting of the end
:10:14. > :10:21.of the world, Charlotte Gainsbourg who is her tender sister, in an a
:10:21. > :10:25.most unexpected way, becomes more hisster lcle. It's made in two half
:10:25. > :10:28.that reverses the relationship between the two sisters. Gainsbourg
:10:28. > :10:32.seems to be the person who is coping and looking after her, she
:10:32. > :10:34.is not prepared for this event. Experience of depression that
:10:34. > :10:41.prepared the Kirsten Dunst character for that. What is great
:10:41. > :10:46.about this film, actually, movie by movie Lars von Trier is getting far
:10:46. > :10:54.more sympathetic to his female characters. More optimistic film
:10:54. > :11:00.for me. The women are right at the centre of his world. He has changed
:11:00. > :11:04.his attitude to women. Kirsten Dunst has rarely been better. You
:11:04. > :11:09.believe in them as women. It's rare to see two figure that is you do
:11:09. > :11:13.utterly believe in. What is interesting, in the point of Lars
:11:13. > :11:18.von Trier's career, maybe I made a mainstream American film, how awful
:11:19. > :11:23.would that be? In doing so he put these two women together
:11:23. > :11:30.beautifully? Again he has broken a set of rules here. We think of
:11:30. > :11:35.these films - there should be hysteria and Mela drama. It gets
:11:35. > :11:39.calmer and calmer and more naturalistic as it goes on. It
:11:39. > :11:45.becomes very calm, very sur rein and beautiful. I love this notion
:11:45. > :11:49.that you can face death and hor oor and look at it in the face.
:11:49. > :11:51.If a dream-like state is where you want to be, or maybe you are
:11:51. > :11:53.already, then Melancholia might fit your mood.
:11:53. > :11:55.The film was released nationwide today.
:11:55. > :11:58.Now, you'd have thought that melancholy might pervade a new
:11:59. > :12:02.dance piece based on the tragic operas Dido and Aeneas and Orpheus
:12:02. > :12:05.and Euridice. But with Montreal based La La La
:12:05. > :12:09.Human Steps you never know what to expect, except frenetic pace and
:12:09. > :12:12.the dancers' unbelievable fitness. One thing we definitely didn't
:12:12. > :12:18.expect was that the choreographer, Eduoard Lock, would lose his voice
:12:18. > :12:25.before we interviewed him, so listen carefully! So listen up. The
:12:25. > :12:28.human body can only be push sod far. But for the dancers in Edouard
:12:28. > :12:32.Lock's celebrated company, La La Human Steps that is further than
:12:32. > :12:40.most of us. Entering it's 30 year, the group has collaborated with
:12:40. > :12:46.some of the most stylishicons, from David Bowe. New work which opened
:12:46. > :12:55.this week at Sadler's Wells theatre was choreographed by the company's
:12:55. > :13:04.founder, Lock. The narrative itself is abstract. It's easy to imagine
:13:04. > :13:09.you are last remaining thoughts of Dido as she dies. There are sub
:13:09. > :13:13.text to these stories. You can assume there will be enough hooks
:13:13. > :13:15.in these stories to take away a personal point of view on the part
:13:16. > :13:21.of the person who created it and probably on the part of the people
:13:21. > :13:29.who are coming to see it. La La Human Steps different choreography
:13:29. > :13:39.has evolved since the day of itsmuse and their initial rise to
:13:39. > :13:40.
:13:40. > :13:47.fame in the 1980s from the punk pioneers. I work with the ballet,
:13:47. > :13:53.1997, so that idea of a flex and abstraction, in a way ballet fight
:13:53. > :13:56.it is because it's a set of lines and portions. You end up seeing and
:13:56. > :14:04.not seeing at the same time. Something I like. It's's hard to
:14:04. > :14:08.describe a style with words. I think that there is a flex to one
:14:08. > :14:18.in movement that's difficult to discuss or to define. Added to the
:14:18. > :14:24.
:14:24. > :14:28.mix is a new score by Gavin Bryars. Set designed. There is a very old
:14:28. > :14:32.concept to the idea of dance in theatre. You have essentially two
:14:32. > :14:36.groups of strangers that have never met. That will meet for a short
:14:36. > :14:40.period of time without officially meeting and without officially
:14:40. > :14:46.saying goodbye. During that period of time there is going to be an
:14:46. > :14:56.exchange of something. So can they bring fresh perspective to two of
:14:56. > :15:02.These stories, essentially tragic stories. Is it a counterpoint, the
:15:02. > :15:06.frenetic pace of the piece? thing about La La La Human Steps
:15:07. > :15:11.and this piece, the dance is an expressive medium. And this is not
:15:11. > :15:14.expressive at all. It has stripped out everything that is moving or
:15:14. > :15:19.interesting, or dramatic or emotional about the stories, and
:15:19. > :15:25.reduced it to a set of hyperkinetic movements. I used to love this
:15:25. > :15:28.company and now I think they fall into my general rule of a void
:15:28. > :15:35.Canadian contemporary dance. Because it is all about movement,
:15:35. > :15:45.it is not about dance. It is not about emotion, feeling or sought.
:15:45. > :15:46.
:15:46. > :15:56.His fetters isation... I think it has got stuck. He has got stuck. If
:15:56. > :15:57.
:15:57. > :16:01.we were all more fit, we could do the movements that we do. Amanda...
:16:01. > :16:07.It is three movements repeated for 85 minutes. I was quite reassured
:16:07. > :16:13.by that. When I was told what was on the bill was modern dance, for
:16:13. > :16:19.all I knew they were going to be naked. When they were running about
:16:19. > :16:25.on there. Shoes, I thought, this is within the grammar that I
:16:26. > :16:30.understand -- their point shoes. But apart from flicking and
:16:30. > :16:36.pirouetting, there were not any elongation saw anything that might
:16:36. > :16:40.have opened it out. As a spectacle, what did you make of it? I thought
:16:40. > :16:44.it was stunning for at least the first half. We could not see the
:16:44. > :16:49.way they into played with each other, and with the lights and the
:16:49. > :16:54.sound. You get the hyperkinetic movement under these very harsh
:16:54. > :16:58.spotlights, it suddenly becomes something else. You get an after
:16:58. > :17:03.image of a physical movements, they appear to be blaring, or flattering.
:17:03. > :17:07.The intensity of that, and the deconstructed nature of it...
:17:07. > :17:12.Didn't you want to see them, and just to stop for a moment, so you
:17:12. > :17:16.could have something different? They are wonderful dancers, dancers
:17:16. > :17:21.are great and they do what they are told, but it didn't have anything
:17:21. > :17:24.except the movement. I couldn't have done what they did with 1
:17:24. > :17:28.million years rehearsal, but I thought the compulsive, repetitive
:17:28. > :17:33.nature of what they were doing did have a real impact. What made the
:17:33. > :17:36.evening for me was the incredible score. Although I think the piece
:17:37. > :17:41.was too long, and the repetition and obsessive repetition was over-
:17:41. > :17:46.extended, the score kept on giving me a new angle. It was an
:17:46. > :17:50.incredibly eclectic score with the rock, jazz, minimalism. It had a
:17:50. > :17:55.real integrity and it wasn't just a scrapbook. That kept on refracting
:17:55. > :18:00.the experience of these same obsessive movements. In terms of
:18:00. > :18:05.feelings, I agree that they were focused on the rage of loss,
:18:05. > :18:10.whereas there wasn't much melancholy of loss. I thought the
:18:10. > :18:17.melancholy came in the images, the video projection of the mothers and
:18:17. > :18:24.daughters... That is a Freudian thing, I saw a youth and age. You
:18:24. > :18:29.saw mother and daughter. I saw what was going out and as you got older.
:18:29. > :18:32.-- what was going to happen. I have seen this as part of a work in
:18:32. > :18:38.progress, he is trying to work out a different form of physical
:18:38. > :18:47.grammar. He has been stuck in that for a long time. No concession to
:18:47. > :18:52.emotion. I disagree. The audience at one. Wanted to applaud
:18:52. > :18:56.spontaneously after a particular point, accompanied by the most
:18:56. > :19:01.emotional music. The other thing, there was a strange feeling of
:19:01. > :19:06.jeopardy all night. The physical contortions were so extreme. At one
:19:06. > :19:11.moment, the male dancer kind of slipped and seemed injured, and
:19:11. > :19:18.said sorry. It was the most skin tingling moment. I wondered if that
:19:18. > :19:23.was acted. Dance as a way of expressing emotion is what we think
:19:23. > :19:31.about, and we think about traditional ballet as narrative. He
:19:31. > :19:35.says it is not about narrative. You have to hang it on something.
:19:36. > :19:38.think he has gone up a blind alley. I think he has done really
:19:38. > :19:43.interesting work and it is very hard to keep renewing your ideas
:19:43. > :19:48.over 30 years. What he has got stuck with, the score was fantastic,
:19:48. > :19:53.full of rich things, yet his only response was essentially to repeat
:19:53. > :19:59.the same thing over and over. It wasn't interesting. He added bits
:19:59. > :20:01.around the edge like the bits of wood that kept coming up and down.
:20:01. > :20:06.I thought what was really interesting was that the dancers
:20:06. > :20:10.were almost entirely backlit, so it was about line and shape. And yet I
:20:10. > :20:15.got really strong senses of their personality. I wanted to see their
:20:15. > :20:20.faces, and I realised I was engaging with them, particularly
:20:20. > :20:24.the small figure scuttling around and kind of picking men, emerged as
:20:24. > :20:28.a real personality. It was about the ballerinas for me. The men were
:20:28. > :20:32.very much in the supporting role. It was emphasised by the fact that
:20:32. > :20:39.they were in suits, and the women were in black leotards. You can see
:20:39. > :20:43.why you might want to be the star for the night. The performances of
:20:43. > :20:48.La La La Human Steps, simply titled New Work, is one at Sadler's Wells
:20:48. > :20:52.until Sunday. In a moment we will discuss Philip
:20:52. > :20:58.Glenister's new drama. If you were imagine the underworld in which
:20:58. > :21:03.Orpheus found you're DG, you could do worse than the new novel, The
:21:03. > :21:08.Message. He has created a world that is a mixture of Apocalypse Now
:21:08. > :21:13.and Carry On Up the Kaaba, except set in Africa, obviously.
:21:13. > :21:23.The fictional acts -- African state of Shima is the setting for Tarik
:21:23. > :21:27.Goddard's novel, The Message. It is about the search for the Mahdi, a
:21:27. > :21:37.former warlord who has declared himself the leader of the Arab
:21:37. > :21:39.
:21:39. > :21:45.They search for the erratic and elusive Mahdi. I wanted to write a
:21:45. > :21:50.You look at what is happening in the world and what is happening at
:21:50. > :21:55.the time of writing, and what will still be true in two ears. In my
:21:55. > :21:59.book, that would be very generic, things like Africa will will still
:21:59. > :22:03.be a violent country. This is Stoddart's 5th novel and was
:22:04. > :22:10.written before the recent upheavals in the Arab world. Goddard takes a
:22:10. > :22:13.Africa on the brink of civil unrest and takes a thriller to look at the
:22:14. > :22:17.international reaction to the possibility, or threat of change.
:22:17. > :22:22.If you are writing as a journalist, just before the Arab Spring there
:22:22. > :22:26.was a massive piece in the Economist, and they predicted no
:22:26. > :22:29.change in a generation, just because they were looking at the
:22:29. > :22:33.facts. Imagination can make you appear ridiculous and as though you
:22:33. > :22:36.have not been paying proper attention to the world, but it
:22:36. > :22:40.liberates you to write what a delight, and you can anticipate and
:22:40. > :22:45.right from hope. I hoped that there would be changed in the developing
:22:45. > :22:49.world, or in North Africa. Might fall was precious and he had
:22:49. > :22:54.to get away from humans to understand it properly. -- night
:22:54. > :22:58.for was pressures. To search the strips of blackening cloud for
:22:58. > :23:02.clues of why he was chosen and others were not. Impatience was the
:23:02. > :23:05.essence of this particular night. The crack in the world was growing
:23:06. > :23:11.larger and in days, his men would be in the capital. In weeks,
:23:11. > :23:15.Tanzania, then Kenya, Africa, other continents. The culmination of a
:23:15. > :23:22.journey through his life into All Whites lay ahead. His enemies
:23:22. > :23:28.reduced to consenting be well don't. -- life into all lives. Can fiction
:23:28. > :23:32.compete with real life that has been almost too hard to imagine.
:23:32. > :23:37.His main aim is to make a political point, do you think that is the
:23:37. > :23:42.role of popular fiction? I think it should be one of the Rolls and he
:23:42. > :23:46.is trying to do this big picture think of looking at geopolitics,
:23:46. > :23:53.off contemporary imperialism, of the developing world, and Cram
:23:53. > :23:57.those in with a pulpy plot. It does not succeed because he can't quite
:23:57. > :24:00.decide where the balance should fall. The plot is schematic, the
:24:00. > :24:04.characters are sketched out rather than fleshed out, and they all
:24:04. > :24:09.speak with the same boys, they have a tendency to stand back and the
:24:09. > :24:13.loss of lies in his voice, not in their own voices. -- pick with the
:24:13. > :24:16.same voice. In terms of the idea of turning something around fast and
:24:16. > :24:20.responding to real events, and digging in and imagining what would
:24:20. > :24:25.happen, I like that idea. character who was most convincing
:24:25. > :24:28.for me was the Iranian intelligence officer character. He gives him an
:24:28. > :24:34.interior life and a conflict. thought what was interesting about
:24:34. > :24:42.that was one of the things the book questions is, is this a
:24:42. > :24:46.continuation of small African states, a playground, a walled
:24:46. > :24:49.ground between power blocs, or something fundamentally shifted now
:24:49. > :24:53.that a fundamentalist religion is being fed into that mix. I thought
:24:53. > :24:57.it was a fascinating question and that is why that character is
:24:57. > :25:02.richer, because it is a fresher question. It is the kind of plot of
:25:02. > :25:07.two power blocs being 100 years old, at 200 years old, and a lot of the
:25:07. > :25:11.rest of it feels a bit hackneyed. That was the freshest element of it
:25:11. > :25:17.for me. And relevant now. Although it was written two years ago and
:25:17. > :25:21.very much about Iran, look at what is going on today in Yemen. I quite
:25:21. > :25:25.agree that the Iranian experts going into it, having to cope with
:25:25. > :25:31.this younger, more bureaucratic zealots that he has to cope with...
:25:31. > :25:35.He has lived in London and he reads interesting fiction and different
:25:35. > :25:39.kinds of things. He turns out to be an unreliable narrator, but I think
:25:39. > :25:47.the character you are invited to identify with, but it seems as if
:25:47. > :25:54.the author rather eights, is this posh Surrey girls, who would rather
:25:54. > :25:58.be back in Surrey where it is raining, watching Ski Sunday.
:25:58. > :26:02.seemed a bit like a graphic novel without the pictures. It feels like
:26:02. > :26:07.a film script as well, you can imagine it in a different format. I
:26:07. > :26:13.quite like the novels of car-hire son and I thought, it reminds me of
:26:13. > :26:19.that. The idea of serious politics being treated in a mad, car to any
:26:20. > :26:23.way. The difference that is that he builds the characters. Goddard
:26:24. > :26:28.leaves them as cartoons, that is essentially the problem, so it is
:26:28. > :26:33.hard to engage with them as they go through the book. You get slightly
:26:34. > :26:38.irritated with them all. He is more interested in the idea of the
:26:38. > :26:42.characters, and I actually suspect that although he is drawn to the
:26:42. > :26:52.notion of fiction, I suspect he would be quite happy sitting back
:26:52. > :26:57.
:26:57. > :27:05.I thought the most cartoonish were some of the better moments. I
:27:05. > :27:08.thought he was trying to be a bit more weighty. The idea of the Mahdi
:27:09. > :27:11.figure, there were so many different things going on. The idea
:27:11. > :27:17.that there is this fanatical religious figure in the middle of
:27:17. > :27:24.it, I suppose that would play with... It wants to be Conrad. At
:27:24. > :27:28.the same time, there was an orientalist aspect which I was
:27:29. > :27:34.uncomfortable about. He said, he doesn't just want to see Africa as
:27:34. > :27:42.a place of violence, and then we have this strange... It is a place
:27:42. > :27:46.of violence. Cannibalising pygmies with blow darts. It is a definite
:27:46. > :27:50.generic African country that Biggles could have visited. There
:27:50. > :27:56.was a weird thing where the bag was opened by the pygmies and penis is
:27:56. > :28:02.and fingers dropped out. I wondered if that was deliberate. I think he
:28:02. > :28:07.got seduced by some of those ideas. It was partly parodic, partly pulpy,
:28:07. > :28:10.but he got into the pulpy element slightly too much and he lost touch
:28:10. > :28:15.of some of the politics he was trying to cover. He makes his own
:28:15. > :28:24.mission statement at the end of the book. But make sure hair curl. When
:28:24. > :28:28.he says about... 0 books, they are supposed to be against the malls of
:28:28. > :28:33.mass consumerism and mass culture, a thing, he is on the programme,
:28:34. > :28:37.right enough. Against -- I think. Against mass culture on the one
:28:38. > :28:42.hand and against the bureaucracy of academe on the other, and he is
:28:42. > :28:51.supposed to be finding his place for debate between the two. This is
:28:51. > :28:56.the place for the debate and The Message is in stores now.
:28:56. > :29:01.Ronan Bennett's new BBC One drama has no shortage of plot strands.
:29:01. > :29:06.Hidden is a new vehicle for one of TV's best-loved stars. Few
:29:06. > :29:11.characters are as imprinted on the national psyche as life on Mars's
:29:11. > :29:15.misanthropic detective, Gene Hunt. Now Philip Glenister, the actor who
:29:15. > :29:20.made the role his own, is starring in a new conspiracy thriller,
:29:20. > :29:30.Higdon, which has tended him back to BBC One for the first time since
:29:30. > :29:31.
:29:31. > :29:36.It was the writing and the story. I met Ronan Bennett. We met and had a
:29:36. > :29:43.drink and talked about. It it sounded very interesting. Very
:29:43. > :29:49.intriguing. Something very of its time, now. Harry Venn is a small
:29:49. > :29:55.time solicitor with a murky past much he comes face-to-face with his
:29:56. > :30:02.history when lawyer Gina Hawkes, played by Thekla Reuten asks for
:30:02. > :30:04.help in locating a witness. Drawn in by intrigue and money, Harry
:30:04. > :30:13.agrees hooked with the possibility of investigating the violent death
:30:13. > :30:20.of his brother 20 years before. saw Harry. There is one problem,
:30:20. > :30:26.Stevie, he's dead. He has been for 20 years much my dad IDed his body.
:30:26. > :30:31.I think the performances reflected is in the tiet until that thing of
:30:31. > :30:36.having a number of skeletons in your cupboard. As I say, through
:30:36. > :30:40.his journey we see points where we wonder, you know, what he's going
:30:40. > :30:45.to giveaway. What's going to be revealed. How he's going to cope
:30:45. > :30:50.with it. Set against a back drop of political scandal and corruption,
:30:50. > :30:56.with London's streets alive with familiar sites sights of riots and
:30:56. > :31:01.protests, Harry sinked deeper into a hidden conspiracy he can't begin
:31:01. > :31:07.to understand. Ronan Bennett whose writing credits include Public
:31:07. > :31:14.Enemies wrote the script with producer Walter Bernstein best-
:31:14. > :31:21.known for films such as Fail Safe. With the plots twists and dissolute
:31:21. > :31:26.her eowe be enough to grip viewers? Will Harry shoulder Gene Hunt aside
:31:26. > :31:34.in the public imagination? Actions have consequences. That's just the
:31:34. > :31:38.law of nature. I'll need to find out who killed Mark and why. Mark,
:31:38. > :31:43.Philip Glenister is in the hands of a well established brilliant writer.
:31:43. > :31:48.Does he relish the challenge in the portrayal? He's a generous actor.
:31:48. > :31:53.What a lot of people do is try and make the script more interesting
:31:53. > :31:57.because -- by doing quirky things. Glenister is neutral, almost bland
:31:57. > :32:02.in the part much he allows himself to be a vehicle for the 120y. It's
:32:03. > :32:06.a great story. We saw part one I'm going to tune in. There are all
:32:06. > :32:12.sorts of plot questions I want the answer to. At the beginning I
:32:12. > :32:16.thought, am I going to engage with this guy? He almost runs the risk
:32:16. > :32:19.of being bland. This a brave thing for the actor to do. I think he is
:32:19. > :32:22.brilliant. He gives it a force field in the middle. I really did
:32:22. > :32:28.love it. There are things about it that slightly annoy me, certainly
:32:28. > :32:33.at the start. It's sub Chandleresque and slightly knowing
:32:34. > :32:37.in that sense. Glenister has lines like, "I knew you were smart
:32:37. > :32:45.because you didn't drink the coffee" it take as good actor to
:32:45. > :32:50.pull those off. He does. As it went on that it was overcome -
:32:50. > :32:53.settled down. You start to be very interested. You said that, I
:32:53. > :32:58.enjoyed that because it's very knowing production. Knowing in the
:32:58. > :33:02.best way. In as much as it takes for granted that the audience will
:33:02. > :33:05.know a lot about the genre wants to get into it. It starts really fast.
:33:05. > :33:10.It starts with a flashback. You don't know where you are for the
:33:10. > :33:16.first ten minutes. It takes you along. It assumes that, because you
:33:16. > :33:21.- because we have been watching great dramas on TV over the last
:33:21. > :33:28.few years - Everybody is upping their game, the Wire State of Play
:33:28. > :33:33.and The Killing it will be on BBC One at 9.00pm where Spooks played
:33:33. > :33:36.well. It's challenging entertainment for the audience.
:33:36. > :33:45.agree about Glenister. The audience has come to love and trust him so
:33:45. > :33:51.much, even though he seems to be Gene Hunt on prosaic - Cocaine
:33:51. > :33:55.actually. It's Mel kol ya. He is slightly sedated through it. Ronan
:33:55. > :33:59.Bennett loves those flawed heroes? Doesn't he just. This is where I
:33:59. > :34:02.disagree with you. There is knowing we could say it's tired because I
:34:02. > :34:09.think everything that you would expect from the genre is absolutely
:34:09. > :34:15.there. You know, have you a rumbled hero, check. His marriage is on the
:34:15. > :34:19.rocks. Check. Disfaebted - all that LA gum shoe - The question is what
:34:19. > :34:23.you do with that though? That is exciting to me. That is the good
:34:23. > :34:29.frustrations of only seeing the first part. There is a massive
:34:29. > :34:36.conspiracy thing going on. Political. You know there's -
:34:36. > :34:41.think the women were fantastic. Glenister is a magnetic force field.
:34:41. > :34:43.Have you glamorous mysterious lawyer who comes in. His wife is
:34:44. > :34:51.not depicted as the traditional wife. They are divorced but they
:34:51. > :34:55.have a relationship that works. You know that she will be involved in
:34:55. > :35:00.the conspiracy. It had a richness that took me by surprised and
:35:00. > :35:04.undermined the ideaed that it would be genre. The idea of the under
:35:04. > :35:12.arching political story the riots as well. It didn't feel like it was
:35:12. > :35:16.shoe horned in anyway. It felt like we are dealing with a contemporary
:35:16. > :35:22.drama. The glitter drama of London and that world was fantastic. The
:35:22. > :35:25.flaw for me was that political strand. Those characters, the
:35:25. > :35:32.coalition government, which isn't quite the same. That felt a little
:35:32. > :35:36.bit more - It tried to be. Generic, in a bad way. A state of play
:35:36. > :35:41.really. What I think it doesn't do is it doesn't manage to break frame
:35:41. > :35:47.in the way that, say, The Killing did, that is what it will be judged
:35:47. > :35:50.against. We don't know yet. It takes its psych psychic energy from
:35:50. > :35:55.the crazy state of our real world at the moment. From the fact that,
:35:55. > :35:59.you know, we are living in a time of 13y. When politicians and
:35:59. > :36:04.governments are lying to us. We are living in a time of riots and
:36:04. > :36:09.uncertainty and economic downfall. All of that is going on in the
:36:09. > :36:13.background maybe explicitly or inexplicitly. They have taken all
:36:13. > :36:18.of those elements and formed them into sl something here. I don't
:36:18. > :36:23.think it's that heavy-handed. I think there is a lot - Very modern.
:36:23. > :36:31.It was using all the elements, tick, tick of a genre it felt like a
:36:31. > :36:36.breath of fresh air. Tkwhren glen - - Glenister really. It's unfolding,
:36:36. > :36:46.you have no - It's not helping you. Not helping you in anyway. You have
:36:46. > :36:47.
:36:47. > :36:54.to go with it. You know what happens, don't you? Yeah. I watched
:36:54. > :36:59.Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy the night before, I found this very easy to
:36:59. > :37:02.read. If you are ready to get your teeth
:37:02. > :37:04.into a fast paced piece of modern drama, Hidden will be on very
:37:04. > :37:08.public display at 9.00pm next Thursday on BBC One.
:37:08. > :37:10.In a moment, Maverick Sabre will be here to get you into the mood for
:37:10. > :37:13.Later with Jools Holland, which tonight features Kasabian and Wilko
:37:13. > :37:16.Johnson. But first, on Tuesday we heard of
:37:16. > :37:22.the loss of one of the BBC's great comedy legends, David Croft, and we
:37:22. > :37:29.couldn't finish tonight without a taste of what made him so famous.
:37:29. > :37:38.Any man who can't attend on Saturday, take one pace forward.
:37:38. > :37:48.Your name will also go on the list. What is it? Don't tell him Pike.
:37:48. > :37:51.
:37:51. > :37:59.Pike. I'm free. I'm afraid the whole occasion overcame us. One of
:37:59. > :38:02.my assistants who used to say that our material was self-cleaning
:38:02. > :38:08.pornography. We always clean it up in the end, if you listen long
:38:08. > :38:13.enough, it was in your mind, not in ours. Good morning. Good morning.
:38:13. > :38:23.One minute late. You're lucky to have me at all Captain Peacock, I
:38:23. > :38:29.had to sort my pussy out before I came! What is it Sergeant Major.
:38:29. > :38:38.Get your head down! You can rely on me, Sergeant Major. The only thing
:38:38. > :38:46.I can rely on you is to pounce about like an old tart. Hello,
:38:46. > :38:50.campers, Hi-de-Hi!. I just want you to know I'm not going to give up.
:38:50. > :39:00.I'll keep on trying. I'll be wearing that yellow coat one day,
:39:00. > :39:03.
:39:03. > :39:09.you'll see. Hi-de-Hi!. Ho-de-ho. seems so very long. What does?
:39:09. > :39:16.morning. Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once.
:39:16. > :39:21.# There's no business like... # I always try to send to the public
:39:21. > :39:31.away happy if I could. Where is that voice coming from? I dread to
:39:31. > :39:35.
:39:35. > :39:40.think, sir. Wonderful. Did he send you to bed
:39:40. > :39:48.happy? Those shows were part of my chooldhood. Mr Humphreys from Are
:39:48. > :39:51.You Being Served? Is the character I have aspired to be at various
:39:51. > :39:56.points of my life. The most enduring relationship is the
:39:56. > :40:03.captain relationship. What is fascinating about this, maybe urban
:40:03. > :40:07.legend, maybe truth, the cast was reversed. They realised that the da
:40:07. > :40:12.Natic was more interesting if it was reversed. That sustained that
:40:13. > :40:19.show for 20 years and is still being repeated today. The magic of
:40:19. > :40:23.it all lay in having the patrician Wilson being bossed around by the
:40:23. > :40:27.Sergeant Major type. The the most successful British comedies were
:40:27. > :40:30.about class and authority really that struggle. That is what we
:40:30. > :40:33.relate to. David Croft, the world will be a
:40:33. > :40:35.less funny place without him. That's it for tonight, thanks to my
:40:35. > :40:40.guests, Amanda Vickery, Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Crompton and Ekow
:40:40. > :40:43.Eshun. Remember, you can find out more
:40:43. > :40:45.details on all of tonight's items on our website, and can keep in
:40:45. > :40:53.touch on Twitter. It's amazing how much criticism,
:40:53. > :40:56.cultural or otherwise, you can fit in 140 characters.
:40:56. > :40:59.Next week, I'll be joined by guests including Ian Rankin and Olivia
:40:59. > :41:02.Williams to discuss Woody Allen's latest film, a brand new episode of
:41:02. > :41:04.The Comic Strip Presents and the Tate's new Gerhard Richter
:41:04. > :41:07.exhibition. Jools Holland is up next, but first
:41:07. > :41:11.joining us in the studio to play you into the weekend is Maverick
:41:11. > :41:15.Sabre with, I need. Good Night.
:41:15. > :41:20.# I need sunshine # I need angels
:41:20. > :41:23.# I need # Something good
:41:23. > :41:28.# Yeah, I need # Blue skies
:41:28. > :41:32.# I need them old times # I need
:41:32. > :41:36.# Something good # Yeah, something good
:41:36. > :41:44.# Something tkwood good # Yeah, something good
:41:44. > :41:50.# Oh oh oh oh # All these days seem so far away
:41:50. > :41:55.# And I went too far enough to wait # I've come
:41:55. > :41:59.# Way back then wh I hadn't seen # Half them things I never thought
:41:59. > :42:03.I'd see # Become someone I'd never thought
:42:03. > :42:07.I'd be$$NEWLINE# Oh oh oh oh # Cause there's something good
:42:07. > :42:12.# Yeah, I need sunshine # I need angels
:42:12. > :42:15.# I need # Something good
:42:15. > :42:20.# Yeah, I need # Blue skies
:42:20. > :42:24.# I need them old times # I need
:42:24. > :42:28.# Something good # Yeah, something good
:42:28. > :42:36.# Something good # Yeah, something good
:42:36. > :42:41.# Oh oh oh oh # All these days seem to fade away
:42:41. > :42:45.# As I lost faith in the myself # Questioned everything I stood for
:42:46. > :42:49.# No, in I ain't more left to look for in life
:42:49. > :42:52.# I began to lose all # Found it harder to cope
:42:52. > :42:59.# With everything around me # And them people that would doubt
:42:59. > :43:03.# Oh, I, I was in a place that I didn't wanna be
:43:03. > :43:10.# Seeing face after face I didn't wanna see
:43:10. > :43:14.# I, I, I didn't go out of my mind # Only God knows and all them girls
:43:14. > :43:17.that I used to see running around # Was like the rain this that I
:43:17. > :43:22.used to see pouring down # They did nothing for me
:43:22. > :43:28.# I need sunshine # I need angels
:43:28. > :43:37.# I need something good # Yeah, I need them blue skies