:00:09. > :00:14.Welcome to the climax of festival time in the city. Tonight we
:00:14. > :00:18.present dark stories, bright lights, Murakami on stage, new comedy, and
:00:18. > :00:23.live performance. Coming up on tonight's review, we
:00:23. > :00:31.see three of the best-selling shows of a record-breaking Fringe
:00:31. > :00:36.Festival. I meet the saw authorise, Sapphire, whose follow up to
:00:36. > :00:45.Precious The Kid was launched this weekent.
:00:45. > :00:49.Scenes, screens and silhouettes, a theatrical adaptation of Murakami's
:00:49. > :00:56.novel. Three hot tips for The 31st Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award.
:00:56. > :00:59.All that and live music from The Magnets, and more besides.
:00:59. > :01:03.Joining me, sadly, for the last time this year, in this lovely
:01:03. > :01:08.studio to discuss all of that, is panel that is still motoring after
:01:08. > :01:15.marathon around the shows. The writer and broadcaster, Paul Morley,
:01:15. > :01:20.the novelist, Denise Miner, and Marcel Theroux. First up this week,
:01:20. > :01:24.as the fringe reach as finale, we have selected three top shows.
:01:24. > :01:28.With more than 2,500 shows on the fringe, how do you decide what is
:01:29. > :01:36.good. This week we have gone by the box-office, which goes by word of
:01:36. > :01:41.mouth and the critic, we selected some of the big hitters. The
:01:41. > :01:48.Sputnik, has within one of the top - the Alvin Sputnik has been a top
:01:48. > :01:53.seller. The tale of a deep sea adventurer
:01:53. > :02:00.sailing around the world, has used imagery and puppetry, has been
:02:00. > :02:06.wowing Edinburgh audiences. An Instinct For Kindness is a
:02:06. > :02:10.poignant tale of loss, told from the point of view of actor, Chris
:02:10. > :02:15.Larner, who accompanied his wife to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland,
:02:15. > :02:18.where she ended her own life, after suffering from chronic and
:02:18. > :02:23.debilitating multiple sclerosis. This moving show deals with the
:02:23. > :02:29.myriad legislative and personal issues surrounding assisted suicide.
:02:29. > :02:39.Are you there Allyson. My foot is trapped. I'm going to fall, you're
:02:39. > :02:39.
:02:39. > :02:44.right Allyson, you're there. Good evening, welcome to the Tate,
:02:45. > :02:50.an evening of epic pupry, onen to of a table.
:02:50. > :02:57.The Table is a puppet show from Blind Summit Theatre. It was
:02:58. > :03:02.inspired by the writing of Samuel Beckett, Eve Klein, a show of three
:03:02. > :03:09.parts, from a grumbling puppet called Moses, and disembodied head,
:03:09. > :03:14.and the story of a fugutive told on payss of A4 paper. With a load of
:03:14. > :03:18.inspiring talent to choose from, and unadult traited rubbish to
:03:18. > :03:22.choose from, the fringe programme is daunting, made more confusing by
:03:22. > :03:31.the star ratings, these are a handful of the most talked about
:03:31. > :03:36.shows from the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe festival.
:03:36. > :03:40.Let's begin with Alvin Sputnik, in the small auditorium, there were
:03:40. > :03:45.children that were absolutely awe struck, were you? I found it really
:03:45. > :03:48.touching, I wanted to be cynical, but overall I thought it was a
:03:48. > :03:54.beautiful production. Part of the really naive illustrations he was
:03:54. > :03:58.doing on the laptop. And the puppetry as well. I'm not a big fan,
:03:58. > :04:03.but I thought it really worked. I would love to take children to see
:04:03. > :04:07.this. What about the story of a widowed man who goes off as a deep
:04:07. > :04:11.sea explorer, did it tug at your heartstrings? I didn't want to be
:04:11. > :04:16.cynical, but I ended up being cynical. That was annoying. It was
:04:16. > :04:21.reviewing it like a piece of food, it was too sweet. I was interested
:04:21. > :04:26.it became such a best Searle. It reminded me of the things back in
:04:26. > :04:34.the day of the 1960s or 1970s before the news, like Hector's
:04:34. > :04:38.House, or Captain Pug Wash, it was like a palate cleanser before the
:04:38. > :04:43.news. But for grown-ups I was confused. It was a cross
:04:43. > :04:47.generational thing, I wanted to take my kids to it. It was utterly
:04:47. > :04:50.charming. The whole auditorium was behind him. When I came out I sided
:04:51. > :04:56.with Paul, I thought maybe I prefer my puppetry with harder edge.
:04:56. > :05:03.of the great things I thought was he managed the puppetry, unlike
:05:03. > :05:06.other production, in an understated way. It was a very crafted show.
:05:06. > :05:12.Technically he was amazingly slick. He's so talented and the whole
:05:12. > :05:17.production was very smooth. Montreal Comedy Festival, you would
:05:17. > :05:22.have hard nosed comedy from America and the British comedy a way, and
:05:22. > :05:25.the popping of balloons would come from France and Spain, I'm worried
:05:25. > :05:31.it will move that way, which is interesting social logically, we
:05:31. > :05:34.are looking for the escapist humour, gentle. I'm looking for...It
:05:34. > :05:39.the whole message about the world warming up. Because he's flying
:05:39. > :05:43.around the world doing a show about global warming, that fled the cynic
:05:43. > :05:45.to me, he's flying from New York to Auckland to do the show about
:05:45. > :05:50.global warming. Other things started to happen which we see
:05:50. > :05:57.again and again, a few times this week we have seen a puppet do the
:05:58. > :06:03.moon walk. So you start seeing similar sorts of trop developing.
:06:03. > :06:09.That develops straight into the next one. There was moon walking on
:06:09. > :06:14.The Table. This was Blind Summit, about the whole mean ofing of
:06:14. > :06:19.existence. I thought it was a- the whole meaning of existence. I
:06:19. > :06:22.thought it was amazing The Table. When you see the guys with the
:06:22. > :06:27.cardboard head, you realise that make-believe, there is something
:06:27. > :06:35.very magical and child like about that. Also it carries a lot of
:06:35. > :06:40.insight about the body. A lot of it comes from how the body work, and
:06:40. > :06:44.revelations you wouldn't have had until you see a cardboard puppet
:06:44. > :06:48.moon walking. It was operated by three people, there was three guys
:06:48. > :06:52.making it work, I couldn't really get over that? I felt hollow at the
:06:52. > :06:56.end of it. It is a show of three parts. That part with the cardboard
:06:56. > :07:00.guy on the table is quite moving and quite insightful, at the end of
:07:00. > :07:09.it you just think you are very good at that. I found myself watching
:07:09. > :07:16.the faces of puppet tear, trying to look for some - puppeteers, trying
:07:16. > :07:22.to look for a connection. The first few minutes it is suspended into
:07:22. > :07:27.existence, it is like you imagine that is how we are trapped. Very
:07:27. > :07:31.quickly they themselves run out of material as comedians. The second
:07:31. > :07:36.part they lost all the credit, it goes Blue Man, and the clowning
:07:36. > :07:42.again. It is entertaining but it does remind me of the Spanish
:07:42. > :07:46.contribution to the Montreal comedy festival, it is popping a balloon
:07:46. > :07:51.and looking surprised. The third part blew you will the credits the
:07:51. > :07:58.first part developed. I was entertained by it. I like the way,
:07:58. > :08:04.it is an obscure art form, most of us know it from Punch and Judy, or
:08:04. > :08:07.childhood things. But they were talking about the Bunraku puppet,
:08:07. > :08:12.the show also becomes a lecture about the nature of that, how they
:08:12. > :08:18.are working it. It does call on you to suspend your disbelief. Yeah,
:08:18. > :08:22.especially since the guy is standing loud and talking away.
:08:22. > :08:25.calls on you to co-operate with the illusion. You might not be in the
:08:26. > :08:30.mood for co-operation. There was no illusion in the last one, An
:08:30. > :08:32.Instinct For Kindness, about Chris Larner's own experience of taking
:08:32. > :08:37.his ex-wife to Switzerland. This was nothing more than a chair. This
:08:37. > :08:42.was a straight, hard, difficult story for the audience. Did he pull
:08:42. > :08:47.it off? I thought it was brilliant. I kept wanting to be cynical, I
:08:47. > :08:51.kept feeling myself emotionally engaged, and then it would cut. The
:08:51. > :08:54.direction in this absolutely makes the show. Just as it is about to
:08:54. > :08:59.become saccarine, he goes into a different character. His
:08:59. > :09:04.performance was great, the writing was beautiful, really pragmatic.
:09:04. > :09:07.seemed to me he you can seeded in bringing Allyson back to - he
:09:07. > :09:11.succeeded in bringing Allyson back to life. Did you think her
:09:11. > :09:15.character was well drawn? It is essentially a mantleing a really
:09:15. > :09:19.tragic story. By the very nature - a man telling a really tragic story.
:09:20. > :09:23.By the nature of it, you come out thinking someone has told you a
:09:23. > :09:28.story, but you have lived it. It is a northern story, there is a lot of
:09:28. > :09:32.that going on, Manchester, York shirk you get a sense of that place,
:09:32. > :09:36.you get a sense of somebody being paralysed in life, and then making
:09:36. > :09:41.that enormous decision. I did think he did it wonderfully well. It is a
:09:41. > :09:46.tough one, it is a tough one, not least because clearly at the point
:09:46. > :09:51.where all the decisions were being made, and they are in Switzerland,
:09:51. > :09:57.and his son in his 20s, and he called and told her not to do it,
:09:57. > :10:01.and she didn't take the next call. He doesn't shrink from that. There
:10:01. > :10:06.is the impact of the son that doesn't want his mum to die. He
:10:07. > :10:13.managed to, even in that moment he manages to put humour in, he
:10:13. > :10:18.manages this clearly not much comedy in the tragedy. She decides
:10:18. > :10:22.not to floss her teeth. There is so many interesting observations,
:10:22. > :10:26.about someone's last night. doesn't need her dental hygiene
:10:26. > :10:30.today. Even as a member of the audience you are hoping she will
:10:30. > :10:34.some how not go. It is very true the idea when somebody commits
:10:34. > :10:41.suicide, I have personal experience of it, so it was moving for me, it
:10:41. > :10:45.is the last thing, the last meal, the last joke, the last book, it is
:10:45. > :10:50.beautifully told. You have all the legal stuff, and then they are on
:10:50. > :10:55.holiday, and they go out. enjoys herself. After being shut
:10:55. > :10:59.down in the house in York shirk she experiences Switzerland. It is
:10:59. > :11:02.interesting, it is funny. A lot of the other so-called comedians are
:11:02. > :11:06.not funny. They have ability, and talent, and they can move well and
:11:06. > :11:10.do this, that and the other, they lack this ability to tell a really
:11:10. > :11:14.great story. He has a great story. It is an amazing story. You want to
:11:14. > :11:19.know every detail. If you want to catch that the details are on the
:11:19. > :11:24.website. Precious, the film of the novel, Push by-election the
:11:24. > :11:28.renowned US author, Sapphire, was one of the shost shocking and
:11:28. > :11:33.talked about movies at the moment. A no holds barred of the abuse
:11:33. > :11:36.delivered on a young African girl in New York, the saga has continued
:11:36. > :11:41.and it is no less harrowing. It is 15 years since we were introduced
:11:41. > :11:47.to the character, Precious, who transgressed her upbringing to be
:11:47. > :11:50.something she never had, a loving mother. The story was turned into
:11:50. > :11:56.an Oscar-winning film, and now the author, Sapphire, continues the
:11:56. > :12:01.novel, with the new novel The Kid. It starts with the funeral of
:12:01. > :12:06.Precious, we know her son's life will never be the same. Snatched
:12:06. > :12:10.from his mother by the AIDS she contracted through her own father.
:12:10. > :12:19.She's passed through the foster home system, into the care of his
:12:19. > :12:24.great-grand mother as a teenager. Hate is my friend, hate killed God,
:12:24. > :12:30.hate killed revenge. My body was grown, swollen, I'm a whale with a
:12:30. > :12:35.rash, a rash that begins behind my knees, creeps up my thighs and into
:12:35. > :12:39.the creass where my arm breaks at the elbow and breaks into hives and
:12:39. > :12:44.boils and puss that smells like a dead rat trapped in a wall, and it
:12:45. > :12:50.feels like ants stinging when I sweat. What you create is a most
:12:50. > :12:55.hugely likeable child. He's full of love and wonder. And then you
:12:55. > :13:00.create this world for him where he's just completely at the mercy
:13:00. > :13:06.of others? I wanted to show the strength of a single mother, what
:13:06. > :13:09.she's able to create for him. That by the age of nine years old this
:13:09. > :13:14.kid has an almost magical existence, far different from what Precious
:13:14. > :13:19.had. She's broken the cycle of abuse. She's literally provided him
:13:19. > :13:24.with a family, that is her, and without her he is cast at the mercy
:13:25. > :13:30.of the state. But he falls into the hands of paedophile Catholic priest,
:13:30. > :13:34.in the most horrific way? As is happening as we speak. He begins to
:13:34. > :13:37.imitate the behaviour of his abusers who have power. We
:13:37. > :13:41.literally hear one of the Catholic brothers come to him and say show
:13:41. > :13:45.me some love, and begin to abuse him. A couple of pages later Abdul
:13:45. > :13:52.is creeping down the hall to a little child saying the same thing.
:13:52. > :13:56.Show me some love, I'm your father. He thinks that old slavery days his
:13:56. > :14:01.old grandmother is a piece of dirt. He's totally appalled by her, also
:14:01. > :14:07.by the past. But she is the first person to reach him, to
:14:07. > :14:13.breakthrough the layers and layers of denial and anger and hatred. And
:14:13. > :14:16.that is kind of the beginning of his regaining his humanity. Do you
:14:17. > :14:23.think young African-American men are completely disadvantaged?
:14:23. > :14:32.the people pan handling are African-American or Hispanic men,
:14:32. > :14:37.most of the homeless shelters are filled with this population. We can
:14:37. > :14:43.come back to a little bit of what is in The Kid, a disproportionate
:14:43. > :14:47.amount of children who end up homeless or in prison come out of
:14:47. > :14:52.foster care. Sapphire is such an amazing success with Push, then
:14:52. > :14:57.years later it was made into the film, Precious, do you think that
:14:57. > :15:01.success and because it was such an extraordinary film, has been a help
:15:01. > :15:06.or a hindrance moving on to the story of her son. I thought the
:15:06. > :15:11.success of the first book weighed on her and the film. Her writer's
:15:11. > :15:15.natural desire to write a called big book. There is the pressure of
:15:15. > :15:20.being a spokesperson, perceived as a spokesperson for an African-
:15:20. > :15:25.American community. In the end I wasn't sure what this book added to
:15:25. > :15:31.what I had read in Push. Push was a welterweight of a book, that was
:15:31. > :15:37.none the less, it was very moving, and it had sentimental moments too,
:15:37. > :15:42.this was dark and kind of relentless, and I'm not sure in the
:15:42. > :15:44.end what additional things it added. She opened it up with an
:15:44. > :15:48.extraordinary moment when you have this nine-year-old, fairly innocent,
:15:48. > :15:53.by the time he's 13, he's being corrupted and he corrupts others,
:15:53. > :15:56.and you still like him? You still like him, it is interesting. What
:15:56. > :16:01.she's trying to do is take fractured narratives of people,
:16:01. > :16:08.which haven't been heard. If you are taking a predatory paedophile
:16:08. > :16:11.that is being abused, and abusing, is a voice we haven't heard. In the
:16:11. > :16:17.book she's trying to show the redemption through dance t doesn't
:16:17. > :16:21.come through the proz. The book Coming Through Slaughter, does that
:16:21. > :16:25.with jazz, the prose demonstrates the form. That just felt like
:16:25. > :16:30.everybody was raping everybody all the way through. About two third of
:16:30. > :16:35.the way through I thought this is numbing, you just get to the point
:16:35. > :16:40.you are numb and you don't care.'S A smart child, there is dance, and
:16:40. > :16:43.his life is dreadful and he hears the beat and finds his way into the
:16:43. > :16:48.dance studios, there is dance teacher in the studio that takes
:16:48. > :16:51.him home and abuses him? flickering story of the redemption
:16:51. > :16:54.through art is there all the time, dark and drenched in abuse, there
:16:54. > :16:58.is always this flickering idea that he will recover himself through
:16:58. > :17:03.dance. Wherever he goes it is just as bad. I kind of thought it was
:17:03. > :17:08.interesting that she had to follow up what is a popular success, and
:17:08. > :17:13.she's deeply uncompromising, and it is like that in the book. It comes
:17:13. > :17:18.alive, she really means it. It is like this incredible story of a big
:17:18. > :17:22.black guy filtered through Dostoevsky, Dickens and Jena, in
:17:22. > :17:26.those moments it comes alive. The point is it is not necessarily
:17:26. > :17:32.about redemption. If there was a redemption and she took it further
:17:32. > :17:35.forward that wouldn't be true to the black story, the truth is it
:17:35. > :17:39.goes spinning backwards. She said this isn't just a story, a simple
:17:39. > :17:44.story, this is the story of many. We have had the paedophile priests,
:17:44. > :17:48.the point is by the time he was 14, six feet tall, people didn't think
:17:48. > :17:52.he was young, he got completely lost in the system? It is hard to
:17:52. > :17:56.feel any sympathy with it. The thing about his mum, Precious,
:17:56. > :18:03.she's vulnerable, she expressed some vulnerability through the
:18:03. > :18:08.course of it, she cares for him. He's predatory, as Denise said.
:18:08. > :18:15.He's so vulnerable. I think he is. The point is, this is what he has
:18:15. > :18:19.been taught, this is how he survives, it is his language.
:18:19. > :18:25.Sheehy Kuwaits being black with sexuality, that is an outsider's
:18:25. > :18:29.point of view, he doesn't seem to have any interactions that aren't
:18:29. > :18:34.sexual. There are barely any interactions in the book that
:18:34. > :18:37.aren't sexual, they are to the point of absurdity. Next time
:18:37. > :18:42.someone sodomised, you think is anyone else going to do something
:18:42. > :18:48.different in the book. The idea of what she's doing, as well, as you
:18:48. > :18:51.say, fractured narratives, but also the pat wa, the different stories,
:18:52. > :19:00.is there too much going on in the book, in the way she's navigating
:19:00. > :19:03.his story? I think so. I think that she is, she uses monolougue a lot.
:19:03. > :19:08.There is dreams and nightmares? Then there is another Monday logue,
:19:08. > :19:13.then slavery days. She tells an amazing story, the old grandmother
:19:13. > :19:18.of coming to New York and ending up working in a brothel. It feels like
:19:18. > :19:21.a short story that is found its way into this novel and we have lost
:19:21. > :19:25.the central narrative. In the end the ability to get inside this
:19:25. > :19:29.character, the ability to express the speed of thought is in the end
:19:29. > :19:34.quite transcendant, that might be the message itself. If you can face
:19:34. > :19:37.the trauma for yourself, I think it is well worth it, The Kid was
:19:37. > :19:42.released across the UK this week. You can see the full interview with
:19:42. > :19:46.Sapphire on the website. One of the cultural dividends of devolution
:19:46. > :19:49.was National Theatre, first came the National Theatre of Scotland,
:19:49. > :19:56.then the National Theatre of Wales was formed. Both companies are
:19:56. > :20:00.performing at the Edinburgh Festival this year. So far we have
:20:00. > :20:03.had theatre from Australia, China and Korea, now closer to home. The
:20:03. > :20:07.National Theatre of Scotland and Wales, both have several
:20:07. > :20:16.productions here. We are raising the curtain on two of them. The
:20:16. > :20:24.National Theatre of Scotland, the Prudencia, it is a folk balance
:20:24. > :20:33.land, academic, who despairs at her colleague's postmodern approach to
:20:33. > :20:43.folklore. Working-class folklore is X Factor, it is being on YouTube,
:20:43. > :20:44.
:20:44. > :20:50.it is less Tamsin and more SuBo. was Greig's passion, he felt almost
:20:50. > :20:56.overlooked as a pocket of Scottish literature a slightly unfashionable
:20:56. > :21:00.man. Sometimes seen as twee, we thought they weren't that at all,
:21:00. > :21:04.they are incredibly gutsy, and they have fantastic stories of death and
:21:04. > :21:10.love, with this wonderful supernatural element shot through
:21:10. > :21:16.lots of them. You can't just throw ideas together through intellectual
:21:16. > :21:20.fruit salads, I'm real, you're real and we're in hell Prudencia, not in
:21:20. > :21:25.a border ballad. I think the National Theatre is responsible
:21:25. > :21:30.about asking what stories we have in our DNA, how do we find way for
:21:30. > :21:35.those stories to carry forward into the future in way that is relevant,
:21:35. > :21:40.and not nostalgic, but can teach us about something in the future.
:21:40. > :21:47.National Theatre in Wales is only going a year-and-a-half, and it is
:21:47. > :21:51.the first visit to time in Edinburgh.
:21:51. > :21:58.Gwyn Thomas is an extraordinary Welsh writer who very few people
:21:58. > :22:01.know about these days. He writes these really messy anarchic stories
:22:01. > :22:05.about the South Wales valleys with every cliche you would expect, but
:22:05. > :22:13.done in a completely outrageous way. They are cruel, these people who
:22:13. > :22:21.stand above us and kick our sorry lives into any shape that pleases.
:22:21. > :22:29.They beat me, they sucked me dry, so there will be no grand revenge
:22:29. > :22:38.on my behalf. Although I will do one thing. So small it is pathetic
:22:38. > :22:41.really, but...Say I'm not going to pay for any more coke. For us we
:22:41. > :22:44.wanted to, by instinct, make a piece that was a very universal
:22:44. > :22:48.piece, that was steeped in Wales, but actually an international piece
:22:48. > :22:52.of theatre, so the issues that Thomas is talking about are
:22:52. > :22:56.relevant, all over the world, not just to Wales, he's telling us,
:22:56. > :23:01.things are about humanity, particularly humanity in desperate
:23:01. > :23:11.moments and in desperate situations. With humour as well. Always with
:23:11. > :23:13.
:23:13. > :23:17.humour. Through humour. The Dark Philosophers, first of all,
:23:17. > :23:21.complex stage, Lodz of wardrobe, the Welsh valleys and the terraces,
:23:21. > :23:25.a huge amount of energy and a lot going on. Was it too many things
:23:25. > :23:28.happening at the same time? I think the staging in this is fabulous.
:23:29. > :23:32.The wardrobes represent the terraced houses, for me, I felt
:23:32. > :23:37.that the stories focused on the wrong parts of his writing. I don't
:23:37. > :23:42.know his writing, but the stories felt old and familiar, and there is
:23:42. > :23:51.abuse there, and people dying of poverty. It felt tired, and then
:23:51. > :23:54.there is a Parkinson's sequence. Michael Parkinson. Yes a bit where
:23:54. > :23:58.he comes on as Michael Parkinson, it was dated and made it feel not
:23:58. > :24:02.relevant to me. I didn't feel it worked that well. It was
:24:02. > :24:07.beautifully staged, with a lot of energy. I think it suffered from
:24:07. > :24:12.the fact that Gwyn Thomas is not, I'm not sure if I should feel bad
:24:12. > :24:21.for not having read his work. Welsh authors with a surname of Thomas,
:24:21. > :24:25.he's down the line a bit. It did suffer from what denies said. It is
:24:25. > :24:29.novellas, it is hard to find a centre. They tried to make him the
:24:29. > :24:39.centre and make it a play about his imagination and how he's endo
:24:39. > :24:41.
:24:41. > :24:44.youing these characters with life, they could have pushed it further.
:24:44. > :24:50.It is a shame, the next one, Prudencia, it would have been nice
:24:50. > :24:55.to see Thomas being treated like that. The Michael Parkinson scenes
:24:55. > :25:02.hint at how nice it would be to make him alive. The point was to
:25:02. > :25:05.make him one of the great Thomass, like Dylant pushed him out by being
:25:05. > :25:09.so grotesque, because at the heart of it there was something
:25:09. > :25:19.tremendous going on. It was hard to fathom, because it was so full of
:25:19. > :25:19.
:25:19. > :25:23.beserkness. Let's talk about Prudencia Hart we
:25:23. > :25:28.are sitting Round Tables with whiskey, sitting like you would on
:25:28. > :25:31.a Saturday night, it was a magical lock-in, were you transported?
:25:31. > :25:35.thought it was fabulous. When the Scottish National Theatre get it
:25:35. > :25:39.right they get it so right. They wrong footed the audience by not
:25:39. > :25:46.putting the lights down. It is people telling you a store, it is
:25:46. > :25:52.all in mime. That made - a story, it is all in mime. That made it
:25:52. > :25:58.amazing you conson trait. The action scenes are great. Did you
:25:58. > :26:04.like Prudencia, she was very earnest. She's the academic. Some
:26:04. > :26:09.extraordinary thing. The fact it is set in a post, post-structuralist
:26:09. > :26:12.seminar is a great thing. I thought I was hallucinating, The Idea of
:26:12. > :26:16.Perfection you have a piece about almost the source of popular music
:26:16. > :26:21.n way, going back to the 13th century and the Scottish ballads
:26:21. > :26:27.which you can take through to where it eventually ends up, Kylie
:26:27. > :26:32.Minogue Cannot Get You Out Of My Head, I have written a book about
:26:32. > :26:36.that, and I could write another book. It is extraordinary with the
:26:36. > :26:39.borders to taking music so seriously and people who take it as
:26:39. > :26:45.simply fun, and managing to tell that story really well in the
:26:45. > :26:51.middle of a seminar. You are in Kelso, and the devil is out in the
:26:51. > :26:54.night. The idea of heaven and hell, you think that Prudencia ends up in
:26:54. > :27:00.a library, you would imagine it is her heaven but it turns out hell?
:27:00. > :27:06.She ends up in a ballad. A lot of it is rhymed. She ends up
:27:06. > :27:10.cataloguing the devil's collection of ballads, which, it's funny, it
:27:10. > :27:15.is transporting and there is a great, it is a great twist that
:27:15. > :27:18.suddenly time passed so quickly, she finds herself...It Is very
:27:18. > :27:23.relaxed, extraordinary, the five characters just seem they are part
:27:23. > :27:26.of us, the way they mingle amongst us, sit back amongst us. You do get
:27:26. > :27:30.a sense particularly in the Highlands, that you would be in a
:27:30. > :27:34.lock-in, that would be crazy, and people quite drunk. Because it is
:27:34. > :27:39.about borders it about things in the imagination as well. It is not
:27:39. > :27:43.just geographical borders, it is borders about something and nothing.
:27:43. > :27:49.There was an uncompromising amount of joke about post structural. A
:27:49. > :27:53.14-year-old boy across from me with his head on the table, every time
:27:54. > :27:59.they made that joke he was down. He probably had too much whiskey.
:27:59. > :28:03.are really good books, the things about the borders of the
:28:03. > :28:07.imagination. It was in the Scottish accent. Did anyone find the romance
:28:07. > :28:12.between Prudencia and the devil moving. I thought it was serving,
:28:12. > :28:17.what you have is the trapped soul, he was the trapped person, he was
:28:17. > :28:22.trying to trap everybody else with him. There is something in the book,
:28:22. > :28:26.in the end she sings Kylie and back out in the pub, it is as if time
:28:26. > :28:31.hasn't move. In the end, in this great book, you have, she is the
:28:31. > :28:36.one with the smoke coming out her eyes, and the red eyes, actually
:28:36. > :28:43.she's death isn't it. That didn't come out really particularly in it.
:28:43. > :28:49.Did you read it? I didn't get that. Now it's a downbeat ending.
:28:49. > :28:55.have to go see it. She's not maybe death, she has smoke coming out of
:28:55. > :29:01.her eyes. Both those plays are part of the National Theatre of Wales
:29:01. > :29:11.and Scotland's repetoir. Now before Murakami, we have the first musical
:29:11. > :29:13.
:29:13. > :29:16.break. The singers who sound, like # Well woman and children
:29:17. > :29:20.# There's not man in the life I know
:29:20. > :29:23.# I've been called the minstrel # Take back what you said
:29:23. > :29:27.# Little girl # While you're at it
:29:27. > :29:37.# Take your sound back too # I'm tired of sitting around
:29:37. > :29:49.
:29:49. > :29:53.# I'm thinking about the door bell # When you gonna ring it
:29:53. > :29:58.# I'm thinking about the door bell # When you gonna ring it
:29:58. > :30:03.# I'm thinking about the door bell # When you gonna ring it
:30:03. > :30:12.# I'm thinking about the door bell # Oh well
:30:12. > :30:22.# Oh # You don't seem to come around
:30:22. > :30:30.
:30:30. > :30:40.# You don't make a sound # Oh
:30:40. > :30:55.
:30:55. > :31:01.# Make a sound and make you feel # Nobody caught me waiting
:31:01. > :31:05.# I'm coming to to you # You strike me to try to be kind
:31:05. > :31:09.# But you are so true # Then again I know you feel good
:31:09. > :31:15.# You tell me you want me again # I don't need any of your pity
:31:15. > :31:19.# I can depend on my own friend # I'm thinking about my door bell
:31:19. > :31:24.# When they gonna ring it # I'm thinking about my door bell
:31:24. > :31:29.# When they gonna ring it # I'm thinking about my door bell
:31:29. > :31:39.# When they go gonna ring it # When they gonna ring it
:31:39. > :31:47.
:31:47. > :31:50.# I'm thinking about my door bell If you find yourself attracted to
:31:50. > :31:53.The Magnets, they will be performing at the Assembly George
:31:53. > :32:01.Square until Monday. Haruki Murakami is a cult writer, who also
:32:01. > :32:04.manages to be a best seller, it is not too grand wois statement to say
:32:04. > :32:09.he revolutionised Japanese literature.
:32:09. > :32:17.He set about transforming his book to the theatre. We went to see the
:32:17. > :32:25.results of eight long years of work on the drama. This week Edinburgh
:32:25. > :32:33.hosts the debut of the adaptation of the novel by Hurst hur. It is a
:32:33. > :32:37.spectacle that tries to get to the heart Haruki Murakami, it tries to
:32:37. > :32:42.get to the heart of the human kin decision. It is the story of a man
:32:42. > :32:47.who falls into a state of confusion following the disappearance of his
:32:47. > :32:52.wife and cat. As he struggles with loss and loneliness, he is
:32:52. > :33:00.contacted by a string of callers, including caller who knows intimate
:33:00. > :33:04.details of his wife. His wife's brother a sadistic politician, and
:33:04. > :33:07.May a schoolgirl who confronts him with his inadequacies. I'm the only
:33:07. > :33:11.one in in the world who knows you are down there. You have no boss,
:33:11. > :33:15.no wife, all you have is me. All I have to do is walk away and you
:33:15. > :33:20.will die. You want to kill me. want you to suffer, in a cold dark
:33:20. > :33:26.place, completely alone, where no- one cares whether or not you are
:33:26. > :33:30.alive. The quest to reconnect with his wife and tept her home from her
:33:31. > :33:34.mysterious exile, is an examination of how much any of us knows about
:33:34. > :33:40.those closest to us, and the loneliness of a contemporary city.
:33:40. > :33:44.As well as being a portrait of a marriage in crisis, and part
:33:44. > :33:47.Chandleresque detective story, the play explores wider issues,
:33:47. > :33:51.reflecting Japan's war time horrors, and questions its place in the
:33:51. > :33:58.world today. This notion that the Japanese should apologise for
:33:58. > :34:08.simply being human has led to what I call the emmass laigs of a nation.
:34:08. > :34:10.
:34:10. > :34:14.- Emmass cull laigs of a nation. - the story is told through film,
:34:14. > :34:19.dance and puppetry and live action. His style is all about the layers
:34:19. > :34:22.of reality and the way the genes are infused with the reality. I
:34:22. > :34:32.wanted to use the different elements to support that idea,
:34:32. > :34:33.
:34:33. > :34:38.whether film or puppetry. That was our big story with the piece is how
:34:38. > :34:43.to break down the layers and represent them with theatrical
:34:43. > :34:48.elements. Seven years in the making, it is distilled into two hours of
:34:48. > :34:52.action. Did the theatrical treatment of the search for the
:34:52. > :34:56.wife and the struggle within self strike a chord with at least our
:34:56. > :35:02.audience. Paul, did you feel you were taken into Okada's world? That
:35:02. > :35:05.he was trapped in his world? It is interesting, the book is so
:35:05. > :35:10.complicated, it is very interesting that manage to reduce it, it is
:35:10. > :35:14.like all the vegtables and reducing it to the stock cube, and thrown it
:35:14. > :35:17.in water and some how the flavour came across. It is impressive, I
:35:17. > :35:21.didn't think they could do it. All the things that are logical and
:35:21. > :35:28.strange about the book, that could fall apart on stage, don't fall
:35:28. > :35:33.apart. You are as engrossed with the performance as with the book. I
:35:33. > :35:37.loved that, as much as there is the middle distance the Chandleresque
:35:38. > :35:46.element, what came across more is this is exactly the way I would
:35:46. > :35:51.like to see a film version of Kafka and Philip Dick. We were talking
:35:51. > :35:54.about too many layers and too much stuff, in a way, did you not think
:35:54. > :35:59.this was incredibly elegant the way so many different things, the fish,
:35:59. > :36:03.maybe not the puppets, the screens? Even the puppets worked, I think. I
:36:03. > :36:08.haven't read the book, but I love Japanese horror movies, I thought
:36:08. > :36:12.it was very much like a Japanese horror movie, like The Ring, or
:36:12. > :36:16.Dark Waters, there is the recurring theme of water and the well,
:36:16. > :36:19.stagnation. Even the colour schemes are very like Japanese horror
:36:19. > :36:23.movies. I found it absolutely mesmerising, and all the different
:36:23. > :36:27.elements that could be too much are handled so lightly. There is dance,
:36:27. > :36:31.stuff you didn't see in the clips there. Extraordinary music there.
:36:31. > :36:36.When you call come into the theatre she's playing away elegantly and
:36:36. > :36:43.quietly, then she underpins the whole performance? I thought she
:36:43. > :36:48.was doing washing up, but she was refilling the Tibetan music bowl!
:36:48. > :36:52.The whole production is amazing, I have lost my cred dingss because I
:36:52. > :36:56.haven't read the book - credentials because I haven't read the book
:36:56. > :37:01.either, it was like a Roald Linaker thing, it is clearly an ambitious
:37:01. > :37:07.novel, it shows you can take an ambitious novel and stage it and
:37:07. > :37:12.have an experience clos to cinema with the visceral - close to cinema
:37:12. > :37:18.with a visceral interaction. etheral dress of his wife, which
:37:18. > :37:22.becomes her skin? It is such a creepy play. You are awestruck by
:37:23. > :37:25.how beautiful it is, but also slightly creeped out. I think it is
:37:25. > :37:31.the soundscape. At times it does seem like you are going to see a
:37:31. > :37:34.piece of music. And how I always hoped music would be in the 21st
:37:34. > :37:37.century, it would be illustrated so beautifully, and a performance
:37:38. > :37:40.being something else. It is a musical composition with
:37:40. > :37:45.extraordinary other stuff going on. One of the things I couldn't
:37:45. > :37:51.believe they were going to do, but they do, maybe by suggestions,
:37:51. > :37:56.elegantly, distilling, being down in the well. There are parts of the
:37:56. > :37:59.book sitting down at the well, I felt like that a few times in the
:37:59. > :38:02.festival. But it is done so elegantly on stage. You get the
:38:02. > :38:08.feeling that there is a point to why he's at the bottom of the well
:38:08. > :38:17.and how he's working himself out. It never fully adds up. There are
:38:17. > :38:23.teasing hints of different types, film noir. They should stick that
:38:23. > :38:28.puppetry on a poster. Maybe they will man puppetry. I love the
:38:28. > :38:32.puppetry. This is a lot of it. that whole thing about this staged
:38:32. > :38:37.popularly about all the things people project, yet at the heart of
:38:37. > :38:40.it is utter loneliness, that is a soundscape as well? Absolutely.
:38:40. > :38:45.That is the thing that everybody might not exist, obviously in the
:38:45. > :38:50.book and in this, the further it goes on, the further you don't know
:38:50. > :38:53.what reality is. I hesitate to use this vocabulary, people think it
:38:53. > :38:59.sounds awful, it is very provocative and evocative, it is
:38:59. > :39:04.very rich with meaning. Even though, to an extent, it is you could say
:39:04. > :39:11.the same about Prudencia, the shadlyland between reality and non-
:39:11. > :39:14.reality. It is - shadowland between reality and non-reality. It is done
:39:14. > :39:18.so well. You are puzzling it together, it is the detective work.
:39:18. > :39:22.It is also the audiences' mind, that makes it so compelling. You
:39:22. > :39:28.are not told. The audience was mesmerised when I was there. At the
:39:28. > :39:32.end it is almost like they have pieced it together, like a
:39:32. > :39:36.wonderful three dimensional jigsaw puzzle. It is the whole theme of
:39:36. > :39:40.the festival, looking east. Did you think it was like something you had
:39:40. > :39:45.ever seen before? It was, unlike anything I had seen in a theatre.
:39:45. > :39:49.The music gave it an integrity, and allowed it to explore, putting in
:39:49. > :39:53.things that seemed like it should have no place. The long monolougue
:39:53. > :39:57.about heing in the desert, and the tort - being in the desert and the
:39:57. > :40:03.torture, you are gripped, I don't know what it has to do with it.
:40:03. > :40:08.Theme mattically there is some link. - Thee mattically. There is some
:40:08. > :40:11.link. When people talk about the book, they use names, then at the
:40:11. > :40:17.end they think hang on, maybe it is original. You can describe what it
:40:17. > :40:25.does, how it does it, multimedia, screens, puppet, in the end it is
:40:25. > :40:29.original, it is an original piece of work. We are always in search of
:40:29. > :40:34.laughs, thousands of visitors cram into the venues.
:40:35. > :40:39.Up and down stairs that spring up all over the city. This week we
:40:39. > :40:49.went in search of the top performers, some use very strong
:40:49. > :40:57.language. It's not easy to stand on the
:40:57. > :41:01.stages of Edinburgh's famous comedy venues and make the audience laugh,
:41:01. > :41:08.but these fledgling comedy folk have been drawing more viewers than
:41:08. > :41:14.celebrity Big Brother. Dim knock Watson has been going it
:41:14. > :41:18.alone based on a daring raid by his grandfather in the Second World War.
:41:18. > :41:24.A day may come, if you are very lucky, when you have to kill a
:41:24. > :41:29.German, or an Italian, or like a Japanese or whatever. Right up
:41:29. > :41:34.close, but don't worry, it's locking mint.
:41:34. > :41:37.I have done five years as part of a three-man sketch show up here at
:41:37. > :41:42.the festival. And going from being responsible for about 20-minutes
:41:42. > :41:49.worth of talking in an hour, to an hour's worth of talking, has been
:41:49. > :41:52.pretty punishing. # Who that's staring through your
:41:52. > :41:54.window # Who's knocking on your door
:41:54. > :41:59.# That's me # That's Sam
:41:59. > :42:03.# I have been round here ten times before. Cariad Lloyd is becoming a
:42:03. > :42:06.free fringe hit, with her cast of quirky characters. I'm here as part
:42:06. > :42:10.of a Government scheme to help all of those people raised under
:42:10. > :42:14.Thatcher's national curriculum, just us. All the things you might
:42:14. > :42:20.have missed out on, liked aing up, and milk.
:42:20. > :42:25.Does anyone else watch Loose Women and think maybe we didn't deserve a
:42:25. > :42:34.vote. The second Penny Dreadful to be nominated is Mr Justice Tuckey,
:42:34. > :42:43.who has watched Disney's straight to DVD back catalogue so we don't
:42:43. > :42:45.have to. Cinderella 2: A Dream Comes True, is anybody else naive
:42:46. > :42:55.enough not to know that the dream came through in the locking first
:42:56. > :42:58.
:42:58. > :43:08.one. It is my first show, it is nice to have a nod. Loin King II,
:43:08. > :43:11.
:43:11. > :43:16.Lion King 1.5. If Lion King is Hamlet, it definitely is, Lion King
:43:16. > :43:23.3 is highbrow shit. If Edinburgh is the proving ground for new comedian,
:43:23. > :43:30.will this year's awards be the launch for Humphrey Cariad and Thom.
:43:30. > :43:37.Did you think Mr Justice Tuckey got a freedom from being away from -
:43:37. > :43:42.Thom Tuck Goes Straight To DVD get freedom from being away from the
:43:42. > :43:52.other two? You are intrigued by the back story of the guy, presented on
:43:52. > :43:53.
:43:53. > :44:03.stage. Watching 54 Disney straight to DVD films. There is funny things
:44:03. > :44:04.
:44:04. > :44:08.about someone pursuing a obsession. I couldn't remember or know any of
:44:08. > :44:14.the films. There is something specific about one of them, people
:44:14. > :44:18.were singing the songs about it? People singing songs from the
:44:19. > :44:24.Little Mermaid was disturbing. lot of guys. I felt slightly ever
:44:24. > :44:28.so much he wanted to find a subject and he found it. He was never going
:44:28. > :44:34.to get a girlfriend either? It is something he found, and it was a
:44:35. > :44:38.good idea, a good risk. He with all this clowning and miming, and
:44:38. > :44:41.finding the inner idiot, I have been hoping that people might be
:44:41. > :44:48.looking to find the inner genius w some of this stuff, at least there
:44:48. > :44:51.was some thinking. There was some wore play. Some sharp writing. That
:44:51. > :44:57.was encouraging. But on the other hand, I felt that what he should be
:44:57. > :45:07.is part of a comedy troupe, I think he would be really good with that
:45:07. > :45:07.
:45:07. > :45:13.guy Milos Karadaglic. I think they should - Car aid, I think they
:45:13. > :45:17.should get together. I think Humphrey has come off better than
:45:17. > :45:22.Thom Tuck. His grandfather's story, told in a different way, with all
:45:22. > :45:29.the characters, was very inventive? We mustn't make friends complete,
:45:29. > :45:34.there will be a big fight. With Thom Tuck I felt he should have
:45:34. > :45:39.been 15 years older, I didn't know any of the films. With Humphrey Ker
:45:40. > :45:43.I thought it was great. A lot of very funny stories and one-liners
:45:43. > :45:47.as well. The writing was amazing for that show, he sustained it for
:45:47. > :45:51.a whole hour, it never dropped in intensity. There were a number of
:45:51. > :45:58.just great things, that took you completely by surprise. The plot is
:45:58. > :46:02.too insane to even go into. Basically it is 1943, supposedly
:46:02. > :46:06.about his grandfather. Going to Romania. And along the way he meets
:46:06. > :46:12.the characters and turns himself into all the character, were you
:46:12. > :46:19.impressed? I felt the writing, again, I'm being nit-picky here, I
:46:19. > :46:26.will be, there is 21,300,000 performers here. He's very official
:46:26. > :46:30.and very good, he's Humphrey. I got the feeling that you could see him
:46:30. > :46:34.and Thomworked together, they have stylistic tricks there. In the end
:46:34. > :46:37.I felt that is a good piece of writing and you are reading it
:46:37. > :46:42.quite well. In the end I thought that is not good enough. I thought
:46:43. > :46:46.it was very filmic, and I thought it would be radio. Maybe you're
:46:46. > :46:53.write it was about the writing. There was a touch of Blackadder.
:46:53. > :46:59.There was a lot of Rik Mayal. was Armstrong and Miller pilot
:46:59. > :47:03.there is. It is good if you know the history of comedy. As the next
:47:04. > :47:08.person does. Let's go there with Cariad Lloyd. These guys have been
:47:08. > :47:13.around the block for ten years, she's here, Cariad Lloyd, at the
:47:14. > :47:18.free fringe, was it refreshing to see someone like her? One minute
:47:18. > :47:22.she's wrangling the queue getting them into the seats, and the next
:47:22. > :47:27.minute she's changing costume and performing, amazing. The characters
:47:27. > :47:31.are uneven. She says that herself? She do yes. But she has a great
:47:31. > :47:35.rapport and the Cockney character, they are very funny. She's really
:47:35. > :47:37.talented. She says some bits will be funnier than other, other
:47:37. > :47:43.characters will be better, undercutting you all the way.
:47:43. > :47:46.of the things about it, it is so ramshackle at the free festival,
:47:46. > :47:52.that is what is lovely, you feel like you're at the festival, it is
:47:53. > :47:56.ramshackle and posters on the wall. Some of it is really funny, really
:47:56. > :48:00.good characterers, the Parker rapper was fantastic. She does a
:48:00. > :48:03.wee boy Andrew, saw in the clip, which was really tender and gives
:48:03. > :48:07.you a history of the Russian revolution. But I could feel half
:48:07. > :48:13.the audience were really with her, and some of them were slipping away.
:48:14. > :48:17.Maybe not so enthusiastic, and hiding at the back a wee bit.
:48:17. > :48:20.she refreshingly ramshackle for you? I didn't think it was
:48:20. > :48:25.ramshackle, I thought here is someone who is a student of comedy.
:48:25. > :48:30.Because I was looking for someone to pull the inner genius out of
:48:30. > :48:34.themselves, instead of the inner idiot, I thought we have Tina Fey
:48:34. > :48:38.and Stanley Baxter, the flavour of the comment lost something
:48:38. > :48:41.overnight. When I woke up I thought maybe not that good. I thought she
:48:41. > :48:48.would be really good, and we will be paying an awful lot of money to
:48:48. > :48:53.pay for her. Is she Katherine Tate? She's better, a million miles
:48:53. > :49:03.better, not any cruelty, there is a generosity and love about her.
:49:03. > :49:08.do you think will win? I thought Humphrey. I thought that. If Cariad
:49:08. > :49:14.doesn't win I may weep! You may weep. Before we go the BBC arts
:49:15. > :49:19.editor, Will Gompertz, has been star gazing.
:49:19. > :49:22.It has been a hell of a festival. There has been more shows than ever.
:49:22. > :49:27.It certainly feels there has been more punters than ever. There has
:49:27. > :49:31.been quite a lot of rain. And there has been more stars than ever. I
:49:31. > :49:38.don't mean celebrity, I mean stars, like this. They are more common
:49:38. > :49:45.than a happy teenager with a fistful of A-grade GCSE, I have
:49:45. > :49:51.star blindness, with all the celestial overtrading. The currency
:49:51. > :49:55.has been downgraded in the hyperventilation of the review
:49:55. > :50:00.business. One to three stars is void, three stars is probably a bad
:50:00. > :50:05.show but the reviewer knows the performer, four stars worth a look,
:50:06. > :50:09.five stars is the reviewer had great time, you won't because it is
:50:09. > :50:15.soldout. We are left with a quagmire of four stars, how to make
:50:15. > :50:21.sense of it all. We will the Telegraph, Times and Guardian, all
:50:21. > :50:26.the brands and writers giving us star reviews, why do we need
:50:26. > :50:31.Broadway Baby, and hundreds of other on-line sites doing the same
:50:31. > :50:35.job, confusing the issue. Everyone seems to agree with each other, and
:50:35. > :50:42.there is no different relation. Because the papers can't get round
:50:42. > :50:46.all the shows, there is so many. Their stated goal is to get to as
:50:46. > :50:50.many shows as possible. In theory, all the programme. That is just one
:50:50. > :50:57.opinion. I think he should be able to read a range of opinions. Not
:50:57. > :51:01.just three weeks, but the Telegraph and Broadway Baby, and festival
:51:01. > :51:05.reviews, and make your own mind up. You could take the view that it
:51:05. > :51:10.goes back to the way Edinburgh use the to be, 20 years ago you very
:51:10. > :51:13.much - used to be, 20 years ago you very much had to plunge in. The
:51:13. > :51:18.wall-to-wall coverage of the websites didn't exist, there was
:51:18. > :51:21.the Scotsman and the national, it was easy to walk into a darkened
:51:21. > :51:26.venue and not know what to expect. That is the thrill. Given that
:51:26. > :51:31.everything is being levelled, it is a reintroduction of anarchy, you
:51:31. > :51:35.have to pay your money and take your choice. What I want is a
:51:35. > :51:40.critical standard. I accept, I'm sure that the websites are very
:51:40. > :51:47.good, it is brilliant they cover all the fringe, but it muddys the
:51:47. > :51:53.water. The problem is likely to get worse rather than better. What to
:51:53. > :51:57.do? There is always one five-star show, the Edinburgh military tatoo,
:51:57. > :52:04.and I understand there is a ticket left, for next year.
:52:04. > :52:09.You have been here two weeks, Paul, five stars, four stars, three stars,
:52:09. > :52:13.two stars, for the festival this year? I have spent my entire life
:52:13. > :52:18.ignoring stars, then the madness doesn't lie. The star system
:52:18. > :52:21.introduced any kind of reviewing, in 1993 by Q Magazine, that was the
:52:21. > :52:24.end of everything. It is not about that, it is about critical context
:52:24. > :52:29.and cultural context. It is not about fun or not fun, it is
:52:29. > :52:34.something more than that. Or else everything evens out. There is the
:52:34. > :52:37.joy of finding stuff for yourself? And having us tell you afterwards.
:52:37. > :52:41.A lot of performers are here, it is not really about the audience, it
:52:41. > :52:48.is about the other performance, it is a trade show. The five stars are
:52:48. > :52:57.significant, maybe they don't tell the audience. A system showing how
:52:57. > :53:01.many ukele s there are and puppets. There should be a separate festival
:53:01. > :53:05.for puppetry! That is just about it for another Edinburgh Festival.
:53:05. > :53:09.Thanks to my guests, Denise Mina, Paul Morley and Marcel Theroux. You
:53:09. > :53:14.can find out details about everything on tonight's show on the
:53:14. > :53:16.website. Send us your tweets, everyone is taken under careful
:53:17. > :53:21.consideration, almost everyone, well the odd one. We are taking a
:53:21. > :53:26.break for a few weeks to let our feet, heads and livers recover, I
:53:26. > :53:29.will be back on the 21st of September. In the meantime, for