Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Capturing the sound of dark matter, comets and distant planets is one of the toughest tasks a film composer can face. Matthew Sweet talks to composers Anna Meredith and Miguel Mera about the ways in which film composers have met the challenge. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this summer's Proms Plus events.
D.H. Lawrence hailed Herman Melville's novella, Billy Budd, a masterpiece when it was first published in 1924. Then, in 1951, came Britten's opera, adapted from the book. The writers Philip Hoare and Jamila Gavin join Rana Mitter to explore the book's themes of good and evil, justice and the law and the actor Peter Marinker will be on hand to illustrate their remarks with readings from the book. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this year's Proms Plus even...
From the very first days of silent film to the contemporary CGI blockbuster, music has always played a crucial role in cinema, guiding the audience throught the story, keeping their attention, fixing time and place. The film composer Debbie Wiseman and critic David Benedict discuss with Matthew Sweet the ways in which movie makers have created mood with music. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this year's Proms Plus events.
Benjamin Britten's compositions were inspired by the work of many poets and novelists, including Wilfred Owen, W.H. Auden, Blake, Shakespeare, Henry James and Thomas Mann. The actor Samuel West, who has narrated some of Britten's films, and writer Alexandra Harris explore the relationship between words and music. Presented by Ian McMillan and including readings by Malcolm Sinclair. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this year's Proms Plus events.
Rudolf Nureyev was one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century. His charisma and electrifying stage presence made him a superstar and he transformed the status and even the expected appearance of the male dancer. Twenty years after his death the former director of the Royal Ballet, Dame Monica Mason, who partnered him in Hamlet, and his biographer, Julie Kavanagh, celebrate his life and legacy with Samira Ahmed. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this y...
To mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Sylvia Plath and the publication of her novel, The Bell Jar, the writer, Lavinia Greenlaw and the critic, Sally Bayley, look back on the legacy of a remarkable poet with readings by Buffy Davis. Born in Boston in 1932 Plath moved to England to study at Cambridge where she met and married the poet Ted Hughes. Her first collection of poems, Colossus, was published here in 1960. In 1962 she wrote most of the poems which would form her best known collecti...
Robert Crawford and Fiona Stafford discuss how the Romantic movement linked Beethoven with the poetry of Scottish writers such as Burns, James Macpherson and Walter Scott. Presented by Susan Hitch. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this year's Proms Plus events.
Rana Mitter introduces an anthology of unexpected readings from the letters and autobiography of the English composer Michael Tippett. With guests Ivan Hewett and Oliver Soden. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this year's Proms Plus events.
The writers Simon Heffer and Andrew O'Hagan discuss the halcyon days of light music at the BBC and beyond with Matthew Sweet. With its jaunty melodies and cascading strings, they restore it to its proper place: the heart of British musical life. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this year's Proms Plus events.
In a special event John le Carré celebrates the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking Cold War espionage novel, The Spy who Came in from the Cold, the book which brought him international fame and which was described by Graham Greene as 'the best spy story I have ever read'. Anne McElvoy presents in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this year's Proms Plus events, with readings by John Shrapnel.
Wagner's stage directions are notorious: giant dragons; underwater singing; horses on stage; storms; destruction by raging fires. Designer Peter Mumford and Dr John Snelson of the ROH discuss the solutions available to 21st century artists and some famous 19th and 20th century stagings. Presented by Anne McElvoy and including readings by David Rintoul. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of this year's Proms Plus events.
What makes Falstaff, Prince Hal's fat, boastful and cowardly companion so irresistible to writers and composers? The character appears in several Shakespeare plays and in musical works by Verdi, Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Salieri. Samira Ahmed talks to Timothy West and Desmond Barrit about their experience of playing one of Shakespeare's greatest characters.
Polish is the third most spoken language in the UK, after English and Welsh, and the 2011 census found over half a million Poles living in Britain. But you don't need to speak Polish in order to embrace Polish culture, thanks to a current boom in translating Polish novels into English. Rana Mitter asks the Polish-born writers Eva Hoffman and A.M. Bakalar to provide a guide to the most exciting writing coming out of Poland today. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as p...
Rana Mitter talks to conductor and music blogger Kenneth Woods to bust some popular Mahler myths. Actor Nicholas Boulton reads extracts from his passionate and sometimes monstrous letters to Alma. The stormy angst-ridden man of popular perception had a very different side to him according to Kenneth and a rare audio recording provides a chance to hear a first-hand account of what he was like from a musician who actually worked under him. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of M...
In conversation with Anne McElvoy, Boris Johnson discusses leadership ambitions, what Cicero has to teach us about politics, and why a politician should sometimes dare to be dull. Sarah Frankcom tells Anne why she and Maxine Peake are reviving Shelley's poetic account of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. New Generation Thinker John Gallagher guides the listener on a romp through 16th century phrasebooks for travellers. And writer Tim Lott and critic Kate Muir discuss depictions of holidays gone wro...
Rana Mitter chairs a debate from the York Festival of Ideas on whether we can afford ethical business. The panel includes The Guardian's Lucy Siegle, Adrian Wooldridge of The Economist, founder of Ethical Superstore Andy Redfern and economist Virginie Perotin. As austerity bites into family finances and public services, cheap goods seem ever more attractive, even vital. But is there a price to pay in fairness, and to the environment? York has a long history of making ethical business ideals a re...
Philip Dodd is joined by the historian Tom Holland and the political scientist Salwa Ismail to try to make sense of the new Egyptian revolution unfolding in front of us. Actress Diana Quick reflects on playing Eva, a charming but controlling German-Jewish émigré in Richard Greenberg's play The American Plan. James Malpas reviews the new exhibition of Laura Knight's portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. And to discuss how to make our evolving cities more habitable, Philip is joined by Richa...
Matthew Sweet talks to award-winning director Jane Campion about her new TV drama series, Top of the Lake, set amidst the remote landscape of her native New Zealand. Clive James, Australian born poet and broadcaster, is best known for his irreverent TV chat shows and autobiographical memoirs. His output has been curtailed in recent years due to serious illness but he has just published a new translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. He explains why this project was so important and what he's learnt ...
BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas continues its summer of activity as it takes up residency at leading summer events across the country. Anne McElvoy chairs a debate from the Daily Mail Chalke Valley History festival to examine how the British have looked to their history to give them a sense of national identity, and explores whether a sense of belonging and citizenship can be found from our past. The guests include historians Michael Wood, Helen Castor and Tom Holland and th...
Philip Dodd discusses the Problem with Love with behavioural scientist Dylan Evans, television presenter Esther Rantzen, Costa Prize-winning author AL Kennedy and singer and writer Pat Kane. Is it bad for us? How does love alter our brains and our bodies? What impact will social media and changing gender relations have on the future of love? The edition is was recorded at the recent HowTheLightGetsIn philosophy and music festival as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking in the Summer.
Two new dystopian novels by the scientist Susan Greenfield and academic Martin Goodman give Matthew Sweet the chance to ask whether dystopias ever really go away, and even if they don't do they ever say anything constructive about the future? Henry Gee joins the discussion. Director Ben Wheatley's latest work A Field In England sits squarely in the middle of the honourable tradition in British cinema of horror films set in the country. Wheatley joins Matthew along with the writer Iain Sinclair t...
Rana Mitter talks to Washington insider Vali Nasr about his new book 'The Dispensable Nation - American Foreign Policy in Retreat.' The reputation of Alfred Russel Wallace, co-founder with Darwin of the Theory of Natural Selection, has now regained its former lustre. Rana and guests discuss why one of Victorian Britain's greatest scientists fell into obscurity. Ibrahim El-Salahi has a major retrospective at Tate Modern and exhibition curator, Salah Hassan explains the Sudanese artist's crucial r...
With Anne McElvoy, including an interview with the best-selling american novelist Claire Messud about her latest book The Woman Upstairs featuring a narrator consumed with anger. David Runciman, Michela Massimi and Matthew Taylor join Anne to examine the genesis of "Progress", the idea and the extent to which it remains persuasive, despite the setback of the 20th Century. Adam Mars Jones reviews a new biopic written and directed by David Mamet in which Al Pacino plays the music producer Phil Spe...
Rana Mitter chairs a Free Thinking debate from the annual 12-hour My Night With Philosophers festival at the Institut Français on the role of philosophy in public life, and asks what can the tools of philosophy offer the European political mindscape in the current climate?
Journalist and broadcaster Melanie Phillips discusses her autobiography Guardian Angel with Matthew Sweet and explains her dramatic transition from the darling of Britain's liberal left, to the Daily Mail's star columnist. Director Simon Godwin, theatre critic Susannah Clapp and TV writer Philip Martin discuss just how porous the theatrical "fourth wall" can be. And Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Jonathan Dee on his new novel A Thousand Pardons.
Philip Dodd and Susan Hitch review a new production of Benjamin Britten's Gloriana at the ROH. As a new academic journal of Porn Studies is announced Philip and guests discuss whether being morally neutral about pornography is possible or desirable. Sarah Peverley is one of this year's New Generation Thinkers and in her first Night Waves outing she considers the figure of King Arthur. A major exhibition of Lowry's urban landscapes has opened at Tate Britain. Curator T.J.Clark talks about how Low...
Anne McElvoy talks to David Edgar about his new play 'If Only' which focuses on The Coalition Government. Composer Orlando Gough tells us about his role in a one-off-art event celebrating the UK's long-silent foghorns in the north-east of England. Geographer Danny Dorling explains why he believes the predicted population explosion won't happen and even if it does, we might just cope, with Nick Bostrom in discussion. And Adam Broomberg discusses his works with Oliver Chanarin and why their concer...
Philip Dodd goes to the V&A to speak to Hari Kunzru about his new work, and discusses manipulation of memory, and our anxieties about forgetting, with the actor Edward Petherbridge, the historical novelist Lawrence Norfolk, and memory expert Professor Giuliana Mazzoni. The writer Val McDermid talks to Philip Dodd about the remarkable book, The Wasp Factory and its impact, and her friend and fellow writer Iain Banks. And historian, Rebecca Steinfeld, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, ...
BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas hits the road this summer as it takes up residency at leading summer events across the country. Rana Mitter chairs a debate from the York Festival of Ideas on the legacy of the War of the Roses with Helen Castor, Sandy Grant and Mark Ormrod reflecting on how the Wars of the Roses shaped the country from the 15th century right up to the present day. In the year that Richard III's remains were identified beneath a Leicester Car Park, why does th...
Matthew Sweet talks to Conor McPherson about his new play The Night Alive, working with his own material as writer and director, violence on stage and his muses. On the 700th anniversary of Boccaccio's birth, Matthew is joined by Massimo Riva, Guyda Armstrong and Lindsay Johns to discuss the relevance of the Florentine author today. David Kynaston has been 'Opening the Box' on the years 1957 - 59, the third in his series of books looking across the history of post-war Britain. But are we just to...
