In a week where the news has been filled with stories about a certain ‘strong woman’, Kate Chisholm has found another strong woman to write about. In this week’s radio column, she argues that the radio presenter Sue MacGregor managed to be the only female presenter on the Today programme without the need to deepen her voice or worry about power dressing or pussy-bow blouses. Like Thatcher however, MacGregor ‘has always done things her way’, and her radio programme The Reunion is a prime example of this. In this week’s episode, MacGregor unites five survivors of the King’s Cross fire; here’s a clip:
This week’s television review comes from James Delingpole, and in addition to Martin Durkin’s tribute to Margaret Thatcher, he’s also watched another tribute – this time one from A.N. Wilson on Josiah Wedgwood. Far from being ‘just’ a potter, he was ‘a revolutionary in the Thatcher mould’, announces Delingpole – because he gave the middle classes exactly what they wanted. The programme airs this evening at 9pm on BBC2, but here’s a preview of what to expect.
Wedgwood isn’t the only revolutionary to make our Arts pages this week. In our lead feature this week, Frederic Wake-Walker looks at how Opera is challenging its established boundaries and becoming harder to pigeonhole. As he puts it:
‘Young classical composers are just as likely to quote Beyoncé as they are Beethoven.’
His top pick for boundary-breaking opera – which Michael Tanner reviews here – is the Barbican’s Sunken Garden. Despite being two hours long with no interval, there’s ‘no chance whatever of being bored’; here’s a teaser the ENO released to try and drum up interest.
Finally on to film. Love Is All You Need is a Danish romantic comedy directed by the Oscar-winning director, Susanne Bier, starring Pierce Brosnan and ‘the Meryl Streep of Denmark’, Trine Dyrholm. The line-up sounds promising, but does it live up to expectations? Here’s what Deborah made of it – and the film trailer is below.
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