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Arts & Ideas

2019 Booker Prize, The Power of Ancient Artefacts

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2599 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2019

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Anne McElvoy talks prehistory with archaeologist Mike Pitts and artist Renee So plus critic Alex Clark gives her take on this year's Booker Prize winners - Bernadine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood, and director Tinuke Craig discusses putting Gorky on stage in a new version written by Mike Bartlett.

Ancient and Modern by Renee So is at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill until 12th January Digging up Britain: Ten discoveries, a million years of history by Mike Pitts is available now Vassa by Gorky in a new version by Mike Bartlett runs at the Almeida Theatre in London until November 23rd.

You can hear Booker prize winner Bernadine Evaristo talking about her depiction of 12 characters aged 12 to 93 in Girl, Woman, Other on the Free Thinking we broadcast back in May when the novel was published https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004s6n . You can find it in the Free Thinking Prose and Poetry playlist on the programme website.

Also in the New Thinking archive, which focuses on new research from UK universities, an episode called Neolithic Revelations: A lack of Neolithic dental floss proves to be a boon for archaeologists. Penny Bickle and Jim Leary share some surprising findings.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

0:23.3

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's

0:27.5

out of ice cream.

0:28.8

Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.

0:33.3

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:37.7

Thank you for downloading this Arts and Ideas podcast.

0:41.0

I'll be back shortly with Revolution's Old and New,

0:44.4

digging for a fresh take on archaeology,

0:46.9

and how many writers should win one Booker Prize, right after this.

0:52.0

Hello, I'm Donald McLeod,

0:54.0

and I want to tell you about the composer of the week podcast.

0:57.0

Each week I uncover the human stories behind the men and women who created our greatest classical music.

1:03.0

Did you know that Mozart once made an Austrian count so furious he actually booted the composer up the backside,

1:10.0

or that Chikovsky's family censored

1:12.2

his diaries to hide the fact that he was gay. Ever hear how J.S. Bach drew his sword on a belligerent

1:18.6

bassoonist. Discover new stories and great music every week by subscribing to Composer of the Week

1:25.1

wherever you get your podcasts.

1:30.1

We're re-appraising treasures from the past,

1:33.6

a new adaptation of Maxim Gorky's play, Vasagelsnovar,

1:37.7

directed by a newcomer to the Russian greats on stage, Tinuke Craig.

1:41.1

Some elements of another radical movement, the Bauhaus School,

1:46.1

reinterpreted through the eyes of artist René So, and the dramatic changes to our view of Britain's prehist prehist, Mike Pitts. But first, to some recent history.

...

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