Night Waves - Boris Johnson

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2013

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 wrong in film.

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, it's 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
0:21.2	that it's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC sounds. This is a download
0:32.8	from the BBC. For more information and our terms of use, go to BBC.co.uk slash radio three.
0:40.6	Nightwaves brings you a warning from history tonight, as Boris Johnson tells me what ancient Roman and contemporary conservative politics have in common.
0:48.9	And director Sarah Frankham explains what connects Shelley's epic account of the Peteraloo Massacre to street revolts in Egypt today.
0:56.6	Our new generation thinker, John Gallagher, has been rootling in 16th century phrasebooks for travellers
1:02.1	and will be considering the miserable middle-class holiday movie from Rossellini's voyage to Italy to Joanna Hogg's archipelago and now Judy Delpy in before midnight.
1:12.3	The truth is, okay, you failed the test. And the fact is, you would not pick me up on a train.
1:17.7	You would not even notice me, a fat-ass middle-aged mom losing her hair.
1:21.2	Okay.
1:23.4	Yeah, that's me.
1:24.4	You set me up to fail.
1:27.1	More on the holiday wars later.
1:29.8	London's mayor Boris Johnson has an enviably eclectic reputation for a politician
1:34.1	as author, newspaper columnist and enthusiast for the ancient world.
1:39.2	In his second term at City Hall, he's published a book on London,
1:42.7	which praises another ambitious Johnson, Samuel,
1:45.9	along with Keith Richards and Churchill as some of his heroes.
1:49.5	Some gossips in the Tory ranks mischievously venture that the present Mr Johnson
1:54.0	might like the association with the other big names because he's got his eye on power in his own party one day.
2:00.4	To dig into that and the influence of
	...

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