The 71st Venice International Film Festival

Joining Claudia is theatre impresario, actor, singer, football chairman, fellow Radio 2 colleague and all-round good egg Bill Kenwright, he’s in to talk about the re-staging of “Evita”, his tours and the return of his hugely popular Radio 2 series “Bill Kenwright’s Golden Years”

Bill Kenwright’s Golden Years is back on Radio 2, Monday nights at 10pm from this Monday 8th September. And Evita opens on 22nd September with previews from 16th September at the newly refurbished Dominion Theatre.

1. Birdman

Director: Alejandro G Inarritu

Starring: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone

Michael Keaton has a Dark Knight of the soul in this career-defining, genre-defying superhero film

2. The Look of Silence

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

Joshua Oppenheimer's film about Indonesia’s mass murders of the Sixties is a shattering voyage into the jungle of human nature.

3. 99 Homes

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern, Noah Lomax.

Andrew Garfield leaves Spider-Man far behind in this timely, gut-twisting tale of the U.S. real estate crisis

4. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Director: Roy Andersson

Starring: Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom, Charlotta Larsson, Viktor Gyllenberg.

Roy Andersson's series of comic sketches may be untranslatable cinema, but Robbie thinks it's heaven!

Championed by the likes of Elton John and Trevor Nelson, Shaun Escoffery has been hailed as one of Britain's brightest talents when he arrived on the R&B scene in 2002. He went on to perform in a string of musicals including “Smokey Joe’s Café”, “Parade” and “The Lion King”. But he has just released his fourth album “In The Red Room” and his first single from that “Nature’s Call” went straight onto the Radio 2 Playlist.

Shaun Escoffery's album "In The Red Room" is out now.

Raj and Pablo from the BBC Asian Nework went to see the Dreamworks Blockbuster "The 100 Foot Journey" starring Dame Helen Mirren and Om Puri and they tell Claudia all about it.

Raj and Pablo and “The 100 Foot Journey” which is out now...And you can hear more from The Boys at the weekend on the BBC Asian Network Saturday and Sundays mornings from ten to one.

1) FICTION – “US” by David Nicholls

In his hugely popular novel One Day, David Nicholls explored the search for a soulmate through the long-drawn-out love affair between Em and Dex. Five years on, Nicholls is set to take on "the bond of marriage and the demands of parenthood" in his long-awaited new novel Us.

2) NON-FICTION – “GIN, GLORIOUS GIN (How Mother’s Ruin Became The Spirit of London)” by Olivia Williams

Gin Glorious Gin is a vibrant cultural history of London seen through the prism of its most iconic drink. Leading the reader through the underbelly of the Georgian city via the Gin Craze, detouring through the Empire (with a G&T in hand), to the emergence of cocktail bars in the West End, the story is brought right up to date with the resurgence of class in a glass - the Ginnaissance.
As gin has crossed paths with Londoners of all classes and professions over the past three hundred years

3) ALEX'S PICK – “The Most of Nora Ephron” by Nora Ephron with introduction by India Knight.

Nora Ephron's brilliantly funny writing paved the way for female wits like Lena Dunham and Tina Fey. Here is a comprehensive anthology of Nora Ephron' writings on journalism, feminism, and being a woman; on the importance of food (including of course her favourite recipes), and on the bittersweet reality of growing old. As well as many personal pieces from the writer who always sounded like your ideal BFF, this collection includes extracts from her bestselling novel Heartburn, written in the wake of her devastating divorce from Carl Bernstein, and from her hilarious screenplay for the movie When Harry Met Sally.