Programme Details

No date has been fixed yet for the general election but in political circles there's talk of little else. Its timely then that this month sees the publication of - The Vote: How it was won and How it was undermined -- the last book by the late Paul Foot, one of the most distinguished campaigning journalists of the past forty years. This evening in Night Waves Paul Allen will be asking one of Paul Foot's closest friends, the politician and diarist, Tony Benn, what he makes of the book's central claim that we're in danger of squandering our democratic birthright.

There'll be an interview too with the self-styled Yes Men - Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno -- two political activists whose work could be seen to follow in the radical tradition so prized by Foot. A new film documenting some of their more outrageous attempts to dynamite corporate culture is released on Friday.

And to complete the programme there'll be an examination of August Strindberg's talents as a painter and the historian Matthew Sweet will offer a re-assessment of the British film industry - the subject of his latest book, Shepperton Babylon.

That's Night Waves with Paul Allen 9.30pm.









Presenter: Paul Allen
Producer: Zahid Warley





Additional Information:

1) Paul Foot's The Vote: How it was won and How it was Undermined is published by Viking this month.
2) The Yes Men directed by Chris Smith, Dan Ollman and Sarah Price is a certificate 15 film. Its released on Friday.
3) August Strindberg: Painter, Photographer, Writer is at Tate Modern from Thursday until 15th May.
4) Shepperton Babylon -- the Lost Worlds of British Cinema by Matthew Sweet is published by Faber and Faber on Thursday.