Programme Details

This evening on Night Waves, Isabel Hilton will be joined by Rupert Christiansen to review a new production of Wagner's Das Rheingold, the opening instalment of the Royal Opera's new Ring cycle starring the Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel.

Isabel talks to Simon Beaufoy, who has written a television drama which deals with what it is to be a British Muslim in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America. He explains how the time he spent in Asian communities in the north of England opened his eyes to profound cultural splits opening up in our cities.

The latest film from Chinese director Zhang Yimou is a lavish martial-arts drama set in the dying days of the Tang dynasty in the 9th century. Isabel is joined by Nigel Andrews to review it, and to discuss whether an entire generation of Chinese filmmakers is becoming more interested in commercial success than politics.

In the next in the programme's series on the influential ideas of 2004, the geneticist Steve Jones reveals that this year we discovered that we have fewer genes than a Brussels sprout.

And two hundred years after the birth of the French literary critic Saint-Beuve, Night Waves looks back at the work and influence of the man credited with being the first full-time professional critic, lionised by Matthew Arnold but denounced by Proust.

Join Isabel Hilton for Night Waves at 9.30pm.




Presenter: Isabel Hilton
Producer: Thomas Morris








Additional Information
Das Rheingold is at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, until January 10th. And the production will be broadcast on Radio 3 on January 17th at 7 pm.

Yasmin is on Channel 4 on January 13th at 10 pm.

House of Flying Daggers is on general release from Friday 24th December, certificate 15.