Programme Details

On Night Waves this evening, Paul Allen and his guests discuss a major new exhibition which examines a thousand years of Turkish history. Turks looks at the cultural development of the peoples who have inhabited this corner of the Mediterranean, whose art and literature reflect the influence both of Western Europe and of the Islamic world - and the exhibition comes at a time when Turkey is canvassing for membership of the European Union.
Night Waves asks what image of the country this government-supported exhibition projects.

And Paul talks to the architect Will Alsop. Nicknamed Mister Blobby for his exuberantly coloured and unconventionally shaped buildings, Alsop this week unveils his vision of the city of the future, a so-called SuperCity encompassing almost a hundred and fifty miles of northern England. He explains why the modern city has to change, and talks about some of his most recent projects.

The French film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's follow-up to the success of Amélie is a drama set in the trenches of the First World War. Jeunet explains to Night Waves why the subject interested him, and Paul Allen is joined by the film critic Agnes Poirier and the historian Julian Jackson to discuss contemporary France's attitude to the memory of this conflict.

Villages, the twenty-first novel by the American writer John Updike, returns to one of his favourite subjects - sex - and charts the life, from childhood to old age, of a character whose life is defined by the villages he lives in. Paul is joined by Christopher Bigsby to review it.

Join Paul Allen for Night Waves at 9.30pm.



Presenter: Paul Allen
Producer: Thomas Morris


Additional information:

Turks is at the Royal Academy in London from Saturday until April 12th. www.turks.org.uk


SuperCity is at Urbis in Manchester from 20th January until 15th May. www.urbis.org.uk

A Very Long Engagement is on general release from Friday, certificate 15.

Villages, by John Updike, is published by Hamish Hamilton