Danny Boyle on his film ' Sunshine'
Thursday 5 April 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Matthew Sweet talks to director Danny Boyle, who started his professional life as a theatre director but is best known for films such as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, about his latest science fiction film, Sunshine, written by Alex Garland. Sunshine is set 50 years into the future and tells the story of a spacecraft of eight men and women who are sent to re-ignite the dying Sun, in a bid to save the world.
Playlist
British film director Danny Boyle discusses his new thriller Sunshine. Famous for his films Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and 28 Days Later - the latest - Sunshine takes Boyle into the territory of sci-fi. He talks to Matthew about how he approached the genre, and why he still prefers to make films in Britain rather than Hollywood.
Matthew talks to Rory Bremner about his new version of one of Brecht's earliest plays: A Respectable Wedding, and asks why he chose to take on the challenge of creating a contemporary reworking of a 1919 satire on petty bourgeois respectability?
Plus a look at the world of the graphic novel and how it is entering the mainstream - recent subjects in this genre include reportage about the Bosnian war, the tale of a rabbit with human qualities, and this week a history of Lewis Carroll's childhood in Sunderland. Matthew finds out about the limits and possibilities of this increasingly-popular form which uses words and pictures to tell a story.
And finally the Roma gypsy community marks its identity this Sunday on International Roma Day. In Britain the first records of the Roma people in this country date back to 1505 - they originally came from the Punjab in India. Today across Europe there are eight million Roma, but in some parts of Europe forced evictions of Roma settlements continue and here in the UK misconceptions remain about the gypsy communities despite their deep roots here. Writer Richard O'Neill reminds us just what it is to be a gypsy today, following a visit to his local pub in Lancashire
