Programme Details

On Night Waves, China Mieville reviews Turner Whistler Monet, the Tate exhibition which has a record 21,000 people already booked to see it. The exhibition seeks to trace for the first time the artistic dialogue between friends and collaborators James Abbott McNeil Whistler and Claude Monet and their predecessor JMW Turner. China examines how much it is possible to see the connections between all three, and talks to artist Richard Wentworth about how successful joint exhibitions are in showing us something new or whether they are just curator's fancy .

China also talks to writer Roy Williams about making teenagers articulate as he continues to document life in Britain's inner cities in his new play, Little Sweet Thing. They discuss the way in which some of the problems young people face today transcend the racial barriers he experienced in his youth.

Night Waves also examines whether the subject of a new book, John the Painter, impassioned supporter of the American Revolution who set fire to Portsmouth Dockyard in 1776, was Britain's first International terrorist.

And China reviews the latest project by satirist of Brass Eye fame, Chris Morris - a 6 part series featuring Nathan Barley, resident of new media saturated east London and, in his own words, 'a self-facilitating media node'.

Night Waves, live at 9.30pm, here on BBC Radio 3.


Presenter: China Mieville
Producer: Kirsty Pope



Additional Information:
1) Turner Whistler Monet is at Tate Britain until the May 15.
2) John the Painter by Jessica Warner is published by Profile Books.
3) Little Sweet Thing by Roy Williams is at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich until February 12 and then tours to Nottingham, Warwick, Manchester, Northampton, Brighton, Leeds, Birmingham, Bracknell and London. For more information visit www.littlesweetthing.com
4) NathanBarley by Chris Morris begins on Channel 4 on Friday 11 February at 10pm.