Mike Leigh
Thursday 10 April 2008 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
In an extended interview, celebrated British film director Mike Leigh talks to Matthew Sweet about his new film, Happy-Go-Lucky, which is set in present-day Camden.
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Playlist
Mike Leigh
Director Mike Leigh talks to Matthew Sweet about Happy Go Lucky, an upbeat comedy starring Sally Hawkins as a cheerful primary school teacher. This is a contrast to his previous movie Vera Drake, the tragic tale of a backstreet abortionist, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He explains to Matthew why he has made a feel-good film.
Happy Go Lucky is relased on 18 April and is certificate 15.
Detectives in Fiction
Night Waves looks at how the detective evolved in fiction. In 1860 the brutal murder of a little boy became a celebrated case that was solved by the detective Mr Whicher and helped create a new literary genre, the crime novel. This lead to the detective stories of Wilkie Collins, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle. Matthew Sweet discusses the case with biographer Kate Summerscale and the criminal lawyer and writer Frances Fyfield.
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale is released by Bloomsbury.
The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art
Art critic Richard Cork and garden historian Andrea Wulf review the UK's first permanent gallery dedicated to botanical art. The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art opens in Kew Gardens on 16 April. To see some of the pictures visit our gallery.
The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf is published by William Heinemann.
