28 November 2005
Monday 28 November 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Sir David Attenborough explains why insects deserve a better press.
Programme details
Sam Cooke was one of the icons of popular culture. Like Ray Charles he defined what it meant to be black in America. The first single released under his name – You Send me – went to number one in the charts and sold more than two million copies. There were many more hits but his commercial success was only part of it… what made him really special was the respect he commanded from white artists and white society. This story and the turbulent life from which it emerged is the subject of a new biography by Peter Guralnick and in Night Waves this evening Paul Allen will be joined by the music critic and DJ, Charlie Gillett, to discuss Guralnick’s account of Sam Cooke.
There’ll also be a review of an extraordinary new Japanese animation film, Steamboy, which examines the relationship between scientific knowledge and political power in Victorian England and Paul will be talking to the playwright David Greig about his version of Alfred Jarry’s scatological masterpiece, Ubu the King, which many consider the cornerstone of modern drama.
Last but far from least …Sir David Attenborough will be discussing his new television series, Life in the Undergrowth, with Bridget Nicolls of the Ecologist… together they'll be considering why insects always seem to get such a bad press. That’s Nightwaves with Paul Allen here on BBC Radio 3 at nine thirty this evening.
Additional information:
1) The first episode of Life in the Undergrowth presented by Sir David Attenborough was shown last Wednesday on BBC 1 at nine o’clock. The remaining 4 parts of the series will be shown on the same network at the same time.
2) Ubu the King in David Greig’s version has its first night on Wednesday 30th November at the Pit Theatre in the Barbican in London.
3) Peter Guralnick’s biography – Dream Boogie – The Triumph of Sam Cooke is published by Little, Brown.
4) Steamboy by Katsuhiro Otomo will be released on 2nd December.
