George Stubbs' Horse Paintings
Tuesday 28 June 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
A new exhibition at the National Gallery focuses solely on George Stubbs horse paintings. Paul Allen and guests study the form.
Programme Details
Night Waves tangles with one of radio history's biggest panics - the broadcast in 1938 of the Mercury Theatre production with Orson Welles of The War of the Worlds. Science fiction writer Brian Aldiss traces the story of the invasion of murdering Martians from HG Well's 1898 novel, through the Orson Welles production, up to the closely guarded launch of Steven Spielberg's movie starring Tom Cruise.
Meanwhile at the National Gallery, the first London exhibition of George Stubbs' work in thirty years is about to open, featuring his anatomical sketches during dissection, his experiments with new materials, and, in pride of place, one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery - the huge and compelling Whistlejacket. Artist and fan, Nicola Hicks, is overwhelmed.
In part of a series on African universities, writer Patrick Wilmot recalls his dead and exiled colleagues at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria.
And the writer Stephen Knight, perhaps best known for his screenplay for the Stephen Frears movie Dirty Pretty Things and for devising the television game show format Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, has his first play - President of an Empty Room - opening at the Cottesloe Theatre. Susannah Clapp reviews.
Night Waves, live at 9.30pm here on BBC Radio 3
Presenter: Paul Allen
Producer: Ian Willox
Additional Information:
1) War of the Worlds is released on July 1 2005 http://www.uip.co.uk/waroftheworlds/
2) Stubbs and the Horse opens June 29 2005 http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
3) President of an Empty Room opens at the Cottesloe Theatre on June 28 2005
