Programme Details

The artist, Ed Ruscha, is the poet of cool. For years his pictures of highways, gas stations and palm trees have epitomised the spirit of the modern American West. In Night Waves this evening he talks to Philip Dodd about what inspires him and how he’s gone about creating a body of work which many believe is the most inventive to emerge from America in the last four decades.

There’ll also be a discussion of the horror film. Linda Ruth Williams and Mark Kermode are curating a season at the National Film Theatre in London which challenges conventional notions of the genre. They’ll be explaining why they believe it can easily accommodate both Friedkin’s The Exorcist and Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu Monogatari. 

And the Scottish writer, Jennie Erdal, will be reading from her acclaimed memoir, Ghosting, an account of her life as the alter ego and ghost writer to the publisher and socialite, Naim Attallah.

That’s all in Night Waves with Philip Dodd here on BBC Radio 3 at 9.30pm




Presenter: Philip Dodd
Producer: Zahid Warley





Additional information:

1) Jennie Erdal’s book, Ghosting, A Memoir, is published by Canongate.
2) Ed Ruscha’s retrospective is at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh until 16th January.
3) The History of the Horror film season opens on Friday and runs until the end of the month at the National Film Theatre in London.