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Meridian

Iconic arts series with films, plays, literature and music from around the world

World Service,2413 episodes

Episodes

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Porgy and Bess: the world tour
The story of the 1950s international tour of George Gershwin’s opera
19 Jan 2004,22 mins
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
The announcement of the winners in the Eurasian region
19 Mar 2003,23 mins
Adapting books for the screen
From Adaptation to Gone to the Wind, the relationship between Hollywood and novels
13 Mar 2003,23 mins
Linton Kwesi Johnson
An interview with the Jamaican reggae dub poet
09 Mar 2003,22 mins
Fred D'Aguiar
An interview with the British-Guyanese poet, playwright and novelist
06 Mar 2003,23 mins
Bernardine Evaristo
The British novelist talks about Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye
27 Feb 2003,22 mins
Americanization: Part 3
How American popular music helped to spread the USA’s cultural revolution
23 Feb 2003,23 mins
BBC World Service Short Story Competition
The judges announce the winning writers from Zambia, Italy and Belgium
18 Feb 2003,23 mins
Americanization: Part 4
How France embraces and resists American culture
16 Feb 2003,23 mins
Ghandi’s The Story of my Experiments with Truth
The Indian writer and publisher Urvashi Butalia talks about Mahatma Ghandi’s autobiography
11 Feb 2003,23 mins
Americanization: Part 2
How American architecture and food has worked its way into global culture
09 Feb 2003,23 mins
Elizabeth Alexander and James G Basker
The African-American poet and academic discuss an anthology of poems about slavery
04 Feb 2003,23 mins
Americanization: Part 1
How mass marketing and production made the American dream universal
02 Feb 2003,23 mins
Anthony Julius and Hans Hacker
The British academic and the German-born artist discuss transgressive art
26 Jan 2003,22 mins
Art and the marketplace
A discussion about market forces in two contrasting areas: pop music and fine art
19 Jan 2003,23 mins
Shimmer Chinodya interview
The Zimbabwean novelist talks about writing for children
16 Jan 2003,23 mins
The Art of Fireworks
How fireworks have appeared and influenced art across the world
12 Jan 2003,22 mins
Raja Shehadeh interview
The Palestinian lawyer and writer on his memoir, Stranger in the House
09 Jan 2003,22 mins
World Book Club: Ben Okri
The Nigerian born writer discusses his novel The Famished Road
31 Dec 2002,23 mins
Edvard Munch's The Scream
The story behind one of the most unsettling paintings ever created.
27 Dec 2002,22 mins
Waiting For Godot
A celebration of Samuel Beckett’s revolutionary play, 50 years after it was first performe
23 Dec 2002,23 mins
Youssou N’Dour interview
The Senegalese musician talks about the power of lyrics
19 Dec 2002,23 mins
Eric Hobsbawm interview
The Marxist historian talks about his life and key events of the 20th century
17 Dec 2002,23 mins
Picasso: Les Mademoiselles d'Avignon
The story behind Picasso’s disturbing, defiant masterpiece
13 Dec 2002,22 mins
Nigerian teenagers’ favourite novels
How the sex lives of young Nigerians are influenced by the novels they’ve read. Also on th
05 Dec 2002,23 mins
World Book Club: Arundhati Roy
The Indian author answers your questions about her book The God of Small Things
02 Dec 2002,23 mins
Electronic music pioneers
The enormous impact of the early electronic music pioneers on the music of today
01 Dec 2002,23 mins
Writing and Prison
The Nigerian author Helon Habila talks about his novel Waiting for an Angel
27 Nov 2002,23 mins
Andy Warhol's Marilyn paintings
What Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe paintings say about the US pop artist
26 Nov 2002,23 mins
Soul Music: Abide With Me
Why the hymn has so much significance to so many people
17 Nov 2002,22 mins