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Episode details

Radio 4,11 Mar 2010,30 mins

11/03/2010

Front Row

Available for over a year

John Wilson is joined by writer and historian James Holland to review The Pacific, a new TV series from Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and the team behind Band of Brothers. Set in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, The Pacific is reportedly the most expensive TV series ever made. Tom Morris updates Shakespeare for The Bristol Old Vic theatre in Juliet and Her Romeo. Adapting the original text of the play, Morris casts the lovers in their 80s, with their children trying to prevent their marriage. Sian Phillips, who plays Juliet, and Michael Byrne, who plays Romeo, discuss the performance. To mark the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Elgar's Violin Concerto performed by Fritz Kreisler at the Queen's Hall in London, Helen Wallace compares new recordings of the concerto, including one using Kreisler's violin. Actor Phil Daniels, who starred in productions including Scum, Quadrophenia and Eastenders and was the voice on Blur's Parklife, discusses his varied career.

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