Episode details
Available for over a year
John Wilson and film critic Antonia Quirke discuss The Blind Side, the movie which won Sandra Bullock a Best Actress Oscar. John Wilson meets Clem Cattini, the drummer who's played with everyone - from Abba to The Wombles - and also hears from Paul Weller, who asked Clem Cattini to play on his new album. In 1962, the Russian composer Stravinsky accepted a Soviet invitation to visit his former country, his first trip to his native land for 50 years. He was to conduct a celebratory concert in Leningrad, and Russians began queueing for tickets a whole year before the performance. Russian-born author Olga Grushin has written a novel, The Concert Ticket, inspired by this event, and she describes the complex social system that evolved in the queue, with people working together to hold their places overnight. John Wilson visits Leighton House, the former home of the renowned Victorian artist, Frederic, Lord Leighton - which is set to re-open after a 1.6-million-pound refurbishment. Leighton spent 30 years embellishing his house in London's Holland Park, creating its stunning centrepiece The Arab Hall, designed to display his priceless collection of over a thousand Islamic tiles.
Programme Website