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Episode details

Radio 4,08 Aug 2013,30 mins

Roddy Doyle; Josie Rourke; Liola reviewed; Why modern Westerns don't work

Front Row

Available for over a year

With Kirsty Lang. Booker Prize-winning Irish author Roddy Doyle discusses why he decided to resurrect one of his earliest characters - Jimmy Rabbitte who first appeared in The Commitments 25 years ago - in his new novel The Guts. He also reflects on topics of conversation among men his own age, and offers his top tip to stop snoring. Sir Richard Eyre has returned to the National Theatre to direct Liola, a drama by the Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. Set in rural Sicily at the end of the 19th century, the play centres on Liola - a charming young man who has caused controversy by fathering three sons with different women. Andrew Dickson reviews the new version by Tanya Ronder, which is performed by an Irish cast. The theatre director Josie Rourke brings the 1987 comedy drama film Broadcast News, starring William Hurt and Holly Hunter, to the Cultural Exchange. Disney's summer blockbuster The Lone Ranger, which stars Johnny Depp as Tonto, has flopped at the US box office and is expected to lose millions of dollars. Adam Smith explains why, despite many attempts to re-vamp the genre, Westerns from Wild Wild West, via Cowboys and Aliens to Jonah Hex have failed to deliver. Producer Olivia Skinner.

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