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Episode details

Radio 4,15 Jul 2015,30 mins

Rupert Goold, Francesca Simon and Cressida Cowell, Richard Cork, Eric Huntley

Front Row

Available for over a year

Theatre director Rupert Goold discusses True Story, his debut feature film starring Jonah Hill and James Franco, based on the story of a New York Times journalist who becomes involved in a murder case. Francesca Simon, author of the Horrid Henry books, and Cressida Cowell, author of the How To Train Your Dragon series, are both saying goodbye to the characters who've been with them for many years. The writers discuss why they're bringing these favourites to an end, and what might follow. On Saturday Douglas Gordon took an axe to a wall at the Home Theatre in Manchester after the show he's directed received bad reviews. He then doodled around it and signed and dated it. The theatre have insisted that he pay for repairs and yet there's speculation as to what might actually happen. Art critic Richard Cork joins John to contemplate whether it might become a work of art and to discuss other unusual things that have become done exactly that. In 1968 Eric and Jessica Huntley created a London-based publishing house to specifically offer a place for black writers to get their work published. The book shop that followed quickly became a place of importance for Britain's Black community. That has now been re-created in an exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London and John Wilson talks to Eric Huntley about their mission to get recognition for black writers and artists. Presenter John Wilson Producer Rebecca Armstrong.

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