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Episode details

Radio 4,02 Sep 2019,28 mins

The Capture, Venice Film Festival highlights, Enid Blyton reevaluated

Front Row

Available for over a year

BBC One’s big autumn thriller serial is The Capture. Telling the story of former soldier Shaun Emery, whose conviction for an unlawful killing during active duty is overturned because of flawed video evidence. The drama delves into the increasing reality of misinformation and fake news. Scriptwriter Ben Chanan talks to Samira about the manipulation of video evidence in our criminal justice system. Venice Film Festival is well underway where the films coming to our screens in the autumn compete for the coveted Golden Lion Prize. Critic Jason Solomon fills us in on the highlights including Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the Joker, the new Polanski film and Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver’s depiction of a divorce in Marriage Story. A Freedom of Information request placed by the Daily Mail has revealed that in 2016 the Royal Mint was considering honouring children’s author Enid Blyton with a commemorative 50 pence coin, but that officials withdrew the author from consideration because "she [Blyton] is known to have been a racist, sexist, homophobe and not a very well-regarded writer". Literary historian John Mullan and columnist Harriet Hall discuss the resulting furore and consider the ethics of viewing the culture of the past through a contemporary lens. Presenter : Samira Ahmed Producer : Dymphna Flynn

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