The Strand - Thursday 22nd October 2009.

Available for over a year

The best of the world's arts, film, music, literature and music brought to you every day. Presented by Mark Coles. Lustrum - The new novel by Robert Harris Somehow what was the world's greatest democracy has become a virtual dictatorship without anything happening in between. The more people talk about freedom of speech the less there is. The generals of the army have begun to make political statements. The Consul seems to have just gone quiet. Welcome to .........Ancient Rome. Bassekou Kouyate Malian-born Bassekou Kouyate is a musical revolutionary - he thrust his instrument, the ngoni, back into the forefront of world music. Making Theatre out of the Berlin Wall For the millions who witnessed it the fall of the Berlin Wall was an unforgettable turning point in recent history. But what about the generation born in Germany since then? For many teenagers east of the old border their recent history is barely mentioned in school, or not at all. It's a different story in the west: to mark the 20th anniversary since the fall of the wall, one high school is staging a bi-lingual musical called Stimme durch die Mauer, or "Voices Through the Wall."