In this week's programme presented by Kirsty Wark:
THE PANEL:
Mark Kermode |
Julie Myerson |
Natalie Haynes |
Hari Kunzru
Comment on this programme
Venus
Written by Hanif Kureshi and directed by Roger Michell, Venus starts off as a portrait of old age, but quickly develops into something altogether more confronting: a study of an old age still riven with desire. Peter O'Toole plays Maurice Russell, a dying actor, once great and gorgeous, who has now - in his own words - "cornered the market in playing corpses". His senses are pricked by the arrival of Jessie (Jodie Whitaker), the grand-niece of Maurice's fellow actor Ian (Leslie Philips). Jessie has been despatched from the North to care for Ian, but shows no interest in nursing, and instead concentrates on practising her binge drinking.
Maurice takes her under his wing. She shows an interest in modelling, so he gets her a job posing for life classes. He takes her to the theatre and to the National Gallery; she introduces him to Kylie and Bacardi Breezers. It is testament to the acting - and O'Toole this week was nominated for an Oscar, the eighth of his career - that the relationship between the two is obviously sexual, but somehow never seems inappropriate or exploitative. Maurice worships Jessie's youth and beauty, she is grateful for the respectful attention. However, this does not preclude some very uncomfortable scenes, made doubly jarring by the often comedic tone. Our panel will discuss.
Venus, certificate 15, is on general release
The Seagull, Royal Court
Anton Chekhov's first attempt at a play was met with hostility on its debut performance in 1896. The work's reliance on subtext makes it a difficult play for actors and initially for audiences, with most of the dramatic action happening off stage and meaning coming in the pauses between lines. However when it was revised two years later at the Moscow State Theatre it was hailed as a success.
The Seagull is set in a remote Russian country estate where the young writer Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev is frustrated by his inability to shake the theatrical establishment with 'new forms'. His intense love for both his actress mother, Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina, and a young local girl Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya, who dreams of matching Irina's fame, are both threatened by the successful and charming writer Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin. Christopher Hampton's new translation of the work is staged at the Royal Court Theatre by the outgoing artistic director Ian Rickson and stars Mackenzie Crook as Konstantin, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Trigorin and Kristin Scott Thomas, who made her acclaimed West End stage debut in Chekhov's Three Sisters in 2003, plays the self obsessed Irina.
The Seagull continues at the Royal Court Theatre, London until 17th March
Party Animals, BBC TWO
This new eight-part series is a tale of power politics set among the junior players in the game: young MPs, researchers and lobbyists who work hard and play hard.
Drawing on a wealth of first-hand research, the drama from the makers of This Life centres around Danny (Matt Smith) and Scott Foster (Andrew Buchan) sons of a Labour MP who have politics in their blood. Danny is the idealistic researcher to Jo Porter (Raquel Cassidy) a Labour frontbencher who is struggling against her Tory shadow James Northcote (Patrick Baladi). Scott has left the Labour Party for a lucrative career in lobbying and after a chance lunch begins to pursue Ashika, a Tory researcher, who happens to be having an affair with her boss - James Northcote.
The cast also includes Andrea Riseborough as Kirsty MacKenzie; Colin Salmon as Stephen Templeton; and Clemency Burton-Hill as Sophie Montgomery.
The producers say the series drew on a wealth of first hand research. Will it succeed in showing us how Westminster office and bedroom politics truly work?
Party Animals starts Wednesday 31st January at 9pm on BBC TWO
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Paul Torday's first novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen takes his love of salmon fishing to great heights by using it as the backdrop for a satirical story about the tensions between a secular Western world and the faith based society of the Middle East.
Having attended an environmental conference where a fishery scientist described salmon as "in-stream organisms", Torday was inspired to make his unlikely hero a fishery scientist with an expertise in the caddis fly larvae. Dr Alfred Jones becomes embroiled in a wealthy Sheikh's misguided venture to introduce salmon to the desert country of the Yemen. Although reluctant at first, he becomes all consumed by the Sheikh's vision and finds himself on both a spiritual and geographical journey.
Political intrigue isn't quite what you would expect from a story about salmon fishing, but throw the Middle East into the equation and a government beleaguered by the war in Iraq, and suddenly a positive Middle East story provides a great photo opportunity. With politicians a plenty and a purely fictional spin doctor Peter Maxwell, Torday uses a combination of memos, emails, and investigative reports in a format akin to the Hutton Report, as a narrative device to juggle his range of characters across different continents.
The novel was bought in a fiercely contested auction but will it be a hit with the anglers of Britain?
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on 8th February, 2007
Don't forget that you can watch Newsnight Review online via this website. The programme is available in broadband from 1200 BST on the Saturday after originally broadcast for one week.
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O'Toole interview
