This week Tim Marlow and his guests give their take on an opera about the race to develop the atomic bomb, a thriller in which an Interpol agent tries to expose a financial institution's role in arms dealing and more.
Set in 1945, John Adams' opera follows a group of young physicists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer, and explores the moral dilemmas they faced in the race to develop the atomic bomb.
Adams, whose previous operas include
Nixon in China
and
The Death of Klinghoffer
, sets the first act a month before the bomb is to be tested, and the second early on the morning of July 15, 1945, the day of the atomic bomb test.
The production is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Opera New York and the ENO.
Baritone Gerald Finley who was part of the original San Francisco Opera production, plays J Robert Oppenheimer and the opera is directed by Penny Woolcock.
Dr Atomic is at the Coliseum, London for nine performances until Friday, 20 March, 2009
Paddy Considine, Maxine Peake, Sean Bean, Rebecca Hall, David Morrissey and more star in this new trilogy based on David Peace's novels loosely based on the search for the Yorkshire Ripper.
Watch the panel's verdict on Red Riding
The three films are adapted by Tony Grisoni from Peace's novels, and each film is directed by a different director.
1974
is directed by Julian Jarrold,
1980
by James Marsh and
1983
by Anand Tucker.
The first film,
1974
follows young reporter Eddie Dunford as he tries to investigate the disappearance of a young school girl, only to be drawn into a wider web of apparent police corruption.
1980
moves the story to the Yorkshire Ripper murders and the focus onto Peter Hunter, a Manchester detective sent into to review West Yorkshire police's stagnant investigation.
In
1983
the disappearance of another young girl mirrors the abductions in the 1970's and Detective Chief Superintendent Maurice Jobson begins to realise that they may have convicted the wrong man.
The Red Riding trilogy begins with 1974 on Thursday, 5 March, 2009 on Channel 4 at 9pm. 1980 and 1983 air on the following two Thursday evenings.
Based on an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, it aims to demonstrate how Picasso's self-portraits, nudes, still lifes and portraits sought to reference, to imitate and to subvert the work of painters such as El Greco, Gaugin and Ingres.
The main room contains Picasso's famous re-versionings of four great portraits, including Manet's
Dejeuner sur l'herbe
and Velasquez's
Las Meninas
.
But, unlike at the Louvre exhibition, the original work is not displayed alongside.
Will our panel think the exhibition works without those reference points?
Picasso: Challenging The Past is at the National Gallery, London until Sunday, 7 June 2009.
Clive Owen plays an Interpol agent who, alongside a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney (played by Naomi Watts), tries to expose a multinational bank that finances terror and war.
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Dr Atomic composer John Adams
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