ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Heads-up on an excellent revival
Alan Bennett's timeless monologues have been given a great new lease of life, says TOM KING
PLUMBING DARK DEPTHS: Sarah Lancashire in An Ordinary Women
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
Talking Heads
BBC iPlayer
TALK of stockings, bicycle clips and soft furnishings can only mean one thing. Talking Heads, Alan Bennett’s landmark series of television monologues, is back.
Comprising 10 of the original pieces and two new ones, they have been revived by the BBC after the abrupt curtailment of all filming led to a sudden dearth of drama content.
Though each is different in subject and tone, they share a common theme — behind every front door, in each living room and kitchen, ordinary people turn out to be anything but.
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