Main content

Kevin MacDonald's The Last King of Scotland , Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

Tom Sutcliffe and guests discuss the week’s cultural headlines.

Film - The Last King of Scotland - Directed by Kevin MacDonald
It was supposed to be a wild adventure in a far-off country, but when a naive young doctor arrives in 1970’s Uganda – hoping for fun, sun and to lend a helping hand -- he finds himself instead on a shocking ride into the darkest realm on earth: the human heart. This is the story of The Last King of Scotland, a powerful thriller that recreates on screen the world of Uganda under the mad dictatorship of Idi Amin. Starring Bafta nominees Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin and James McAvoy as Doctor Nicholas Garrigan, it is the feature film debut for Touching the Void director Kevin MacDonald.
Last King of Scotland , out now, certificate 15

Book - The Book Thief - by Markus Zusak
The number one New York Times best seller by prize winning children's author Markus Zusak. This is his adult novel, and tells the story of Liesel, a nine year old girl, living with her foster family on Himmel Street, in a rundown part of Munich. Her parents, communists, have been taken away to a concentration camp. The book itself is narrated by Death, and recreates life in Germany during the war from the point of view of a young German girl whose love of words brings us a startling perspective on the Third Reich.

TV Choice - Nuclear Secrets
In a series of five spy thrillers Nuclear Secrets explores the key turning points in the race for nuclear supremacy. From the development of the A-Bomb, via the Cuban missile crisis to the spread of nuclear weapons to the Middle East and beyond each story is told through the eyes of the men who risked everything to proliferate their nuclear secrets and those who tried to stop them. Spies or whistleblowers? Patriots or traitors? Nuclear weapons and the actions of these men have transformed the face of war. And now the world could pay the price.

A series of five x one hour documentaries, the first film of five is The Spy from Moscow. Soviet Colonel, Oleg Penkovsky, spied in the build up to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 - a conflict which brought us closer than ever to all-out nuclear war. The second itells the story of Klaus Fuchs, the superspy who helped give the secrets of the bomb to three different countries, launching the world on a path to nuclear proliferation.
Starts Monday 15 January 2007 9.00-10.00pm ±«Óãtv2

Exhibition - Yinka Shonibare, MBE – White Flag at Half Mast
The Inaugural Jubilee Flagpole Commission by the Hayward Gallery 2007 heralds a year of transformation for the South Bank Centre, with the long awaited reopening of the Festival Hall in June. Starting the celebrations will be the Hayward Gallery, with its inaugural commission by Yinka Shonibare for the Jubilee Flagpole - situated in Jubilee Gardens opposite the Houses of Parliament. Concerned with the nationalistic connotations of all flags, Shonibare proposes his work represents no country in particular and is a flag without traditional boundaries.

Guest choice - The Time Machine by H G Wells
H G Wells' science fiction masterpiece is the choice of writer and critic Professor John Carey this week. Wells made his debut with The Time Machine (1895), a parody of English class division and a satirical warning that human progress is not inevitable, a message which still resonates in the present.

Available now

45 minutes

Chapters

  • Review of Markus Zusak's 'The Book Thief'

    Discussion on the The Book Thief, the number one New York Times best seller by prize winning children's author Markus Zusak.

    Duration: 09:09

Broadcast

  • Sat 13 Jan 2007 19:15

Subscribe to the Saturday Review podcast

Sign up to the Saturday Review podcast for the latest and past episodes to download.

Podcast