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The Current War, How culture affects relationship expectations, Experimental novels, Cool culture

The Current War and its turbulent production; does culture affect relationships?; experimental novels; and Cool Culture: the best places to enjoy culture without melting.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon star in The Current War, as Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. It's the electrifying story about the race to supply people with electricity and power. The film has had a turbulent production, plagued with unfavourable reviews at 2017 Toronto Film festival premier and then caught up in the scandal surrounding the Harvey Weinstein allegations. Film Critic Tim Robey discusses the changes made to the film since its initial release and the impact of events behind the scenes.

Love Island 2019 is in its final week, so we wondered whether or not we can make assessments about the state of modern relationships by how they are presented on the screen? Cultural commentator Louis Wise and YouTube relationship expert Hannah Witton discuss this and ponder which programmes best hold up a mirror to reality, or actually start to shape it?

Lucy Ellmann’s new novel Ducks, Newburyport has been attracting headlines and admiration; but not just for its literary qualities. It's 1,000 pages long, most of which is one sentence. And there are other contemporary authors also playing with conventional storytelling form at the moment, including Bernardine Evaristo, Ali Smith, Nicola Barker, Eimear McBride and Mike McCormack. McCormack’s novel Solar Bones, also a single sentence, won the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize, and Evaristo’s latest novel Girl, Woman, Other plays with voice, grammar and text on the page. They talk to Front Row about the freedom of not following the rules.

And Cool Culture: as the temperature in much of the UK look set to soar, we wonder about the best places to enjoy culture without melting

Presenter: Stig Abell. Producer: Oliver Jones

Available now

28 minutes

The Current War

The Current War

The Current War is released on 26 July

Lucy Ellmann

Lucy Ellmann

Lucy Ellmann discusses playing with form in the novel. Her book Ducks, Newburyport is out now.

Image: Lucy Ellmann at Fitzrovia Chapel

Credit: Noemi Scavo

Mike McCormack

Mike McCormack

Mike McCormack discusses playing with form in the novel. His book Solar Bones is out now.

Image: Mike McCormack

Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo discusses playing with form in the novel. Her book Girl, Woman, Other is out now.

Image: Bernardine Evaristo

Credit: Jennie Scott

Love Island

Love Island

Love Island is on ITV2 every day at 9pm.

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  • Tue 23 Jul 2019 19:15

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Inspire

A season discovering where artists find inspiration and helping listeners get creative.

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