The New Statesman's weekly round-up of what's happening in the world of arts
Under fire for Big Brother "racism", Channel 4 is soon to counter with a great card it's got up its sleeve: a series called Empire's Children. It tells the individual stories of well-known Britons who are "children" of the empire, ranging from the actress Dame Diana Rigg and the former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Steel to the actor Adrian Lester, the comedian Jenny Eclair and Corrie's Shobna Gulati. Gulati (pictured below) faces the most painful realisation, having discovered that her great-uncle, his wife and two of their children were slaughtered as they fled during Partition. Three other children survived by hiding under dead bodies on a train to India in October 1947.
Could The South Bank Show die if Melvyn Bragg ever leaves? The 67-year-old has just signed a three-year deal to stay on, but told me at the launch of the new series that he wouldn't expect anyone else to take over from him. "Of course not," he sniffed. "It's like In Our Time - it's not allowed."
The Radio 4 controller, Mark Damazer, tells me he is planning a major, 60-part series on classical music, to be presented by James Naughtie. He wants Radio 4 to undertake larger-scale projects.
The one-time X-Filer Gillian Anderson continues to impress after her Bleak House tour de force. April will bring the release of the impressively dark feature film Straightheads, in which she plays an avenging rape victim. As the first arts diarist to predict an Oscar for Helen Mirren, I reckon there'll be some garlands for Anderson.
Chris Moyles has got a wizard wheeze lined up for the summer. I hear he's decided to lead the Radio 1 Roadshow - now called One Big Sunday - with karaoke. Punters at the alfresco gigs will be asked to sing along to hits of their choice. Could be better than The X Factor.
bendowell@btinternet.com
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