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Sir John Major, Salman Rushdie, Julietta

Matthew Sweet meets former prime minister Sir John Major, whose new book examines the history of music hall. Plus writer Salman Rushdie and a review Martinu's opera Julietta.

The English National Opera's new season continues with Julietta, a rarely performed surrealist work by Bohuslav Martinu. It tells the story of Michel, a travelling salesman, who returns to a village he visited several years ago, in search of his lost love. However, when he arrives he discovers all of the villagers suffer from amnesia and the woman of his dreams may in fact be just that, a figment of his imagination. Susan Hitch reviews.

Sir John Major's upbringing was far from conventional: his father was a comedian and singer. In his memoir, My Old Man, the former Prime Minister uses his father's story as a springboard to look behind the curtain of the music hall - from its origins in Elizabethan times through to its heyday in the 19th century, and its eventual decline with the rise of radio and cinema. He's joined by music hall legend Roy Hudd to discuss the performers and history of this quintessentially British public entertainment.

Joseph Anton lived a quiet life, as quiet as was humanly possible. He is the pseudonym of Salman Rushdie during his life under Fatwa. 'Joseph' after Joseph Conrad and 'Anton' after Chekhov. In his new autobiographical novel, Rushdie describes how Joseph Anton tried to hide in the dark while out in the real world many Salman Rushdies were pilloried and hunted. He examines what happens when you lose control of the way in which you are represented in the world - is this man Joseph the real Salman Rushdie or were the others? Matthew Sweet talks to the real Salman Rushdie about life under a death sentence.

Producer: Gavin Heard.

Available now

45 minutes

Broadcast

  • Tue 18 Sep 2012 22:00

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