大象传媒

With Kirsty Lang.

It's been eight years since Lesley Garrett stepped on to the opera stage. Television, West End musicals and Strictly Come Dancing have been occupying her instead. Now she's back with Opera North, the company she began her career with, in a new production of Poulenc's one woman opera La Voix Humaine. She reflects on playing a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and sets a challenge for contemporary opera composers.

Feast is a new play created by writers from Cuba, Brazil, America, Britain and Nigeria, and directed by Rufus Norris. It explores the Yoruba culture and what happened to it after slavery created a far flung diaspora. British writer Gbolahan Obisesan and director Rufus Norris discuss the genesis of the project.

A new DVD From the Sea to the Land Beyond is a lyrical portrait of Britain's coastline from 1901 to the present day. The film travels through both World Wars, into peacetime and the modern age, and is all drawn from the BFI National Archive. The coast is explored as a place of leisure, industry and wild nature, and the film has been directed by Penny Woolcock, with a specially composed soundtrack by Brighton band British Sea Power. Penny Woolcock and British Sea Power's Martin Noble talk about their collaboration.

An American adaptation of Michael Dobbs' political thriller House Of Cards is a genuine first, being a major TV series that is not being shown on television. Instead this big budget drama, starring Kevin Spacey, will be available only via Netflix, the download website. Mark Damazer delivers his verdict on whether this particular house of cards will stand or fall.

Producer Stephen Hughes.