大象传媒

The best of the world's arts, film, music, literature and music brought to you every day. Presented by Mark Coles.

Arab Theatre
Theatre in the Arab world is a relatively new art form, but one that is not entirely thriving. Competition from television, scrutiny from government censors and low wages are recurring dramas for Arab dramatists. The Strand speaks to directors and actors from Syria, Egypt and Lebanon to discover what are the problems facing theatre in the Arab world and what can be done about them.

Edinburgh Audiences
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is renowned for cutting edge theatre and each year sees new unconventional venues being used for productions. We discover how setting your work in a hotel, a park or at a speed dating meet affects the performers' relationship with their audience.

Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker is an award winning American novelist whose latest book imagines the problems encountered by a poet who must write the introduction to an anthology of poetry whilst own career and his personal life is floundering. It's a treatise on what he believes poetry should really be.

Ellie Greenwich
And we pay tribute to songwriter Ellie Greenwich, writer of timeless pop hits for Tina Turner, The Ronettes, The Crystals, The Shangrilas, Manfred Mann and many many more.