00:00Hello and welcome to another edition of our weekly roundup of What's On Our Cultural Agenda.
00:09I'm Takunbo Sinarko, joining me this week is my erstwhile colleague David Morricone.
00:13David, how are you?
00:14I'm all right, thank you. How are you?
00:15Very, very, very, very good. Glad to hear it.
00:18Well, let's talk about what's been catching our eye this week.
00:22Let's start off with music, and in particular one of our favourite bands,
00:25the Northern Irish rappers, a kneecap. Why are they in the news?
00:29They've been in the news a lot this week.
00:31So for anyone who doesn't know, kneecap, as you say, are this Northern Irish rap band
00:37who have had this kind of meteoric kind of rise to success recently,
00:42specifically with a film that was released last year called Kneecap,
00:45which was about the band, and we interviewed the director, Richard Pepiat, on that film,
00:50and their debut album, Fine Art, which was one of our favourite albums of last year.
00:56And recently they found themselves at the centre of the attention of the counter-terror police in the UK,
01:05following a rather controversial set that they played in Coachella,
01:09in which their political statements on Palestine rubbed people up the wrong way.
01:13And it turns out that two videos surfaced from a gig last year and a gig in 2023,
01:20which have caught the attention of the counter-terror police, which seems a little bit extreme.
01:26One of those videos allegedly shows them saying,
01:30up Hamas, up Hezbollah.
01:32And the other one apparently shows the group calling for the deaths of Conservative MPs,
01:38saying the only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.
01:43Yeah, the targeting of Conservative MPs is a particularly sensitive issue in the UK
01:49because there have been a number of MPs who have been killed by suspected Islamic terrorists.
01:56In this particular case, David Amess and his daughter has had some strong words to say on it,
02:01and that's been echoed by leading members of the Conservative Party.
02:05Tell us more about that.
02:05Well, yes, the daughter of Sir David Amess expressed her shock at NICAP's alleged statements
02:13and asked for an apology.
02:15An apology was given.
02:16They've said that they've never supported Hamas or Hezbollah
02:20and that they condemned all attacks on civilians.
02:24And they also said that they are the victims of a smear campaign
02:28and that these words were deliberately taken out of context
02:32and weaponised in order to silence them.
02:35Now, there have been calls from various politicians to remove them from festival lineups
02:43and that seems to have worked in some certain cases
02:47and certain tour dates have been cancelled in Berlin, for example, or at the Eden Project.
02:53Here, we're still waiting.
02:55The police are still assessing these videos and there are calls for more apologies.
02:59But, in a recent development, a number of bans have supported NICAP and have signed petitions
03:05in order to support them against these attacks on them.
03:10And, in particular, Massive Attack, who released the following statement,
03:13NICAP are not the story.
03:16If senior politicians can find neither the time nor the words to condemn, say,
03:20the murder of 15 voluntary aid workers in Gaza,
03:24or the illegal starvation of civilian population as a method of warfare,
03:29or the killing of thousands of thousands of children in the same territory
03:33by a state in possession of the highest precision weapons on earth,
03:37how much notice should a music festival take on their moral advice for booking performance acts?
03:45So, it's obviously when it comes to these very delicate subjects
03:48and when it comes to murder and genocide,
03:51obviously language is important
03:53and it's not a cause for flippancy or reckless language,
03:58but the situation continues
04:00and it remains to be seen whether NICAP will be able to perform
04:03during the summer at festivals around Europe.
04:06David, thank you for that.
04:07Let's talk now about an art installation
04:09that's just opened up in the Hamburger Bahnhof in Germany.
04:13Tell us more about that and who's behind it.
04:15Yeah, this one has really caught my eye.
04:17It's a very striking new exhibition
04:19which will be open for quite a while now.
04:21It's by a Czech artist,
04:23and I apologise if I butcher her name,
04:25Clara Hasnedlova.
04:27And she's transformed, as you say,
04:30Berlin Hamburger Bahnhof
04:32into this huge exhibition called Embrace.
04:35And it's filled with these very impressive sculptures,
04:39these impressive tapestries,
04:41some of which look like overgrown dreadlocks,
04:45mingy carpets almost.
04:49I was just about to say,
04:50it reminded me of my former glory.
04:51No, your dreadlocks have always been glorious.
04:53And also these sculptures,
04:57which are like cartilage, bone,
05:00even fossils.
05:01And it merges nature,
05:03but also she's done something very,
05:05very interesting,
05:06is to pair all of this with a soundscape,
05:09which celebrates the folklore
05:12and her home near the Czech-Slovakian border.
05:16And, yeah, it looks and sounds very,
05:20very impressive.
05:21And it is an incredibly arresting show.
05:24Let's hear now from the artist in her own words
05:26and hear what she has to say about her art.
05:29It's a lot inspired by the nature from where I am
05:33and especially in the sound.
05:36For example, these women's voices,
05:39they are singing very old traditional songs
05:42from the area called Kopanice.
05:46It's a small area close to Czech and Slovakian borders.
05:50Okay, and that exhibition is on for several months.
06:02Do try and catch it if you can.
06:04Let's move now to talk about TV.
06:06And, you know, we spend a lot of our time
06:08sat on our backsides.
06:09We're always accused of that,
06:10but with a good cause.
06:11A very good cause.
06:13And so I'm, as you know,
06:15constantly keeping up with shows,
06:17but you have been watching one show
06:19which has completely gone off my radar
06:22purely because there are so many to keep a track of.
06:24So what have you been watching?
06:25Well, this week I've been watching
06:26Your Friends and Neighbours.
06:28It stars Jon Hamm.
06:30It's on Apple TV.
06:32And what I find really interesting about this story,
06:34Jon Hamm, I've always liked him.
06:36I met him 20 years ago
06:37just when he was just,
06:38his star was rising in madness.
06:41Is he as dashing in person?
06:43Because, I mean, when I see him on screen,
06:44I'm just like, ah, damn.
06:47That's what a real man looks like.
06:48He certainly does have incredible presence.
06:51We saw him last year in Fargo
06:53and he really sort of carried that series.
06:56But in this, it's a completely different role.
06:58He plays a wealthy trader
07:00and it's an enormous fall from grace.
07:03You know, he's got everything around him,
07:05all the creature comforts that he would want.
07:08And interestingly, much like, let's say,
07:11Breaking Bad and many other series
07:12that we've seen over the few years,
07:14it starts off with the person being the protagonist.
07:17You see them in that worst-case scenario.
07:20He wakes up, he doesn't know where he is,
07:21there's a dead body next to him.
07:23And then, over the next two, three episodes
07:25that's been out, we go back
07:27and we see sort of, you know,
07:28what led up to that moment.
07:30So, so far, so good.
07:32I'll keep a lookout for that.
07:33I have been to the cinema
07:35because I spend most of my life there,
07:38as you know, for a change.
07:39And I've seen the new Marvel film
07:41called Thunderbolts,
07:42with the little asterisks.
07:44Why the asterisks?
07:46I will not say.
07:47It is explained in the film
07:48and I fear that,
07:50no, I think people should have
07:52the joy of finding out why.
07:54So there we go.
07:54This is the 36th Marvel film
07:57in the MCU.
07:59I don't even care.
07:59So there's so many.
08:01I mean, I always kind of, you know,
08:02I've seen quite a few of them.
08:03You know, I've got younger kids
08:04who, you know, love this kind of stuff.
08:06But, you know, it's no secret
08:08that Marvel's fortunes
08:09have been sort of failing
08:10over the last few years.
08:13Post-Endgame, it's true,
08:15there has been a bit of a dip.
08:16In fact, a massive dip.
08:18And I'm pleased to say
08:19that this is good.
08:22This actually is a solid sign
08:24that maybe, especially looking forward
08:26to the Fantastic Four this summer
08:28and leading up to the new
08:31big ten-pole film,
08:34Avengers Doomsday,
08:36this seems like it's going
08:38in the right direction.
08:39So essentially, this,
08:41the Thunderbolts, Asterix,
08:43is essentially the Dirty Dozen
08:45or Marvel's answer
08:48to DC's Suicide Squad.
08:50So it's the anti-heroes
08:51who have now got their platform.
08:54It's fun.
08:55It starts off as a spy film
08:56and it works really, really well
08:58like that, you know,
08:59betrayal, you know,
09:00who's working for who.
09:02It does devolve a little bit
09:04towards the end.
09:05It doesn't quite stick the landing,
09:06I think, was a little bit anticlimactic.
09:09However, it does deal
09:10in a rather, rather good way
09:13with the theme of depression.
09:15Because essentially,
09:16the main antagonist
09:17at the end of the day
09:18is trauma.
09:20And past trauma
09:22and how to deal with your past
09:24and, you know,
09:25how depression is this gulf
09:27that, you know,
09:28completely envelops you.
09:29And it does it
09:31in a very surface-level way.
09:32Of course,
09:33there's all the action
09:33and fight scenes
09:34that you would want
09:35from a Marvel film.
09:36But I think this gets
09:37the tone quite,
09:38really quite,
09:39they do it quite well
09:40between quite an intimate story,
09:42which is rare for Marvel,
09:44something a little bit
09:44more personal
09:45and something also fun.
09:47And I thought
09:48that the balancing act
09:49that it achieves
09:50was rather,
09:51rather well done.
09:52Acting-wise,
09:54David Harbour
09:54stands out.
09:56He is absolutely hilarious
09:57as the Red Guardian.
09:59But I've said it once,
10:00I'll say it a million more times,
10:03Florence Pugh.
10:04I mean,
10:05well,
10:06as an actress,
10:07she can do no harm.
10:09But she steals the show.
10:10She has done
10:11in all of her appearances
10:13in Marvel.
10:14She's always just really
10:15been the best thing
10:17about the films.
10:18And here,
10:18she really gets
10:19a chance to shine.
10:20So if people want to see
10:22Thunderbolts,
10:23Asterix,
10:24they can.
10:26But this just makes me
10:28want to watch
10:28more Florence Pugh films
10:30or re-watch,
10:31should I say.
10:32Because, you know,
10:33when you've got
10:34Little Women,
10:35the Greta Gerwig
10:36in which she plays Amy,
10:38that,
10:39she was fantastic in that.
10:40She's also fantastic
10:41in several other films
10:42which are maybe
10:43lesser seen.
10:45There's one called
10:46The Falling,
10:47which was in 2014,
10:48if I'm not mistaken,
10:49the Carol Morley film,
10:51which essentially deals
10:52with these fainting spells
10:54in an all-girls school.
10:55And it is incredible
10:57and it features
10:57an absolutely stunning
10:59soundtrack from
11:00Tracy Thorne
11:01of Everything But The Girl.
11:03And there's also one
11:04which is a personal
11:04favourite of mine
11:05called The Wonder
11:06by Sebastian Lalo.
11:07And this is a period piece
11:10adapted from the book
11:12by Emma Donoghue.
11:13And it deals with
11:15science versus faith
11:17and the stories
11:18that we create,
11:20the stories we inherit,
11:22the stories we don't
11:23question enough.
11:24And it features
11:25this absolutely gorgeous
11:26score by Matthew Herbert
11:28which is haunting
11:29in all the right ways
11:30and gives it a bit of
11:32a gothic kind of feel.
11:35And yeah,
11:36so basically
11:36Thunderbolt's good.
11:38Very, very good.
11:39For a 36th film,
11:40it kind of redeems things,
11:42you know,
11:42kind of shows Marvel
11:43as still stories to tell.
11:45But it just made me
11:47want to re-watch
11:48some of Franger's best hits.
11:49Okay, well,
11:50that's one that
11:51the box offices
11:52now across Europe
11:54do go out and see it
11:56if you have a chance.
11:57Much more on the agenda,
11:59of course.
12:00Do check out
12:00our weekly roundup.
12:02That's on our website.
12:04For now, David,
12:05thank you very much
12:05for your time
12:06and thank you for your time
12:07for joining us.
12:08More to come.
12:09Stay with us.
12:10Stay with us.
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