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Andrew Davies on Sanditon, Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, the literature of citizen and state

Andrew Davies on his TV dramatisation of Jane Austen's Sanditon, the prequel to Jim Henson's Dark Crystal film, Sarah Dunant and John Bowen on the literature of citizen and state

Screenwriter Andrew Davies talks to Samira Ahmed about his latest period drama, Sanditon, based on an unfinished novel by Jane Austen. They discuss what attracted him to the seaside tale, how lead character Charlotte Heywood is a very different kind of Austen heroine, and why he felt it was important to raise the issue of racial prejudice in Regency Britain.

Writer and reviewer Vic James looks at Netflix鈥檚 reboot of the 1982 Jim Henson puppet film The Dark Crystal which is accompanied by an exhibition of sets, puppets and props at the BFI on London's South Bank. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is a ten-part prequel to the original film charting the political awakening of a race of elf-like creatures who begin to question the regime of their oppressive rulers.

It's 550 years since Europe鈥檚 most trenchant political writer Niccolo Machiavelli was born. In The Prince he laid bare the machinations of the Florentine Republic. Novelist Sarah Dunant, whose last novel In The Name of the Family features Machiavelli, and John Bowen, Professor of Literature at York University, discuss the ways in which writers have explored the relationship between citizen and state in times of political turmoil.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Harry Parker

Available now

28 minutes

Sanditon

Sanditon
Sanditon
Photo credit: ITV

Sanditon begins on ITV on Sun 25 Aug at 9 pm聽

Main image: Rose Williams and Kate Ashfield
Photo credit: ITV

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
Puppet from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance exhibition
at the
until 6 Sept

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
Dark Crystal:
Age of Resistance
Photo credit: Netflix

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance currently streaming on Netflix

Broadcast

  • Fri 23 Aug 2019 19:15

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