Main content

War Of The Worlds re-imagined, Stephen Bourne- Playing Gay, Museum Funding

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

HG Wells’ classic novel The War of the Worlds has been adapted many times including the infamous occasion on which Orson Welles’ radio version convinced some American citizens that Martians really were invading the Earth . Now a new Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú TV version is coming, with a female narrator and subtexts about empire and climate change. Writer Peter Harness talks to Front Row about the choices he’s made for this version.

Today the National Gallery in London announced an appeal to raise the final £2m needed to buy a painting which has been on loan to the gallery for nearly 20 years - The Finding of Moses by Orazio Gentileschi, father of his better-known painter daughter, Artemisia. The National Gallery’s director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, discusses the appeal, and considers the broader contentious issue of corporate sponsorship of the arts with Sharon Heal, director of the Museums Association.

Television has been an important catalyst for social change in modern times, a hot line into the national psyche and an engine of changing attitudes. In a new book,Playing Gay in the Golden Age of British TV, social historian Stephen Bourne has explored the role of the small screen in the fight for gay liberation from television's modest beginnings until the 1980s

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Oliver Jones

Available now

28 minutes

War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds
War of the WorldsÌýbegins on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú One on Sun 17 Nov
at 9 pm

Main image and left: Eleanor Tomlinson and Rafe Spall
Photo credits:ÌýÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú/© Mammoth Screen 2018

Museum Funding

Museum Funding
The Finding of Moses, by Orazio Gentileschi, early 1630s, Private Collection

Ìýis on display at the National GalleryÌý

Broadcast

  • Mon 11 Nov 2019 19:15

Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Arts Digital

The best of British culture live and on demand.

Inspire

Inspire

A season discovering where artists find inspiration and helping listeners get creative.

Podcast