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Organist Anna Lapwood, The Women鈥檚 Prize for Fiction shortlist, Gangs of London

Organist Anna Lapwood performs in her living room; The Women鈥檚 Prize for Fiction - we announce the shortlist; and Gangs of London - John speaks to creator Gareth Evans.

Organist Anna Lapwood, who is Director of Music at Pembroke College Cambridge, performs a Bach chorale prelude, live on the new organ she has installed in her living room. She talks about her virtual Bach-a-thon, for which musicians post videos of themselves playing Bach, and her new role as conductor of the NHS Chorus-19 - a virtual choir of over 700 NHS staff across the UK.

Front Row announces the shortlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020, and critics Alex Clark and Sarah Shaffi comment on the six novels that made it through from the longlist of 16.

Gareth Evans, co-creator of the new Sky drama series Gangs of London, discusses how video games and his background in martial arts films influenced the look and feel of his story of a city being torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of the international gangs that control it.

And the curlew. There are eight species of curlew. Or there were. Neither the Eskimo and the Slender-Billed curlew has been seen for decades. Out of the remaining six species, three are at risk of extinction. To draw attention to their plight, 21April has been designated World Curlew Day. These beautiful waders, with their elegant curved bills and haunting song, have long inspired musician and poets. The poet Jeremy Hooker lived in an area of rural Wales mid Wales. Every year the curlews came and he tried to capture them and their calls in language. We hear his poem, Curlew.

Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Julian May
Studio Manager: John Boland

Available now

28 minutes

Organist Anna Lapwood

Organist Anna Lapwood

Find out more about听 that Anna Lapwood is involved with which aims to help Musicians to support those for whom this Pandemic is causing extreme financial uncertainty;

听and the set up to bolster morale through song.

Images:

Main image above: playing the organ at the Baftas

Image to the left: Anna Lapwood conducting

Image credit: Luke Naylor-Perrot

The Women's Fiction Prize 2020 shortlist

The Women's Fiction Prize 2020 shortlist

The winner of the will be announced on 09 September 2020.

Image: The Women's Fiction Prize judging panel , with the longlisted books,

from Left: Scarlett Curtis, Paula Hawkins, Martha Lane Fox (Chair), Melanie Eusebe, Viv Groskop

Gangs of London

Gangs of London

Gangs of London series听is available from Sky Atlantic from 23 April 2020

Image: Lucian Msamati, Joe Cole, Sope Dirisu, and Michelle Fairley in Gangs of London.

Image credit: (c)Sky UK Ltd

Broadcast

  • Tue 21 Apr 2020 19:15

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