Persuasive rather than polarising . Kwame kwei armah, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you so much for having me. It is a great pleasure to have you. Now, youve been in the Theatre Business as an actor, a writer and a director for the best part of three decades. Ijust used that phrase, some would call it a cliche, about the culture wars. Does it feel to you that today there is a somewhat toxic culture war . I think youve framed it beautifully. It is toxic, but most importantly, its disingenuous. In my humble opinion. Its used to kind of create political fear. And ourjob as artists is, i think, fundamentally to take away that fear, to take away the binaries that i think this farce of the culture wars are. You know, i often hear politicians and im not one to diss politicians, but i also often hear politicians use race or class or immigration or use history as a Battering Ram to get themselves into the hearts of the populist. But those issues youve just outlined race, immigration they are centr
Ijust used that phrase, some would call it a cliche, about the culture wars. Does it feel to you that today there is a somewhat toxic culture war . I think youve framed it beautifully. It is toxic, but most importantly, its disingenuous. In my humble opinion. Its used to kind of create political fear. And ourjob as artists is, i think, fundamentally to take away that fear, to take away the binaries that i think this farce of the culture wars are. You know, i often hear politicians and im not one to diss politicians, but i also often hear politicians use race or class or immigration or use history as a Battering Ram to get themselves into the hearts of the populist. But those issues youve just outlined race, immigration they are central to your work, because theyre central to your own life story. Yeah, totally and utterly. But. And have you been frightened off entering this territory at times . Again, i think its framed brilliantly. Fortunately for me, or unfortunately, when im afraid o
welcome to london where we have a spectacular view of the city on this historic urination day. countdown to an event that many of us will be seeing for the first time in our lives. and will not soon forget. moments ago, we saw king charles iii and queen camilla arriving at westminster abbey, where they operate a start of ceremonies, officially counting them as the new monarch. we expect to see charles and camilla very soon, kicking off this remarkable celebration. dignitaries including first lady joe biden have been gathering at westminster abbey, whether coronation will be taking place. charles taking center stage, after the death of his mother queen elizabeth the second and 70 years after she herself was crowned. crowds gathered to get a glimpse of the king and queen as they make their way from here, buckingham palace, two westminster abbey in a gilded carriage called the diamond jubilee state coach polled by windsor grey horses. the kings procession will depart bucking
hello and welcome to the programme. i m luxmy gopal. we start with the news that the australian comedian barry humphries, best known for his character dame edna everage, has died at the age of 89. he d been receiving treatment at a hospital in sydney following hip surgery. barry humphries was a leading figure on the british comedy scene with his many satirical characters. his family said he never lost his brilliant mind and unique wit. our arts correspondent, david sillito, looks back at his life. dame edna everage! hello, possums! dame edna always said she was born with a priceless gift: the ability to laugh at the misfortunes of others. iam i am awaiting us. i am weightless. listen, you could do with losing a little. success has gone to yourjowls! you re being very, very cruel! for more than 50 years, she took pleasure in saying the unsayable. i ve had a little work done, but. have you? not quite as much as some! laughter and applause no. no, you are still recognisable,
to protect the endangered species. hello. welcome to the programme. we start in sudan, where the army says foreign nationals from the uk as well as the united states, france and china are to be evacuated in the coming hours . these are saudi state tv pictures of a boat reported to be carrying saudi citizens and some other nationals arriving injeddah, across the red sea from sudan. other ships are said to be due to dock injeddah later. the head of sudan s military agreed to facilitate the evacuation, as fighting in the capital khartoum enters its second week. the saudi broadcaster says the evacuees were carried in a convoy of vehicles to port sudan from where they boarded ships tojeddah. the most intense fighting in sudan has been taking place in the capital khartoum, where explosions and gunfire have been heard in the past few hours. the un estimates that at least 400 people have been killed across sudan since the fighting began a week ago. the conflict is the result of