Mr Jones, Death of England, The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, British Baroque, This Life

Saturday Review

Director Agnieszka Holland assembles a cast including James Norton and Vanessa Kirby to tell the story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones who in 1933 travelled to Soviet Russia and told the truth about the famine in Ukraine.

At the National Theatre, Clint Dyer directs the play he has co-written with Roy Williams, Death of England, starring Rafe Spall as a white working-class man whose father has died and who has to face up to his conflicted feelings about his country and the people who live in it.

Ta-Nehisi Coates has earned a great reputation as a writer and thinker on race in America. His first novel, The Water Dancer, is the story of Hiram Walker who becomes involved in a struggle to leave slavery and save those close to him.

British Baroque at Tate Britain takes a look at art from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 until the death of Queen Anne in 1714, highlighting the jostling for power at court and beyond and illustrating the creation of the great buildings of the age.

And This Life returns to BBC4, a drama of young people entering the world of work in the law, perhaps best remembered for the simmering sexual tension between Miles and Anna. Will its fans from 1996 stick with it - and can it draw a new audience?

Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are Jen Harvie, Carl Anka and Terence Blacker.

Podcast Extra recommendations Carl: YouTube Channel SB Nation and Brian Phillips' obit of Kobe Bryant available here: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/1/30/21114600/kobe-bryant-legacy Jen: film, Parasite on general release; Tate Britain's exhibition Terence: the music of Paolo Conte Tom: Edmund de Waal's book The White Road, and Zadie Smith's essay on Kara Walker in the NY Review of Books

Photo: James Norton and Vanessa Kirby, (c) Signature Entertainment