Episodes
| Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | 20190131 | 20190427 (R4) | What should good sexual consent' look, sound and feel like? Eimear McBride broke new ground with her writing about sex in the novels A Girl is a Half-formed Thing' and The Lesser Bohemians'. She was praised for her truth-spilling, uncompromising' ability to take us right inside the experience of sex. Now Eimear wants to explore the moments just before sex - when consent is still molten and evolving. So where in our literature can we find good examples of this kind of intimacy? Eimear looks back to Samuel Richardson's 17th century novel Pamela' ( one of the most influential writers on later courtship narratives, including the work of Jane Austen), to D.H.Lawrence's depiction of consent and rejection, to Shakespeare's comedy cross-dressers, to W.H. Auden and to contemporary writers such as Sarah Hall, Sarah Waters, and the US Romance writer Nora Roberts. She also meets Dr Fern Riddell to explore the possibilities of non-verbal consent (the language of hats and fans), as practised by the Victorians. Music: composed by 'Scanner Producer: Faith Lawrence Interviewed in this programme: Sarah Hall, novelist and short story writer - author of The Wolf Border'; editor ( along with Peter Hobbs) of the anthology Sex and Death: Stories Professor Judith Hawley (interviewed at the British Library with a first edition of Samuel Richardson's Pamela'), Royal Holloway, University of London. Dr Jarlath Killeen, Trinity College, Dublin Dr Fern Riddell, author of The Victorian Guide to Sex' and the forthcoming Death in Ten Minutes:The Forgotten life of radical suffragette Kitty Marion Dr Catherine Brown, New College of the Humanities Andrew McMillan, poet and senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University Professor Emma Smith, Hertford College, The University of Oxford, author of This is Shakespeare' (May 2019) Professor Jacqueline Rose, Birkbeck College, University of London In part two, Eimear explores consent' in the performing and visual arts. Novelist Eimear McBride looks at the way writers have depicted sexual consent. Our age is confused about sexual consent - what should it look, sound and feel like? |
| Part 2 | 20190207 | 20190427 (R4) | Our age is confused about sexual consent; what should it look, sound and feel like? Novelist and winner of The Women's Prize for Fiction, Eimear McBride, finds out what artists and performers can tell us about our intimate interactions and conversations, and asks whether we can learn something from them that might help our own relationships. Eimear meets the cast of Dracula who are working with an Intimacy Director to ensure the sexual contact (in this new interpretation of the play) is authentic and ethical; she finds out how comedy, and drag can help us address the greyest areas of 'consent' with the comedian Natalie Palamides, and takes a fresh look at the way some of the old masters in our galleries depict sexuality. She also challenges the art historian Sara Riccardi to find outstanding 'consensual' depictions of sex in modern art. Sara takes Eimear to see the Arts Council Collection, and shows her works by David Hockney. the Norwegian artist AK Dolven, Clive Hodgson and Jock McFadyen. Music: composed by Scanner Producer: Faith Lawrence Interviewees include: Ross McGregor, Beatrice Vincent, Conor Moss, and Christopher Tester from Arrows and Traps Theatre Company Yarit Dor from Theatrical Intimacy Letizia Treves and Bart Cornelis from The National Gallery Sara Riccardi from Art Across Natalie Palamides as 'Nate Artworks: AK Dolven's 'The Kiss'; http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/explore/artist/dolven-k Jan Steen's 'An Interior with a Man offering an Oyster to a Woman https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jan-steen-an-interior-with-a-man-offering-an-oyster-to-a-woman Guido Reni's 'The Rape of Europa https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/guido-reni-the-rape-of-europa Novelist Eimear McBride looks at how artists and performers depict sexual consent. Our age is confused about sexual consent - what should it look, sound and feel like? |