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Features

Tense times: from left, Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson and David Oyelowo in Small Island

Small Island - Black pride and British prejudice

Andrea Levy's prize-winning novel 'Small Island' has been turned into a TV drama. Guy Adams talks to its fast-rising star, David Oyelowo

Inside Features

Observations: No need to touch that dial

Friday, 4 December 2009

Blame the cold, winter nights and a need for credit-crunch friendly entertainment, but radio dramas have been enjoying a renaissance of late. The opportunities for tuning into them, though, have been limited to catching up with Radio 4 on the wireless. Now the production company Made in Manchester (MIM) have teamed up with The Independent on Independent Drama, a series of plays which can be downloaded and listened to online or on your iPod for free. Last month, a dramatisation of the final thoughts of persecuted code-breaker Alan Turing premiered online. It's followed today by Death in Genoa, Thomas Wright's fictionalised account of Oscar Wilde's Italian escapades in the late 1890s, following his release from jail. "It's the period when he was unproductive. He just gave up," says Simon Callow, who plays Wilde. "He had no money and he'd lost his subject. He wrote about society and he was now an exile from it. He was completely captivated by the idea of just having a lovely, sexy time with boys and drinking a lot. His native hedonism took over." Wilde's 18-year-old Italian lover/ rent boy is played by Samuel Barnett (The History Boys) while Joyce Branagh (sister of Kenneth) directs.

The Week In Radio: The Archers is a tale of country folk stands the test of time

Thursday, 3 December 2009

As Alan Bennett said, you only have to eat a boiled egg at 90 and they think you deserve the Nobel Prize, and in radio too, being venerable often means getting away with less than the best. Radio can be ruthless – the digital stations 6 and 7 have barely begun and Mark Thompson is musing on their demise in a post-apocalyptic world where the licence fee is cut and a director- general's salary has to dip below the half-million mark. But there are some Methuselahs like The Archers, which remain untouchable. At 58 years and counting, the question is whether radio's favourite soap is having a senior moment or is it as fresh as ever?

Looks good enough to eat: 'Kitchen Still Life' by Snijder

The past suppers: Can paintings reveal how our ancestors ate?

Thursday, 3 December 2009

A new TV series attempts to find out by analysing paintings of food and replicating the meals.

Lous Walsh: 'This show is a platform for people who have got talent and if they use it properly, it's just a chance. They're not all going to be stars'

'I love being on X Factor'

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Alice Jones meets Louis Walsh - the show's most entertaining judge

Emilia Fox plays the 1950s Queen during the Peter Townsend affair

Queens of the small screen

Friday, 27 November 2009

Helen Mirren won an Oscar as Elizabeth II and now five more actresses are to play her on television. Is it time to re-bottle the monarch's mystique? By Gerard Gilbert

The BBC is tightening up on bad language but swearing - in public anyway - has increased since the Sex Pistols' 1976  encounter with Bill Grundy on TV

The XXX Factor: A history of swearing on TV

Thursday, 26 November 2009

Peter Silverton: The BBC is tightening up on bad language. But does profanity have the power to shock any more?

The cast, from left, Tim Gebbels, Sophie Woolley, Victoria Wright, Mat Fraser, Kiruna Stamwell and Peter Mitchell

Cast Offs: the verdict

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Channel 4 says its new comedy is a television landmark. But what do disabled viewers think?

The wheel deal: each character in 'Cast Offs' - including Peter Mitchell's Dan - is played by a disabled actor

Are we there yet? ‘Cast Offs’ co-writer Jack Thorne on his new TV drama

Sunday, 22 November 2009

The disabled on screen have rarely been more than quirky objects of pity – until now. 'Cast Offs' co-writer Jack Thorne reveals why his new TV drama will be 'filthy, funny and annoying'

From left: Ruth Jones, Mathew Horne, Joanna Page and James Corden move the action to Cardiff for the last series of the sitcom

Cardiff confidential: Saying farewell to Gavin & Stacey

Saturday, 21 November 2009

'Gavin & Stacey' returns next week – but it will be for the last time.

April (Victoria Wright) is a research scientist with cherubism

Cast Offs - Time to cast a new light on disability

Friday, 20 November 2009

A blackly funny new TV series aims to rescue disabled characters from the modish comedy of embarrassment. Gerard Gilbert reports

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