Night Waves - 18/02/2008

Matthew Sweet is joined by political cartoonist Martin Rowson, American poet Mark Doty and novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones to consider what our pets can tell us about ourselves and our place in the cosmos. Harvard creative writing director Lewis Hyde discusses his new book Trickster, which takes on the subject of playfulness, from the ancient world to the present. He argues that tricksters, while lying and cheating their way round the edges of society are in fact also indispensable heroes of culture. And there are reviews of two of the week's main openings - the first English language film by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai and An English Tragedy, the new play from Ronald Harwood, recently nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.