Saturday Review - 27/03/2010

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer and broadcaster Misha Glenny, historian Amanda Vickery and anthropologist Kit Davis to review the cultural highlights of the week including HBO miniseries The Pacific and Bulgakov's The White Guard at the National Theatre. Following on from the success of Band of Brothers in 2001, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks return as executive producers of The Pacific, a 10 part miniseries about the war against Japan. Mikhail Bulgakov adapted his novel The White Guard - about a Kiev family caught in revolutionary chaos - into a play in 1926. It was hugely successful - even Stalin was a fan, seeing it at least 20 times. Howard Davies directs Andrew Upton's new version at the National Theatre in London. In Jim Crace's novel All That Follows, Lennie Lessing is a jazz saxophonist on the brink of his 50th birthday who feels that his glory days are behind him. When an old acquaintance takes a family hostage he is faced with some stark choices about whether to get involved or go for the more comfortable option of inaction. Jessica Hausner's award-winning film Lourdes follows a young woman - Christine - on a pilgrimage to the shrine in France. The possibility of a miracle uncovers the close relationship between pity, contempt and hypocrisy in the attitudes of her fellow pilgrims. Discover Greenwich is a new visitor's centre at the World Heritage Site in London. Housed in the Old Royal Naval College, it comprises a permanent exhibition outlining the historical and architectural importance of the area and a learning centre where specialist workshops will be run.