Radio choice Charlotte Runcie

The Great Exhibition of The North: Film

RADIO 4, 9.00AM

As the Great Exhibition of the North continues its three-month celebration of creativity in the North of England and the artists, inventors and designers who work there, this four-part series highlights four major strands of the cultural activities taking place. Lauren Laverne is set to present a show about music, Degna Stone will explore the visual arts, and Steph Mcgovern will focus on design, while in this opener, Antonia Quirke hears about the cinematic heritage and film-making future of the region.

Free Thinking RADIO 3, 10.00PM

 It’s wise to be wary when writers start discussing “the state of the novel”, as it often turns into a roundabout way of them talking at length about their own novel. Still, this lecture by the eminent Booker prize-winning author Howard Jacobson on why we need the novel, given at the Southbank Centre in London, should be essential listening for keen readers of literary fiction. With presenter Shahidha Bari, Jacobson argues that in the shortform age of Twitter, the novel is more important than ever.