World Book Club

Episodes

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  World Book Club: Ocean Vuong : On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 07.11.2026 1h 16m

  William Lee Adams is joined by Ocean Vuong to discuss his acclaimed novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous — a luminous and unflinching exploration of family, identity, memory and the complexities of love.The story unfolds as a letter from Little Dog, a young Vietnamese American man, to his mother, Rose, who is unable to read. Through this intimate act of storytelling, he traces his childhood in Hartford, Connecticut, the inherited trauma of his family’s experiences of war and migration, and the complicated bond between mother and son. As Little Dog reflects on his coming of age, his first love with a boy named Trevor, and the tenderness and brutality that can coexist in human relationships, he searches for a language capable of expressing what his family has struggled to articulate.Moving between personal memory and collective history, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous examines the lasting effects of war, the experience of being an outsider, the challenges of growing up queer, and the ways violence and love can become entangled across generations. With its striking imagery, poetic prose and profound emotional honesty, the novel asks what it means to tell our own stories when the people we love may never be able to hear them.Ocean Vuong will be answering questions from our global audience of book lovers. Why craft the novel as a letter to an illiterate recipient? How does he approach the craft of poetry and prose? And are working class authors under threat in contemporary literature?
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  The Arts Hour. Indian actor and mega-star Ranbir Kapoor 06.11.2026 44m

  : Nikki Bedi speaks to Indian mega-star and actor, Rabir Kapoor who plays Lord Ram in the epic new movie Ramayana: Rise of a LegendPlus, critic Badisha discusses this week’s cultural highlights:Hollywood star and revered actor John Malkovich on his latest film, Wild Horse NineChilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña on her work including her decision to travel to EnglandOscar winning British actor Olivia Colman and Emmy Award winning Swedish star Alexander Skarsgard on their folk-frolic film, Wicker
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  In the Studio: Vietnamese Cinema 03.11.2026 26m

  Tuyet Vah Huynh meets two film-makers in Hanoi, Nguyen Duy Anh and Bui Kim Quy . Tuyet explains how cinema is booming in Vietnam. In 2025, more than 70 million cinema tickets were sold, and Vietnamese films took more than sixty per cent of the domestic box office. And yet, for audiences in Britain and much of the world, Vietnamese cinema can still feel largely undiscovered. Vietnam has been making films for generations, but outside the country, the image of Vietnam on screen has often been shaped by Hollywood, films about Vietnam, rather than films made by Vietnamese film.
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  The Arts Hour Indian-Irish poet Nikita Gill 30.10.2026 47m

  Nikki Bedi speaks to superstar Irish-Indian poet and New York Times-Bestselling author Nikita Gill about her latest “novel in verse Styx: The River” Plus critic Kohinoor Sahota discusses this week’s cultural highlights: Oscar-winners Aaron Sorkin and Mikey Madison on their new film, The Social Reckoning “Kinetic artist” Liliane Lijn on growing up in a multi-lingual household and being given Salvador Dali's moustache! South African actor John Kani (King T’Chaka in Black Panther) on playing Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest And fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe alum Florence Pugh on playing "fallen woman" Cathy Ames in the epic new Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden
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  In the Studio: Yuko Mohri 27.10.2026 26m

  Neil McCarthy meets Japanese artist Yuko Mohri, as she prepares for a major exhibition. Her sculptures often fuse ordinary objects, such as umbrellas, feather dusters and apples, with unstable forces such as air and water. The results are works of kinetic art that are constantly changing and evolving, as Neil discovers.
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  The Arts Hour: Elif Shafak 23.10.2026 46m

  Nikki Bedi speaks to the Turkish-born author about her new novel In One Brief Moment All Eternity. Using the voices of different women, Shafak tells the story of 19th century French writer Gustave Flaubert, whose famous book Madame Bovary forever shaped modern fiction.We hear from New Zealand's Taika Waititi about Klara and the Sun, his new film based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.Jamaican author Marlon James discusses The Disappearers, his new Booker-shortlisted story about 1980s homophobia.French director Stéphane Demoustier on The Great Arch, his new biopic of outsider Danish architect Otto von SpreckelsenAnd as a new adaptation of Sense & Sensibility hits the cinemas, British star Daisy Edgar Jones and Australian screenwriter Diana Reid make the case for Jane Austen's enduring relevance and wit.Joining to give his take on the week's cultural highlights is Guy Lodge, chief film critic at Variety magazine.Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
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  In the Studio: Joachim Trier 20.10.2026 26m

  Another chance to go behind the scenes with director Joachim Trier as he makes the follow-up to his international hit The Worst Person In The World. Stephen Hughes got exclusive access to the set of Sentimental Value, following the film from pre to post production. In a series of candid interviews, the writer-director reveals the anxiety he feels every time he has to make a movie, and how he is helped by his loyal team: screenwriter Eskil Vogt and producers Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, Mone Mikkelsen and Lars Thomas Skare.
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  The Arts Hour: Visionary filmmaker Boots Riley on his radical new movie I Love Boosters 16.10.2026 48m

  Nikki Bedi and critic Leila Latif celebrate this year’s London Film Festival with international directors of some of the most playful and provocative upcoming titles.African-American auteur Boots Riley explains the heady cocktail of comedy, shoplifting and politics in his film, ‘I Love Boosters’.From the Philippines, Rafael Manuel, reveals why he chose an elite Manila golf course as the setting for his social satire, Filipiñana.Chilean-Indian director Shalini Adnani’s ‘Our Share of Sand’ examines class and patriarchy’, through the eyes of a twelve year old girl who travels from England to India to reconnect with her father.And Nigerian filmmaker Daniel Oriahi’s “The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives” is a dark comedy which explores marriage, jealousy and fertility in a Yoruba family.
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  The Arts Hour: Tom Cruise on his latest film Digger 09.10.2026 47m

  Nikki Bedi speaks to Sudanese Russian director Suzannah Mirghani about her latest film, Cotton Queen and discusses this week’s cultural highlights with critic Hanna Flint: Tom Cruise and Oscar winning Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu on their new film, Digger Oscar winning actor Catherine Zeta Jones on reclaiming her Welsh accent in the TV series, Kill Jackie Punjabi-Indian superstar singer Diljit Dosanjh on performing in London's biggest stadium Gonzo journalist Jon Ronson on his latest book, The Castle And Oscar-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri on adapting Thelma and Louise into a stage musical
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  In the Studio: German Synth Music 06.10.2026 26m

  In Berlin, three artists have come together to make some unusual music. They’re not a regular rock band in a commercial recording studio, but in an experimental space, where rare vintage synthesisers from Cold War East Germany sit alongside contemporary instruments. They’re continuing a decades long Berlin tradition of experimental electronic music. In the Studio joins the trio for a couple of days as they push at the envelope of audio possibilities, and hears how musicians from the East and the West influenced each other at the heights of the Cold War. Thanks to the only surviving example of one GDR synthesiser, we’ll literally hear the sound of the other side of the wall in a former divided city.
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  World Book Club: Paul Tremblay, A Head Full of Ghosts 03.10.2026 1h

  Josie Long interviews one of the masters of modern horror, Paul Tremblay. He answers your questions on on of his best loved novels, A Head Full of Ghosts.The story centres on the Barretts, a typical New England suburban family, torn apart when their eldest daughter, 14-year-old Marjorie, begins to display signs of acute mental illness.When doctors are seemingly unable to offer any relief, and financial troubles compound the horror of being unable to help their child, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. But the priest offers more than prayers; he knows of a production company that is eager to document their plight, and pay a pretty penny for access. With mounting medical bills, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of a hit reality television show - The Possession. When events in the Barrett household spiral into tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old memories blur with the edited version presented to the world, and the terrible truth of what happened to the Barrett’s is finally brought to light. Though at the end, readers will still be asking if the events were purely medical, or if there really was a supernatural evil lurking beneath it all. One of Paul’s most beloved works.Paul answers your questions about the timeless appeal of horror, the power of ambiguity in storytelling, and how demonic possession is perhaps the lesser of all the evils revealed in this story.
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  The Arts Hour: Saoirse Ronan and Rachel Eliza Griffiths 02.10.2026 45m

  Nikki Bedi speaks to American poet, author, and artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths about the extraordinary new documentary film Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie and discusses this week’s cultural highlights with critic William Lee Adams:American Irish actor Saoirse Ronan on her cultural hero, Barbra StreisandFrench creator and writer Fanny Herrero on her new feature length film, Call My AgentChinese American literary star Rebecca F Kuang on her new novel, Taipei StoryDirector Dave Green on his Looney Toons film, Coyote vs AcmeAnd we hear music from Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta
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  In the Studio: Leïla Slimani takes on Tolstoy 29.09.2026 26m

  Prix Goncourt-winning writer Leïla Slimani this year completed a trilogy of novels; an era-spanning epic family saga set in Morocco, which concludes with the semi-autobiographical I'll Take The Fire. Never one to stay in her comfort zone and compelled to write, she has now embarked on her very first play. She discusses the challenges of adapting Leo Tolstoy’s moralising final novel Resurrection for stage, and the surprising connections with her previous, diverse, body of work. Ahead of the play's world premiere in Lorient next week, theatre director Simon Delétang also joins from his rehearsals with Comédie-Française to discuss collaborating with Slimani on the project.
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  The Arts Hour: Juliette Binoche and Nicholas Winding Refn 25.09.2026 43m

  Nikki Bedi speaks to visionary Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn about his latest movie, Her Private Hell, and discusses this week’s cultural highlights with critic Zing Tsjeng:Plus, we hear from Oscar-winning French actor Juliette Binoche on her morally complex new film, Queen at SeaBritish author Candice Carty-Williams on bringing back her much-loved character, Queenie for her new novelAmerican actor Bill Pullman on playing groovy jazz legend Bill Evans’ father in a new biopiceAnd man of the moment, Welsh actor Matthew Rhys on Widow’s Bay and The Beast in Me, which have just earned him a record-breaking scoop at the Emmy Awards
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  In the Studio: Poet Leonie Charlton on wildfires 22.09.2026 26m

  An edition of In The Studio on the subject that became the dominant story across the world in the summer of 2026. In December 2024, the Scottish poet Leonie Charlton’s house burned to the ground. From that moment, Leonie was obsessed with fire. She saw it everywhere, writing about and mulling over the acute experience of watching everything she and her family had ever owned go up in flames. In early summer this year, Leonie set off through the ruggedly wild and beautiful landscape of the West Coast of Scotland to write a new poem about fire for her forthcoming collection Deerlands. But, within days, the thousands of wildfires across the world began to take hold, reaching into Scotland too. This is a programme about a poet responding to a personal calamity just at the moment it becomes a global calamity. Presented by Antonia Quirke.
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  In the Studio: Jack in the Green 15.09.2026 26m

  In the south of England, Hastings' traditional Jack in the Green takes place every early May Day weekend and sees a seven foot-tall conical tower of leaves - the Jack - being processed through the old fishing quarters of the town before being led up to a steep hill overlooking the sea where it is 'slain' to release the spirit of summer as the gathered, fervent, crowds take home leaves from him as symbols of luck and fertility. Neil McCarthy goes behind the scenes of one of the biggest celebrations of May Day in the United Kingdom.
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  In the Studio: The Bayeux Tapestry 08.09.2026 26m

  The Bayeux Tapestry has English history stitched into its fabric, depicting the last time the country was invaded, by William the Conqueror in 1066. France has been its home since then. But now thanks to high-level negotiations involving President Emmanuel Macron and King Charles III, it will be on display at the British Museum until next summer. Ten colours of woollen thread were used create battlefields and sea voyages on the artwork, as well as scenes of everyday life in the 11th century. Loaded into a specially-built case designed to withstand vibrations, it was transported on its own train under the English Channel – along with a police escort. They even had two practice runs without the tapestry to make sure things ran smoothly. In this episode of In the Studio, where we follow artists as they work, Julian May tells the story of the tapestry’s safe return to England and the preparation for what promises to be a blockbuster exhibition. A million people are expected to see the tapestry and it still inspires memes that show French and English football players in the World Cup wearing chain mail. In the dimly-lit gallery Julian watches while the condition of the Tapestry is checked, as it lies flat in its temperature-controlled case. He witnesses how a millennium after a small group of expert needlewomen embroidered the work of art, a small group of skilled curators – all women too – are nurturing their work: a sisterhood stretching over 70 metres of linen cloth – and a thousand years.
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  Steve Levine: Revisiting the Beach Boys 08.09.2026 1h 7m

  Steve Levine is a multi-award winning British record producer. He has produced albums for stars ranging from Deniece Williams to China Crisis; from Ziggy Marley to Quarterflash; as well as being producer of Culture Club’s first three multi-platinum selling albums from the 1980s. In 1984 Steve won Producer Of The Year at The Brit Awards, and in 1988 he won a Grammy Award for his work with Deniece Williams The Beach Boys self-titled 1985 CD – which Steve originally produced - was the band’s first to be recorded digitally and featured guest musicians Ringo Starr, Gary Moore and Stevie Wonder, plus a track written by Boy George and Roy Hay of Culture Club. Now, the former Culture Club producer accesses individual tracks from the original London (Red Bus Studios) and Los Angeles (Westlake Audio) session tapes. 40 years later, armed with new technology, Steve is able to transform the sonic quality via equipment that wasn’t available four decades ago. As he undertakes the painstaking studio process of remixing the music for a forthcoming re-release, Steve discusses the process – and the original sessions – in detail, with some music business friends. Those friends include original member of The Go Go’s and solo star Belinda Carlisle; founder member of the band America, Gerry Beckley; poet, author, biographer and documentary film maker Michael Feeney Callan; plus young British music duo Smith & Liddle, otherwise known as Billy Smith and Elizabeth Liddle.A Magnum Opus Broadcasting production for the BBC World Service Producers: Steve Levine and Lewis Borg-Cardona
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  Daniyal Mueenuddin : This is Where the Serpent Lives 05.09.2026 59m

  Harriett talks with Daniyal Mueenuddin about This Is Where the Serpent Lives.Daniyal's debut novel is a rich and compelling portrait of contemporary Pakistan, following the intertwined lives of unforgettable characters whose fortunes are shaped by love, ambition, loyalty and betrayal. Set against the backdrop of a vast rural estate, the novel explores the lives of servants and landowners, dreamers and opportunists, as they navigate systems of class, power and privilege.Recorded in front of live audience in Edinburgh, Daniyal will be answering questions about how he created such an intimate portrait of life in Pakistan, the challenges of writing an epic that spans decades, and if it's possible for people to break free of the role society deems they must fulfill.
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  Introducing: Artists at Work 03.09.2026 2m

  Harriett Gilbert welcomes you to the Artists at Work podcast feed, the home of arts and culture from BBC World Service, where World Book Club will be joined by In the Studio and the Arts Hour. In The Studio follows the world’s leading creative figures while they work. Nikki Bedi hosts The Arts Hour, with news of the latest releases from around the world, and in World Book Club Harriett Gilbert puts your questions and comments to best-selling authors.In the Studio episodes are released on Tuesdays, The Arts Hour with you on Fridays and World Book Club drops on the first Saturday of each month.