David Bomberg

sunday evening (28th september), 9.00-10.00pm, on bbc 4 tv (freeview channel 9 or 106)
david bomberg: prophet in no man’s land (3rd of 3 episodes of britain at war: bomberg, sickert and nash) presented by andrew graham-dixon

“In the years preceding 1914, David Bomberg, Walter Sickert and Paul Nash set out to paint a new world, but, as the century unfolded, found themselves working in the rubble.
David Bomberg is now recognised as the most startlingly original British painter of his generation, but died in obscurity more than half a century ago.
A Jewish immigrant from London’s east end, his early modernist works pushed art to its limits.
Fighting at the Somme, David Bomberg watched the world splinter and fall apart just like the works of art he had created. Bomberg spent the rest of his life searching for order in an increasingly disordered world, and his wanderings took him as far as Palestine, before he settled at the end of his life in Ronda, Spain.
When he died in 1957, embattled and in poverty, he seemed to be no more than a footnote in the history of British art. However, the works that survive David Bomberg tell their own story. Combative and iconoclastic, he remains the most elusively original British painter of the 20th century.”

Free thinking: Howard Jacobson

tomorrow evening (wednesday 24th), 10.00-10.45pm, on bbc radio 3
howard jacobson, francis fukuyama (in the free thinking series)

Free thinking: language

tomorrow evening (tuesday 23rd), 10.00-10.45pm, on bbc radio 3
language with steven pinker and will self (in the free thinking series)

Poland’s Jewish renaissance

tomorrow afternoon (monday 22nd), 3.30-4.00pm, on bbc world service radio (freeview channel 710) (repeated from january)
generation unexpected: poland’s jewish renaissance (in the heart and soul series)

Prayer for the day

every weekday morning this week (monday 22nd to friday 26th), 5.43-5.45am, on bbc radio 4
prayer for the day with rabbi jonathan wittenberg on …
• forgiveness
•• helen bamber
••• new year: the book of life

•••• respecting nature
••••• consider how others see you

Zach Braff

yesterday evening (friday 19th), 7.15-7.45pm, on bbc radio 4
front row leads with kirsty lang interviewing zach braff

The 12 Jews of Egypt

yesterday evening (thursday 18th), 9.54-9.58pm, on bbc world service radio (freeview channel 710 or 107)
newshour (presented by james menendez) concludes with the 12 jews still living in egypt

“There used to be about 100,000 Jews in Egypt, most of them were forced to leave in the 1950s and 60s, Egypt was at war with Israel, and the government suspected that many of them were spies. Now only a handful are left, and they fear their culture and heritage will soon be gone.”

and includes interviews with …
• bbc reporter sally nabil from cairo
• magda haroun (see also http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/70015/Egypt/Politics-/Magda…)
• lucy shaoul

Defiance (2008)

tomorrow evening (saturday 20th), 9.00-11.05pm, on bbc 2 (previously shown on bbc 4, when it was followed by a documentary, death camp treblinka: survivor stories, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m1l9w)
defiance (2008), starring daniel craig (who also starred in Munich, 2005, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_%28film%29)

“Four Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants.”

Alex Salmond on barbarism

last sunday morning (14th september), 9.00-10.00am on bbc1
the andrew marr show includes alex salmond contrasting unspeakable barbarism, atrocities, and extremism with the policies of the state of Israel …

The real Noah’s Ark

tomorrow evening (sunday 14th),  8.00-9.00pm, on channel 4 tv
the real noah’s ark: secret history

“The astonishing story of Dr Irving Finkel, a world expert on ancient Babylon, and his incredible discovery of a 4000-year-old tablet that sheds new light on the iconic and world famous biblical tale of Noah’s Ark.”