G2_2012-08-30_

Thursday 30.08.12

‘History has hijacked what the Syrian people were trying to achieve’

12A

Martin Chulov on the chaos that cannot be contained

American election

Suzanne Moore

More than leeks

Notes & Queries

Goodbye starchitecture

Can Hollywood swing it?

Uniforms make us conform

Welsh cuisine heats up

1066 and all that

Venice Architecture Biennale

Shortcuts

Film studies

Hollywood won’t decide the US election

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wo movies scheduled for release in the US on 26 December – a traditional slot for hot Oscar contenders – may make poignant viewing for the political classes. They are Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, a dramatisation of the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden, and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, a biopic of the president.

If, during that holiday season, Barack Obama is preparing to begin his second term, the films will make pleasant chat at inauguration parties and help to burnish his legend. The Obama administration co-operated with Bigelow in the making of her film – there are allegations that the Pentagon released classified material to the director – while Spielberg, an Obama supporter, chose the end of the first term to make a film about a previous tall orator from Chicago who advanced the cause of race relations.

However, should Mitt Romney be celebrating Christmas as president-elect, Republicans will congratulate themselves on their anti-propaganda operation, while Democratic moviegoers fume about what might have been.

Commentators on the right had fretted that, if Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln were released before the election in November, they might serve as propaganda weapons fired by a Hollywood long suspected (a charge that is hard to deny) of leftwing sympathies.

Spielberg insists that he always wanted to go out post-election, fearing that the film would become “political fodder”. And Bigelow’s studio denies that an October release was ever confirmed. Even so, the row over the release dates raises the question of

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Shorter cuts 2 The Guardian 30.08.12

Images from Kathryn Bigelow’s hunt-for-Bin-Laden drama Zero Dark Thirty and Daniel Day-Lewis as the lead in Spielberg’s Lincoln biopic

whether what the electorate sees with its popcorn ever could dictate behaviour in the polling booth.

In 2008, Oliver Stone shot and edited W, his biopic of the thenincumbent president, George W Bush, with unusual rapidity so that the film could be released during the subject’s campaign for re-election, possibly as an intervention. But Bush beat John Kerry, suggesting that Americans don’t go to the movies to be told how to vote. Although it can be argued that Stone’s JFK, released just before the 1992 election, helped the campaign of Bill Clinton, who, as a teenager, was pictured with Kennedy.

Two Clinton-era films depicting the White House as a den of sex and murder – Clint Eastwood’s Absolute Power and Murder at 1600, with Wesley Snipes – were not released until 1997, after the safe re-election of a president who had been accused by his more committed opponents of both sexual depravity and homicide.

Americans, though, seem to make little connection between fictional and factual presidents: Clinton served for eight years during which film presidents became increasingly psychopathic, while Bush was in every way the opposite of the key made-up leader of his time, Martin Sheen’s President Bartlet in The West Wing.

The only movies that had a decisive effect on an American election were released four decades before the race they influenced. Knute Rockne, All American (1940) and King’s Row (1942) gave Ronald Reagan the fame, nickname (“the Gipper”) and optimistic spirit that made him a two-term president.

However, even if Eastwood announces tomorrow that he is rushing out, ahead of November, a biopic in which the Gipper is played by fellow cinematic Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s hard to believe that Obama and Romney’s poll numbers would move much.

Mark Lawson

Yawn, minister

It’s a wrap

A YouTube clip shows Jeremy Hunt looking distracted during Joe McElderry’s Paralympics torch relay performance.

If there was a tree he would be hiding behind it.

Sad news that geles, the tall headwraps worn by Nigerian women, have been banned at an Enugu church on security grounds. Other churches are considering following suit.

Sundays will never be the same.

Rhetoric

What is the ‘politics of envy’ anyway?

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s Tory MPs go, mild Bernard Jenkin wouldn’t claim to be an original phrase-maker. So when confronted with Nick Clegg’s call for a wealth tax at breakfast time yesterday, Jenkin couldn’t manage a snappier retort than to accuse the deputy prime minister of “the politics of envy”.

The envious idea of chopping the heads off tall poppies can be traced to Herodotus, though the ancient Greek pundit wrote about decapitating tall stalks of wheat.

Poppies, wheat, investment bankers, Richard Branson – the idea is much the same.

Nowadays the charge, revived by an American called Doug Bandow in the 90s, is levelled against the left and invariably deployed by the right. It’s

Pass notes No 3,238 Alastair Cook

eptember: time for new stationery, winter boots, crunchy apples and … resolutions? Tradition says we’re four months early for salads, gym, no booze and sensible spending. But then tradition also says it’s a good idea to make unrealistic promises when the weather’s appalling and your bank account’s empty.

Instead of waiting for the twinkle of Christmas to fade into the grey despair of January, the end of summer is surely the perfect time to reconsider fitness, fatness and financial standing.

We’re relaxed and jolly and full of zip – not to mention far too many

indulgent meals and glasses of wine – after a summer break. We’re at full strength when it comes to facing a few months of denial.

And a few months is the perfect window for resolutions.

Christmas provides a natural goal to aim towards, and a treat for all your good work if you can maintain your pledges for those three-and-a-half months. There’s even the (vain?) hope that your resolution will become a habit, and you’ll be glad to get back to it in the new year, no matter how miserable it is outside.

But how much easier to have resolve when there’s still a sliver of summer sun fighting through the clouds.

So it’s September resolutions all round – just as soon as we’ve worked through the dutyfree booze.

Vicky Frost

Age: 27.66.

That’s very exact. He’s a cricketer, and averages are everything.

Appearance: Brooding male model who didn’t quite make it.

Nickname: Cooky (cricketers are not noted for their imagination when it comes to sobriquets).

New job: England cricket captain, succeeding Andrew Strauss who resigned yesterday.

Life expectancy: Limited.

What’s the problem? Sky-high expectations, an England team in decline, and the nightmare that is Kevin Pietersen.

Is Cook up to it? A left-handed opening batsman, he has a healthy Test average of 47.84, but his recent form has been poor. Averaged just 32.50 in the losing series against South Africa that did for Strauss.

You seem to be obsessed by decimal points. Tell us about the man. His CV, rather like his batting, is unexciting. Grew up in the Essex village of Wickham Bishops; was a chorister at St Paul’s cathedral school; plays the clarinet; won a music scholarship to Bedford school; made his county debut for Essex at 18. Married childhood sweetheart Alice Hunt last year. Wedding was attended by their pet dog, and they left the church in a tractor.

A tractor? Alice’s father is a sheep farmer, and the couple live near his farm in Bedfordshire. “I’m a country boy at heart,” says Cook. “I love it when you’ve got your boots on and you’re standing in three inches of cow shit.”

Not bad preparation for his new job. True.

You seem to be suggesting Cook’s a little dull.

He makes Strauss look like Prince Harry. “Cooky’s wedding list is full of house and kitchenware,” England team-mate Graeme Swann cruelly tweeted before the ceremony, “rather than things he actually needs. Like a joke book.”

There must be something interesting about him. He never sweats, not even when batting in 40-degree heat in Colombo. He may in fact be an android.

Not to be confused with: The very sweaty Alastair Campbell.

Do say: “If he hits his straps and concentrates on the positives, England will at least be at the races under Cooky.”

Don’t say: “Have you had a congratulatory text from KP yet?”

So retro

Triple strength

Quote of the day

Socialmatic, ADR Studio’s new device, allows you to print Instagram snaps on the go, Polaroid style.

Available next year.

If Fazer’s new single Killer tops the charts on Sunday, N-Dubz will be the first group ever whose debut solo singles all went to No 1.

“I love you women and I hear ar your voices.” Ann Romney tries to win back the female vote in her televised d Republican conference speech.

Self-improvement COVER ILLUSTRATION GEORGE BUTLER PHOTOGRAPHS JONATHAN OLLEY/JONATHANOLLEY.CO.UK, DAVID JAMES/SMPSP

not hard to see why. For every bloodthirsty Robespierre there must be a million gentle citizens who regard tax-evading millionaires as ripe for the politics of fairness over those of greed.

So when George Osborne cuts the 50p tax rate to 45p and faces “millionaire’s budget” jibes, he accuses his critics of TPOE. When Barack Obama denounces unfunded Republican tax cuts for the rich, he and his “socialist cronies” are tarred with TPOE. That sounds more admirable than saying that outsourcing jobs, rigging the City’s Libor network, or flogging worthless securities to pension funds deserves vast pay and perks. If talent, hard work, innovation and risk (with one’s own money too) were the only road to uber-wealth, there would be less of a 99% to 1% problem.

Let’s not take Jenkin’s word on TPOE. Let’s ask Warren Buffett, a man who made billions investing against the free-market herd.

Sure there’s class warfare, he says.

“It’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war – and we’re winning.”

Michael White

New season – new you?

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IN NUMBERS

1,969 Guns confiscated by Milwaukee police since 2007. Their flashy new website, milwaukeepolicenews. com, makes routine crimefighting seem like an episode of CSI.

30.08.12 The Guardian 3

Suzanne Moore We’re told that school uniforms are about preparing our kids for the ‘real world’. Do we want a world of dull conformists?

PHOTOGRAPHS ALAMY

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ould you like me to tell you what I am wearing? Not in a chatline kind of way – this is the Guardian, for goodness sake. I am wearing the Guardian uniform, which is whatever you imagine it to be. Earrings made of chard? Hemp waistcoats? Some colour blocking? It is, bizarrely enough, not a shirt and tie and blazer, but these are the extremely odd clothes we make children wear to “instil discipline” in them. All right-thinking people say that. But I don’t. Having had to buy a school uniform this week, I felt as dispirited as ever by the ridiculousness of it.

Unsurprisingly, I was never a fan of my own school uniform, which was bottle-green with knickers made of felt. We were constantly lectured about the activities we were not allowed be seen doing in it. In a hazy way, I remember them as basically eating chips and talking to boys.

“I’ll just take it off then Miss,” I used to say, for I was annoying then as I am now.

The price of the uniform itself was an n issue. The wear and tear of it was an issue. We couldn’t ldn’t afford it. Once I had a Saturday job that helped, elped, but naturally I bought myself some lime-green een plastic platforms. Weirdly they were not acceptable table as school shoes unless my mum wrote a note.

What medical condition required the wearing earing of these beauties I can only guess, but my mum’s notes I now look on with awe, the end line ine nearly always being: “She is in a phase.” ” Did this uniform instil in me a sense e of oneness with my school, or Ideologicall State Apparatus as I would later realise e it to be? Did it resolve the class issue? Er … not exactly. In those days we didn’t have ve stupid fashion words like “vintage” and d “pre-loved”, we had hand-me-downs, and really, I don’t know a modern child d who wants a second-hand uniform.

The myth of uniform is that it is a social leveller, an equaliser. And pushess up results? Then show me how. Many European countries with good schools don’t have uniforms. Bill Clinton thought ght back in the 90s that it might be the answer to gang-related violence. It wasn’t. n’t.

No uniform does what it says on the e tin. It is about conforming. It heartens many a parent to see their child as somehow ready forr work. Mr Gove of the Bible loves a uniform. Indeed eed the fetishisation of school uniform is no longer er a pervy thing; it is education policy. The academies mies are bonkers on it, parents like it and many children say it makes their lives easier. Labour bour and Tories think much the same.

The myth of uniform is that it is a social leveller, an equaliser

Teachers vary, some reporting that too much of their time is spent on policing clothing violations. If education is to be about conforming and not drawing out talent, I guess that’s fine, though the kind of overall worn in France for science or art would surely suffice. Uniform covers up many social ills. Sometimes, even poor parenting. (“Well they were always clean and in the right uniform.”) The signifiers of class and money are simply rejigged around bags, phone and pens. It is as it ever was.

This nostalgia for a uniform, reinforced by the retrograde fantasy of Harry Potter, is based on emotion not reason. Evidence does not come into it. Does all this produce better results? Happier children? Does apeing private schools in appearance but not resources gloss over the dire reality?

What we really have, alongside the increasing prevalence of the ghastly blazer/tie combo, is increasing social inequality. You could map it out but don’t ask me to, as I missed an awful lot of school on account of this kind of attitude. “Don’t ask questions, girl, and put your tie on properly.” g Don’t ask questions about the world of work que that we are prep preparing children for. At the moment it looks as if some will work for free in some s superstore u uniform. Get them used to it early. Compliance.

Zero tolerance. The best Compl days of your life.

In the Uniform Me shop this week it was Un hot and sweaty, as nasty polo shirts were pulled pulle on. Skirts must be knee-length.

That Tha will stop teen sex, I am sure.

And An I note the return of over-theknee kn socks, which of course do not resemble stockings in any way at res all. At least the stuff I bought was cheap.

Some inner-city uniforms are che close clos to £300.

When I have had jobs where I had W to we wear a uniform – in restaurants and hospitals – I just got on with it. I saw hospi the need.

But to learn? To learn what? ne Again, Again I ask: where is the evidence that uniform unifor works?

Since I bought my daughter’s uniform she has, of o course, had it on all the time, though school doesn’t start until next sc week. She is expressing herself or getting at me. She makes me laugh. But the idea m saddens me m that when she gets to secondary school schoo individuality must be knocked out of her as early as possible via the reinforcement forcemen of petty rules about shirts. This is indeed preparation for the real world. Of uniform th thinking.

This week Suzanne was taken aback by the sudden den appearance off Nick k Clegg Clegg. l “I realised he has not entered my consciousness for some time. I had kind of assumed he had been put somewhere.”

30.08.12 The Guardian 5

W

hen power starts to shift in the Middle East, its people have long known what to expect. Challenges to authority have rarely been met with a promise of consensus or inclusion.

Strong-arm suppression – the more forceful the better – has been the default reaction to dissent. The price has usually been brutal.

Syrians who wanted an end to regime dominance knew the rules when they started demanding changes in the region’s most uncompromising police state in March last year. Now, 18 months and more than 23,000 bodies later, and with no end in sight to the chaos ravaging the country, their worst fears are being realised on a scale that continues both to horrify and numb.

And yet, the events of the past 18 months have shattered one of the abiding guidelines to life under totalitarian rule – that absolute power is uncontestable. If anything has so far been achieved through the bedlam now rumbling through Syria and indeed other parts of the Arab world, it is a new reality: the power of the street has exposed the fragility of authority.

“I had always said they would fall over when we were no longer scared of them,” Moustafa Abu Khalil, a retired electricity worker from the northern Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour, told me in June. “It took a long time to get to the point where people were prepared to risk everything, their families, their futures, just to bring about change. “The truth be told, [the people] probably wouldn’t have got here if the regime did not continue to escalate the violence every month. That just fed the flames. And now we have a true revolution, civil war, call it what you will. It is a point of no return.”

With all of Syria’s cities now under siege, its capital Damascus and commercial hub Aleppo engulfed in violence, Syria seems well past that proverbial point. Defections have whittled down the strength and numbers of the country’s vaunted military and destruction and misery is seriously testing the resolve of both regime supporters and those who want Bashar al-Assad gone.

The country’s economy has been under the anaconda-like grip of international sanctions, which have ground industry to a halt, crippled

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6 The Guardian 30.08.12

Syria: the point of no return The battle between President Assad’s regime and the Free Syrian Army has become a life-or-death struggle. But, says Martin Chulov – who has been reporting on the uprising since it began – this is also a civil war that threatens the entire Middle East.

Illustrations by George Butler

Children examine burnedout Syrian army tanks in the centre of Azaz, north of Aleppo

30.08.12 The Guardian 7

Life carries on in Azaz, as a goatherd leads his animals along one of the city’s shattered shopping streets

8 The Guardian 30.08.12

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trade supply lines, battered the currency and shattered confidence. In the hard-hit north, little works any more. War has seen Syrian society, already stuck – seemingly permanently in 1973 – wound back even further. There are more donkey carts than cars on the streets of some towns between Aleppo and the Turkish border. Clapped-out tractors belch fumes from precious fuel that is sold in two-litre bottles on rubbish-strewn roadsides for around $8 (£5).

“None of us can afford it,” says Abu Nour, a member of the Free Syrian Army, who, before the Syrian uprising gained momentum, was a tailor whose only military experience was 15 months as a conscript more than a decade ago. “I’m not sure where the money is coming from to get us to the frontline. Those things a person like me doesn’t ask.”

Abu Nour is now a foot soldier in the rebel army that is at the vanguard of the fight for Syria’s destiny. Drawn largely from the rural poor, and also represented by conservative Islamic groupings such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the FSA has taken the battle to the country’s two lead cities, where it is now engaged in a fight to the death with the regime army.

Rebel groups entered Aleppo and Damascus in mid-July and their early gains sparked predictions that four decades of uncompromising rule was about to end. But as a withering summer draws to a close across the northern plains that have harboured Aleppo, and the central plateau on which Damascus, the world’s oldest capital has stood for more than 6,000 years, this early optimism has yielded to a more unpalatable reality – that neither side is about to secure a decisive victory in either city anytime soon.

The soaring death toll this week in Damascus, where more than 300 people were reportedly killed in one day alone, and the grinding misery in the battlefield suburbs of Aleppo, have left many in Syria – and in the rest of the ever-more restive region – wondering what comes next.

“Change of this scale is perilous,” says Rita Sabbagh, a Damascus businesswoman who supports the regime.

“You must understand that meaningful shifts in thinking and behaviour take generations in this part of the world.

Did they really think they would just ride into town like this and the regime would run away?”

TURKEY

LEBANON Aleppo

SYRIA Damascus

IRAN IRAQ

JORDAN SAUDI ARABIA

Were he to try to cut a deal with Syria’s fractious opposition groups or to capitulate to their demands, the downside for Assad and the regime he inherited from his father is obvious.

Also increasingly clear, even to lay observers, is the scale of the risk to Syria’s neighbours if the civil war continues to expose regional fault lines that have remained unaddressed throughout the modern history of the region.

After the 500-year Ottoman empire disintegrated more than 90 years ago, the borders of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and what was to become Israel were defined – often on imperial whim.

The pact between Britain and France that led to Syria’s independence, known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, cobbled together various sects under the banner of nation states, which have not coexisted easily.

For more than 40 years, the Alawite sect, which is loosely aligned to Shia Islam and had long been persecuted under the Ottomans, has been used to solidify regime control. Most of the key regime figures, including the Assads, have been Alawites ever since Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad, was at the peak of his powers. Despite comprising around 12% of Syria’s population, the Alawites dominate the Syrian establishment and hold most key positions in the military and security apparatus. Now, as Syria wobbles, the sect feels a deep sense of threat from the country’s majority Sunnis, some of whom hold grudges against the regime because of its treatment towards them before the uprising.

“Egypt and Libya have taught us that the way that power works [now] in Syria does not have to be the way it will always be,” said Mohammed Hariri at one of Aleppo’s frontline zones earlier this month. A realignment of power appears to be top of the

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30.08.12 The Guardian 9

Two weeks after the battle raged in Azaz, queues form outside the bakery for what little bread there is (right); Khalid Salim, a prisoner of the FSA (below)

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wish list for many fighters and residents alike in Syria’s opposition strongholds. But such a shift will not be contained within Syria’s borders – a fact that is causing increasing alarm outside the country and fuelling fears that changes more profound than anything since the fall of the Ottomans are starting to take place in the Middle East.

In neighbouring Lebanon, long under the tutelage of Syria to the east and the influence of other players, such as Saudi Arabia, the United States, France and Israel, the tension is palpable. “I’m afraid that if things are to stay like that, it could lead to the partitioning of Syria and where that will lead the Middle East, don’t ask me,” the leader of Lebanon’s Druze sect, Walid Jumblatt, told the Guardian earlier this month. “Big historical cities will be destroyed. Assad might take refuge in the mountains.

Now he is trying to cleanse the Sunnis from Latakia, Benyas, Tartous. It seems the map of Syria is being changed.

What is left of the famous Sykes-Picot agreement is being changed.”

Along with Jumblatt, other Lebanese leaders broadly aligned to the west or Saudi Arabia have been laying low this summer. The country’s former prime minister, Saad Hariri – whose father, the Lebanese elder statesman Rafiq Hariri, was assassinated in 2005 – has been in self-imposed exile in Riyadh and Paris for the past 18 months.

Samir Geagea, a political ally of the Hariri, who leads a prominent Christian political bloc, survived a failed attempt by a sniper to shoot him in his garden in June. The arrest earlier this month

Drawing the war Illustrator George Butler

Back in 2006, George Butler was just 22 – and studying illustration at Kingston University – when his army officer uncle invited him to document his regiment in Afghanistan. He wasn’t allowed on the battlefield, but he drew the troops in their more idle moments at the barracks, or as they travelled from town to town. It was something of an epiphany. “It cemented in my mind that reportage illustration was what I wanted to do,” says Butler. “It’s an opportunity to provide a fourth dimension to events that have already been welldocumented on Twitter, in photographs and on film.” Over the next five years, Butler has been busy illustrating from the oil fields of Afghanistan to the ports of Morocco. In 2012, now aged 27, Butler went on a selffunded trip to the Turkish-Syrian border, ostensibly to chronicle a refugee camp. But on arrival he decided instead to risk it in Syria itself, and walked over the border to the rebel town of Azaz. Armed with pen and ink, watercolours and an A2 pad, he began to document everyday life as a guest of the Free Syrian Army. The searing temperatures – 44C, at times – made illustration difficult.

“The ink would dry almost as soon as it touched the page,” he says. “More of an issue is just how long you can stand in that heat.”

Patrick Kingsley

of Lebanon’s former information minister, Michel Samaha, a key ally of Bashar al-Assad, has given weight to the fears that assassins are lurking.

Samaha has been charged with receiving explosives and instructions from Syria’s national security chief, General Ali Mamlouk, allegedly with the knowledge of Assad, to target 20 key figures in Lebanon. He was entrapped by a close aide who filmed him saying Assad was personally aware of the plans. His case is now before a military tribunal, a rare event in Lebanon, where state institutions

10 The Guardian 30.08.12

have often failed to assert their independence.

In Iraq, where assassins have remained a part of the political fabric for much of the past eight years, there is also a growing fear that the chaos in Syria cannot be contained. Islamist groups that wreaked havoc between 2004 and 2007 have announced that they are trying to reclaim ground they lost during fighting with US forces and militias that were at the time backed by the US and Iraqi governments. They claim to be drawing inspiration from the Syrian uprising, which has in part been joined by a new dynamic – jihadists from other parts of the Arab world, some of whom see the fighting taking place in Syria as part of a global jihad.

“They are trying to make their presence felt again,” the director general of the intelligence division at Iraq’s interior ministry, Major General Ali Hussein Kamal, explained earlier this month. “They see what is happening in Syria as a chance for them.”

Sitting in his fortified office in a riverside Baghdad suburb, Kamal claimed that Syria’s insistence that the uprising against it is a foreign-led plot using jihadists was at odds with Iraq’s recent dealings with Syria.

“In 2009, the bombs that targeted the ministries could clearly be traced back to Syria,” he said. “Both in planning and instruction.”

Asked whether he believed that regime figures had known of the bombing campaign, in which huge bombs targeted the finance, foreign and justice ministries, as well as the Baghdad

governor’s offices, killing more than 200 people, Kamal said: “I refer you to the comments of the defected Syrian ambassador to Iraq who said the regime had close links to al-Qaida and had links to the recent bombings in Damascus.”

As Aleppo has burned, the regime counter-assault in Damascus has been relentless over the past fortnight. The Syrian army has warned of “inevitable death” for rebel fighters who don’t put down their weapons in areas known as opposition strongholds. Anti-regime neighbourhoods say they have little reason to trust that pledges of amnesties will be honoured by a military that has shown no quarter in more than a year of battles with rebels. And, as sectarian positions harden, in an increasingly volatile region, there appears little reason for the regime to decide that now would be a time for compromise.

Iran, which has viewed Syria as its key ally in the Arab world for much of the past 30 years, has shown signs of increasing belligerence as the situation in Syria has deteriorated. The fall of Damascus would be a serious strategic blow for Tehran, as it would for its key ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, which has enjoyed staunch support and patronage from both regimes since 1982.

Also unflinchingly in Syria’s corner is Russia, which has acted to prevent even more severe international sanctions or any move towards direct foreign intervention in the conflict. Russia’s ties to the Syrian regime date back to Soviet days and have, in many ways, post-dated them. Libya and Egypt had at times been in the Soviet sphere. Syria, meanwhile, has barely left it despite the end of the cold war more than 20 years ago.

Late last month, in a grand villa in the Aleppo hinterland that belongs to the family of General Hikmat Shehabi, a former confidante of Hafez al-Assad who left Syria shortly after his son was named president, rebels thumbed through old books on a lounge room shelf. One had been signed by the late North Korean dictator, Kim Jung-il. There were also tomes in tribute to Assad Sr and eulogies to the achievements of Soviet society.

Time had stood still in the dusty marble mansion, just as it had on the drab empty streets outside where this society in the north of a country deeply embroiled in revolution seemed collectively unsure about what to do next.

“Nobody has come to help us,” said Khalid Ibrahim, a steel worker who joined the rebel army when dwindling business closed his workshop earlier this year. A Russian-made Mig fighter jet circled nearby as Ibrahim pressed his point. “We knew what we were up against when we took this on, but in

Libya the Americans were there within a month. France and Britain were fighting each other to be the first to bomb Gaddafi. And Assad is worse, much, much worse.” He shook his head, then added: “This could be a disaster, or a new map. Only God knows which way it will go.”

In dozens of conversations the Guardian has had with Syrians in recent months – some diehard regime backers and others just as deeply committed to the opposition cause – a clear sense has emerged that the popular uprising that started it all in the southern city of Deraa has been dwarfed by something far more significant.

The arc of revolution that started in Tunisia, surged through Egypt, then raged through Libya, has hit an obstacle in Syria, one that may prove difficult as a whole for the region to bypass. “History has hijacked what the people were trying to achieve,” says Amal Kuzbari, a Syrian teacher from Homs, now a refugee in southern Turkey. “It was simple at the beginning and it isn’t now.

The fight for Syria has become a struggle for the destiny of the region.

It is also now a clash of ideologies and orders, of sects and societies. The battle for regional influence runs straight through Damascus and none of the region’s main players are willing to yield ground. “It’s Sunni versus Shia, Arab versus Persian, America versus Russia, the list goes on,” says a western diplomat. “This is unfinished business on many levels.”

What will emerge from Syria’s civil war will likely take many months to determine. A rapid end to the regime would not mean an end to crisis. The vacuum that would follow the end of strongman rule would take some filling – the recent experience of Iraq to the east, another sectarian state bound together by an autocrat, clearly demonstrates that.

Even states such as Turkey, with strong borders and robust institutions, will remain susceptible to Syria’s spillover effects. Turkey is now hosting around 40,000 Syrian refugees and said earlier this year that it has prepared contingencies for up to 500,000.

However, if Syria’s Kurds decide that the crumbling of state authority gives them the chance to push their case for statehood, Turkey will be facing more than a refugee crisis.

“Changing how power works [in the region] is a good thing,” explains a Syrian exile in Beirut, who claims to support neither side. “But I’m not sure people know exactly what it is they have started.”

Westminster digested

By John Crace

Osborne: Sorry to bother you when you’re on hols, old boy …

Cameron: Don’t worry about it, Ozzy.

I’m bored down here in Cornwall. Two years ago there were photographers following me everywhere. This time round there was just one agency bloke to snap Sam not talking to me in the pub. Anyway, how are things your end?

Glad to see you managed to stay out of that photo with Harry in Vegas. I guess you must have been a bit tied up …

Osborne: Very funny, Cams. Thing is, I’ve had people asking whether we’re going to give back the £400k that Asil Nadir donated to the Tory party now that he’s been convicted …

Cameron: It’s an awfully bad line. The mobile reception is terrible in this neck of the woods … Anything else?

Osborne: Just the opinion polls.

Cameron: That’s better! You’re as clear as a bell now.

Osborne: Everyone hates me and thinks I’m doing a terrible job.

Cameron: Oh, stop feeling sorry yourself. It’s only about half the for yo that population tha a thinks you’re the most incompetent incom o pete t nt cchancellor the country has ever had. had a . Under the circumstances, I’d say that was w a result.

Osborne: You You’ve such an incisive brain b rain … But you y do promise that you’re not going to reshuffle me, don’t you? many times? Of course Cameron: How H I’m not going to reshuffle you! If I did, go the punters punte might start to question whether I knew what I was doing with the economy.

Besides, I can’t think econ of anyone anyon in the cabinet who would do any better. None of us has a clue what’s what going on.

Osborne: And you’re definitely not Osbo going goin to promote any Lib Dems …

Cameron: Good God no! Certainly Cam not no to anything important. The one on good thing to come out of the coalition is that the Lib Dems are co fin nished for ever and I intend to make sure it stays that way. m Clegg: Hello! Remember me?

C Everyone: Summer’s over.

E Clegg: I’m going to ask Daddy to tax C the rich lots and lots. th Everyone: Is this guy terminally stupid?

Ev Cameron: Yes. C Tim Yeo: Are you a man or a mouse?

T Cameron: Squeak!

C

30.08.12 The Guardian 11

Food

until light and fluffy, before adding the eggs and dry ingredients. This, in theory, allows more air in, but his cake is one of the densest.

Added extras

How to make the perfect banana bread

Lawson, Campion, America’s Test Kitchen and Wareing all add vanilla extract. The Hummingbird Bakery spices its with cinnamon and ginger, while Clark keeps hers plain. I’m with her.

Nuts are a popular addition to banana bread – I love their crunch and prefer Lawson, Wareing and America’s Test Kitchen’s walnuts to Clark’s pecans; the slight bitterness is a good foil for the banana’s sweetness.

Lawson also throws in bourbon-soaked sultanas, which, although delicious, distract from the banana flavour.

Felicity Cloake Banana bread is one of those awkwardly named foods. It is, strictly speaking, more of a loaf-shaped cake. Naming problems aside, it is delicious, the natural sweetness of the fruit lending itself perfectly to baking.

The bananas The accepted wisdom is that, to make good banana bread, you need bananas so ripe they practically dance into the oven of their own accord. I find this makes them easier to mash, but there is no difference in flavour.

Perfect banana bread 350g ripe bananas (peeled weight) 180g plain flour, plus extra for the tin rather than plain. Strong flour has a higher gluten content, which gives a better rise, and his cake boasts large air pockets, but is not an impressive height.

Pureed, squashed or chopped Food critic Charles Campion purees his bananas, while chefs Nigella Lawson and Marcus Wareing, the Hummingbird Bakery and pastry chef Claire Clark mash them “to a pulp”. The America’s Test Kitchen recipe cautions: “Don’t puree – the banana needs to be chunky.” Campion’s bread has a moist texture and an intense banana flavour, but I like the occasional sweet chunks of banana and the lighter, fluffier texture of the drier cakes, so I will go for a mix of coarse and finely mashed.

Raising agents British banana bread recipes call for baking powder, while America’s Test Kitchen and Martha Stewart use bicarbonate of soda. Lawson and the Hummingbird add both. Clark’s recipe uses only baking powder, and has the lightest texture, so I am sticking with that. Wareing uses strong bread flour

12 The Guardian 30.08.12

Sugar and fats White caster sugar is the popular choice, but Clark suggests dark or light brown.

I like the caramel colour and flavour of the light brown sugar. She eschews butter for vegetable oil, which gives a lighter fluffy texture. If you prefer a very light banana bread use oil, but the softness of the butter wins me over.

America’s Test Kitchen uses buttermilk, and Campion adds milk.

Both cakes are quite damp.

THE DEBATE

To share your tips, read more of Felicity’s techniques and join the conversation, visit guardian.co.uk/ food

Method With the exception of Campion’s bungit-all-in-the-food-processor method, all recipes are in muffin or cake camps. For the former, the wet ingredients (eggs, melted butter or oil, banana) are mixed, then folded into the dry flour, sugar and raising agent, while Wareing beats together the butter and sugar

2½ tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 4 tbsp melted butter, plus extra to grease, slightly cooled 160g soft, light brown sugar 2 eggs, beaten 50g walnuts, roughly chopped Preheat the oven to 170C/gas mark 3.

Cut two-thirds of the peeled banana into chunks, place in a bowl and mash until smooth. Roughly mash the rest of the banana and stir in gently.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and grease and lightly flour a baking tin about 21x11cm.

Put the sugar, eggs and butter in a bowl and whisk until pale and increased in volume. Fold in the bananas and dry ingredients until you can’t see any flour, then add the walnuts.

Spoon into the tin and bake for about an hour until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave for 10 minutes before turning on to a rack to cool completely.

Welsh food goes global Exports are booming and the country is now a top destination for gastro-tourism

Midweek supper Sea trout with creme fraiche potato salad Angela Hartnett

Rebecca Hardy

PHOTOGRAPHS FELICITY CLOAKE AND SARAH LEE FOR THE GUARDIAN

B

ryn Williams is looking for a new butter. The chef is fussy – it must be the right consistency, quality and size. And it has to be Welsh.

“It must be top-quality, but I take inspiration from food I was brought up on.”

Williams has long been banging the drum for Welsh food, serving up the finest produce from the valleys at his acclaimed London restaurant Odette’s.

Now, he has company – Wales is ready to be noticed, with a governmentfunded True Taste of Wales brand and a flurry of gastro-inspired initiatives.

True, Wales has always been respected in food circles, chiefly for its renowned Abergavenny food festival, but now there is a concerted effort to put the country firmly on the global food map.

A touring kitchen showcasing Welsh food at festivals is going global, with visits to Singapore, Barcelona, Paris, Cologne, Shanghai, Washington and Dubai. Gastro-tourism is growing, with young companies such as Snowdon Safari taking visitors to sample local produce at homegrown businesses – think stewy cawl and Welsh cakes – and Turnstone Tours taking tourists to people’s houses for home cooking.

And it is paying off, with companies reporting increased business. “One beer company’s exports have grown from 5% to 17% in the past three years,” says Nerys Howell, True Taste food consultant. Wales is also listed as one of the top three destinations for gastrotourism, according to the journal Rural Geographies. “People are discovering how good their produce is,” says Shaun Hill, from Michelin-starred The Walnut Tree, near Abergavenny. “We have first-class lamb, good beef, game, cheese and some very good charcuterie such as Trealy Farm’s. Wales has always been a poor country so the culture is simple food – baking, and good meat or fish.”

Ah, the produce, testament to Wales’s grassy slopes, mountainous farmland and, as Williams says, the fact that “it never stops bloody raining”.

Speak to most chefs in Wales about the country’s produce and their eyes grow dewy. “The coastline is fabulous,” says Stephen Terry, from The Hardwick,

Sea trout is a beautiful fish with an earthiness that is complemented by citrus flavours, so you will find a lovely balance with the lemon and capers in this dish.

(Serves four) 500g new potatoes 50ml olive oil 4 trout fillets, about 100g each, skin scored 1 lemon, rind grated, juice reserved; plus 1 lemon to serve 200g creme fraiche

Welsh taste: Abergavenny food festival Abergavenny. “Great crab and lobsters, fantastic Welsh samphire, salt-marsh lamb and cheese. Perl wen kicks the ass off brie.”

There is a strong spirit of localism.

“Research shows that 80% of visitors are looking for a Welsh food experience,” says Howell. Elisabeth Luard, author of A Cook’s Year in a Welsh Farmhouse, points out an interesting mix: “Incomers are keen on green self-sufficiency; locals, who lived isolated lives on the mountains, have a tradition of necessity.” Most people bake, she says, many own pigs and chickens.

So what are chefs rustling up? Terry does a Welsh rarebit made with pressed ham hocks, Hafod cheese and Welsh beer (“there’s a brewery in virtually every valley”), Black Mountain smoked salmon with lavabread (made from seaweed). Back at Odette’s, Williams does a light bara brith (“speckled bread”), a Welsh cheeseboard – perl las, caerphilly and perl wen – with Welsh buttermilk soda bread and panna cotta.

Then there’s Welsh black beef, pedigree Welsh pork and mutton – and, of course, slow-roasted Welsh lamb (new season and salt marsh).

For Williams, who has staked his reputation on bigging-up Welsh food, its growing clout is vindication. “It took years to gain the confidence e to stick it on the menu. Welsh food isn’t well-known, people found itt strange, but Welsh produce can easily compete with [that of] anywhere else in the world.”

1 bunch dill, stalks removed, finely chopped 1 tsp capers Black pepper Put the potatoes into a saucepan of cold water, season and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes until cooked. Drain, cool and cut in half lengthways.

Add the oil to a non-stick pan on a medium heat.

Season the trout, place it skin side down and shake the pan to stop the fillets sticking. Fry the fish for three minutes until the skin is crisp, then turn and fry for a further minute.

Remove the fish and add a squeeze of lemon juice while the fillets are still hot, so they fully absorb the flavour.

Mix the potatoes with the creme fraiche, dill, capers, lemon rind and juice, finish with milled black pepper and divide between each portion of trout with a wedge of lemon on the side.

Angela Hartnett is chef patron at Murano restaurant and consults at the Whitechapel Gallery and Dining Room, London. Twitter.com/angelahartnett

30.08.12 The Guardian 13

Notes & Queries ANY ANSWERS?

Should Harold have sent for the Romans?

PICTURE HULTON GETTY

Would King Harold have fared better if he’d had a legion of 4th-century Roman soldiers on his side at the battle of Hastings?

By the 4th century the legionary unit was being phased out in favour of a system in which the frontiers were protected by third-rate garrison troops. The Roman army at that time included many Germans, who were often closely related to the very barbarians from whom they were supposed to be protecting the empire.

I’m not sure that such troops would have been of much better quality than King Harold’s own house carls.

But Harold would certainly have benefited from the services of a Roman legion dating from, say, the time of the emperor Trajan, in the early 2nd century. Such a legion would have been around 6,000 strong – about the same number as William the Conqueror’s force – and would have carried the large square shields (no longer in use in the 4th century) with which they could have constructed the famous “tortoise” formation to protect Harold from the Norman arrows and, given the high ground of Senlac hill, would almost certainly have seen off the Norman invaders.

Geoff Clifton, Solihull, West Mids Probably not, as I believe Harold’s main problem was that his citizen soldiers (the fyrd), contrary to orders, ran down the hill after the Normans had been broken at the

shield wall by the house carls, giving up the high ground, and were routed before they could either catch and kill the Norman army or get back to the safety of the shield wall before Harold subsequently took one in the eye. The deaths of his brothers was a blow to the army, too, as it deprived the army of replacement leaders. themumbler I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure he would have fared better if he’d been wearing a 21st-century motorcycle helmet with the visor down. torinesi

Lice lotion and other mishaps Recently I did a full-load wash absentmindedly using a firelighter instead of a soap capsule. Has anyone done anything dafter than this?

William Blake was a radical Christian, so his Dark Satanic Mills were not the factories of the Industrial Revolution but the orthodox churches of the establishment. Is this true?

Hilary Fenten, Selside near Settle, North Yorks So farewell Neil Armstrong. Isn’t it high time we relaunched the space programme?

Sue Bennett, Leeds How big can a diplomatic bag be?

Romilly Bowden, Bognor Regis, West Sussex Send questions and answers to nq@ guardian.co.uk or online at guardian. co.uk/theguardian/ series/notes-andqueries. Please include name, address and phone number.

When my daughter was about 10, she complained of a headache while I was struggling to get the kids ready for school. I distractedly gave ave her a spoonful of head-lice lotion n by mistake instead of Calpol. She reminds minds me of this from time to time.

HypertensionKid In Salford in the 70s I once watched my mother open the he fridge door and throw a shovel off coal in. It is the only time in my life I have heard her swear.

Peter Thornton, Ramsbottom, Lancs ncs I once stuck a screwdriver in an electric socket and turned ed it on to see what would happen.

King Harold … could Romans have saved his day?

Apparently you get thrown acrosss

the kitchen, short out the fridge and Christmas tree lights, and melt the screwdriver handle. I haven’t been bothered by static shocks since. I was five years old at the time, so I am not sure if this counts as truly daft due to lack of life experience. yrddraiggoch Wishing to make guests welcome and, undeniably, wanting to impress with my jet-setting lifestyle (not), I left by the guest wash basin a small complimentary toilet soap from a posh hotel in Moscow. The image was ruined when our guest arrived at breakfast having unwrapped a pillow chocolate.

Bob Jay, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

James Bond for prime minister?

In Casino Royale, James Bond hands in his notice. What alternative employment might have suited him?

Bond was expelled from Eton after just a couple of terms (N&Q, 23 August). I don’t know if this is long enough for the “magic” to take effect.

However, he completed his secondary education at Fettes, alma mater of Tony Blair. So maybe it would be safer if his resignation was rejected. peatbrown James Bond could have just got a transfer to another branch of the civil service if he wanted to keep his pension. He would be very welcome in my branch. galadrielsmirror2

30.08.12 The Guardian 15

Arts

Want bling?

Don’t look now Zaha Hadid installed a flashy tower but the mood at the Venice Architecture Biennale has shifted: away from starchitecture towards something quieter, more collaborative and utopian. Steve Rose reports

A

young man in white overalls and a face mask stands in front of a black filing cabinet. He holds a white, wooden architectural model like a waiter’s tray.

He is surrounded by a dozen other young people, similarly attired. We are in the middle of the Arsenale, the main exhibition space of Venice’s Architecture Biennale. Amid a panoply of highly sophisticated presentations from the world’s top architects, here the exercise is reduced to its essentials: a man holding a model.

Except it’s not that simple. The young man is Elliott Trujillo, an architecture student at the University of Madrid, and he didn’t design the building he holds – a model for an archaeological museum in Cordoba.

The museum was designed instead by Nieto Sobejano, an established Spanish practice. Nieto Sobejano and four other Spanish practices have chosen to spend their Biennale budget on flying out architecture students to present their work for them, and to directly engage with visitors. Trujillo doesn’t expect to design anything himself for a long time. No young Spanish architect does. “There are two realities when it comes to architecture,” he says. “One is our situation in Spain, where there is no work and no future. And the other is the world of amazing architecture we see here: Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster.”

The theme for this year’s Biennale, chosen by its British director David Chipperfield, is Common Ground. It’s a choice that hints at architecture’s need

16 The Guardian 30.08.12

to refocus on issues like engagement and communication, on its need to establish shared values. But as the Spanish students show, there are chasms splitting the world of architecture. A divide is opening up – generationally, economically and philosophically. The starchitects of Trujillo’s second reality are still here, but the appetite for celebrations of individual genius, and isolated, beautifully crafted buildings, seems to be dissipating. To co-opt the language of the Occupy movement, the big names are starting to look like architecture’s 1%.

Zaha Hadid’s installation in the Arsenale explores the relationship between her own computer-driven geometries and those of 20th century structural pioneers such as Frei Otto and Heinz Isler. The space is dominated by a sprouting tower, made of thin, pleated aluminium. But go into the neighbouring room and you are literally down to earth, among handthrown clay pots, stones, bricks and red soil: a life-size replica of a southIndian house, designed by Anupama Kundoo. She has brought local craftsmen and builders with her, many of whom have never left India before.

While Hadid has been expanding her structural vocabulary next door, an Indian builder tells me he has learned something more elemental from his Venice visit: “On building sites in India, we don’t wear shoes, safety glasses or protective clothing.”

The Biennale can be overwhelming.

The Arsenale exhibition stretches through what must be a couple of

→

Another view Scottish historian Richard Oram on Brave This very entertaining animated film is set in a fantasy version of medieval Scotland: historians like me have to be prepared to suspend their disbelief. But you can see the film-makers have done their homework, even if they’ve mixed up their periods a bit. So we get male characters covered in body paint, as we might have expected in the late Iron Age; and high-status females wearing coifs and wimples, as they would have done in the 14th and 15th centuries.

They’ve travelled widely, researching the landscape. I’m a keen hill-walker, as well as an environmental historian, and I kept seeing places I recognised: in an early scene, the main character, Merida, scales a rocky outcrop that’s clearly modelled on Cairngorm granite, right down to the colour and texture.

There are also Pictish stones, with carvings modelled on real examples – like Dunnichen or Aberlemno – and more ancient prehistoric standing stones, from the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney to the Callanish stones on Lewis.

The general feel – the mix of water and hills, forest and mountains – is very good: the forests are a realistic blend of Scots pine and birch. But it only reflects the Highlands. That ties in with the view peddled abroad since Queen Victoria: that of a bare, rugged land, inhabited by wild men in kilts. It’s also highly unlikely there were bears in medieval times: we think they became extinct in Scotland in the prehistoric period.

The fact that the film has a strong woman at its centre may actually be quite accurate: we know very little about women in medieval Scotland, but those we do know about seem to have been pretty feisty. There’s Euphemia, a countess of Ross in her own right in the 14th century, and Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar, who defended Dunbar Castle during the 1330s. It’s said that she and her ladies appeared on the battlements, dusting the places where the enemies’ stones had fallen – though that particular story may be as apocryphal as the events in this film.

Clockwise from left: Norman Foster’s exhibit; Zaha Hadid’s tower; the Italian pavilion; FAT’s Museum of Copying; Spain’s Mon Amour; top left: a stuffed Arctic hare from the Nordic pavilion

Interview by Laura Barnett. Richard Oram is a professor of medieval and environmental history at the University of Stirling. Brave is out now.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS DAVID LEVENE FOR THE GUARDIAN

30.08.12 The Guardian 17

Arts

←

kilometres of atmospheric former naval buildings. Then there are the nearby Giardini, a second exhibition space at the centre of a park studded with permanent national pavilions, each with its own exhibition. It would take the entire three-month duration of the Biennale to see it all properly: room after room packed with architectural models, texts, videos and displays, punctuated by the occasional largescale gesture. (Exhibitors have often made a trade-off between detailed research and immediate impact.)

There are some surprises. Norman Foster has brought a very unFosterish installation, which again touches on architecture’s divisions. The floor is traversed by digital flows of eminent architectural names, while the walls are covered with rapid-fire montages of global strife, courtesy of film-maker Carlos Carcas: street protests, Latin American slums, natural disasters, dispossessed people, all against a discordant soundtrack of crashes and shouts. Elsewhere, London-based Farshid Moussavi offers a refreshing sorbet of a room: four walls of everchanging projections of architectural facades and structures, rendered in simple black-line drawings.

Meanwhile, FAT’s Museum of Copying gets the balance just right, mischievously highlighting the way architects borrow from each other. The British practice’s space is dominated by an arch formed from two portions of a scale model of Palladio’s Villa Rotunda.

On the walls around it are further examples of originals and their doppelgangers: a Villa Rotunda in the Palestinian territories, a St Peter’s Basilica in the Ivory Coast. Meanwhile, invited architects have assembled their own dossiers of copying in all its forms.

There is a photocopier and a pile of paper next to this, an encouragement to make further copies.

The general mood is one of turning to the past rather than forging ahead – perhaps inevitable, given that the event is still dominated by Europe. China’s presence is marginal. Africa, south Asia and the Middle East are barely here.

As Europe struggles to see a way through the economic gloom, it’s no wonder the mid-20th century looks so appealing. The British pavilion has invited architects to exhibit projects from across the world featuring “ideas to change British architecture”. It’s an approach that’s both self-effacing in its non-promotion of British architecture (amply represented elsewhere) and yet self-absorbed in its preoccupation with domestic issues. Many other pavilions explore similar themes of reuse, downsizing and introspection: the US

18 The Guardian 30.08.12

From top: iPads and QR code mosaics in the Russian pavilion; Brazil’s hammocks and a peep-hole into a luxury villa

‘Forget the theory,’ Russia seems to say. ‘Look at us. We’re going to build big’

offers hundreds of small-scale, ecominded interventions; Japan focuses on humanitarian housing posttsunami, and again questions the cult of the starchitect.

In this context, the social utopianism of the mid-20th century is seen with something approaching nostalgia. Those were the days: when architects knew what needed to be done and governments had the money to let them do it. Dutch superstars OMA, for example, celebrate the work of anonymous architects in public authorities across Europe from the 1960s and 70s. As OMA architect Reinier de Graaf puts it, the era was “a short-lived, fragile period of naive optimism – before the brutal rule of the market economy became the common denominator”.

In Greece’s pavilion there is similar nostalgia for the “Polykatoikia”, the social housing that evolved in Athens in the 1950s. Set into the sides and tops of the displays are tiny models of individual apartments, with an accompanying photograph and basic information. The most inexplicably moving thing I saw in Venice was one such slide, of the bedroom of an Albanian immigrant couple and their

two-year-old daughter: a double bed and a cot crammed into a tiny, bare room.

But it is by no means all doom and gloom. There are moments of sheer delight and amazement here, even in the midst of poverty. Urban-Think Tank and Guardian design columnist Justin McGuirk have together created a working mock-up of a Venezuelan restaurant. As intended, it has become a lively gathering place, with eating, drinking, music and even dancing.

Around the walls are photographs of an abandoned 45-storey officer in Caracas, which has been squatted by some 750 families. This is not a saga about poverty but a celebration of improvised resourcefulness.

Brazil’s pavilion, meanwhile, takes the relaxed stance of an emerging economy. On one side it features a wall of peep-holes, through which observers can spy on the occupants of a luxury São Paolo villa, watching their lives unfold like a hilarious telenovela.

On the other side of the room, there are a series of hammocks to lie in and acoustic guitars to strum. The installation features a priceless quote from Lúcio Costa, planner of Brasília: “The same people who rest in hammocks can, whenever necessary, build a new capital in three years’ time.” And he did just that. It makes the rest of the world look uptight.

A final highlight was the Russian pavilion, a refreshing blast of op-art bordering on vulgarity that is out of step with the overriding themes, but nevertheless sticks in the memory.

Three rooms – two cube-shaped, one circular and domed – are tiled on every surface in a giant, flashing mosaic of barcodes. Visitors are given an iPad when they enter, which they can point at any particular QR code. These all translate into information on Skolkovo – an ambitious project to create a Silicon Valley-style science city outside Moscow. Sure enough, Skolkovo’s designers include a roster of familiar names: Herzog & de Meuron, OMA, Kazuyo Sejima and David Chipperfield.

While Europe and America are soulsearching and dialling it down, Russia seems to be saying: “Forget the theory.

Look at us. We’re going to build something big.”

Should Trujillo and those disaffected students go to Russia? One hopes not.

There are other ideas to inspire them here, and bigger problems for architecture to tackle. The ground is not common, but it is definitely shifting.

Until 25 November. Details: labiennale.org.

For more images and Biennale coverage go to guardian.co.uk/architecture

My best shot Thomas Ball ‘It was difficult to depict the scale of destruction from this Canadian oil mine. I did it teetering on a bench’ In August 2007 I travelled to northern Alberta in Canada, to photograph the mining of oil sands. The owner of this mine, Syncrude, is the largest and oldest of the oil sands companies, producing more than 350,000 barrels a day. Oil sands release three times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil sources, and the extraction process has turned vast swaths of boreal forest into a desertlike landscape, pockmarked by toxic lakes. I wanted to show how desperate things have become that we are using this oil, as well as capture some sense of the beauty left in these destroyed landscapes.

The forest in the foreground was planted in the 1980s as part of a reclamation process, to see if the landscape could be returned to its original state.

Syncrude are proud of what they

have achieved, but this forest only makes up 1 sq km of the 686 sq km of land disturbed so far. They chose the easiest land to plant on, but they are still a long way from recreating the complex ecosystem that once existed there.

It was difficult to depict how vast the scale of destruction is. I knew that those who had already documented it had gone up in the air, but that wasn’t open to me because of the cost. The terrain is mostly flat, and I spent a large amount of time working out how I could capture it from the ground.

I shot on large format film to get details and tones that I knew I couldn’t capture on my digital camera.

I also like the tension of using film, that sense of

THE CV

Born: 1979, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Studied: Natural sciences, Trinity College Dublin; MA in photojournalism and documentary photography, London College of Communication.

Influences: Joel Sternfeld, Josef Koudelka, Ed Burtynsky, Alec Soth.

High point: “Being nominated for the 2010 Prix Pictet award.”

Low point: “Realising how difficult it is to get funding, and to recoup any money invested in new work.”

not knowing if you’ve got it. When I showed up at slightly sensitive locations, it could have set off alarm bells if I had looked like an obvious photojournalist. When you are standing there with a cloak over your head, you look like a geek and can get away with it.

The day I got this shot I was feeling stressed because I had just heard that Jonas Bendiksen, a Magnum photographer who had been to Alberta a few months previously, was about to publish his images – and I imagined he had gone up in a helicopter. I was there teetering on top of a picnic bench to get extra height, wondering how I could ever compete.

He did scoop me, but his were a more traditional format, shot in winter: they were very different images.

Interview by Sarah Phillips. Thomas Ball’s work is featured in the London Open at the Whitechapel Gallery, London E1 until 14 September 2012. whitechapelgallery.org

30.08.12 The Guardian 19

Theatres London LYRIC THEATRE 0844 412 4661

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This week: Tue-Sat 7.30 Wed, Thu, & Sat 2.30 Sun 2.30 Matinees recommence 9 Sep Groups 08448717644 / 02078450949

PRINCE OF WALES 0844 482 5114 Good seats still available this week

New London Theatre 020 7452 3000 / 0844 412 4654

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TOP HAT "A musical like this comes around once in a lifetime." Sunday Tel Mon-Sat 7.30, Thur & Sat 2.30 Extra Tues matinee from 11 Sep www.tophatonstage.com AIR COOLED THEATRE

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Television

L

et’s be honest, as the Paralympics kick off on BBC1 the other channels are not exactly throwing their best stuff at us. But last night there were a few quiet delights hiding away if you knew where to look.

At first glance, the latest edition of Who Do You Think You Are (BBC1) – number three in series eight billion and six – did not look too promising. Instead of meaty chunks of social history hanging off the bones of four or five generations of a celebrity’s ancestors, it declared that we would be investigating only the life of Patrick Stewart’s violent, drunken, wife-beating father and so seemed set fair to become the kind of mawkish therapy session you would pay good money to avoid. In the event, however, it was a spare, careful, unsentimental untangling of the man’s life that was illuminating, moving and altogether rather wonderful.

Alfred Stewart enlisted in the army at 19 – an attempt, it seems, to escape from the responsibility of fathering an illegitimate child (Patrick’s older brother Jeffrey) with Gladys Barrowclough (whom he would eventually marry and with whom he would have more children, including Patrick). And it was army, rather than domestic life, that suited him and where he best succeeded. He saw action in France in the second world war, arriving in Abbeville, Picardy, in May 1940 where he saw, as the diary of one of his fellow soldiers records, “modern warfare at its foulest”. The refugees and their treatment by the German forces, who considered the columns of desperate men, women and children legitimate targets and their deaths a useful way of making roads impassable for the allies, haunted him for the rest of his life. A local newspaper reporting on his return home described him as suffering from shellshock. It was a revelation and a welcome one to his son, 70 years on. “I experienced an angry man … ”

Compelling … Patrick Stewart in Who Do You Think You Are?

Last night's TV Patrick Stewart knew his father as an angry man.

At last, he found out why

By Lucy Mangan he said wonderingly. “Who maybe … hadn’t been angry before.”

In 1943 he volunteered for the recently formed Parachute Regiment and moved swiftly up the army ranks, taking part in Operation Dragoon – the second and astonishingly successful phase, after the Normandy landings, of D-Day – and was handpicked to become the acting regimental sergeant major to the second battalion after it lost three-quarters of its men at Arnhem and needed someone capable of both caring for and inspiring those who were left. “In a fatherly way, dare I say it?” said the man explaining the story to Patrick, gently. The army got the best part of him and his family the worst, but his son seemed to find relief in knowing that there was a best part, and there was a reason it went astray.

AND ANOTHER THING

Hunderby, Julia Davies’s latest creation, may be the best thing I’ve ever seen. It’s so good I just don’t know where to put myself.

There is an unassailable dignity and restraint about Patrick Stewart that served his father and their story well.

At the end, Patrick said: “It doesn’t in any way affect my feelings about domestic violence, or that what he did was wrong … but the other elements that have emerged I have found so compelling – and beautiful.” I think he may have been speaking for all of us.

Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies (BBC4) was an unforgivably bad title but an awfully splendid programme, what-what? For the two decades after the second world war, there wasn’t anyone who could touch us for engineering, innovation and all-round bloody marvellousness. Test pilots of the new planes – Gloucester Meteors, Britain’s first jet fighter, the Canberra, the first jet bomber in the world, Javelins, Lancasters, Halifaxes, Sterlings – were heroes. Sound barriers were broken.

Glamour and glory were ours, until Duncan Sandys (Conservative minister for defence) decided to start looking at guided missiles instead. The industry first consolidated and then, under the auspices of Harold Wilson and Roy Jenkins, started its collapse into the relatively incommodious entity it is today. But – cor! – what a Harrier jump jet of a heyday we had.

Over on Channel 5, John Barrowman, the hardest-smiling man in showbiz, was having his customarily strenuously good time puffing the rebooted Dallas (on 5 September, on – uh – Channel 5). In the extremely accurately titled John Barrowman’s Dallas, he met all the main actors. The programme was beyond awful but Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy were still old-school stars – funny, gracious and endlessly watchable. I cannot wait to have them back on weekly feuding/ drunken/hysterical/blackmailing basis.

Stetsons off to them all.

30.08.12 The Guardian 21

TV and radio

Film of the day Freakonomics (9pm, Atlantic) A collection of six documentaries that sets out to capture the brilliance of the bestseller about the underlying causes that shape society

British Cycling: the Road to Glory, Atlantic

Watch this Paralympic Games 2012 From 9.15am, Channel 4 This may be a transformative moment for the Paralympics. With the astonishing success of the 2012 Olympic Games, there’s a vastly heightened interest in these Games, and in London in particular, a desire for the party to continue. Jonathan Edwards and Daraine Mulvihill introduce the opening events, featuring swimming, cycling, judo, archery and cycling – as well as Paralympics GB’s opening fixture in women’s wheelchair basketball. Followed by the The Last Leg, an alternative review of the day’s action hosted by Aussie comedian Adam Hills. Andrew Mueller

Good Cop 9pm, BBC1 This new four-part drama comes along flashing its credentials with a croaky theme song by Tricky and a terrifying turn by the ubiquitous Stephen Graham as a local villain. Warren Brown plays the oddly named policeman John Paul Rocksavage, whose already miserable routine takes a dive when his partner is beaten to a pulp by Graham and his gang. He embarks on a revenge spree and, well, these things never run that smoothly, do they? A grim, rain-soaked affair that is wellmade, with barely one likable character, though all are watchable. Phelim O’Neill

fascination to film-makers.

This film, directed by Baftawinner Kevin Sim and narrated by Helen Mirren, follows a group of people through the course of a night. It’s less an observational documentary, more an intimate portrait of individual dramas. Midwife Natalie delivers a baby, helicopter pilots learn to land on a warship and a choirboy struggles with life away from home. Martin Skegg

British Cycling: the Road to Glory 8pm, Sky Atlantic British cycling carried all before it in 2012 with what seemed like consummate ease at times, most notably when Bradley Wiggins took gold at the Olympics after becoming the first Brit to win the Tour de France days earlier. Needless to say, it was a long, hard road, as this series about the runup to both events graphically shows, with its share of broken bones, disappointments and gruelling training. Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford is the true star, as level-headed as he is pathological in his hatred of losing. David Stubbs

22 The Guardian 30.08.12

BBC2

ITV1

Channel 4

6.0pm BBC News (S) 6.30 Regional News (S)

6.0pm Eggheads (S) 6.30 Celebrity MasterChef (S) The remaining contestants cook at the Criterion restaurant.

6.0pm Local News (S) 6.30 ITV News (S)

6.30pm Hollyoaks (S) (AD) Dodger is hampered in his search for his real father, and Martha goes missing.

7.0 The One Show (S) Matt Baker and Alex Jones host the live magazine.

7.30 EastEnders (S) (AD) The stakes are high at a poker game between Anthony and Derek.

7.0 Live Athletics (S) Coverage of the Weltklasse Zurich, the 13th and penultimate Diamond League meeting of the season, staged at the Letzigrund Stadium in Switzerland.

7.0 Emmerdale (S) (AD) Paddy takes revenge on Marlon.

7.30 The Kindness Of Strangers: Tonight (S) Julie Etchingham investigates a website that allows kidney donors to select who receives their organ.

7.0 Channel 4 News (S) 7.30 Paralympic Games 2012 Tonight (S) Clare Balding and Ade Adepitan introduce coverage of swimming, wheelchair basketball and table tennis.

9.0 Good Cop (S) (AD) Warren Brown stars in this new four-part crime drama about Liverpool policeman whose altercation with a violent bully leads to tragedy. Stephen Graham and Michael Angelis co-star.

9.0 Iceland Erupts: A Volcano Live Special (S) Kate Humble visits Iceland to learn how the country’s scientists monitor and manage its most dangerous volcanos.

9.0 Britain By Night (S) Cameras follow a group of people during one dramatic night, including a street cleaner, a DJ, a midwife, a choirboy and a bride. Helen Mirren narrates.

10.0 BBC News (S) 10.25 Regional News And Weather (S) 10.35 Neighbourhood Watched (S) An 80-year-old hoarder has a bath full of gifts he has never sent, and a single mother in urgent need of a home.

10.0 The Boss Is Back (S) Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of Ann Summers, relives a 2001 episode of the series Back to the Floor, in which she worked in of the firm’s shops.

10.30 Newsnight (S) With Gavin Esler.

10.0 ITV News At Ten (S) 10.30 Local News (S) 10.35 The Jonathan Ross Show (R) (S) Featuring guests Suranne Jones, Ray Winstone, Jenson Button and music from Stooshe.

10.30 The Last Leg With Adam Hills (S) The comedian presents the first of his nightly alternative reviews of the day’s Paralympics action.

11.20 The League Cup Show (S) Round-up of this week’s secondround ties, including Northampton Town vs Wolverhampton Wanderers.

11.20 The Rob Brydon Show (R) (S) Guests include Sarah Millican and Grayson Perry.

11.50 James May’s Things You Need To Know (R) (S) (AD) The complex world of the human brain.

11.35 Poms In Paradise (R) (S) Two backpackers, a retired Royal Marine and a parking attendant talk about their new lives in the city of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

11.15 The Odyssey (S) How London has changed since being awarded the 2012 Olympic Games.

11.50 A Running Jump (S) (AD) Short comedy by Mike Leigh starring Eddie Marsan and Samantha Spiro.

Radio

known to be one of the most demanding in the whole repertoire.

1.0 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. Elisabeth Leonskaja plays Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 20 in G, Op 49 No 2; No 30 in E, Op 109; and No 32 in C minor, Op 111. (R) 2.0 Afternoon On 3. Marin Alsop and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra perform music from North and South America by Dvorak, Copland, Joan Tower, Villa-Lobos and Ginastera. (R) 4.30 In Tune. Sean Rafferty’s guests include violinist Richard Tognetti, artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and members of the group.

7.30 BBC Proms 2012. Live from the Royal Albert Hall, the Berliner Philharmoniker

under Simon Rattle perform works by Ligeti, Wagner, Sibelius, Debussy and Ravel in the first of two concerts.

9.45 A Guernica For Gotham. Judith Kampfner investigates how New York artists have interpreted and commemorated the destruction of the Twin Towers in the September 11 terrorist attacks. (R) 10.30 Proms Plus Late. PostProm music and poetry from emerging young artists.

10.45 The Essay. Writer Diane Samuels recalls travelling with a fellow Jewish school friend in the 1980s and deciding Austria was not for them. (R) 11.0 Late Junction. Max Reinhardt introduces a session by Argentinian multi-instrumentalist Axel Krygier, Brazilian songstress Cibelle and London-based

composer and percussionist Simon Limbrick.

12.30 Through The Night.

Including music by Mahler, Pettersson, Wagner, Korngold, Catharina Palmer, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Arthur Butterworth, Gabrieli, Duphly, Bach, Dvorak, Vivaldi and Hellendaal.

90.2-92.4 MHz

Good Cop, BBC1

8.0 Emmerdale (S) (AD) Alex finds himself torn between Victoria and Moira.

8.30 Coronation Street (S) (AD) Tommy has an announcement to make about Kirsty’s behaviour.

8.0 Waterloo Road (S) (AD) Tom tries to uncover the cause of Lula’s disruptive behaviour, and Mrs Mulgrew’s son Connor tries to expose her drinking problem to the class.

Radio 3

Britain by Night 9pm, ITV1 What the world gets up to when most of us are asleep has long been a source of

BBC1

6.30 Breakfast. Music, news and the occasional surprise, presented by Petroc Trelawny. 9.0 Essential Classics. With Rob Cowan. Including the Essential CD of the Week

by Szymon Goldberg and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Artist of the Week Andres Segovia and guest Paul Bailey.

11.0 Edinburgh International Festival 2012.

Live from the Queen’s Hall, pianist Llyr Williams plays pieces by Liszt, including the Piano Sonata in B minor,

Radio 4

92.4-94.6 MHz; 198kHz 6.0 Today. News headlines and sport, with Evan Davis and John Humphrys. 9.0 Fry’s English Delight.

Stephen Fry explores the art of conversation. 9.30 Twin Nation. The difficulties that occur when twins’ lives take different paths. (R) 9.45 (LW) Daily Service. Led by Christopher Landau. 9.45

Full TV listings For comprehensive programme details see the Guardian Guide every Saturday or go to tvlistings.guardian.co.uk/

Channel 5

BBC3

BBC4

6.0pm Andy Bates Street Feasts (R) (S) The chef tastes local cheese St David’s in Pembrokeshire.

6.30 5 News (S)

More4

Atlantic

Other channels

6.25pm Paralympic Games 2012 (S) Coverage of swimming finals and Great Britain vs Germany in men’s wheelchair basketball.

6.0pm ER (R) Abby helps a couple whose baby was born dangerously prematurely.

7.30 Gok Cooks Chinese (R) (S) Gok Wan prepares dishes including egg fried rice, wok-fried green beans and shrimps and king prawns with cashew nuts.

7.0 House (R) In this two-part story, the doctor suffers shortterm memory loss in a bus crash and becomes convinced one of the other passengers needs his help.

8.0 Grand Designs (R) (S) (AD) Kevin McCloud meets London architect Richard Hawkes and his wife Sophie, who are moving to the Kent countryside to build a hi-tech eco-friendly home.

8.0 British Cycling: The Road To Glory (S) New series going behind the scenes with the riders of Team Sky, Britain’s leading professional cycling squad, as they ride to victory in the 2012 Tour de France.

E4 6.0pm The Big Bang Theory.

Sheldon lends Penny money to pay her rent. 6.30 The Big Bang Theory. Leonard’s mother visits. Guest starring Christine Baranski. 7.0 Hollyoaks. A surprise visitor turns up at the McQueens’.

7.30 How I Met Your Mother.

Lily becomes jealous of Marshall and Chloe’s relationship. 8.0 The Big Bang Theory. Howard tries to avoid being sent into space.

8.30 How I Met Your Mother.

Barney hatches a plan to pick up women on a late-night train. 9.0 2 Broke Girls. Max persuades Caroline to join her in a drug trial. 9.30 New Girl. Jess returns to the flat after spending an idyllic week with Russell. 10.0 Franklin & Bash. Jared and his father go head to head on a case. 11.0 8 Out Of 10 Cats Uncut. Extended version of the irreverent panel show.

11.50 The Big Bang Theory.

Sheldon lends Penny money to pay her rent.

9.0 Freakonomics (Morgan Spurlock, Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki, 2010) (S) Six film-makers each explore human behaviour.

7.0 Stansted: The Inside Story (R) (S) The airside operations crew spend the night repairing the runway, and fog causes havoc with the flight schedules.

7.0pm The World’s Strictest Parents (R) (S) Two single fathers send their badly behaved teenage children to the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a dose of South American parenting.

8.0 Nazi Temple Of Doom: Revealed (S) How the discovery of a Celtic cauldron in a Bavarian lake has links with an international fraud trial and Adolf Hitler’s obsession with finding the Holy Grail.

8.0 Don’t Tell The Bride (R) (S) Nathan Bones from Essex is given £12,000 to plan his wedding on his own, but his ideas might not be to his girlfriend’s taste.

9.0 The Hotel Inspector (S) Alex Polizzi revisits the family-run Walpole Bay Hotel in Margate, Kent, to see the owner paid attention to the advice she was given.

9.0 Russell Kane: Smokescreens & Castles (S) The comedian draws on his childhood in his stand-up routine from his 2010 Edinburgh award-winning show.

9.20 Pugin: God’s Own Architect (R) (S) Richard Taylor examines the work of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the architect who designed Big Ben’s clocktower and much of the Palace of Westminster.

9.0 Big Fat Gypsy Weddings (R) (S) (AD) Stories of travellers who are in trouble with the law, including a family facing eviction from an illegal site.

10.0 Celebrity Big Brother (S) Marcus Bentley narrates highlights of the past 24 hours in the Big Brother house.

10.0 Wilfred (S) (AD) Ryan fears Wilfred’s disruptive behaviour will cause problems at the office.

10.20 Great Movie Mistakes 2: The Sequel (R) (S) 10.30 EastEnders (R) (S) (AD) As BBC1 7.30.

10.20 Modern Times (R) (S) This 1997 documentary recalls how the extraordinary shrine dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales, appeared in Kensington Gardens just after her death.

10.05 The Closer (S) (AD) In the 100th episode of the detective drama series, the team investigates when a Christmas village Santa is killed.

10.50 Hunderby (R) Julia Davis created and stars in this comedy set in the 19th century about a shipwreck survivor with a dark past who marries a widowed pastor.

11.0 Celebrity Big Brother’s Bit On The Side (S) Emma Willis presents the live spinoff show.

11.0 Family Guy (R) (S) A huge new superstore opens.

11.20 Family Guy (R) (S) Chris wants to join to the army 11.45 American Dad! (R) (S) Francine starts earning more than Stan does.

11.35 Only Connect (R) (S) Members of Danny Wallace’s Join Me campaign take on a trio of beer lovers in this quiz that tests lateral thinking.

Victoria Coren presents.

11.0 Father Ted (R) (S) (AD) Father Jack drinks himself into oblivion just priests are about to play a vital football match.

11.35 Father Ted (R) (S) (AD) Ted has to kick Bishop Brennan’s backside.

11.50 Adam Buxton’s Bug (R) Comedian and broadcaster Adam Buxton selects some of the most interesting music videos he has found on the internet.

Last in the series.

1.45 Poetic Justice. A group of former prisoners reflect on their past.

2.0 The Archers. There is news at last for Vicky. (R) 2.15 Afternoon Drama: The Artist Is Thinking. By Mark Lawson. (R) 3.0 Open Country. A visit to Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire.

3.27 Radio 4 Appeal. On behalf of Dementia UK. (R) 3.30 Open Book. Author Dreda Say Mitchell investigates Tartan Noir. (R) 4.0 The Film Programme. An interview with actor Toby Jones.

4.30 Material World. With Quentin Cooper.

5.0 PM. With Eddie Mair.

5.57 Weather 6.0 Six O’Clock News 6.30 Fags, Mags And Bags.

The boys organise a surprise birthday party for Ramesh.

Last in the series. (R) 7.0 The Archers. David and Ruth make plans.

7.15 Front Row. An interview with singersongwriter Bobby Womack.

7.45 Craven. By Amelia Bullmore.

8.0 The Report. Current affairs.

8.30 In Business. How public spending cuts are affecting orchestras.

9.0 Helping Hamlet: Can Science Cure Procrastination? The tendency to needlessly postpone actions. (R) 9.30 Fry’s English Delight.

Stephen Fry explores the art of conversation. (R) 9.59 Weather 10.0 The World Tonight.

With Robin Lustig.

10.45 Book At Bedtime: Pure. By Andrew Miller.

11.0 Lucy Montgomery’s

Variety Pack. Sketch show.

(R) 11.30 Radio 4 Extra’s Comedy Club: Cowards.

Comedy sketch show. (R) 12.0 News And Weather 12.30 Book Of The Week: Leonardo And The Last Supper. By Ross King. (R) 12.48 Shipping Forecast

1.30 Rogue Male 2.0 Ladies Of Letters Log On 2.15 Ambridge Extra 2.30 Book At Beachtime: EM Forster’s A Passage To India 2.45 A Life Of Chekhov 3.0 Coming Down 4.0 The 4 O’Clock Show 5.0 Four Joneses And A Jenkins 5.30 Smelling Of Roses 6.0 Journey Into Space 6.30 Doctor Who And The Creature From The Pit 7.0 Yes Minister 7.30 Dad’s Army 8.0 Sherlock Holmes With Carleton Hobbs 8.30 Rogue Male 9.0 A Bunch Of Fives 9.15 Rain On The Just 10.0 Comedy Club: Fags, Mags And Bags 10.30 Lenin Of The Rovers 11.0 Rubbish 11.30 Cowards 12.0 Journey Into Space 12.30 Doctor Who And The Creature From The Pit 1.0 Sherlock Holmes With Carleton Hobbs 1.30 Rogue Male 2.0 The Wordsmiths At Gorsemere

(FM) Book Of The Week: Leonardo And The Last Supper. By Ross King.

10.0 Woman’s Hour. Lively discussion, with Jenni Murray.

11.0 Crossing Continents.

Tessa Dunlop examines the problems caused by the construction of a mine in Romania.

11.30 The Floating World Of Hokusai. Audrey Niffenegger presents a profile of Japanese painter and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai.

12.0 News 12.04 You And Yours. With Winifred Robinson.

12.45 The New Elizabethans. A profile of Diana, Princess of Wales.

12.57 Weather 1.0 The World At One. Presented by Martha Kearney.

7.0pm World News Today (S) 7.30 BBC Proms 2012 (S) The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, conducted by Daniele Gatti, performs music

by Wagner, Strauss, Ravel, as well as Berg’s Violin Concerto.

Radio 4 Extra Digital only

6.0 Sherlock Holmes With Carleton Hobbs 6.30 Rogue Male 7.0 Smelling Of Roses 7.30 Fags, Mags And Bags 8.0 Yes Minister 8.30 Dad’s Army 9.0 The Wordsmiths At Gorsemere 9.30 The Unbelievable Truth 10.0 Coming Down 11.0 A Bunch Of Fives 11.15 Rain On The Just 12.0 Yes Minister 12.30 Dad’s Army 1.0 Sherlock Holmes With Carleton Hobbs

Film4 6.50pm Young Sherlock Holmes. Teen detective adventure, starring Nicholas Rowe. 9.0 Dear John. Romantic drama, with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried. 11.10 Berberian Sound Studio Interview Special. With Toby Jones. 11.15 The Conversation. Thriller, starring Gene Hackman.

FX 6.0pm Leverage. Nate Ford returns to Boston Assurance. 7.0 NCIS. A marine veteran confesses to murder. 8.0 NCIS. An ensign is arrested in connection with the death of a Navy commander. 9.0 Family Guy. Quagmire’s father visits Quahog. 9.30 American Dad! Snot professes his love for Hayley. 10.0 The Cleveland Show. 10.30 Family Guy. 11.0 Family Guy. 11.30 Family Guy. 12.0 American Dad! Francine discovers the family has never been on a real holiday.

ITV2 6.0pm The Jeremy Kyle Show USA. 6.50 Kindergarten Cop. Comedy, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. 9.0 Benidorm. Madge and Janice are held hostage. 10.0 Celebrity Juice. New series.

With guests Kelly Brook, Ronan Keating and Chris Ramsey. 10.45 Lemon La 2.30 The Unbelievable Truth 3.0 Coming Down 4.0 A Bunch Of Fives 4.15 Rain On The Just 5.0 Four Joneses And A Jenkins 5.30 Smelling Of Roses

World Service

Digital and 198 kHz after R4 8.30 Business Daily 8.50 From Our Own Correspondent 9.0 News 9.06 Assignment 9.30 The Strand 9.50 Witness 10.0 World Update 11.0 World Briefing 11.30 Health Check 11.50 From Our Own Correspondent 12.0 World Have Your Say 12.30 Business Daily 12.50 Sports News 1.0 News 1.06 Assignment 1.30 Outlook 2.0 Newshour 3.0 World Briefing 3.30 The

Vida Loca. Comedy reality series, starring Keith Lemon.

11.30 Lemon La Vida Loca. Keith introduces his girlfriend to his friends.

Sky1 6.0pm The Simpsons. 6.30 Futurama. Bender becomes a wrestler. 7.0 The Simpsons.

7.30 The Simpsons. 8.0 Sinbad. The adventurers encounter a teenager who claims she is a god. 9.0 An Idiot Abroad. Karl Pilkington stops off in Israel on his way to Petra, Jordan. 10.0 Road Wars. Dog handler Darryl gets a nasty surprise. 11.0 Brit Cops: Frontline Crime UK. Police officers in west Wales deal with a dangerous domestic incident. 12.0 Ross Kemp: Middle East. Part one of two. The actor examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sky Arts 1 6.0pm From The Basement.

With PJ Harvey and Super Furry Animals. Last in the series. 7.0 Art Of The Heist.

The theft of seven Cezanne paintings in 1978. 8.0 Screenwriters - The Bafta And BFI Lectures. With 24 Hour Party People writer Frank Cottrell Boyce. 8.35 Profile: Roberto Benigni.

A portrait of the Life Is Beautiful star. 9.05 Onion News Network. Politicians arrange a summit meeting at a bowling alley. 9.35 Video Killed The Radio Star. The creative process behind Sting’s music videos.

10.05 Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison. Examining the country singer’s 1968 concert. 11.05 Johnny Cash In San Quentin. The singer’s famous prison concert.

TCM 6.15pm Gun Glory. Western, with Stewart Granger. 7.55 Roll On Texas Moon. Western, starring Roy Rogers. 9.0 The Glimmer Man. Action thriller, starring Steven Seagal. 10.45 Jackie Chan’s First Strike.

Martial arts adventure, starring Jackie Chan.

PJ Harvey, Sky Arts 1 Strand 3.50 From Our Own Correspondent 4.0 News 4.06 Assignment 4.30 Sport Today 4.50 Witness 5.0 World Briefing 5.30 World Business Report 6.0 World Have Your Say 7.0 World Briefing 7.30 Science In Action 7.50 From Our Own Correspondent 8.0 News 8.06 Assignment 8.30 Outlook 9.0 Newshour 10.0 World Briefing 10.30 World Business Report 11.0 World Briefing 11.30 The Strand 11.50 Sports News 12.0 World Briefing 12.30 Outlook 1.0 World Briefing 1.30 World Business Report 1.50 From Our Own Correspondent 2.0 News 2.06 Assignment 2.30 Outlook 3.0 Newsday 3.30 The Strand 3.50 Witness 4.0 Newsday 4.30 Science In Action 4.50 From Our Own Correspondent 5.0 Newsday

30.08.12 The Guardian 23

On the web For tips and all manner of crossword debates go to guardian.co.uk/crosswords

Puzzles

Sudoku no 2279

Across 1 Broad avenue (9) 8 __ Lynn, the forces’ sweetheart (4) 9 Young infatuation (5,4) 10 Treble or bass sign? (4) 13 Superficially ingratiating behaviour (5) 15 Martial art (with chopping?) (6) 16 Adieu (3-3) 17 Tool — puzzle (6) 19 Artificial (6) 20 (Young) woman (5) 21 Girl’s name (4) 24 Lubricating device (6,3) 25 Fencing weapon (4) 26 Scarper (without paying?)

(2,1,6)

Down

1

2

3

4

6

7

8

6

8 3 5

9 10 11

12

13

2 9

14

15

16

17

18

21

7 7 4

3

9 6

5

5

19

22

3 3 4

20 23

24

7

6

9 4 1

8 1

1 3 7

9

Solution no 13,200 B I TETHEBUL L ET O O E U S A E N U N MO N T E Z UMA G G P U R N C OPUL ENCE I DEA E R H G R K PUTTER GROYNE U W D M A B TW I N P O S T C A RD U S S G U S E P A T CHOU L I K I N O E O L T E I NE RVOUS S Y S T EM

Hard. Fill the grid so that each row, column and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1-9. Printable version at guardian.co.uk/sudoku

Stuck? For help call 0906 751 0036. Calls cost 77p a minute from a BT Landline. Calls from other networks may vary and mobiles will be considerably higher.

Service supplied by ATS. Call 0844 836 9769 for customer service (charged at local rate, 2p a min from a BT landline). Free tough puzzles at www.puzzler. com/guardian

Solution to no 2278 4 8 2 5 3 6 9 1 7

3 6 7 4 9 1 5 2 8

5 9 1 7 8 2 6 4 3

1 4 6 2 5 7 3 8 9

9 5 3 6 1 8 4 7 2

7 2 8 9 4 3 1 6 5

8 1 4 3 2 9 7 5 6

2 7 9 1 6 5 8 3 4

6 3 5 8 7 4 2 9 1

Garry Trudeau

2 Burden (4) 25 3 Far northerner (4) 4 Book — measure of 26 loudness (6) 5 Device causing a musical echo (6) 19 Long cake (6) 6 Sweet (gelatinous pulse?) 22 Bracken, for example (4) (5,4) 23 Deep red to brownish 7 Lack of movement with purple (4) regard to wages (3,6) Stuck? For help call 0906 751 0039 or text 11 Winter sportsperson GUARDIANQ followed by a space, the day and (3-6) date the crossword appeared another space and 12 Man performing in a dress the CLUE reference to 85010 (e.g GUARDIANQ Wednesday24 Down20). Calls cost 77p a minute (4,5) from a BT Landline. Calls from other networks 13 Bedding material for may vary and mobiles will be considerably higher.

Texts cost 50p a clue plus standard network horses etc (5) charges. Service supplied by ATS. Call 0844 836 14 Gift from the Magi (5) 9769 for customer service (charged at local rate, 18 Odd bod (6) 2p a min from a BT landline).

Doonesbury

5

Steve Bell is away

24 The Guardian 30.08.12

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Quick crossword no 13,201