08/01/2011

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Louise Doughty, literary critic John Carey and comedian Natalie Haynes review the week's cultural highlights including The King's Speech.

Tom Hooper's film The King's Speech stars Colin Firth as George VI, battling against his stammer with the unorthodox help of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue played by Geoffrey Rush.

In Paul Bailey's book Chapman's Odyssey, 70 year old writer Harry Chapman is admitted to hospital with acute abdominal pain. During his time on the ward his life plays back in his mind, with visits from his dead parents and also from characters out of the books that he has enjoyed.

Rudolf Nureyev's choreography for Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet was first performed by English National Ballet in 1977 and became one of their classic productions. It has been revived for the company's 60th anniversary and has arrived at the London Coliseum on the final leg of its tour.

The Beatles are one of the few pop/rock acts who truly meri