PRESENTED BY KIRSTY WARK
Hello viewers
How many alarm bells have to ring before America's financial regulators take their fingers out of their ears? The FBI have finally swooped in on Sir Allen Stanford in Virginia, and served him with civil legal papers, but it has been alleged that the SEC had early warning signals coming at them from all directions for some time. From former employees, investors, and from very agitated, savvy bloggers. The SEC finally started investigating last July. But why on earth has it taken them so long to act on the Stanford allegations? We'll be speaking to the bloggers who were ahead of the curve.
On Wednesday the Managing Director of the IMF told Newsnight he expected some of the former Eastern bloc countries would be hit hard by the financial crisis and would be looking for help from the IMF. Watch the interview
here: One problem is that some Eurozone countries, terrified their new European partners might be going broke, are pulling out their money. Alex Ritson examines the financial health of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, to find out if the fault lies with Brown, Sarkozy and Merkel for failing to agree a European response to the crisis.
Our Diplomatic Editor, Mark Urban analyses the impact of Israeli President Shimon Peres's decision to break with the tradition that always gives the governing mandate to the leader of the first placed party after elections. Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish Likud party won one fewer seat than the centrist Kadima party of Tzipi Livni. But he has been asked to form a coalition. If he succeeds, how would second time Prime Minister Netanyahu deal with Gaza and Iran?
Was the Justice Minister Jack Straw right to change the terms of Jade Goody's fiancé's curfew, to allow them to spend their wedding night together? Was it a humane act, or a sign that the government wants to promote a more populist image in this time of economic crisis?
As Jade Goody tries to secure her children's future, what does our interest in her tell us about ourselves? One of my guests on Review, writer and commentator David Aaronovitch will be discussing this before we both join Booker winner Ben Okri, and Iranian comic Shappi Khorsandi to review Lenny Henry's dramatic stage debut (excepting panto) as Othello. Shakespeare's Moorish tragi-hero raises all sorts of questions for a 21st century audience. Henry says as one of just three black kids in his class in Dudley he identifies with Othello. There's no doubt Lenny Henry is a huge draw. When Liz Gibbons (Newsnight Review's Editor) and I went to see the Northern Broadsides production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse it was packed out. But can he act?
The rapper Akala believes there are direct parallels between hip hop and the Bard... in the universality of Shakespeare's themes, the rhyme, and the rhythm. He enlisted the help of Sir Ian McKellen for the launch of the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company this week. Akala, who's the brother of Ms Dynamite, believes that his venture can engage hard to reach, troubled teenagers. He'll be performing a sonnet tonight in the studio for Newsnight Review.
The rich cultural mix of a Parisian classroom is the setting for The Class, the French film which beat off a host of more mainstream contenders to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and is now being tipped for an Oscar this weekend. The film is based on the account of the challenging year Francois Begeadau spent in an inner city school where his pupils included North African, Caribbean, and Chinese teenagers. He stars in the film, and pupils in the school who'd never acted before, play his unruly students.
A world away from the headline warnings of Iran's nuclear ambitions, is the Shah 'Abbas exhibition, the result of an extraordinary partnership between Iranian historians, curators and academics, and their counterparts here in Britain at the British Museum. Shah 'Abbas is the third of the museum's exhibitions on great rulers of the world and it includes many treasures which have never left Iran before. The 17th century ruler forged the identity of what is modern day Iran by military success, promoting Shiism as a national ideology, creating a cultural renaissance, and promoting trade with the West.
So do join us for a packed programme...
And Martha and I invite you to a pre-Oscars viewing party on Sunday night on BBC2 at 23.30, when we'll be interviewing the directors of the five films shortlisted for this year's Oscar for Best Film: Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon); David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button); Gus Van Sant (Milk); Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire); and Stephen Daldry (The Reader).
So get out the popcorn and champagne, or cocoa, and relax!
Kirsty
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