FRIDAY 20th MARCH 22.30 GMT - BBC TWO PRESENTED BY GAVIN ESLER My main aim in presenting both Newsnight and Newsnight Review tonight is to see whether I can get from one side of the studio to the other without falling over. And also whether I can manage to take my tie off - probably worth tuning in for that reason alone, I'd say. We're going to devote much of the programme tonight to the new British economic divide. Not between north and south, or town and country, but between the public and private sectors. The public sector (NHS workers, teachers, police officers, local government workers) is, according to one of our contributors, a "recession free zone". The private sector meanwhile, from the car industry, to the high street, to the financial services industry, is reeling from lay-offs and money problems. How significant is all this? Is it a temporary or a more permanent shift? And with a General Election sometime in the next 15 months or so, will whichever government takes office have to take a chain saw to cut back the public sector, because we simply cannot afford it? On Newsnight Review tonight it's power, politics and sex, from Judi Dench as the notorious Marquis' mother-in-law in Madame de Sade, to political mandarins and the mafia in the new biopic of seven-time Italian prime minister, Guilio Andreotti, Il Divo. We'll be reviewing the latest drama-documentary on climate change, The Age of Stupid (starring Pete Postlethwaite) which aims to create a new generation of activists. But in the current economic climate is the environment yesterday's news? That's for our guests Tony Parsons, Miranda Sawyer and Jonathan Freedland to decide. We'll have a debate between The Age of Stupid's director Franny Armstrong, and Martin Durkin, the documentary filmmaker responsible for The Great Global Warming Swindle. I'll also be speaking to the Pet Shop Boys, about pop and political commentary, on the eve of the release of their tenth album Yes. Fun for all the family. Gavin Missed Newsnight? Click here to watch the latest programme online |