麻豆约拍

With Mark Lawson.

A big-budget new TV drama series The Kennedys begins this week, starring Greg Kinnear as John F Kennedy and Katie Holmes as his wife Jackie. The mini-series has already caused controversy and has a chequered history. The Washington-based journalist Rupert Cornwell reviews.

The writer David Lodge discusses his new novel A Man of Parts, about the life of H G Wells.

Two new films out this week cover some familiar ground. Mars Needs Moms is an animated film in which Martians visit Earth and kidnap a human for their own ends. And in The Roommate a college student soon discovers that the woman sharing her flat has a rather unhealthy and violent obsession with her. Critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh wonders whether either brings anything new to some well-worn storylines.

And as the row over the unveiling of a large statue of Michael Jackson outside the Fulham football ground by the club's owner Mohamed Al Fayed develops, Stephen Bayley considers whether it's possible to create new public statues of people which win both public and critical approval.

Producer Nicki Paxman.