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Lauren Laverne: Acting the Rock Star

From The Beatles and David Bowie to Spinal Tap and beyond, Lauren Laverne showcases how rock stars' lives have been portrayed on radio and screen.

From The Beatles and David Bowie to Spinal Tap and beyond

Lauren Laverne showcases how rock stars lives have been portrayed on radio and screen.

In this lovingly compiled long-playing retrospective we'll hear...

* 'When Elvis Met The Beatles' - An imagining of the occasion when the King of Rock 'N' Roll and The Fab Four came face to face in 1965.

* 'The Final Take: Bowie in the Studio' - Jon Culshaw’s portrayal of David Bowie during the recording of his final album Blackstar.

* 'Dusty Won’t Play' - A drama drawing on eye-witness accounts of what happened when Dusty Springfield refused to perform to segregated audiences in apartheid South Africa.

* 'Witness History: The Monkees' - A look at how a group of actors in the 1960s, who were originally hired to play wannabe pop stars, became the world's first 'manufactured' boy band.

* 'Queens of Noise: Get It On' - An episode from the drama about a fictional female group chasing rock stardom in the late 1980s written by The Farm's Roy Boulter and Louise Wener from Sleeper.

* 'Back from the Dead: The Return of Spinal Tap' - An excerpt from Peter Curran's 2009 radio special in which he spoke to the heavy metal 'legends'.

As part of this three hour musical mixtape we'll also re-visit archive interviews from BeyoncΓ©, Diana Ross and OutKast's AndrΓ© 3000 in which they talk about their own acting experiences.

Plus recorded especially for this programme, we'll hear the thoughts of the broadcaster, music journalist and Radio Times Film Editor, Andrew Collins on the phenomenon of the rock biopic.

Produced by Stuart Ross.

Made for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in January 2020.

3 hours

Last on

Sat 21 May 2022 19:00

Broadcasts

  • Sat 11 Jan 2020 09:00
  • Sat 11 Jan 2020 19:00
  • Sat 21 May 2022 09:00
  • Sat 21 May 2022 19:00