A quiet man and the mad artist (E301)

Tectonic plates are shifting inside the Labour Party with yet another series of upheavals underway. Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle is being broken up after months of pressure reportedly led by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, once regarded as Corbyn’s closest ally. But there is nothing new about this perpetual infighting on the left: it is part of the party’s DNA. In the 1930s, Labour leader Ramsey McDonald left his party to join the Conservatives, and Clement Attlee had to contend with fighting, squabbling and factionalism. Author Francis Beckett, who wrote an acclaimed biography of Attlee, has  written a play. So, we invited him into the studio to tell us more about  ‘A Quiet Little Man’.

A working-class artist is something to be whether you’re John Lennon, who would’ve been 79 this week, or Dean Martin. No, not Dean Martin the crooner, but Dean Martin aka The Mad Artist. His work features some of Britain’s worst gangsters and political leaders, as well as rabbits with handbags and sloths with guns, and it is attracting rave reviews. Snapped up by Wishbone Publishing, one of the leading art publishing houses, and with an exhibition at the ArtMarket gallery next month, could memories be made of this? We invited the artist himself to join us in the Sputnik studio to tell us more about his work and life.

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Podcast https://soundcloud.com/rttv/sets/sputnik-orbiting-the-world