Suite (212) – Details, episodes & analysis

Suite (212) returns after five years – and true to form, it’s with an episode analysing the current political and cultural climate in the UK and beyond, and why we brought the show back into it. There’s a twist, however, as frequent guest Owen Hatherley asks regular host Juliet Jacques the questions, about why Suite (212) ended in December 2021, what’s changed since, and what the programme might do differently this time around. Along the way, we talked about the differences between Jeremy Corbyn and Zack Polanski as leaders of political projects and their respective tastes shape them; how the left reacted to the defeats of 2019-24 and the cultural effects of their withdrawal; the decline of the US as a cultural hegemon, and the rise of Chinese and Korean culture in the west; the international far-right attacks on the arts and the parts of society that uphold them; the concept of ‘counter-counterculture’; the impact of developments from the genocide in Gaza to the coming of AI on the arts; the crushing disappointment of Starmer’s Labour and their lack of interest in culture; how ‘stanning’ sells artists short; and some ideas for future episodes, ending with an appeal for our listeners to get involved in shaping its new direction. To subscribe to Suite (212) for as little as £3.50 per month, please visit https://www.patreon.com/c/suite212.

Following from December 2021’s Resonance 104.4fm show on the cultural impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic with James Butler and Sarah Schulman, Juliet talks to writer Huw Lemmey about Channel 4’s landmark miniseries 'It’s a Sin'. Written by Russell T. Davies and broadcast across January and February 2021, 'It’s a Sin' follows a group of friends who meet on London’s gay scene in September 1981, just as the first British cases are being diagnosed, and charts the impact of HIV/AIDS on their sex lives, relationships, families, friendships and careers over the following decade. In this subscriber-only episode on the miniseries, Juliet and Huw talk about the conservatism of British television and their reluctance to commission it; critical reactions to the show, and call-backs to the 1980s ‘moral panic’ about homosexuality; Davies’ skill in writing for television; how the programme looks at the personal impact of HIV/AIDS, and its portrayal of LGBT activism and its relationship with wider British politics; and how 'It’s a Sin' is ultimately a show about care, and how it represents models of queer (and straight) kinship.

In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic and shutting down of much of the UK's cultural life, we have decided to bring you a series of interviews with contemporary artists, writers, filmmakers and other cultural figures, conducted via Skype (so apologies for the diminished audio quality), about their practices, the political issues that inspire them and the socio-economic conditions that have shaped their work. In the nineteenth of these Sessions, Juliet talks to Belgian artist, filmmaker and writer Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven about her recent retrospective in Berlin and its relationship to a work by Situationist theorist Raoul Vaneigem; her contribution to a group exhibition on the early 21st century, responding to Paul Van Ostaijen's epic poem Occupied City (1922); and her ongoing interests in feminism, the female body and technology.

In this month's Resonance 104.4fm show, Juliet talks to writers Sam Byers and Carl Neville about how they tried to represent 21st century Britain in their novels Perfidious Albion and Come Join Our Disease (Byers) and Resolution Way and Eminent Domain (Neville), and the concept of the 'state of the nation' novel. They talked about the challenges of writing in a time of rapid political flux, the need for such novels to capture a particular time and place, how the internet has affected ideas of the universal and the specific in literature, patriotic and dissident approaches to the genre, and how much it has been the preserve of straight white men. For a full list of references, as well as an extra subscriber-only episode about how novelists might respond to the rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, please subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/suite212 for as little as £1 per month.

In this preview of our subscriber-only episode about how British literature might write about Corbyn's Labour, the aftermath of the 2019 General Election and the 2020s, Juliet talks to novelists Sam Byers and Carl Neville about Ed Luker's 'How Did You Survive January?' and how poetry and film were better able to capture the emotions of 'the Corbyn project'. Carl discusses the difficulties of writing counter-factual literature about the 2017 and 2019 elections given the likely response of the state to a Corbyn victory, and how the actual reaction of the state, the media, the Tories and the Labour right to a left-wing Labour Party was far more savage than that portrayed in Chris Mullen's novel A Very British Coup. Finally, Sam talks about how artists and writers may find themselves co-opted into the culture wars that have subsumed the Labour left's structural and material analyses of British society, and the need to be brave in the face of relentless ridicule and hostility. To hear the full episode, subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/suite212 for as little as £1 per month.

In this month's Resonance 104.4fm show, Juliet talks to artist Eirene Efstathiou and curator/writer iLiana Fokianaki, founder of the State of Concept gallery in Athens, about the visual art scene in Greece since the financial crash of 2007-2008, which badly affected the country. They discuss the impact on the arts of EU-mandated austerity, the rise and fall of the far-right Golden Dawn, the election of Syriza on a left-wing platform and the oxi referendum of 2015, the migration crisis, the return to party of New Democracy and the strict Covid-19 lockdown measures. They also consider the nature of Greek arts funding, what the decision to co-host Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens said about Greece's relationship with Germany and the EU, and what it means to be a politically engaged artist in a time of crisis. A full list of references is available for Patreon subscribers - go to https://www.patreon.com/suite212 to sign up. Cover image by Eirene Efstathiou; our theme music is 'Aus' by Fennesz.

In this extract from our subscriber-only show about 'It’s a Sin', Russell T. Davies’ recent mini-series for Channel 4 about the effects of the HIV/AIDS crisis on a group of friends living in London between 1981 and 1991, Juliet and writer Huw Lemmey talk about how the show portrays both the personal and the wider political impact. They talk about the role that the main female character, Jill (played by Lydia West) plays in the narrative, ideas of chosen family and the way It’s a Sin handles the politics of care, and how they are gendered within gay and queer communities. To hear the rest of the episode, please subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/suite212.

This is a preview of our Patreon-only episode about Ousmane Sembène & Thierno Faty Sow's historical drama Camp de Thiaroye (1987), about the mutiny of French West African troops at a transit camp in Dakar and their subsequent massacre by French forces on 1 December 1944, following on from this month's Resonance 104.4fm programme. Here, Juliet talks to Dr Samba Gadjigo, co-director of Sembène! (2015) and biographer of the writer/filmmaker, as well as Helen Day Gould Professor of French at the Mount Holyoake University in Massachusetts, about one of Sembème's greatest works. They discuss how closely it was based on the actual events and on Sembène's experiences; controversies around the film's content, commission and funding; its relationship with the history of colonialism and African independence movements; its reception in Senegal and France; its importance in the cultural memory of the massacre; and more. To hear the entire episode, please subscribe at www.patreon.com/suite212.

In this month's Resonance 104.4fm show, made available a day early for our Patreon subscribers, Juliet talks to Dr Samba Gadjigo, author of a biography on the subject and co-director of the feature-length documentary Sembène! (2015), about the life and work of Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène (1923-2007). They talk about the place of Senegal within the French empire, Sembène's upbringing in French West Africa and his political and literary awakening in post-war Marseille, his film training in the USSR and cinematic work in post-independence Senegal, his relationship with President (and poet/cultural theorist) Léopold S. Senghor, and his place within Senegalese, African and global cinema. A full list of references is available for our Patreon subscribers - please visit https://www.patreon.com/suite212 to sign up.

This is a preview of our Patreon-only episode about how feature films dealt with the Holocaust, following on from this month's Resonance 104.4fm programme. Here, Juliet talks to Dr Libby Saxton, Reader in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London, about Wolfgang Staudte's The Murderers are Among Us (Die Mörder sind unter uns, 1946) - one of the first feature films made in East Germany after the war. They discuss the politics of the film's ending, changed after pressure from its Soviet backers as the Nuremburg trials began; its glancing references to Auschwitz; its refusal to identify the specifics of Jewish (or Roma, LGBT or other) suffering in favour of a humanist approach; and how Adam Curtis used the film in his BBC TV series The Living Dead (1995). To hear the entire episode, please subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/suite212.