Radio News: Foreign Bodies is back

Radio 4's Foreign Bodies, presented by Mark Lawson is back for a second series, beginning today at 13.45. The episodes can be downloaded later and there is an omnibus edition on Friday at 9pm.:

To accompany BBC Radio 4's dramatisations of the Martin Beck novels, which established crime fiction as a form for exploring social change, Mark Lawson presents five more 'Foreign Bodies' focusing on Greece, Argentina, Northern Ireland, South Africa and fictional TV crime-scenes including Broadchurch.

Examining subjects including the way in which crime novels have portrayed transitional societies in South Africa and Northern Ireland and explored the legacy of military rule in Argentina, in this first programme Lawson, in Athens, talks to writers including Petros Markaris, whose detective series featuring Inspector Costas Haritos has both predicted and depicted the Greek financial crisis.

Schedule:

Mon 8 Jul

13:45 BBC Radio 4
Series 2 Greece - Inspector Costas Haritos

1/5 Mark talks to Petros Markaris, whose crime series prophesied the Greek financial crisis.

Tue 9 Jul

13:45 BBC Radio 4
Series 2 Argentina - Superintendent Perro Lascano

2/5 How Argentinian writers have dramatised the transition from dictatorship to democracy.

Wed 10 Jul

13:45 BBC Radio 4 FM only
Series 2 Ireland - Inspector Benedict Devlin

3/5 Mark meets novelist Brian McGilloway, whose books explore the long shadows of the Troubles

Thu 11 Jul

13:45 BBC Radio 4 FM only
Series 2 South Africa - Detective Captain Bennie Griessel

4/5 Mark Lawson talks to Deon Meyer about the criminality in post-apartheid South Africa.

Fri 12 Jul

13:45 BBC Radio 4 FM only
Series 2 Screenland - DS Ellie Miller, DI Sarah Lund, Captain Laure Berthaud

5/5 Mark Lawson examines the rise of female investigators in TV crime dramas.