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.

For Suite (212)'s final edition, host Juliet Jacques talks to writer/editor Owen Hatherley (Tribune and elsewhere) and Fatema Ahmed, acting editor of Apollo, about the current state of British cultural criticism and what the next few years might have in store. They discuss the reasons for stopping Suite (212) and the changing cultural climate between and after the General Elections of 2017 and 2019, and what's happened to the Labour Party; the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic; state funding, the media and the BBC; and what the left might focus on when thinking about the arts and culture.

In this month's Resonance 104.4fm, Juliet spoke to London-based artists, writers, musicians, curators and teachers Pil and Galia Kollectiv about their practice, the art world's reaction to Covid-19 and the state of British higher education, especially in arts universities. They talked about Pil & Galia's Immigrants exhibition (2018), their short films, their bands WE and UrBororo, their background in Israel and their writing for the music press, and more. A full list of references from this episode is available to Patreon subscribers. To sign up for as little as £1 per month, visit patreon.com/suite-212.

In this month's Resonance 104.4fm show, Juliet talks to playwright and screenwriter Trevor Griffiths, born in Manchester in 1935, about his life in writing for stage and screen since the late 1960s. Although Griffiths wrote the scripts for Warren Beatty's Reds (1981) and Ken Loach's Fatherland (1986), this interview focused on his plays Occupations (1970) and Comedians (1975), his TV series Bill Brand (ITV, 1976), his BBC TV film Food for Ravens (1997) and his play A New World, staged at Shakespeare's Globe in 2009. A full list of references for this episode is available to Patreon subscribers for as little as £1 per month. You can subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/suite212.

In this month's Resonance 104.4fm show, Juliet talks to poets Ed Luker (based in London) and Nat Raha (based in Edinburgh) about the state of poetry, publishing and funding in 21st century Britain. She asks Ed and Nat to share their poetry and their influences, discussing the Cambridge school of poets around J. H. Prynne and their studies at Sussex with Keston Sutherland. They discuss the divides between 'big' and 'small' presses and what sort of work(s) they publish, and the flaws of the 'underground' vs. 'mainstream' binary; the relationship between contemporary poetry and new currents in feminist and socialist politics; funding models for poets and publishers; and how new left-wing media might work with sympathetic poets. For a full list of references from the show, please subscribe to our Patreon for as little as £1 per month, via https://www.patreon.com/suite212.

Now unlocked, this subscriber-only bonus episode came about because Juliet enjoyed talking so much to Sam Byers and Carl Neville about the 'state of the nation' novel for our monthly Resonance 104.4m show that they decided to keep going. They expanded on the question of what literature about Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party might look like, and how both the defeat and the intensification of neoliberalism might shape the form and content of British literature throughout the 2020s. For a full list of references with links, please subscribe for as little as £1 per month via https://www.patreon.com/suite212.

In this month's Resonance 104.4fm show, Juliet talks to poetry, editor and academic Golnoosh Nour about the life and work of Iranian poet, writer and filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad (1935-67). Featuring plenty of readings from Farrokhzad's work (in the original Farsi and English translation by Sholeh Wolpé), Juliet and Golnoosh talk about Farrokhzad's early life and emergence on the post-war Iranian poetry scene, how her erotic feminist poetry scandalised the literary establishment, and her interest in traditional Persian literature. They discuss her only film, the short documentary The House is Black (1962) about a leper colony in Tabriz, northwest Iran; her relationship with filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan; and her influence on later Iranian filmmakers. Finally, they talk about Farrokhzad's enduring legacy in Iran despite her work being banned after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and her influence on Golnoosh's poetry.

In this month’s Resonance 104.4fm show, former co-host Tom Overton returns to interview Suite (212)’s founder, Juliet Jacques, about Variations, her new collection of stories that tells a potted history of trans and non-binary people in the United Kingdom from the Victorian era to the present, published by Influx Press on 17 June 2021. They talk about how Juliet moved on from her ‘Transgender Journey’ series for the Guardian and her memoir, Trans, that came out of it in 2015; why she chose to write Variations as short stories rather than as a novel, or a more straightforward British trans history, or make it as a film; the different forms she uses in each story, and her research processes; how postmodern approaches have intersected with prejudice to make the compilation of trans histories more difficult; how Variations looks at trans people’s complex relationships with industrialisation, law, sexology and media, as well as literature, music and film; the context of a British – and global – backlash against trans visibility and rights as she wrote the book; the absence of trans authors and authentic trans characters from literary history, the influences on her work and the uses of trans writers telling trans stories; and what Juliet might write next. Pre-order Variations for £9.99 from the Influx Press website at https://www.influxpress.com/variations. For a full list of references, subscribe to Suite (212) on Patreon for as little as £1 per month via https://www.patreon.com/suite212.

In this month's Resonance 104.4fm show, Juliet talks to academics Owen Holland (University College London) and Bertrand Taithe (University of Manchester) about how writers responded to the Commune of Paris of 1871, both during its two-month existence from March to May 1871, and over the following decades. They talk about the print culture and intellectual circles that existed in Paris and France at the time; how writers such as Gustave Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Arthur Rimbaud, George Sand and Émile Zola reacted to the Commune at the time, and throughout the rest of the 19th century; how British authors responded in the 1880s, and how this shaped the mythology of the Commune; and how this interest in the Commune's memory became less the concern of literary writers and more of political theorists in the early 20th century. For a full list of references in this month's show, please subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/suite212 for as little as £1 per month.

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.

This month’s episode, coinciding with Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021, looks at the specific role that documentary film played in recording, relaying and representing the horrors of the genocide. Juliet talks to Dr Libby Saxton, Reader in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London, about how the Nazis coerced directors into making propaganda films at Terezin and Westerbork to show the concentration camps in a positive light; the importance of newsreels in exposing the atrocities at the end of World War II; how filmmakers moved from short-form to long-form documentary, and why it took years for such films to focus specifically on anti-Semitism and Jewish suffering; the importance of testimony from survivors, perpetrators and witnesses in the epic films The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) and Shoah (1985), and the limits that Claude Lanzmann placed on representation of the extermination camps; the complicity of cinema in the Holocaust; and what future documentaries, and visual culture, of the Holocaust might look like as the last of the survivors die out. For a full list of references with links, please subscribe to Suite (212) at https://www.patreon.com/suite212. Our theme music is 'Aus' by Fennesz.

Tying in with World AIDS Day, December 2020's Resonance 104.4fm programme is about the cultural response to HIV/AIDS in the UK and USA, first identified in both countries in 1981. Juliet talks to Novara Media co-founder James Butler and writer, historian and journalist Sarah Schulman about the emergence of the virus and the response from right-wing governments, activist movements and radical artists, as well as the long-term impact on queer culture and lifestyles. They discussed works by Tony Kushner, David Wojnarowicz, Larry Kramer, Rosa von Praunheim, Gran Fury and many others. A full list of references, with links, is available to subscribers - please visit https://www.patreon.com/suite212 to sign up.

Established in 1965, the Greater London Council hosted one of the United Kingdom’s most radical experiments in cultural policy after Ken Livingstone and the Labour left took control of it in 1981. This month, Juliet talks to academic Hazel Atashroo and Red Metropolis author Owen Hatherley about the entrance of the “post-1968 generation” into the GLC, and their approach to the arts: their interest in cultural democracy and challenging the Arts Council’s model of centralised funding; the Ethnic Arts and Community Arts sub-committees, and their critics; their use of post-punk aesthetics and their hip hop festival; their engagement with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other radical movements. They discuss the reasons for the GLC’s abolition in 1986, the media campaign against “the Loony Left” and Thatcher’s assault on local authorities; its influence on New Labour’s cultural policies and foundation of the Greater London Assembly in 2000; and what can be learned from the GLC’s approach to the arts in the 21st century.