Spike Lee; Hope Mirrlees' Paris - A Poem; and are we being more creative in lockdown?

Published: June 9, 2020, 7:06 p.m.

Spike Lee’s new film Da 5 Bloods follows four African-American Vietnam veterans who served together in battle, who return to the country and reunite to locate their fallen squad leader. The writer and director discusses the Netflix film and how resonant many of its issues are particularly now, in the week of its release. Dr Daisy Fancourt is leading the UK’s biggest study looking at the impact the coronavirus crisis has had on our mental health. In recent weeks the team has been looking at the effect of participating in arts and crafts on our wellbeing during this turbulent time. She explains the findings. Hope Mirrlees' Paris – A Poem is a modernist masterpiece that is little known today. It was published in 1920, two years before TS Eliot’s The Waste Land - which might well have been influenced by it. A century later Paris - A Poem has been published again. Neil Gaiman, a big fan, and Sandeep Parma, who is working on a biography of Mirrlees, reveal the importance of this lost poem, illustrated by extracts read by Charlotte Rampling and Lambert Wilson. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Dymphna Flynn Studio Manager: John Boland