The playfulness to the writing around Ravana and his ten perennially bickering heads could have made the film oddly amusing. But alas, the humour remains just a flash

The playfulness to the writing around Ravana and his ten perennially bickering heads could have made the film oddly amusing. But alas, the humour remains just a flash

'Talking Heads' was first broadcast in 1988 and 1998

The comic essayist on crying over Olive Kitteridge, his love for Richard Yates and the books that make him laugh

The book I am currently reading
Hidden Valley Road. It’s a nonfiction book about a family with 12 children, half of whom turn out to be schizophrenic. In the opening pages the mother sews a live bird’s eyes shut. And she’s one of the few who isn’t mentally ill!

The book that changed my life
Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions. A friend read it out aloud to me when we were hitchhiking across America in 1976, and it made me think: “That’s right – books!” After high school I had forgotten about them. As soon as I got a stable address, I secured a library card, and started making up for lost time.

CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Net curtains. They're respectable enough when they hang straight, especially when made from lace, not nylon.

The BBC are remaking Alan Bennett's monologue masterpieces, Talking Heads, recruiting the likes of Jodie Comer and Imelda Staunton.