Marian Finucane RTE Radio One
Profile Radio 4
Actor Ralph Fiennes was in Dublin to receive the Volta Award and the Irish international film festival.
He’s intense and utterly dedicated and he is a bit Irish.
“You are not unconnected to this green and misty isle,” said Marian giving it the old gift of the gab.
Finucane brought him back to his childhood – he moved with his family from Dorset to west Cork when he was 10 years old.
His father built a house near Bantry and his mother home schooled her children for a while – they learned Latin from a retired military officer and basic arithmetic from an American banker, she observed.
“You’ve done your homework,” Fiennes told her.
It was an easy interview which began with a chat about his latest film – he plays a Russian ballet teacher in The White Crow - the story of Rudolph Nureyev’s defection to the west.
He had to work hard on the Russian, he said ... but, of course, he would.
It’s that intensity that is central to who he is on screen.
Finucane took him back to Schindler’s List where he played Amon Goeth, the Nazi criminal.
In such a challenging role, his was a convincing performance of savagery.
The film came when his mother was very ill, he said. It was a very difficult time.
Fiennes seemed at ease and not averse to a bit of flattery – Irish audiences are very discerning, he said and he was honoured to receive the award.
In Radio 4’s Profile, US biochemist Jennifer Doudna was introduced as probably the “best-known scientist working on earth today” and the “Beyonce of the science world”.
She is behind one of the greatest biological breakthrough in decades, a simple tool for altering DNA.
“It changed the world overnight,” said an expert in gene editing.
Doudna co-created the revolutionary gene editing technology CRISPR which can eradicate genetic diseases.
Think of it as a pair of scissors that can snip out problem DNA.
This could have huge implications for cancer, HIV, cystic fibrosis and heart disease.
But a Chinese scientist recently shocked the world by claiming he had used it to create two genetically modified babies.
Are scientists playing God and tampering with nature?
This was a chance listen but a worthwhile one too.
