Theatre critic Peter Crawley, actress Jeananne Crowley, historian and broadcaster Diarmaid Ferriter.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, 'A Mighty Heart' is based on the true story of the kidnapping and beheading of the American journalist Daniel Pearl. Filmed mostly in Karachi, where the actual events took place back in 2002, it stars Angelina Jolie as Pearl's wife Mariane and centres on the desperate attempts to find her husband before it's too late.

Now out in paperback, 'The Yacoubian Building', by the Egyptian author and dentist Alaa Al Aswany, follows the rich and varied lives of the residents of an apartment block in downtown Cairo. In a building heaving with piety and promiscuity, there's never a dull moment. The book first became a bestseller in the Arab world and when translated into 17 languages it became a global success. Alaa Al Aswany was in Dublin recently and he explained some of the thinking behind, and controversy surrounding, 'The Yacoubian Building'. 'The Yacoubian Building' by Alaa Al Aswany is now available in paperback, published by Harper Perennial at €12.

Directed by Tom Collins and starring Colm Meaney, 'Kings' is the screen adaptation of Jimmy Murphy's play 'Kings of the Kilburn High Road'. A gang of Connemara men who have laboured long in London find themselves stranded, with only drink and each other to keep them going. And while one of them, played by Colm Meaney, has done well for himself, they are all haunted by their failures and by the dreams they first had when they landed in the big city. The movie is mostly in Irish and has been selected as Ireland's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at next year's Academy Awards.

It's Dublin Fringe Festival time again when the world turns pink, people dance in puddles and the Spiegeltent is back in town. We went behind the scenes at the beginning of this year's festival and spoke to its director, Wolfgang Hoffmann. Now in full swing, our panellists checked out just some of the events on offer - Norwegian nuns, Trojan women and a ride on the bus.

This Thursday, at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Austin, will perform a selection of American Music from the golden eras of Hollywood, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley. The show is called, simply, 'The Great American Songbook', and joining the orchestra will be singers Mairéad Buicke, Emmanuel Lawler and Jerry Fish. We are joined tonight by Jerry Fish, who performs a song made famous by Billie Holiday, 'God Bless the Child'.