In this edition, we listen to a review of a new film called 'The Hoax' which stars Richard Gere. A hoax is a deception, a trick to make people believe something is true when it is not. But as we hear, the film is actually based on a true story - how, in 1971, a writer called Clifford Irving tried to get a fake autobiography of the superstar millionaire Howard Hughes published and make himself extremely rich in the process...

Film critic Nigel Andrews uses lots of informal expressions to talk about the setting of the film.

Listen
	'The Hoax'

Vocabulary from the programme

to deceive
three informal verbs meaning 'to deceive' are: 'to trick', 'to fool' and 'to cheat'

a fake
something that is not genuine

to do the trick
if something 'does the trick', it has the necessary or desired effect

specious and spurious
two adjectives meaning 'not genuine'

'to amp it up'
if you 'amp something up', you make it seem more exciting and meaningful than it really is

the Zeitgeist
the ideas of a particular time and place

to add up
if something 'adds up', it makes sense

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Extras
Programme script (pdf - 20 K)
Download this programme (mp3 - 1.8 MB)

Read another review of 'The Hoax' *


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