The Oscars are a week from tonight. Ladies and Gentlemen of the panel, your thoughts; your predictions, please?

Alan Bennett: "The best moments[...]are when you come across something--a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things--which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met[...] And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours."

Saint Augustine: "A member of the audience is not excited to offer help, but invited only to grieve. The greater his pain, the greater his approval of the actor in these representations. If the human calamities, whether in ancient histories or fictitious myths, are so presented that the theatergoer is not caused pain, he walks out of the theater disgusted and highly critical. But if he feels pain, he stays riveted in his seat enjoying himself."

Joan Aiken: "I liked the talking pig best."