Podcasts by Front Row: Archive 2011

Writers including PD James and Anthony Horowitz take on classic characters from 2012-01-03T15:45

Mark Lawson talks to novelists who have taken on another writer's characters, including P D James, who wrote a Pride and Prejudice sequel, Anthony Horowitz, creator of a new Sherlock Holmes stor...

Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Bruce Forsyth and Jack Jones from 2011-12-29T19:55

John Wilson talks to singers Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Jack Jones and Bruce Forsyth, whose careers began before rock and roll, and whose combined performing experience totals over 200 years. ...

Writers from India and Pakistan from 2011-12-28T19:50

Kirsty Lang examines how writers from India and Pakistan are tackling social and political shifts, with Booker-winner Aravind Adiga, Aatish Taseer, Mohammed Hanif and Moni Mohsin.

All have...

Singers Joseph Calleja, Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore and Iestyn Davies from 2011-12-27T19:45

Mark Lawson talks to three tenors and a counter-tenor: Joseph Calleja (pictured), Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore and Iestyn Davies reflect on repertoire, singing teachers and the perils of phlegm. ...

Dominic West; Tracey Emin; Tom Hooper; Great British Bake Off; Inbetweeners from 2011-12-23T19:45

Mark Lawson unwraps a further selection of new interviews with arts headline makers of 2011.

Stage and screen actor Dominic West discusses playing serial murderer Fred West, Shakespeare's...

Julian Barnes, Andrea Arnold, Sir David Chipperfield from 2011-12-22T19:50

Mark Lawson unwraps a selection of new interviews with arts headline makers of 2011.

Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes explains why he no longer refuses to read his reviews, and poet Jo S...

Paul Merton; Neon Artwork; Adele's producer Paul Epworth from 2011-12-21T23:27

With John Wilson.

Paul Merton reviews the new silent film The Artist, which with six Golden Globe nominations is already the surprise hit of this year's Hollywood awards season.

Ad...

Michelle Yeoh, 2011 music picks, book cover design from 2011-12-20T19:55

With John Wilson.

Michelle Yeoh, star of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Tomorrow Never Dies, on playing Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in The Lady. Luc Besson's film tells ...

Jennifer Saunders; the new Mission: Impossible film from 2011-12-19T11:45

With Mark Lawson.

Jennifer Saunders reflects on the return of Absolutely Fabulous, 20 years after Patsy and Eddy first staggered onto our screens.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protoc...

Former Python Terry Jones, young James Herriot and Morse on TV from 2011-12-16T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Former Monty Python star Terry Jones has now written 26 books. His latest, Evil Machines, is a collection of 13 short stories which explore what happens when everyday ob...

David Fincher; Crime Books; Vikram Seth from 2011-12-15T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

David Fincher's directing credits include The Social Network, Fight Club, Se7en and Alien3, and his latest film is an adaptation of Stieg Larsson's book The Girl With Th...

Simon Schama interviewed from 2011-12-14T20:15

With John Wilson.

Historian Simon Schama has selected his pick of works from the Government Art Collection for an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. While hanging the exhibition, he r...

Sir David Jason and the return of Sherlock Holmes from 2011-12-13T20:15

With Mark Lawson

Two decades after the last series of Only Fools and Horses, Sir David Jason returns to BBC One as the star of a new comedy series. He discusses his role as the incompetent...

Meryl Streep on playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady from 2011-12-12T19:50

With Kirsty Lang.

Meryl Streep is hotly tipped for Oscar success for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in the forthcoming film The Iron Lady. She discusses how she mastered Thatcher's ...

Comedy DVDs; Haunted Child; Graham Sutherland from 2011-12-09T19:45

With Kirsty Lang.

Lee Evans, Peter Kay, Ross Noble, Sarah Millican, Alan Carr and Milton Jones are among the host of comedians releasing new DVDs aimed at Christmas shoppers. Comedy critic...

Annie Lennox; Nick Park; The Ladykillers from 2011-12-08T19:45

With Kirsty Lang.

Singer Annie Lennox reflects on a career which has seen her push boundaries in both music and fashion, as she releases an album of Christmas songs and sees her V&A ex...

Vikram Seth; Carole King; Richard II from 2011-12-07T17:12

With Mark Lawson.

Singer and songwriter Carole King enjoyed her first hit fifty years ago, and released her landmark album Tapestry four decades ago. She discusses her career so far and he...

Amy Winehouse Review; Brian Sewell; New Year's Eve from 2011-12-06T17:45

With Mark Lawson.

Amy Winehouse's posthumous album Lioness: Hidden Treasures was released yesterday and is already topping the midweek charts. Editor of NME magazine Krissi Murison gives h...

John Cleese interview from 2011-12-06T12:15

With Mark Lawson.

Writer and comedy performer John Cleese reflects on his career, including the rivalries between the Monty Python team, the creation of Fawlty Towers and the film A Fish ...

Robin Hood at the RSC, Tracy Chevalier and Joanna Trollope from 2011-12-02T19:55

The Heart of Robin Hood is the new family show at the RSC. But it's the Robin Hood story with a twist. The production is directed by Gisli Örn Gardarsson, who has a reputation for challenging st...

Stephen Schwartz; The Big Year from 2011-12-01T20:20

With Kirsty Lang.

Kirsty meets Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, whose hugely successful musicals include Godspell and Wicked, and whose 1972 show Pippin now receives a new...

Lenny Henry in The Comedy of Errors; Rob Brydon from 2011-11-30T19:55

Lenny Henry was acclaimed when he made his stage debut as Othello, and now he returns to Shakespeare as Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, in a new production at the National Theatr...

Ricky Gervais; Wayne McGregor from 2011-11-29T19:45

With Mark Lawson.

Ricky Gervais discusses the response to his TV comedy series Life's Too Short, which stars Warwick Davies as a "showbiz dwarf", and his return as host of the Golden Glob...

Martin Scorsese's Hugo 3D; Sports Book of the Year from 2011-11-28T19:50

Martin Scorsese has directed his first film in 3D. Adapted from the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Hugo is the tale of a boy who lives in a Paris railway station in the 193...

The Shakespeare Thefts; Desperate Scousewives review from 2011-11-25T19:45

With Kirsty Lang.

Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen has spent the last decade tracking down every extant copy of one of the world's most sought-after books: Shakespeare's First Folio. Wit...

The Deep Blue Sea; John Craven from 2011-11-24T19:45

With Kirsty Lang.

Film-maker Terence Davies has adapted and directed The Deep Blue Sea, based on the play by Terence Rattigan. It stars Rachel Weisz as a woman who walks out on her husband...

Sir Bruce Forsyth; Moneyball review; Ashmolean from 2011-11-23T17:18

With John Wilson

As he releases an album of his favourite songs, Sir Bruce Forsyth reflects on seven decades in show business, from duetting with Nat King Cole at the Palladium to his pre-...

Kate Bush interview; My Week With Marilyn from 2011-11-22T14:25

With John Wilson.

Kate Bush talks about 50 Words for Snow, her first album of brand new material for six years. She discusses her fears about the demise of the album as a format, and reve...

Gillian Slovo on The Riots; WWII film Resistance from 2011-11-21T19:55

With Kirsty Lang

The Riots, a new play by Gillian Slovo, draws on 55 hours of interviews with people who were involved in the disturbances earlier this year, ranging from policemen to the ...

Tim Minchin interviewed; Rihanna reassessed from 2011-11-18T20:10

With Kirsty Lang.

Tim Minchin describes himself as an Australian musician, composer, songwriter, actor, comedian and writer. He wrote the songs for Matilda: The Musical, the RSC's acclaime...

The Killing series two; comedian Sean Hughes from 2011-11-17T20:00

With Kirsty Lang.

The first series of The Killing, the 20 part Danish crime drama, was widely acclaimed as a TV highlight of the year. Now Detective Inspector Sarah Lund returns with a ne...

Robert Lindsay and Joanna Lumley on stage, and Ugly Betty's America Ferrera from 2011-11-16T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Joanna Lumley and Robert Lindsay star in Trevor Nunn's new production of The Lion in Winter, taking the roles made famous by Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole in the 1...

Sir Terence Conran; Costa Book Awards Shortlists from 2011-11-15T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Sir Terence Conran, designer, restaurateur and founder of the Habitat chain, celebrated his 80th birthday last month, and tomorrow sees the opening of a major retrospect...

Neil LaBute on new play with Billie Piper; Ian Rankin on undercover TV from 2011-11-14T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Playwright and film director Neil LaBute discusses his new play Reasons to be Pretty, starring Billie Piper, which asks if conventional beauty can be a curse.

Writ...

Pan Am; Simon Keenlyside interview from 2011-11-11T18:15

With Kirsty Lang.

Pan Am, a new American TV drama, lands on BBC Two next week. The series follows the lives and loves of a group of air hostesses in the early 1960s, who are apparently em...

Jeffrey Eugenides; Hamlet; Tabloid from 2011-11-10T18:45

With Mark Lawson.

Michael Sheen stars in the Young Vic's new production of Hamlet. Director Ian Rickson sets the play in the Elsinore Mental Asylum, an institution the audience must also c...

Rum Diary; Nile Rodgers interview from 2011-11-09T19:50

With John Wilson.

Johnny Depp's latest cinematic tribute to Hunter S Thompson, The Rum Diary, is based on the late journalist's novel of the same name. The semi-autobiographical story foll...

Leonardo da Vinci exhibition; tenor Joseph Calleja from 2011-11-08T19:45

With Mark Lawson.

As queues form for the largest-ever show of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings at the National Gallery, artist Tom Phillips reviews and considers whether the exhibition justif...

Wuthering Heights; screenwriter Peter Morgan from 2011-11-07T12:20

With Mark Lawson.

Andrea Arnold's latest film is a re-telling of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The director of Red Road and Fish Tank cast mainly non-professional actors in the film, ...

REM interviewed; 2012 Olympic posters revealed from 2011-11-04T20:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Singer Michael Stipe and bassist Mike Mills from the band REM discuss what it feels like to 'call it a day as a band' after 30 years, 15 studio albums and 85 million alb...

Anthony Horowitz on Sherlock Holmes; Skyfall from 2011-11-03T16:33

With Mark Lawson.

Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Ryder spy series, has written a new Sherlock Holmes novel. He discusses how he has approached the distinctive narrative voice, and r...

Novelist PD James; Steven Isserlis; Stalin on stage from 2011-11-02T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

At the age of 91, P D James has published a new crime novel, which is a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. Death Comes To Pemberley is set in Mr Darcy's ancestral home, where...

In Time review; David Bowie in the 70s from 2011-11-01T19:37

With John Wilson.

Justin Timberlake stars in the sci-fi thriller In Time, set in a world where you die after your 25th birthday unless you can afford to buy more time. Timberlake teams up...

Top Boy writer Ronan Bennett; Andrew Lloyd Webber from 2011-10-31T19:26

With John Wilson, including an interview with novelist and screenwriter Ronan Bennett, whose new TV drama series Top Boy focuses on young drug dealers in Hackney, London.

Andrew Lloyd Web...

Yo-Yo Ma, Emma Donoghue, Soviet Architecture from 2011-10-28T18:58

With Kirsty Lang.

Emma Donoghue is the bestselling author of Room, the Booker-nominated novel inspired by the real life Josef Fritzl case. Her latest book is The Sealed Letter, a historica...

Gerard Butler; Kate Prince from Zoo Nation from 2011-10-27T19:05

With Kirsty Lang.

The enduring fascination with Wallis Simpson continues in The Last of the Duchess, a new play by Nicholas Wright. Juliet Gardiner reviews Richard Eyre's production, and ...

David Attenborough; Jeanette Winterson from 2011-10-26T17:40

With Mark Lawson.

George Clooney directs and stars in The Ides of March, a political drama set on the US primary campaign trail. Ryan Gosling plays an up and coming political strategist, w...

Umberto Eco in a Front Row special from 2011-10-26T15:28

Kirsty Lang meets Italian intellectual and novelist Umberto Eco, now nearly 80, at his home in Milan. The writer looks back at the surprise success of his first novel The Name of the Rose, publi...

Anonymous review; Stephan Solzhenitsyn from 2011-10-24T17:28

With Mark Lawson.

Anonymous, directed by Roland Emmerich, claims Shakespeare didn't write any plays or sonnets: the real author was the Earl of Oxford - played by Rhys Ifans - who wrote th...

Tintin; Brian Wilson interview. from 2011-10-21T19:40

With John Wilson.

Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys reflect on their never-released album Smile, recorded in 1966 and 1967 and now made available for the first time. Brian ...

Peter Gabriel; Edward Burra from 2011-10-20T18:50

With John Wilson.

Peter Gabriel's latest project was inspired by his 2010 CD Scratch My Back, in which he gave an orchestral treatment to some of his favourite artists' songs. The former ...

Thandie Newton; Romola Garai; The Slap from 2011-10-19T19:00

With Mark Lawson,

The actress Thandie Newton has set herself a challenge for her first ever stage role. Taking time out from her film career - she won a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for P...

Terry Pratchett; Mark Rylance; Contagion from 2011-10-18T18:53

With Mark Lawson.

In the new film Contagion, an untreatable deadly virus is threatening the world's population. Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Jude Law head the cast, direct...

Lynne Ramsay; Sir Cameron Mackintosh from 2011-10-17T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Director Lynne Ramsay's new film We Need to Talk About Kevin won considerable acclaim at this year's Cannes festival. She discusses adapting Lionel Shriver's Orange Prize...

Tamsin Greig; Holy Flying Circus from 2011-10-14T18:45

With Kirsty Lang.

Tamsin Greig, who plays Debbie in The Archers, returns to the stage in Jumpy, a new play by April De Angelis which focuses on the relationship between a mother and her d...

Nicky Wire; Marathon Performances from 2011-10-13T18:45

With Mark Lawson.

As the band Manic Street Preachers release a compilation of their singles and a volume of Polaroids charting their story, band member Nicky Wire reflects on their career,...

Noel Gallagher, Don McCullin from 2011-10-12T18:50

With John Wilson.

Singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher dominated the musical landscape of the 1990s in the band Oasis, alongside his brother Liam. After a final acrimonious split with the band...

Steve Coogan; Sleeping Beauty review from 2011-10-11T18:45

With Mark Lawson.

Steve Coogan has returned to the character that made him a household name, publishing Alan Partridge's autobiography. He discusses the way Partridge has evolved over the ...

Tacita Dean in Turbine Hall; robot film Real Steel from 2011-10-10T18:45

With Mark Lawson.

Turner Prize nominee Tacita Dean unveils her newly commissioned work in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. Her silent film is displayed on a giant screen which stretches from th...

Orlando Bloom; Tracy Chevalier on Vermeer from 2011-10-07T19:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Vermeer's Women, a new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, features four works by the Dutch master, including The Lacemaker from the Louvre in Paris, on s...

Driving Miss Daisy; Des O'Connor from 2011-10-06T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones star in a new stage production of Driving Miss Daisy, the Pulitzer prize-winning play which inspired an Oscar-winning film. Peter Ke...

Kenneth Branagh talks to Mark Lawson from 2011-10-05T18:50

Actor and director Kenneth Branagh returns to the stage in his native Belfast this week in Sean Foley's adaptation of the French farce The Painkillers, alongside Rob Brydon.

In this Front...

Johnny Mathis and David Bailey from 2011-10-04T19:04

With John Wilson

In a rare interview, singer Johnny Mathis talks about his 55 year career, during which he has sold 350m records. Mathis talks about his operatic vocal training, reveals wh...

Rowan Atkinson interviewed; Claire Tomalin on Dickens from 2011-10-03T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

The acclaimed literary biographer Claire Tomalin publishes a new life of Dickens this week, ahead of the bicentenary of his birth next year. She discusses the author's co...

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy from 2011-09-30T19:00

Mark Lawson meets the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, as she publishes The Bees - her new collection of poems.

They discuss her love of the book as a physical object, how she writes from t...

James Corden; Rock of Ages from 2011-09-29T18:45

With Mark Lawson.

Actor and writer James Corden reflects on his career so far, and admits that some of the work he produced after his initial successes was sub-standard. Corden has just p...

Melancholia review, Lee Child from 2011-09-28T17:48

With Mark Lawson.

Film director Lars von Trier hit the headlines with his provocative remarks about Hitler and Nazism at the Cannes Film festival, while promoting his new film Melancholi...

Tim Pigott-Smith on King Lear, Fiona MacCarthy on Ford Madox Brown from 2011-09-27T11:32

With Mark Lawson, who talks to actor Tim Pigott-Smith as he takes the title role in King Lear at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

Cultural Historian and Pre-Raphaelite biographer Fio...

BBC NSSA winner; Nick Mason on Pink Floyd from 2011-09-26T12:35

With John Wilson, who presents live from the BBC National Short Story Award ceremony, with news of this year's winner of the £15,000 prize, announced by the chair of judges Sue MacGregor.

Martin Scorsese's film about George Harrison from 2011-09-23T19:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Martin Scorsese's latest music documentary focuses on the 'quiet Beatle' George Harrison, with contributors including Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Pattie Boyd and Phil ...

Mike Leigh's new play; A S Byatt on the end of the Gods from 2011-09-22T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Mike Leigh's new play at the National Theatre, Grief, didn't have a title until two weeks ago, but it still sold out months ago, such is the anticipation around a new Mik...

Tom Stoppard; Page One reviewed from 2011-09-21T19:15

With Mark Lawson.

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times is a new cinema documentary in which the film-makers were given unprecedented access to the newsroom for a year, at a time when...

Tom Hardy in Warrior; Muppets creator Frank Oz from 2011-09-20T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte star in Warrior, a new film in which two brothers take each other on in a brutal competition of Mixed Martial Arts fighting. BBC s...

Ryan Gosling's two new films reviewed from 2011-09-19T18:55

With John Wilson. Ryan Gosling stars in two contrasting films in cinemas from Friday. In Drive, a thriller based on the cult novel by James Sallis, he plays a Hollywood stunt driver moonlighting...

16/09/2011 from 2011-09-16T18:45

Kirsty Lang talks to actors Dominic West and Clarke Peters about working together on the TV series The Wire and appearing in Othello in Sheffield.

Also Jocelyn Jee Esien discusses moving ...

Pam Ayres; Stephen Merchant's stand-up from 2011-09-15T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Pam Ayres won Opportunity Knocks in 1975 and has been working as a writer, broadcaster and entertainer ever since. Best known for her comic poems about everyday life, Pam...

Jermaine Jackson; his memoir on Michael from 2011-09-14T18:52

With Mark Lawson.

Jermaine Jackson discusses setting the record straight with You Are Not Alone, his memoir about his brother Michael.

Comedian Steve Punt reviews No Naughty Bits, a...

Laura Marling; Degas reviewed from 2011-09-13T16:51

With John Wilson.

A new film of John le Carre's classic novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, with John Hurt, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch as fellow ...

Roger Moore; Christopher Hampton from 2011-09-12T18:46

Mark Lawson talks to Roger Moore as the 70s TV series The Persuaders is released on Blu-ray and DVD. The release marks the 40th anniversary of the cult show, in which Moore starred alongside Ton...

9/11 play Decade; BBC National Short Story Award from 2011-09-09T18:45

Rupert Goold's Headlong Theatre Company, the people who created Enron, have devised Decade - an immersive theatrical experience reflecting on the legacy of 9/11 ten years on. The site-specific p...

Playwright Arnold Wesker and author Val McDermid from 2011-09-08T18:50

Mark Lawson talks to playwright Arnold Wesker as the National Theatre revives his 1959 play The Kitchen, which is set in a West End restaurant where many nationalities work together. The 79 year...

David Hockney; Mark Kermode from 2011-09-07T15:54

With Mark Lawson.

David Hockney this morning announced a major new exhibition of his landscape works, which will open at the Royal Academy next January. The show will focus on his home co...

Booker Prize shortlist; Ken Loach from 2011-09-06T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Stella Rimington, chair of judges for the Man Booker Prize 2011, discusses this year's shortlist of contenders: Julian Barnes, Carol Birch, Patrick deWitt, Esi Edugyan, ...

Jane Eyre reviewed; Damon Albarn interview from 2011-09-05T14:42

With John Wilson.

Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender star in a new film version of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte's much-adapted book. Kathryn Hughes reviews.

Alexander Masters, auth...