Podcasts by Front Row: Archive 2012

The Rolling Stones in conversation with John Wilson from 2021-08-25T19:00

Following the announcement of the death of the musician Charlie Watts, tonight’s Front Row is an archive edition featuring John Wilson in conversation with the band he was a member of - The Rol...

Neil Young interviewed from 2014-08-06T07:00

With John Wilson.

In a rare extended interview, the Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young discusses his latest disc, a selection of traditional songs, recorded with the uninhibited rock b...

Julian Fellowes, Rumer and Maureen Lipman in the Front Row Quiz from 2012-12-31T19:45

Mark Lawson turns quizmaster to test the cultural knowledge of two teams in the Front Row Quiz of the Year.

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and film-maker Asif Kapadia join team capt...

British actors in America from 2012-12-28T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Damian Lewis, Hugh Laurie, Thandie Newton, Adrian Lester, Clive Owen and Ashley Jensen are among the actors who discuss the highs and lows of working as British performer...

The creative backstage stars of Strictly, Downton and the Olympics from 2012-12-27T19:55

Kirsty Lang turns the spotlight on the backstage stars, some of the key individuals behind-the-scenes who play a key role in big events and major TV shows.

The band from Strictly Come Danc...

Neil Young, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger and more on their musical roots from 2012-12-26T19:50

John Wilson talks to musicians including Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Paul McCartney, Emeli Sandé, Jonny Greenwood and Pete Townshend about their first musical influenc...

Working with the family from 2012-12-25T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Jack Whitehall, Greg Davies, Niamh Cusack and Frances de la Tour are among the performers and artists who share memories and reflections on working with close members of ...

People of the Year 2012, part 2 from 2012-12-24T19:45

Mark Lawson unwraps interviews with arts headline makers of 2012, in the second of two programmes.

Writer E L James reflects on a year in which she became a global publishing phenomenon, w...

People of the Year 2012 from 2012-12-21T19:45

Mark Lawson unwraps new interviews with arts headline makers of the year, in the first of two special programmes.

In the wake of the record-breaking success of the James Bond film Skyfall...

The Impossible; Simon Amstell; Arts Funding from 2012-12-20T19:50

With Kirsty Lang.

A new film The Impossible, starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, focuses on the powerful tsunami which occurred in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day 2004, and killed over...

Dustin Hoffman's Quartet reviewed; singer Katy Carr; comedy DVDs from 2012-12-19T19:55

With Kirsty Lang.

Barry Norman reviews Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut, Quartet. The film is set in a home for retired opera singers and features Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly and Michae...

Salman Rushdie, Victoria Wood, Christmas Jukebox Jury from 2012-12-18T19:50

With Mark Lawson

Salman Rushdie has written his first ever screenplay, an adaptation of his own Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight's Children. He reflects on condensing the family saga wh...

Don McCullin; Martin Freeman; albums of the year from 2012-12-13T18:29

With John Wilson.

Photographer Don McCullin was on Front Row earlier this year talking about an exhibition of some of his most famous photographs of conflict, from Vietnam to Iraq. He said...

William Boyd; Ravi Shankar remembered; video games of the year from 2012-12-12T19:55

With Kirsty Lang.

Writer William Boyd discusses the television adaptation of his novel, Restless, which stars Michael Gambon, Michelle Dockery and Charlotte Rampling.

Ravi Shankar,...

Paul Thomas Anderson on The Master; Jim Cartwright returns to the stage from 2012-12-11T20:35

With Mark Lawson.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson reflects on his film The Master, which has already won numerous awards and is heavily tipped for Oscar success.

In the week that Gree...

Paul Auster, Tom Robinson plays Beck from 2012-12-07T19:50

With John Wilson.

Paul Auster is the best-selling author of The New York Trilogy and Moon Palace. His latest book, Winter Journal, takes him in a more reflective direction, examining his o...

Ali Smith, Dave Brubeck, crime fiction from 2012-12-06T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

The 1992 film The Bodyguard, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, was a huge box office hit. Now a stage musical version of the film has opened, with Heather Headl...

All-female Julius Caesar; writer Mike Bartlett on The Town from 2012-12-05T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Mamma Mia and The Iron Lady director Phyllida Lloyd returns to the stage with a new all-female staging of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It's set in a women's prison and co...

Ben Folds; Elizabeth Price; Charles Dickens museum from 2012-12-04T19:45

With John Wilson.

Elizabeth Price has won this year's Turner Prize for work including her video installation The Woolworths Choir of 1979. She discusses her inspirations and what winning t...

Seven Psychopaths, Beryl Bainbridge's art from 2012-12-03T19:45

Martin McDonagh won the 2008 Best Original Screenplay Oscar for In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell as an unlucky hit-man. In McDonagh's new film, Seven Psychopaths, Farrell is a struggling screen...

The Mouse and His Child; Sightseers; Robert Greene; Cecilia Bartoli from 2012-11-30T16:39

With Kirsty Lang.

Following the huge success of Matilda, the RSC has a new Christmas show for family audiences. The Mouse and His Child is based on a book by Russell Hoban, and features th...

Roddy Doyle, Boris Godunov, The Staves, TV Drama The Fear from 2012-11-29T19:50

With Kirsty Lang,

Booker Prize-winning novelist Roddy Doyle talks about his new novella, Two Pints. It's a year's dialogue between two men in a Dublin pub over their pints. Beginning with...

Daniel Radcliffe in A Young Doctor's Notebook, Oliver Sacks, the Hunt from 2012-11-28T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Daniel Radcliffe and John Hamm star in A Young Doctor's Notebook, a new four-part TV comedy drama based on a collection of short stories by the celebrated Russian writer...

Great Expectations; Bryan Ferry; Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong from 2012-11-27T20:15

With Mark Lawson.

Bryan Ferry discusses The Jazz Age, a new album of instrumental versions of his greatest hits including Love Is The Drug, Virginia Plain and Avalon.

Sam Bain and Je...

Trouble With the Curve; Sports Book of the Year; theatre awards from 2012-11-26T18:08

With Mark Lawson.

Dame Judi Dench, Danny Boyle and Simon Russell Beale were just some of the winners at last night's Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Despite the glamour of the ceremony, t...

Brian Eno; Michael Hoffman; Spike Lee's Michael Jackson documentary from 2012-11-23T19:45

With Kirsty Lang

Producer and musician Brian Eno discusses his new album Lux and his new app, which allows listeners to create their own music by selecting a variety of shapes and sounds.<...

22/11/2012 from 2012-11-22T20:01

With Mark Lawson.

When Matthew Bourne established the dance company Adventures in Motion Pictures in 1987, his pioneering fusion of contemporary dance, classical ballet, and theatre thril...

The Mousetrap at 60, Calixto Bieito on Carmen, New Russian Art from 2012-11-21T19:45

With Mark Lawson.

Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery play The Mousetrap has now been continuously in performance in London for 60 years, and the first ever touring production of the...

Neil Diamond; Costa Shortlists from 2012-11-20T19:52

With John Wilson.

Front Row reveals the shortlists for this year's Costa Book Awards. Gaby Wood of the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian's Alex Clark join John to discuss the nominations fo...

Derek Jacobi, End of Watch, Denise Mina from 2012-11-19T19:52

With Mark Lawson.

Actor Derek Jacobi talks about his new TV series, Last Tango In Halifax, co-starring Anne Reid, Sarah Lancashire and Nicola Walker. He also reflects on moving away from t...

Jimmy Page; natural history programmes over the years from 2012-11-16T18:59

With Kirsty Lang.

Jimmy Page is the guitarist and founder member of Led Zeppelin. As Celebration Day, a film of their one-off 2007 reunion concert is released on DVD, Jimmy reflects on the...

Ben Elton, Danny Boyle on regional theatre cuts, computer art from 2012-11-15T19:55

With John Wilson

Ben Elton began his career as a stand-up comedian, and went on to write TV comedies, musicals and novels including Popcorn. His latest novel is Two Brothers, inspired by h...

Billie Piper in The Effect; Twilight; author Phil Rickman from 2012-11-14T12:25

With Mark Lawson

Billie Piper stars in The Effect, a new play by Lucy Prebble about drugs trials and mental health. It's Prebble's first major new work since her success with ENRON, her pl...

A Bigger Splash; The Hour returns; photography from the Middle East from 2012-11-13T19:59

With Mark Lawson.

This week sees the return of The Hour, the drama set in a TV newsroom in the 1950s. The series picks up where the last one left off with ambitious producer Bel, played b...

Quentin Blake interviewed; Hitler's dark charisma discussed from 2012-11-12T19:59

With Mark Lawson.

Quentin Blake is known for his illustrations of books by Roald Dahl and Michael Rosen, as well as his work as a writer and an exhibiting artist. In his 80th year and as h...

Jeff Wayne; The Orphan of Zhao from 2012-11-09T19:50

With Kirsty Lang.

Jeff Wayne has made a new version of his 1978 hit album The War Of The Worlds, now starring Liam Neeson as the narrator, stepping into Richard Burton's shoes - with Ricky...

Alan Bennett's play People; Michael Winterbottom's film Everyday from 2012-11-08T19:45

With Mark Lawson,

Alan Bennett's new play People stars Frances de la Tour as a former model living in her family's crumbling stately home. The comedy, staged at the National Theatre, focu...

Director Michael Haneke; how to cry on stage; Full English from 2012-11-06T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

In a rare interview, acclaimed director Michael Haneke talks about his most recent film, Amour, which won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Festival. Haneke, whose pre...

Anna Friel in Uncle Vanya, The Sapphires, letters from the Mary Whitehouse archive from 2012-11-05T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Anna Friel returns to the stage in a new production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, with a cast which also includes Ken Stott, Laura Carmichael and Sam West. Writer and perform...

The Shining, Lucy Kirkwood, Colm Toibin, Some Girls from 2012-11-02T19:55

With Kirsty Lang.

As the longer, American version of The Shining is released in the UK for the first time, a new documentary about the film's obsessive fans is also in cinemas. Room 237 d...

John Goodman, Orhan Pamuk, Andrew Rawnsley on Secret State from 2012-11-01T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Actor John Goodman discusses his latest role in Argo, Ben Affleck's film about a high-risk cinematic solution to the Iranian hostage crisis in the late '70s, which is bas...

Rust and Bone, Aerosmith, paper art, and hotels on film from 2012-10-31T16:56

With Kirsty Lang.

Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard's follow-up to his award-winning prison drama A Prophet is an earthy romantic fable about the unlikely relationship between a bare-knuckle ...

The Master; Seduced by Art; Thomas Adès from 2012-10-30T20:01

With Mark Lawson.

The film The Master is an impressionistic tale of an American war veteran who drifts into a cult led by a charismatic writer. Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to There W...

Tom Wolfe in conversation with Mark Lawson from 2012-10-29T20:00

Mark Lawson interviews the American writer Tom Wolfe, as he publishes a new novel, Back to Blood, which is set amidst the wealth, sex and crime of contemporary Miami.

It's now 25 years sin...

Jez Butterworth, Wizards vs Aliens, soundscapes for journeys from 2012-10-26T18:48

With Mark Lawson

Dramatist Jez Butterworth talks about the pressures of following on from the success of his play Jerusalem, which starred Mark Rylance. His new play The River stars Domini...

Mark Gatiss as Charles I; Posy Simmonds; 2013 City of Culture plans from 2012-10-25T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Mark Gatiss stars as King Charles I in Howard Brenton's play 55 Days, which focuses on the period culminating in the trial and execution of the monarch, as Oliver Cromwel...

Thomas Keneally, Dan Stevens, 25 years of Michael Palin's TV travels from 2012-10-24T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Thomas Keneally, who won the Booker Prize for Schindler's Ark, discusses the inspiration for his new novel The Daughters of Mars. Set in 1915, the book focuses on two Au...

Poet Sharon Olds, Squeeze on tour from 2012-10-23T18:50

With Kirsty Lang.

When poet Sharon Olds' husband told her he was leaving her, she took out her notebook and started writing. Her new volume, Stag's Leap, charts the death of that marriage ...

Skyfall director Sam Mendes, Kevin Costner's TV series from 2012-10-22T19:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Sam Mendes, director of the new James Bond film Skyfall, discusses the vital ingredients needed to make a successful 007 adventure, and the art of updating Ian Fleming'...

Ginger&Rosa, Ralph Steadman on birds, the man who lights the Rolling Stones from 2012-10-19T19:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Ginger & Rosa is a coming-of-age drama set during the Cuban missile crisis about two teenage girls who find that the bomb has brought them together. A heady mix of ja...

Rod Stewart, The Lost Prince, Hebburn from 2012-10-18T17:22

With Kirsty Lang.

Rod Stewart, the gravelly-voiced singer, songwriter, and stadium-filling star behind hits such as Maggie May and You Wear It Well - and chart-topping covers including I D...

Hollywood costumes, rock docs, Damien Hirst's harbour sculpture from 2012-10-17T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Some of the most famous costumes in Hollywood history, including John Travolta's suit from Saturday Night Fever and Judy Garland's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, a...

Graham Norton; Peter Hook; Beasts of the Southern Wild from 2012-10-16T19:15

With Mark Lawson.

As Graham Norton prepares for the return of his TV show, he discusses whether the chat show has become sanitized, and also considers if it's right to address rumours whi...

Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, David Walliams, US TV series Girls from 2012-10-15T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Tim Burton's new black-and-white animated film Frankenweenie tells the story of a young boy Victor, who harnesses the powers of science to bring his faithful pet dog Spa...

On the Road - the film, American Idiot, Agyness Deyn from 2012-10-12T18:50

With Kirsty Lang.

Jack Kerouac's novel On The Road has finally been turned into a film - directed by Walter Salles and starring Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley and Kristen Stewart - 60 years a...

Comedy performer David Mitchell, Nobel Prize for Literature from 2012-10-11T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Comedy performer David Mitchell, best known for his role in Peep Show, discusses his autobiography, Back Story. The book charts events in Mitchell's life through a series...

The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, Anne-Marie Duff, David Shrigley from 2012-10-11T08:37

With Kirsty Lang.

When The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour was broadcast on BBC One on Boxing Day in 1967, it marked what some saw at the time as their fall from grace and others saw as an ...

This House - Roy Hattersley reviews; Jo Nesbo; Prince biography from 2012-10-10T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Roy Hattersley, former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, gives his verdict on James Graham's new play This House. Philip Glenister, Phil Daniels and Vincent Franklin st...

Pete Townshend from 2012-10-10T11:24

Musician Pete Townshend reflects on the highs and lows of a career which spans almost half a century, in conversation with John Wilson.

Townshend remembers his motivation for writing songs...

Ruby Sparks, Roy Willliams,The Plane Crash, William Klein from 2012-10-08T16:35

With Mark Lawson.

Ruby Sparks is the new film from the directors of the Oscar-winning Little Miss Sunshine, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. It explores the writer's fantasy of having a ...

The Reader author Bernhard Schlink, Homeland returns, Caryl Churchill's new play from 2012-10-04T19:30

With Mark Lawson.

Homeland, the acclaimed US TV series starring Damian Lewis and Claire Danes, returns to our screens for a second series this weekend. Sarah Crompton reviews the drama whi...

Howard Barker, Welcome to India, attracting young opera audiences from 2012-10-03T17:28

With Mark Lawson.

Welcome to India is a new BBC series which aims to lift the lid on the reality of life for India's 1.2 billion residents. The poet Daljit Nagra reviews the programme, an...

BBC International Short Story Award, Mumford and Sons from 2012-10-02T18:55

John Wilson reports live from the BBC International Short Story Award ceremony, where chair of judges Clive Anderson presents the winner with the £15,000 prize.

John also talks to members...

Emma Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Turner Prize, Hunted from 2012-10-01T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Emma Watson returns to the big screen in a new film The Perks of Being a Wallflower, in which a young man falls for Sam (played by Watson) while under the protective eyes...

The Thick of It, Cerys Matthews, Lucy Liu in Elementary from 2012-09-28T19:00

With Kirsty Lang

The plot lines from the BBC political comedy The Thick of It - school breakfast club closures, texting in cabinet meetings and the launch of a community bank - have been a...

Front Row - J K Rowling from 2012-09-27T18:55

J K Rowling discusses the inspiration for her new novel The Casual Vacancy, her first book for adult readers, in a wide-ranging conversation with Mark Lawson. She considers her use of strong lan...

Muse interviewed, Andy Williams remembered, Short Story contenders from 2012-09-26T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

The death of the singer Andy Williams at the age of 84 was announced today. Michael Grade pays tribute to one of the most high-profile performers of the 1960s and 1970s,...

Bruce Willis in Looper, Ashley Jensen, BBC Short Story author from 2012-09-25T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

In the new sci-fi thriller Looper, time-travel exists, but is illegal and only available on the black market. Organised crime bosses send their victims into the past, to...

Holy Motors, The Paradise, BBC Short Story contender from 2012-09-24T18:50

With Kirsty Lang.

The French film Holy Motors, which provoked boos and cheers at the Cannes film festival, arrives in UK cinemas this week. The cast includes Kylie Minogue as an enigmatic...

Untouchable review, Louise Wener interview, Ryszard Kapuscinski biography from 2012-09-21T19:16

With Kirsty Lang.

Untouchable, a French comedy film about a wealthy disabled man and his young impoverished carer, has proved an unlikely hit across Europe, even taking more than Avatar i...

Rupert Everett, novelist Deborah Levy, and Big Boys Go Bananas!* from 2012-09-20T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

The actor Rupert Everett is just about to publish a second memoir, Vanished Years, in which he describes what he sees as a precarious career in film and theatre since his...

Oliver Stone, Jesus Christ Superstar with Mel C from 2012-09-19T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Oliver Stone, director of Wall St, Nixon, JFK and Natural Born Killers, discusses his latest film Savages, which focuses on a pair of young men in California who run a l...

Brad Pitt's latest reviewed, Gareth Malone, Greg Davies from 2012-09-18T19:15

With Mark Lawson.

Gareth Malone first found fame in the TV series The Choir, where he encouraged reluctant teenagers to sing. Most recently he led the Military Wives choir, who scored a C...

Now Is Good director Ol Parker, and Caryl Churchill's new play Love and Information from 2012-09-17T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Director Ol Parker, who wrote the screenplay for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, discusses his new film Now Is Good, about a young woman - played by Dakota Fanning - who...

John Cale; BBC International Short Story Award from 2012-09-14T18:50

With John Wilson.

Clive Anderson, the chair of judges and fellow judge Anjani Joseph announce the 10 contenders for the £15,000 BBC International Short Story Award. All the stories can be ...

Downton Abbey reviewed, Sheridan Smith as Hedda Gabler, David Byrne from 2012-09-13T18:36

With Kirsty Lang.

Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes' series about the Earl and Countess of Grantham and their household, has become a love it or hate it phenomenon of TV costume drama. This w...

Jonathan Pryce's Lear, Thomas Heatherwick, Mercury Prize from 2012-09-12T18:56

With Mark Lawson.

Jonathan Pryce tackles the title role of Shakespeare's King Lear for the first time, in Michael Attenborough's new production at the Almeida Theatre in London. Novelist K...

The Killers, Booker Prize shortlist, Woody Allen film, Bronze from 2012-09-11T19:00

With Mark Lawson

Las Vegas band The Killers are in the UK ahead of the release of their new album, Battle Born, next week. In a rare interview recorded shortly before going on stage to ro...

Meryl Streep in Hope Springs, Pre-Raphaelites exhibition from 2012-09-10T19:15

With Mark Lawson

In Meryl Streep's latest film, Hope Springs, she and Tommy Lee Jones play a middle-aged couple whose marriage has become stale, after more than three decades together. The...

Charles Sturridge, Iraq War novel, revival of silent cinema from 2012-09-07T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

Charles Sturridge, the director of the landmark TV series Brideshead Revisited, discusses his latest project, a TV adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's The Scapegoat, a tal...

Darcey Bussell, Bob Dylan reviewed, and the Bristol Old Vic reopens from 2012-09-06T16:46

With John Wilson.

Ballerina Darcey Bussell reflects on her career, in the light of a new photographic book chronicling her remarkable time with the Royal Ballet. She also looks ahead to he...

Donny Osmond, AN Wilson on Cecil Beaton, the return of Dallas from 2012-09-05T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

As Donny Osmond prepares for a series of British concerts with his sister Marie, the 1970s teen star-turned middle-aged grandfather looks back over his career, including...

Novelist Howard Jacobson; actor Damian Lewis; Lawless reviewed from 2012-09-04T19:31

With Mark Lawson.

The Booker Prize-winning writer Howard Jacobson has just published Zoo Time, the tale of an author who fears the novel is dying. He explains where his fictional hero ends...

Hermione Norris, Anna Karenina reviewed, Henning Mankell from 2012-09-03T16:53

With Mark Lawson

Hermione Norris, who played Ros Myers in the BBC TV spy series Spooks, returns to our screens tonight in A Mother's Son, a two-part ITV drama about a mother who suspects h...

Opera star Alfie Boe, TV drama The Bletchley Circle, organist Cameron Carpenter from 2012-08-31T18:58

With John Wilson, including an interview with singer Alfie Boe, as he publishes an autobiography My Story, about his rise from car mechanic in Blackpool to international opera, music and recordi...

Bobby Womack, with Damon Albarn and Peter Guralnick from 2012-08-30T18:55

With John Wilson.

Singer and songwriter Bobby Womack is one of soul music's great survivors. He reflects on a career which spans more than half a century, in which he's confronted illness...

The e-book debate - threat or opportunity? from 2012-08-30T10:18

Mark Lawson chairs a debate on whether e-books and digital distribution represent a terminal threat or a new chance for authors, traditional publishers, agents and bookshops, in a session record...

Mrs Biggs, Joyce Carol Oates, Berberian Sound Studio from 2012-08-28T18:49

With Mark Lawson.

Sheridan Smith takes the lead role in the new ITV1 drama series Mrs Biggs, which focuses on the story of Charmian, the wife of notorious train robber Ronnie Biggs. It fol...

Adrian Lester takes questions from young actors from 2012-08-28T10:13

In a special edition recorded at the Radio 1 Academy in Hackney, Mark Lawson talks to Adrian Lester, star of the BBC TV drama Hustle, who also answers questions from an audience of young actors....

Harrogate Crime Writing Festival Special from 2012-08-24T18:55

Mark Lawson reports from the annual Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, with guests including Harlan Coben, Ann Cleeves and John Connolly.

Producer Ekene Akalawu.

Booker T, novelist cricketers and Charlie Brooker's new comedy from 2012-08-23T19:13

With John Wilson.

Organist Booker T Jones, leader of Booker T and the M Gs, remembers the day he created the classic tune Green Onions, and discusses the mystery surrounding the death of ...

Ian McEwan, recorded before an audience in Edinburgh from 2012-08-22T19:00

Mark Lawson interviews Ian McEwan, as he publishes a new novel Sweet Tooth, in an edition recorded before an audience at the Edinburgh Festival.

Ian McEwan reveals the inspiration for Swe...

James Meek, The Three Stooges reviewed, Stockhausen in helicopters from 2012-08-21T18:34

With John Wilson.

Best known for gross-out comedies There's Something About Mary and Dumb And Dumber, the Farrelly Brothers pay homage to the tradition of American slapstick with their tak...

Tom Stoppard, The Watch, Tony Scott remembered, cellist Natalie Clein from 2012-08-20T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Dramatist Tom Stoppard discusses his TV adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall, and his screenplay for Anna Karenin...

Philippa Gregory, The Last Weekend, Dirty Dancing at 25 from 2012-08-17T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

Philippa Gregory discusses her latest novel on the Plantagenets. The Kingmaker's Daughter focuses on Anne Neville, daughter of 15th century power magnate the Earl Of Warw...

Jeanette Winterson; Birger Larsen, director of The Killing from 2012-08-16T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Writer Jeanette Winterson discusses her new novella, The Daylight Gate, which is based on real characters from the notorious Pendle witch trials from 1612. The story show...

Edinburgh Festival, David Hayman, Virginia Ironside from 2012-08-16T15:31

With Mark Lawson.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has just reached the half-way mark, and this evening Front Row comes from the world's largest arts festival. Recorded in front of a live aud...

Alanis Morissette, Take This Waltz from 2012-08-14T18:52

With John Wilson.

Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette reflects on her career so far, and her latest album, Havoc And Bright Lights.

Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Sarah ...

Alice Cooper, Clive Owen, and TV drama Person of Interest from 2012-08-13T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Actor Clive Owen discusses his latest role in Shadow Dancer, the new film from director James Marsh (Man on Wire, Project Nim). Set in 1990s Belfast, a member of the IR...

Nicola Benedetti interviewed; Paralympic drama The Best of Men reviewed from 2012-08-10T19:53

With Kirsty Lang.

Violinist Nicola Benedetti discusses the importance of music education and why being a classical musican is not unlike being an Olympic athlete.

As the musician Be...

New TV comedies set at school; Edinburgh round-up from 2012-08-09T17:22

With Kirsty Lang.

Writer John O'Farrell reviews two new TV comedies set in and around schools. Bad Education is written by and stars comedian Jack Whitehall as a teacher who seems less mat...

Bourne writer Tony Gilroy, large-scale public theatre, Jackpot review from 2012-08-08T18:55

With John Wilson.

Tony Gilroy wrote the original Bourne trilogy of films starring Matt Damon and has written and directed the latest, The Bourne Legacy, following the departure of director...

Tributes to Marvin Hamlisch and Robert Hughes from 2012-08-07T18:55

With John Wilson.

The lyricist Don Black remembers his friend the composer Marvin Hamlisch whose death has been announced today. There is another chance to hear Hamlisch - best known for ...

New Pixar film Brave, Mike Scott of the Waterboys, pop stars changing names from 2012-08-06T18:55

With Kirsty Lang,

Brave is the latest animated film from Pixar and features the voices of Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly and Julie Walters. Set in the Scottish highlands in the 10th centur...

Curious Incident onstage, Alan Davies, Olympic puppeteers from 2012-08-03T13:06

With Kirsty Lang

Alan Davies, QI panellist and star of Jonathan Creek, discusses returning to stand-up after a ten year break. He also talks about coming last on QI, his run-ins with the t...

Meera Syal in Much Ado About Nothing from 2012-08-02T18:50

With Kirsty Lang

Meera Syal has made her professional Shakespeare debut playing Beatrice in the RSC's new production of Much Ado About Nothing. Directed by Iqbal Khan, this latest adaptati...

With John Wilson, who pays tribute to Gore Vidal, and visits the William Morris Gallery. from 2012-08-01T19:10

With John Wilson,

We pay tribute to the American writer Gore Vidal who died yesterday, following a seven decade career as novelist - he wrote the best selling Myra Breckenridge, essayist, ...

Mark Thomas on his father's love of opera; Bernard of Hollywood's images of Marilyn from 2012-07-31T19:00

With John Wilson.

Comedian Mark Thomas discusses his latest show Bravo Figaro, which reveals how his father, a builder, cultivated a love of opera. After his father was diagnosed with a d...

Mark Wahlberg in Ted, James Kelman, Mark Ravenhill from 2012-07-30T19:01

With John Wilson.

Booker Prize-winning writer James Kelman (How Late It Was, How Late) discusses his new novel Mo Said She Was Quirky, a story which explores fear, trust, and relationships...

'Woman in a Dressing Gown', Louis Nowra, Newton Faulkner from 2012-07-27T19:02

With Kirsty Lang.

Another London is a new exhibition at Tate Britain which reveals the capital as seen through the eyes of photographers from all over the world, from 1930 until 1980. The...

Mark Rylance as Richard III, Herman Koch, Searching for Sugarman from 2012-07-26T18:57

With Kirsty Lang. Mark Rylance returns to the stage for the first time since his award-winning performance in Jez Butterworth's play Jerusalem. Andrew Dickson reviews Rylance in the lead role in...

The Man Booker longlist; The Doctor's Dilemma reviewed. from 2012-07-25T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

The long-list for the Man Booker Prize for fiction is announced this afternoon. Chair of the judges Peter Stothard and actor Dan Stevens, a member of the panel, discuss ...

Colin Dexter, Kronos Quartet, and Starkey on Churchill from 2012-07-24T18:45

With Mark Lawson.

Colin Dexter received the Theakston's Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction award at this year's Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. Dexter wrote his last...

Ruby Wax interviewed; The Lorax reviewed from 2012-07-24T11:13

With Mark Lawson.

Mark reports on the latest work to be created for the vast Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. This year Tino Sehgal is the artist who has taken on the challenge.

Ruby Wa...

Terry Jones on giving 'The Owl and the Pussycat' an operatic makeover from 2012-07-20T19:05

With Kirsty Lang.

Ex-Monty Python Terry Jones and Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley (The Full Monty) discuss creating "A Water-Bound Spectacle" inspired by Edward Lear's 1871 poem The Owl...

Rapper Ice-T, Monica Mason's farewell to the Royal Ballet, Tom Hanks' new online project from 2012-07-19T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

American musician and performer Ice-T has directed a cinema documentary Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap in which he talks to leading performers including Snoop Dog...

Madonna in the UK; Simon Russell Beale in Timon of Athens from 2012-07-18T19:15

With Mark Lawson.

Madonna's MDNA world tour arrived in the UK last night, including new live versions of three decades worth of hits, performed with dancers, flying drummers, tightrope wa...

Hattie Morahan and Dominic Rowan on booing at the theatre; John Lydon; literary letters from 2012-07-17T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Hattie Morahan and Dominic Rowan are currently starring in Ibsen's drama A Doll's House, and audiences have been booing Dominic's portrayal of the heroine's chauvinistic ...

The Dark Knight Rises; The Tanks; Asif Kapadia from 2012-07-16T18:57

With Mark Lawson.

The Dark Knight Rises is the third of director Christopher Nolan's Batman films. Christian Bale stars as Bruce Wayne, with Tom Hardy as an evil terrorist, and Anne Hathaw...

Eoin Colfer; Catherine the Great; loneliness of a soloist from 2012-07-13T16:01

With John Wilson.

Author Eoin Colfer reveals the reason that he decided to put an end to the saga of his best-selling hero Artemis Fowl, despite his publisher's wishes.

Tonight is th...

Antony Gormley; the man behind Angelos Epithemiou revealed from 2012-07-12T19:15

With Mark Lawson, including an interview with the The Angel Of The North sculptor Antony Gormley as a new exhibition, Still Standing, opens in London and a project about Beckett called Godot Tre...

James Fenton, rained-off festivals, and author Nicola Barker from 2012-07-11T17:17

With Mark Lawson.

James Fenton reflects on how his years as a war reporter fed into his poetry, and why it moves him so much to hear that his poem For Andrew Wood is popular at funerals. ...

Wynton Marsalis interview; review of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World from 2012-07-10T18:55

With John Wilson.

Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis discusses his approach to the history of jazz, his feelings about hip-hop, and the rhythms of Congo Square, New Orleans, which have inspired...

Magic Mike; Twenty Twelve writer John Morton. from 2012-07-09T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum star in Magic Mike, the latest film from Traffic and Ocean's Eleven director Steven Soderbergh. The film explores the world of all...

Amy Winehouse and Katy Perry films; William Fiennes on Joseph Mitchell from 2012-07-06T19:20

With Kirsty Lang.

Singers Amy Winehouse and Katy Perry are the focus of two new documentaries. Katy Perry: Part of Me follows the American performer on tour, as her marriage to Russell Br...

Bryn Terfel, scoring Hitchcock, the Shard, Sinbad from 2012-07-05T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

Leading bass-baritone Bryn Terfel talks about the intrinsic character of Welsh music, as his four day BrynFest takes place with a 500 strong male voice choir and an open ...

Julian Barnes on Jean Dujardin's new film, Nick Hewer, new Bond exhibition from 2012-07-04T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Julian Barnes reviews The Players (Les Infidèles), the new film by Jean Dujardin, the writer and lead actor of Oscar-winning movie The Artist. The film is a series of vig...

Richard Wilson's Italian Job re-creation; Mark Damazer on The Newsroom from 2012-07-03T19:10

With Mark Lawson

Mark reports from Bexhill on Sea, as artist Richard Wilson recreates the final scene of the film The Italian Job, balancing a full-sized replica coach on the roof of the D...

Christopher Eccleston in Blackout; on the Chariots of Fire track; ping pong from 2012-07-02T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

In the new three-part TV thriller Blackout, Christopher Eccleston plays a disillusioned, heavy-drinking local politician, who is dealing with the consequences of an alcoh...

Bobby Womack, Jake Arnott, and Killer Joe reviewed from 2012-06-29T18:55

With John Wilson.

Veteran soul singer Bobby Womack talks to John about surviving serious illness and a 50 year career that started in gospel and included writing hits for the likes of Jan...

28/06/2012 from 2012-06-28T19:18

With Mark Lawson

Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Macy Gray talks about her latest disc, Covered, her own take on the cover album. The songs come largely from the indie scene of the...

The Amazing Spider-Man; Joe Penhall from 2012-06-27T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

The Amazing Spider-Man is the latest summer blockbuster, a reboot of the tale of nerdy teenage Peter Parker, who acquires superpowers after he's been bitten by a spider....

Friends with Kids, Edvard Munch from 2012-06-26T18:50

With Kirsty Lang

Zoe Williams, critic and author of What Not To Expect When You're Expecting, reviews the film Friends With Kids - a new comedy starring many of the cast of Bridesmaids, ab...

Terry Pratchett; Your Sister's Sister; Jed Mercurio from 2012-06-25T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Terry Pratchett has teamed up with science fiction author Stephen Baxter to write The Long Earth, the first book in a projected series, which centres around a string of ...

Crow with Handspring puppets, guitarist Milos, Mark Wallinger from 2012-06-22T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

The Handspring Puppet Company, the creators of the award-winning War Horse horses, have turned to Ted Hughes' sequence of Crow poems for their new show, combining puppetr...

Prunella Scales, Jenny Saville, Coogan and Iannucci on TV from 2012-06-21T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

On the eve of her 80th birthday, Prunella Scales discusses acting roles from Basil Fawlty's wife Sybil in the British comedy Fawlty Towers, to Queen Elizabeth II in the ...

Julie Walters back on stage, Adrian Lester, and Ed Stoppard on Alan Turing from 2012-06-20T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Julie Walters returns to the stage playing an old hippie, in The Last of the Haussmans, a debut play by Stephen Beresford. The play also stars Helen McCrory and Rory Kin...

Sam Mendes; news of the Art Fund Prize winner from 2012-06-19T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes is the executive producer of a series of Shakespeare's history plays, filmed for TV. He discusses why he believes in bringing Shakespear...

Yoko Ono's art; Bruce Willis in Lay the Favourite from 2012-06-18T19:00

With Kirsty Lang,

A major Yoko Ono exhibition called To The Light opens this week with art installations, films with soundtracks by John Lennon, a maze and a room in which you're invited ...

Fast Girls, Gatz from 2012-06-15T18:50

With Kirsty Lang

Gatz is a unique adaptation of The Great Gatsby, requiring an actor to read all 49,000 words of the novel as the rest of the cast bring it to life, in a production that la...

Rachel Whiteread; Dallas reviewed; Watts Gallery from 2012-06-14T17:08

With Mark Lawson.

Three decades after TV viewers around the world asked 'Who shot JR?', the saga of the Ewing family arrives in the 21st century, with a revamp of Dallas. In the new versi...

Rock of Ages reviewed; Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Afghan War fiction. from 2012-06-13T18:55

With John Wilson,

John reports from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, one of the contenders for the Art Fund Prize for museums, in the company of Alexander McCall Smith who has used ...

Alan Howard interviewed; True Love reviewed from 2012-06-12T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Front Row is reporting this week from the four remaining contenders for the Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries. Our first visit is to the Hepworth, Wakefield, whic...

Janet Suzman; Invisible Art; Cosmopolis review from 2012-06-11T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Novelist Toby Litt reviews David Cronenberg's new film Cosmopolis, based on the novel by Don DeLillo. It stars Twilight's Robert Pattinson as a billionaire cocooned in h...

Rapper Professor Green interviewed; Dürrenmatt re-examined from 2012-06-11T11:03

With Mark Lawson.

Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt is probably best known for his play The Visit. Now director Josie Rourke has included his lesser known work The Physicists in her first...

06/06/2012 from 2012-06-06T19:15

With Mark Lawson,

Woody Allen has allowed his life and creative process to be documented on-camera. With unprecedented access, filmmaker Robert Weide followed the notoriously private film ...

Hilary Mantel talks to Mark Lawson from 2012-06-05T18:58

In an extended interview, Mark Lawson talks to writer Hilary Mantel, who won the Booker Prize with her novel Wolf Hall, and has now written a sequel, Bring Up The Bodies.

Producer Nicki Pa...

Neneh Cherry interviewed; the Transit of Venus in art from 2012-06-01T15:50

Neneh Cherry first made her name performing her hit Buffalo Stance on Top of the Pops while seven months pregnant. She later went on to collaborate with other artists including Youssou N'Dour an...

Michael Morpurgo; Ridley Scott's Prometheus reviewed from 2012-05-31T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Director Ridley Scott returns to science fiction with Prometheus, starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender. It follows a group of scientists who travel to a distant w...

John Irving; African art; Thomas Heatherwick from 2012-05-30T18:45

With Mark Lawson.

Novelist John Irving discusses his new book In One Person, which has, like all of his novels, been written back to front with the ending first. It's a doorstop rather th...

Patti Smith, Ben Drew (aka Plan B) from 2012-05-29T18:50

With John Wilson.

Musician and writer Patti Smith joins John to talk about her new album, BANGA, which features a song in memory of Amy Winehouse.

Film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh re...

Ken Loach review; Rumer; James Sallis interview from 2012-05-28T18:48

With Mark Lawson.

Ken Loach's latest film, The Angels' Share, is a comedy set in Scotland, following the fortunes of Robbie, a young Scottish gangster who discovers that he has a "nose" -...

Tracey Emin in Margate; Cannes Film Festival from 2012-05-25T19:05

With Kirsty Lang.

Tracey Emin discusses how she feels about returning to her home town of Margate with an exhibition including new works conceived specially for Margate and exploring them...

Tom Phillips, writing final TV episodes, Arnold Wesker at 80 from 2012-05-24T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

The artist Tom Phillips is celebrating his 75th birthday today. To mark this, his classic book A Humument is being reprinted which he first embarked on in 1966, and ther...

Chariots of Fire on stage; Henry Moore indoors. from 2012-05-23T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

The Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire now arrives on stage, with the Hampstead Theatre turned into the arena of the 1924 Paris Olympics. And the new cinema documentary...

Actor John Simm, author George RR Martin from 2012-05-22T19:00

With Mark Lawson

John Simm, star of the TV series Life on Mars, reflects on his return to the stage in Sheffield in Betrayal, Harold Pinter's drama of marital infidelity told backwards. Listen

Moonrise Kingdom, Joanne Harris, artist Richard Wilson from 2012-05-21T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

Wes Anderson's new film Moonrise Kingdom is set in New England in the summer of 1965. Two 12 year olds fall in love and run away together into the wilderness, with a loc...

Rolf Harris on his art; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau obituary from 2012-05-18T18:50

With Mark Lawson

A retrospective of Rolf Harris' art and other talents - from singing to swimming - is about to open in Liverpool. He discusses his work, his love of gum-trees, and what he...

Screenwriter Paul Abbott; The Dictator reviewed from 2012-05-16T19:02

With Mark Lawson.

Shameless creator Paul Abbott and writer Sean Conway discuss their unusual new TV drama series Hit & Miss, about a pre-op transgender contract killer.

American...

Kevin Rowland from Dexys Midnight Runners; Ballgowns at the V&A from 2012-05-15T19:09

With John Wilson.

Kevin Rowland discusses the changing face of Dexys Midnight Runners, who topped the charts three decades ago with Come On Eileen, and now release their first album in 27...

Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths interviewed; the Art Fund Prize shortlist announced from 2012-05-14T19:08

With Mark Lawson.

Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths discuss their theatrical collaboration in The Sunshine Boys and their plans to perform Shakespeare in a pub for one night only.

...

Coronation Street musical; Anish Kapoor's Olympic sculpture from 2012-05-11T18:27

With Kirsty Lang.

Street of Dreams is a new arena musical based on Coronation Street, Britain's longest-running tv soap. Hosted by Paul O'Grady and starring cast members including Julie Go...

Hilary Mantel, Tim Burton, 56 Up from 2012-05-10T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Hilary Mantel discusses her novel Bring Up The Bodies, a sequel to her Booker Prize-winner Wolf Hall. It focuses on the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn and, like Wolf Hall,...

Writer John Hodge; Naxos Records; plot against Edward VIII from 2012-05-09T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Edward VIII: The Plot to Topple a King is a new TV drama/documentary which tells the story of Archbishop Cosmo Gordon Lang, played by David Calder. He believed that Edwar...

Mel Gibson reviewed and Pianist Mitsuko Uchida from 2012-05-08T19:20

With Mark Lawson.

Mel Gibson returns to the screen this week in How I Spent Last Summer, in which he plays a career criminal arrested by the authorities in Mexico and sent to a tough pris...

Damon Albarn in his studio from 2012-05-07T18:45

In a special edition, John Wilson meets Damon Albarn at work in his studio, surrounded by instruments, as he prepares for a busy summer.

He's helping to launch the London 2012 Festival wi...

04/05/2012 from 2012-05-04T18:55

With Kirsty Lang

Artist Michael Craig-Martin reviews a major new exhibition about the art and architecture created and inspired by the Bauhaus school. He reflects on the movement's influe...

A controversial play about Apple; Shirley Hughes; the original Homeland from 2012-05-03T19:14

With Kirsty Lang.

The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs is a one-man theatre piece by Mike Daisey, describing the appeal of Apple products and a visit Mike made to a factory where they'...

Jason Isaacs; South Sudan theatre company from 2012-05-02T18:47

With John Wilson.

Actor Jason Isaacs on his new high concept TV drama Awake and why British actors are storming Hollywood.

South Sudan is the world's youngest country, gaining state...

Mark Haddon; Turner Prize shortlist; Norah Jones from 2012-05-01T16:39

With John Wilson.

Novelist Mark Haddon found fame with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, an adventure story from the perspective of a boy with Asperger syndrome. His lates...

Leonardo Da Vinci reviewed; Maxim Vengerov interviewed from 2012-04-30T18:54

With John Wilson.

Professor Robert Winston surveys a major exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomical drawings, on show at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.

Acclaimed violi...

Enquirer - a play about UK Newspaper journalists from 2012-04-27T18:54

Enquirer is a new rapid-response, verbatim work mounted by the National Theatre of Scotland investigating the current crisis in UK newspaper journalism. Performed promenade style in a Glasgow of...

Brodsky Quartet; Edward Bond; TV Impressionists from 2012-04-26T19:10

With Mark Lawson.

Very Important People is Channel 4's new sketch show which claims to reinvigorate the world of impressions. Performers Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott discuss the phys...

Michael Frayn, Derek Walcott, and David Hare's play South Downs from 2012-04-25T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Michael Frayn discusses his new novel Skios, a story of mislaid identity, confusion and miscalculated consequences set on a Greek island. And in the light of an acclaime...

Glenn Close as Albert Nobbs; Harry Shearer on Nixon from 2012-04-24T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Glenn Close takes the title role in the film Albert Nobbs, the tale of a woman pretending to be man in order to work as a butler in 19th century Dublin. Booker Prize-win...

World Book Night; Mark Ravenhill; Winning Words at Olympic Park from 2012-04-23T18:55

With John Wilson.

Last year on Front Row poetry publisher William Sieghart announced that a line from Alfred Tennyson's Ulysses would be displayed prominently on a wall in the London Olym...

Barbara Windsor, Cillian Murphy and Enda Walsh from 2012-04-20T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Barbara Windsor reflects on her career, as she receives a lifetime achievement award at the Bradford International Film Festival. Long before her best-known roles in the...

David Suchet, BBC Proms 2012 from 2012-04-19T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Actor David Suchet discusses his role in a new production of Long Day's Journey Into Night and laments the passing of Poirot.

Roger Wright, controller of Radio 3, ...

Stanley Booth; Salmon Fishing in the Yemen from 2012-04-18T18:51

With John Wilson.

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews the film adaptation of the bestseller Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, about an unlikely scheme to introduce fly-fishing to the desert, which resu...

Irvine Welsh; Bob Marley film; Orange Prize shortlist from 2012-04-17T19:10

With John Wilson.

Marley is a feature length documentary about the life and legacy of the reggae superstar Bob Marley. David Hepworth, who saw Bob Marley live in London in 1975, reflects ...

Sir Tim Rice and Pamela Stephenson from 2012-04-16T14:38

With Mark Lawson.

Sir Tim Rice, who last night received the Olivier Special Award for his contribution to theatre, reflects on his career, his relationship with Andrew Lloyd Webber and hi...

Horrible Histories on TV; ballerina Tamara Rojo; Mozart's Sister from 2012-04-13T19:05

With John Wilson.

Prima Ballerina Tamara Rojo will be the new Artistic Director of English National Ballet, it was announced today. She discusses what this means for her dancing career an...

Dara O Briain; Whit Stillman; Butch Cassidy rides again from 2012-04-12T20:30

With John Wilson.

Dara O Briain's School of Hard Sums is a new TV series in which the comedian uses numbers and equations to tackle life problems, such as trying to predict football score...

Anne Frank from 2012-04-11T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

The Diary of Anne Frank is, for many, the book that best exemplifies the tragedy of the Jewish experience during World War II. Millions of school children read the book, ...

Clive James and The Cabin in the Woods film review from 2012-04-10T18:56

With Mark Lawson,

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon co-wrote his latest film in three days. The Cabin in the Woods takes on the seemingly familiar story of five friends staying...

Theatre Producers Special from 2012-04-09T18:50

Mark Lawson talks to leading theatre producers, including Cameron Mackintosh, Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bill Kenwright and Sonia Friedman, about the art of creating...

Photography special: Bailey, McCullin, O'Neill, Benson from 2012-04-06T18:45

John Wilson talks to four leading photographers of the same generation whose careers began in the 1960s and whose images have become classics of their time, from the pages of Vogue magazine to t...

Graham Coxon interviewed; Mirror, Mirror reviewed from 2012-04-05T19:30

John Wilson talks to Blur guitarist Graham Coxon about his latest solo album A + E. He reveals his plans for the future of the band and his own career

Historian Tom Holland discusses his l...

Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in HBO's Game Change from 2012-04-04T18:53

Julianne Moore and Ed Harris star in Game Change, HBO's television dramatisation of the 2008 Presidential Election. Moore plays Sarah Palin, the Alaskan governor plucked from relative obscurity ...

Labrinth interviewed; Headhunters reviewed from 2012-04-03T18:15

Norwegian author Jo NesbØ's best-selling thriller Headhunters has just been turned into a film - the first of his novels to be adapted for the cinema. It tells the story of Roger Brown, a succes...

Damien Hirst, Michael Grade from 2012-04-02T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

A major Damien Hirst retrospective exhibition opens this week at Tate Modern. Damien Hirst discusses his success and the reaction he gets from cab-drivers, and critic Jac...

Kirsty Lang in New York with the director of the Metropolitan Museum from 2012-03-30T19:00

With Kirsty Lang in New York.

Thomas Campbell, the British director of the vast Metropolitan Museum, talks about his plans for the future and coping with the financial restraints of a rece...

Harry Potter studio tour; unfilmed screenplays from 2012-03-29T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

A new attraction The Making of Harry Potter opens its doors this weekend. Visitors to the Leavesden film studios can look behind the scenes of the making of the most suc...

Dr John, Tim Lott, and Janet Street-Porter on British Design 1948-2012 from 2012-03-28T18:55

With John Wilson,

New Orleans-born singer, songwriter and pianist Dr John reflects on the role of magic in his career, and discusses his new album Locked Down, produced by Dan Auerbach fr...

Brendan O'Carroll; John Eliot Gardiner; Gillian Wearing. from 2012-03-27T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Brendan O'Carroll, the creator and star of the comedy Mrs Brown's Boys, reflects on the genesis of his raucous alter-ego Agnes Brown and her loving but dysfunctional fam...

Aardman Animations' Pirate film; Jodi Picoult; Ben Okri from 2012-03-26T18:56

With Mark Lawson.

Hugh Grant leads the cast providing the voices for Aardman Animations' latest film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, which takes the lawless seafarers from th...

Jonny Greenwood and composer Krzysztof Penderecki; Brains - the exhibition. from 2012-03-23T20:02

With John Wilson.

The new TV drama series The Syndicate, written by Kay Mellor, is the tale of a group of supermarket workers who win the lottery. It stars Joanna Page and Timothy Spall. ...

Greg Doran; Molly Dineen on Werner Herzog from 2012-03-22T20:29

With Mark Lawson.

Greg Doran discusses his appointment as the next Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which was announced today, and reflects on his priorities in his new ...

Luther creator Neil Cross; re-imagining Ballets Russes from 2012-03-21T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Writer Neil Cross created Luther, the tormented detective played by Idris Elba on TV, and also wrote for the acclaimed spy series Spooks. He discusses why he hopes Luthe...

The Hunger Games; Kensington Palace; Paul Weller on beat poetry from 2012-03-20T19:55

With John Wilson.

The film The Hunger Games, based on the best-selling book by Suzanne Collins, is set in a future dystopia in which young people are forced to kill each other as entertai...

Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton; Russell Banks from 2012-03-19T18:14

With Mark Lawson.

Mark talks to Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, who star as the demon barber of Fleet Street and his partner in crime Mrs Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Tod...

Andrew Motion; violinist David Garrett; 1001 TV sets from 2012-03-16T20:05

With John Wilson.

Virtuoso violinist David Garrett began his professional career at the age of 10, and now has an international career as a classical and crossover performer. He reflects ...

Jerwood Gallery in Hastings; One Night on TV; Tobias Jones from 2012-03-15T20:05

With John Wilson.

Jessica Hynes and Douglas Hodge star in the four part TV drama One Night. Each episode takes the point of view of a different character during the course of a hot summer ...

Miró's grandsons on his sculptures; The Devils on DVD from 2012-03-14T19:45

With Mark Lawson

As the UK's largest exhibition of the sculpture of Joan Miró opens at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Mark meets Miró's grandsons, Emilio Fernández Miró and Joan Punyet Miró. Th...

Irving Berlin's daughters; playwright Helen Edmundson from 2012-03-13T19:55

With Mark Lawson

Irving Berlin's three daughters reflect on their father's career as one of America's most successful songwriters. They also discuss their inherited responsibilities for hi...

Lesley Sharp; Noah Stewart; We Bought a Zoo from 2012-03-12T18:19

Actress Lesley Sharp talks about returning to her role as Manchester police officer DC Janet Scott in the TV drama Scott and Bailey, alongside Suranne Jones. She reflects on how the series appro...

New York Special: John Tiffany, Lyndsay Faye, Mike Daisey's play about Apple from 2012-03-09T16:04

British director John Tiffany, who had a huge success with the play Black Watch, is now working on a Broadway musical version of the romantic film Once. The film, set in Dublin, won an Oscar in ...

Gilbert and George; Nanci Griffith; John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe from 2012-03-08T20:09

With Mark Lawson.

Artistic double-act Gilbert and George discuss their working methods, as they open a new exhibition called The London Pictures, based on words taken from newspaper billb...

Andrew Lloyd Webber on Phantom sequel Love Never Dies from 2012-03-08T10:23

Mark Lawson talks to Andrew Lloyd Webber, who reflects on Love Never Dies, his follow-up to Phantom of the Opera, which is now released on DVD. In a special edition of Front Row, Lloyd Webber ex...

Lloyd Newson; Michael Winterbottom; cinematic soccer team from 2012-03-06T16:25

With John Wilson, who meets Lloyd Newson, director of DV8 physical theatre, whose new work focuses on questions of freedom of speech in a multicultural society.

Michael Winterbottom expla...

Andrew Stanton; William Byrd; sports documentaries from 2012-03-05T18:01

With Mark Lawson.

Andrew Stanton is an Oscar-winning film-maker whose credits include Toy Story and Finding Nemo. His latest film is John Carter, a sci-fi time travel fantasy set on Mars. ...

Therapy in fiction, film and TV drama from 2012-03-02T19:55

With Naomi Alderman.

Therapists and their patients now play a key part in drama and fiction, whether it's Watson meeting his analyst in the BBC series Sherlock or the recent return of Fre...

Titian saved; Bruce Springsteen's new album from 2012-03-01T20:05

With John Wilson.

Antonia Fraser and Caitlin Moran have both recorded audio versions of their memoirs. They discuss the challenges of reading their intimate thoughts aloud.

Bruce S...

Christina Ricci; Nick Park; writer Errol John reassessed from 2012-02-29T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Christina Ricci discusses her role in Bel Ami, a film based on Maupassant's novel about a young man's scheming rise to power in Paris, through his relationships with infl...

Tom Hardy in This Means War; Ian Rankin's New Elizabethan from 2012-02-28T19:55

In the new film This Means War, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine play two CIA agents waging an epic battle against each other when they find they are dating the same woman, played by Reese Witherspoon. ...

Jennifer Aniston in Wanderlust and comedian Sarah Millican from 2012-02-27T19:45

With Mark Lawson,

John Adams' controversial opera The Death of Klinghoffer, based on the true story of a hijacked cruise liner in 1985, has just had its first performance at English Natio...

Naomi Alderman on video games from 2012-02-24T20:01

Novelist and games writer Naomi Alderman asks why video games haven't received the cultural recognition of other art forms.

On her quest, she meets some of the most important and powerful...

Fourth Plinth; Peter Ackroyd; new Water Music from 2012-02-23T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Mark reports on the latest art-work to adorn the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar - a golden boy on a rocking horse designed by Elmgreen and Dragset. and unveiled today by Joa...

Olivia Colman, Rampart, e-books from 2012-02-22T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

The actress Olivia Colman talks about her breakthrough year, in which she has followed supporting roles in Peep Show and Rev with an award-winning lead in Paddy Considin...

Sue Townsend, Charlotte Keatley, Black Gold from 2012-02-21T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Mark Eccleston reviews Black Gold, a film about warring Arabian tribes during the 1930s oil boom, which was financed by Qatar and stars Antonio Banderas as a desert shei...

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel from 2012-02-20T19:45

With John Wilson.

Dame Judi Dench leads a cast of British stars, including Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith, in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a film which follows a group of pensioners attrac...

Walter Mosley, Phil Agland and Rory Gallagher from 2012-02-17T19:55

With John Wilson.

Bestselling author Walter Mosley discusses his novel All I Did Was Shoot My Man, which continues his thriller series featuring New York City Private Investigator Leonid M...

Director Josie Rourke; conductor Alan Gilbert; artistic friendships from 2012-02-16T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Josie Rourke, artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre, discusses her choice of first production, the lack of women running theatres despite a plenitude of accla...

AS Byatt on Picasso, and tenor Vittorio Grigolo from 2012-02-15T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Novelist A S Byatt discusses a new exhibition Picasso and Modern British Art at Tate Britain, which examines Picasso's relationship with the country and how British arti...

Mad Men's Jon Hamm; rain on stage from 2012-02-14T20:40

With John Wilson.

Jon Hamm is best known for playing Don Draper in Mad Men, the award-winning American drama about the ruthlessly competitive world of advertising. The actor discusses the ...

Daniel Radcliffe; Big Fat Gypsy Weddings producers from 2012-02-13T20:00

With Mark Lawson

Daniel Radcliffe's latest post-Harry Potter project is a film version of Susan Hill's novel The Woman in Black, a tale of loss, vengeance and mourning. Daniel Radcliffe lo...

Paul McCartney, Inspector Montalbano from 2012-02-10T19:50

With John Wilson.

Paul McCartney discusses the art of classic song writing as he releases his 15th solo LP, Kisses on the Bottom - an album made up of songs McCartney grew up listening to,...

Don McLean, Yayoi Kusama from 2012-02-09T19:48

With John Wilson.

Don McLean, winner of a lifetime achievement award at the Radio 2 Folk Awards last night, discusses his classic album American Pie 40 years after it topped the British c...

Lucian Freud, Stephen Daldry, RIBA Gold Medal from 2012-02-08T19:50

With Mark Lawson

Novelist Lionel Shriver reviews a major retrospective of Lucian Freud's work at the National Portrait Gallery, including his final, unfinished portrait, which is on show f...

2012 Art Fund Prize Longlist from 2012-02-07T19:50

With Mark Lawson

The longlist for the 2012 Art Fund Prize for Museums and Galleries is announced on Front Row by the chair of the judges Lord Smith of Finsbury. The £100,000 prize is to re...

The influential people in theatre; the return of The Muppets from 2012-02-06T20:15

With Mark Lawson.

Husband and wife theatre producers Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire, recently named the most influential people in British theatre by The Stage newspaper, discuss how t...

Homeland, the Syrian poet Adonis and Restoration Comedy from 2012-02-03T18:56

Mark Lawson and Emily Bell preview the hit US television series Homeland, a political thriller which stars Claire Danes and Damian Lewis.

The 81 year old Syrian poet Adonis is one of the ...

Martha Marcy May Marlene and author Anne Rice from 2012-02-02T20:32

Martha Marcy May Marlene has received very good reviews in the States, and the film's director - first-timer Sean Durkin - won Best Director for it at Sundance last year. The psychological thril...

Actor Ashley Walters; Howard Hodgkin's Indian art; Katherine Kelly from 2012-02-01T20:15

With John Wilson.

Ashley Walters made his name in the urban music collective So Solid Crew, before starting a successful acting career, including an award-winning performance in British f...

Charlize Theron in Young Adult; Kate Grenville from 2012-01-31T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Charlize Theron plays a writer of teen literature who returns to her small hometown to reclaim her happily married high school sweetheart, in her new film Young Adult. Bu...

Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster in Polanski's film, Carnage from 2012-01-30T19:55

Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster star in Roman Polanski's film Carnage, an adaptation of Yasmina Reza's play about two couples who meet to discuss their sons, one of whom has knocked out the other'...

Alice Coote; Turner in Margate; Lana del Rey from 2012-01-27T13:23

With John Wilson.

Novelist and psychogeographer Iain Sinclair reviews Turner and the Elements, a new exhibition at the Turner Contemporary gallery in the artist's old stomping ground of M...

Hajj at the British Museum from 2012-01-26T19:50

With John Wilson.

Hajj: Journey To The Heart Of Islam, at the British Museum, is the first major exhibition dedicated to the pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Historia...

Andrew Miller and Nicholas Hytner from 2012-01-25T19:45

With Mark Lawson.

Andrew Miller last night won the Costa Book of the Year with his historical novel Pure, set in pre-revolutionary Paris. Mark talked to the author just after hearing the ...

2012 Academy Award nominations from 2012-01-24T19:55

Mark Lawson reports on this year's Academy Award nominations, announced today, with comments and critical assessment from film critics Chris Tookey and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, and contributions fro...

23/01/2012 from 2012-01-23T18:14

With Mark Lawson.

Suzanne Moore reviews the Oscar-tipped George Clooney in The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne, who made the Academy Award winning comedy Sideways.

In a can...

Norma Percy on Putin; soldiers' stories on stage from 2012-01-20T19:55

With John Wilson

Soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq are starring in The Two Worlds of Charlie F, a play in London's West End written by the poet Owen Sheers and inspired by the soldi...

Leonard Cohen; Abi Morgan interviewed from 2012-01-19T20:05

With Mark Lawson.

Playwright and screenwriter Abi Morgan's recent credits include The Hour on TV and The Iron Lady and Shame in the cinema. Her TV adaptation of Sebastian Faulks' best-sell...

Madonna's W.E. reviewed; Ian Rankin's unpublished novel from 2012-01-18T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Madonna makes her feature film debut as director and co-screenwriter of W.E. The film intercuts the love story of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII with a modern-day t...

William Boyd on David Hockney, and new film Haywire from 2012-01-17T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Novelist William Boyd gives his response to a major new exhibition of landscape paintings by David Hockney, and also re-assesses the film A Bigger Splash, made in the ea...

Leonardo DiCaprio in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. TS Eliot Prize from 2012-01-16T19:55

With John Wilson.

Clint Eastwood's new film as a director focuses on J Edgar Hoover, the first head of the FBI. Leonardo DiCaprio takes the title role in J Edgar, which shows Hoover at va...

Heidi Thomas on Call the Midwife; trumpeter Alison Balsam from 2012-01-13T19:55

With John Wilson

Screenwriter Heidi Thomas, whose credits include Cranford, discusses her forthcoming TV adaptation of Jennifer Worth's best-selling memoir Call The Midwife, set in the Ea...

Antony Gormley; painting Blair; beyond popcorn from 2012-01-12T20:05

With Mark Lawson.

Artists Jonathan Yeo and John Keane have both painted the portrait of Tony Blair - the former in an official commission in 2008, and the latter in an unofficial series o...

The Crusades; Emeli Sande; Guy Martin from 2012-01-11T15:50

With John Wilson

Historian Thomas Asbridge discusses his forthcoming three-part TV series about the Crusades, which considers the medieval holy war from both the Christian and the Muslim p...

JC Chandor on his film Margin Call; composer Anna Meredith from 2012-01-10T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Writer-director J C Chandor discusses his acclaimed feature directorial debut Margin Call, about an American investment bank during the financial crisis, starring Kevin ...

Steven Spielberg on War Horse; Philip Larkin's poetry from 2012-01-09T19:45

With Mark Lawson.

Oscar-winning film-maker Steven Spielberg discusses his new adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's book War Horse.

Andrew Collins reviews the audio version of cultural t...

Puppets take centre stage from 2012-01-06T19:45

Kirsty Lang reports on how puppets have entered the theatrical mainstream.

She speaks to Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of the Handspring Company, who made the puppets for the internationa...

New TV comedies; Tom Hooper on life after The King's Speech from 2012-01-05T20:30

With Mark Lawson.

Two new TV comedies, both with a central female role, begin tomorrow. Stella is a comedy drama written by and starring Ruth Jones as a single mother living in the Welsh ...

Actor Michael Fassbender, and Julian Lloyd Webber on Delius from 2012-01-04T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Actor Michael Fassbender is hotly-tipped for Oscar nominations this year, which will be welcome reward for shooting six films in the last 20 months, three of which are a...

Costa Book Awards category winners announced; Tony Marchant; Ronald Searle Tribute from 2012-01-03T19:49

The category winners of the Costa Book Awards 2011 are announced live on Front Row by the awards' director Bud McLintock. Literary editors Gaby Wood and Will Skidelsky give their response to the...

Kate Bush, Nick Mason and Brian Wilson on new life for old tapes from 2012-01-02T19:50

John Wilson talks to musicians including Kate Bush, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, Ray Davies of The Kinks and Nile Rodgers of Chic, as they re-visit old recordings, r...

The Boxing Day Quiz from 2011-12-26T19:50

It's the Boxing Day Quiz, as question-master Mark Lawson poses cultural brain-teasers to test the knowledge of two teams.

Historian Antonia Fraser, actor Dan Stevens and crime-writer Mark ...