Paul Thomas Anderson on The Master; Jim Cartwright returns to the stage - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

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 Green Day release the third in a trilogy of albums and Peter Jackson announced that The Hobbit will be divided into three parts, Mark asks whether three is the magic number for films, novels and albums, with Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Toby Litt and David Hepworth.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars in the film Smashed, a comedy drama which examines the strains experienced by an alcohol-dependent married couple, when the wife decides to get sober. Critic Mark Eccleston gives his verdict.

Playwright Jim Cartwright, best known for Road and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, has just written his first play in 12 years. A Christmas Fair is a commission by The Milton Rooms in Ryedale, Yorkshire, and is a community project staffed by volunteers. Jim Cartwright discusses the play and what it was about the Yorkshire venue that appealed so much to him.

Producer Stephen Hughes.

Further episodes of Front Row: Archive 2012

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