Podcasts by Front Row: Archive 2013

The Lone Ranger; Conrad Shawcross; Gemma Chan; Edinburgh Fringe report from 2023-12-13T14:43:37.582408

With Kirsty Lang.

In Johnny Depp's latest film, he plays Tonto, the loyal companion to the Lone Ranger, played by Armie Hammer. The masked hero and his Native American friend fought injust...

Binge TV Special from 2014-01-01T20:07

With Kirsty Lang. As more and more of us are bingeing on box-sets and stream programmes via our laptops, Kirsty asks whether we're witnessing the death of the cliff-hanger and water-cooler TV, a...

Adil Ray, Helen Lederer, Jackie Clune and Mark Billingham compete in the Front Row Quiz from 2013-12-31T19:50

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

Singer and performer Jackie Clune and playwright Mark Ravenhill are led by write...

New American Classics from 2013-12-30T19:47

With Mark Lawson.

This year the shelf of great American authors unexpectedly lengthened when a novel called Stoner by John Williams, forgotten since its first appearance five decades ago, ...

Front Row Special on Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 2013-12-26T19:50

With Naomi Alderman.

The last episode of cult TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer was broadcast in Britain ten years ago. At the time, Naomi believed that the show would lead to the creatio...

People of the Year 2013, part 2 from 2013-12-24T20:00

In new interviews, Mark Lawson talks to the people who have had exceptional years in the world of arts, culture and entertainment in 2013, in the second of two special programmes.

David Te...

People of the Year 2013, part 1 from 2013-12-23T20:30

With Mark Lawson, who in the first of two special programmes, talks to Front Row's People of the Year : our choice of the artists who have made headlines in the world of arts, culture and entert...

Julie Andrews; All Is Lost; Michael Palin; protecting art during war from 2013-12-20T17:53

With Kirsty Lang.

As Mary Poppins looks forward to its 50th birthday, and a film about the making of the movie, Saving Mr Banks, is tipped for Oscar success, Julie Andrews reflects on a ca...

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, David Morrissey, Cities of Culture that weren't, Text on screen from 2013-12-19T20:30

With John Wilson.

Ben Stiller directs and stars in the second screen adaptation of the 1939 short story by James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Stiller plays a timid magazine ph...

Coriolanus, Olivia Colman, Alex Ferguson's ghost writer, comedy DVDs from 2013-12-18T20:26

Mark Lawson reviews the new production of Coriolanus. Josie Rourke directs Shakespeare's tragedy of political manipulation and revenge, with Tom Hiddleston making his return to the Donmar Wareho...

Mark Gatiss, American Hustle reviewed, Albums of 2013 from 2013-12-17T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Oscar contender American Hustle stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as a pair of con artists who are forced to help the FBI in a huge sting operation, but things go awry w...

Andrew Lloyd Webber; Christmas TV; Anchorman 2 from 2013-12-16T19:51

With Mark Lawson.

Ron Burgundy returns in Anchorman 2. Will Ferrell's hirsute newsreader and his crack team of reporters make it to the big-time as they bring their unique brand of newsgat...

Martin Freeman; American Psycho; Crime books round-up from 2013-12-13T18:27

With Mark Lawson.

Martin Freeman returns this week as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in Peter Jackson's trilogy. He talks to Mark about the physical ...

Victoria Wood, Neon Artwork, Sam Smith, Moonfleet from 2013-12-12T21:00

John Wilson is in Salford for the unveiling of this year's Front Row neon artwork. The artwork was established in 2011 to celebrate the presence of the BBC in the north and involves a cultural l...

Alan Bennett, Terry Pratchett, The Duck House, The Great Train Robbery from 2013-12-11T20:02

With Mark Lawson

Alan Bennett gives his reaction as his drama The History Boys is named the nation's favourite play by the English Touring Theatre's 21st Anniversary poll.

A forthcom...

Christmas singles; new Stieg Larsson story; Drawing the Line from 2013-12-10T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Front Row's annual Christmas Jukebox returns with music writers Rosie Swash and David Hepworth joining Mark to assess the various candidates in this year's festive single...

Derren Brown; Eimear McBride; MJ Delaney from 2013-12-09T19:54

With Kirsty Lang

Derren Brown's latest television show sees the illusionist attempt to teach a group of senior citizens how to steal a valuable painting from a gallery in broad daylight. D...

Lenny Henry on Nelson Mandela; Lesley Manville; Beauty and the Beast from 2013-12-06T20:31

With Kirsty Lang.

Lenny Henry pays tribute to Nelson Mandela and discusses the role that musicians and comedians played in the movement to free him.

Mat Fraser and Julie Atlas Muz ta...

Kill Your Darlings, John Newman, Emil and the Detectives, Autobiographies from 2013-12-05T19:55

With John Wilson.

Daniel Radcliffe's latest project is playing the young Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings. Based on a true story, the film follows a 17-year-old Ginsberg as he starts a...

Jude Law in Henry V; Atiq Rahimi; Politicians and music; 28 Up South Africa from 2013-12-04T17:19

With Mark Lawson.

Last night Jude Law took to the London stage as Henry V in Michael Grandage's final play in his current West End season. Law, who previously played Hamlet under Grandage'...

Nebraska; One-woman shows; John Pilger from 2013-12-03T20:00

Nebraska is the latest road movie from Alexander Payne, the director of oenophile comedy Sideways. In Nebraska, Bruce Dern plays an ageing father who takes a trip with his son across the mid-wes...

Hilary Mantel; Spike Lee's Oldboy; Liberty and Bergdorf's from 2013-12-02T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

The RSC's stage adaptations of Hilary Mantel's bestselling novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are currently in rehearsal before their sell-out run in Stratford-upon...

Coronation Street set; Chapman brothers; Jeune et Jolie from 2013-11-29T20:15

John Wilson gets a sneak preview of the latest Coronation Street set at its new home in Salford Quays. He talks to the series creator Tony Warren, Executive Producer Kieran Roberts, and Weatherf...

Ian Rankin; TV's The Bible reviewed from 2013-11-28T13:35

With John Wilson.

Ian Rankin talks to John about the latest investigation by his much-loved detective, John Rebus - who has returned to the Edinburgh CID, but at a lower rank. The story is...

William Hill Sports Book of the Year; Shobana Jeyasingh; Marius and Fanny from 2013-11-27T19:53

With Mark Lawson.

The winner of the 25th William Hill Sports Book of the Year is announced live on Front Row from the ceremony in London. The books by the six authors shortlisted for the £...

Russell Brand; Costa Book Awards; Carrie from 2013-11-26T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Front Row announces the shortlist for each category for this year's Costa Book Awards. Critics Sam Leith and Gaby Wood discuss the books nominated in the novel, first nov...

Saving Mr Banks; Paula Milne; Janine Jansen from 2013-11-25T20:02

With Mark Lawson.

Saving Mr. Banks dramatises the real-life story behind the creation of Disney film Mary Poppins, starring Emma Thompson as Poppins author P.L. Travers and Tom Hanks as Wa...

Morecambe and Wise, Kate Tempest, Poets' Corner, the return of Blofeld from 2013-11-22T20:01

With Kirsty Lang.

Morecambe and Wise are remembered and revived in a new stage production called Eric And Little Ern, which follows on from a TV biopic of the double-act, a one-man show ab...

Peter Blake; Gaslight; Sarah Ruhl; Leviathan from 2013-11-21T20:22

With Kirsty Lang.

The artist Peter Blake's new exhibition Under Milk Wood is the culmination of a 25-year project, in which he's created a series of illustrations, portraits, watercolours,...

Anjelica Huston; City of Culture 2017; Strangers on a Train; Turner from 2013-11-20T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

As the first part of her autobiography is published, actress Anjelica Huston discusses her unconventional childhood with her father, film director John Huston, and why he...

Blue Is the Warmest Colour; Mojo revival; Sally Wainwright from 2013-11-19T19:45

With Mark Lawson.

Blue Is The Warmest Colour won the top prize, the Palme D'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, but was quickly mired in controversy when the actresses Lea Seydoux and ...

Catching Fire review; Evening Standard Theatre Awards; Michael Ignatieff; Alison Wilding from 2013-11-18T20:05

With Mark Lawson.

The Hunger Games : Catching Fire is the second adaptation of Suzanne Collins' runaway bestselling trilogy of novels. Jennifer Lawrence is Katniss Everdeen in the post-apo...

Adam Price; Jason Manford; Collider exhibition from 2013-11-15T20:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Borgen is the Danish political drama that became an unexpected hit for the BBC when the first series aired in 2012. Now back on our screens with the third and potentially...

Donna Tartt; Forest Whitaker from 2013-11-14T19:50

With Mark Lawson

Author Donna Tartt discusses her long-awaited third novel, The Goldfinch. Like her previous books, The Secret History and The Little Friend, The Goldfinch has taken Tartt ...

Paul Smith; The Counsellor; Johnny Cash from 2013-11-13T18:39

John Wilson talks to the fashion designer Paul Smith, on the eve of a major exhibition of his work and influences at the Design Museum, London.

Natalie Haynes reviews The Counsellor, a fil...

John Tavener; Poirot's Last Case; Don Jon review from 2013-11-12T20:10

With Mark Lawson,

The composer Sir John Tavener died today. Famous for his choral pieces The Lamb and Song for Athene - which was sung at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales - and for ...

Bryan Adams; Lang Lang; Kennedy films from 2013-11-11T19:57

With Mark Lawson.

Bryan Adams - best known as a musician and singer songwriter - also works as a professional photographer. For the past five years, Adams has been taking photographs of Br...

Gary Barlow; Anita Lasker-Wallfisch; Georgians at the British Library from 2013-11-08T17:16

With John Wilson.

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch survived Auschwitz by playing the cello in the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra. After the war she joined the English Chamber Orchestra and her son is t...

Jeeves and Wooster; Stanley Spencer; Frank Gehry from 2013-11-07T20:25

With Kirsty Lang

Kirsty talks to actors Matthew Macfadyen and Stephen Mangan as they play the roles of Jeeves and Wooster in a new stage version of one of P G Wodehouse's much-loved books....

Zadie Smith; Actors and audio books; nut; Lady Gaga from 2013-11-06T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Zadie Smith discusses her new story The Embassy of Cambodia which is 69 pages long, and focuses on Fatou, a young African immigrant in Willesden, north-west London, who f...

Neil Gaiman; Seduced and Abandoned; Literary mistranslations from 2013-11-05T19:46

With Mark Lawson.

Seduced and Abandoned is a new documentary made by the actor Alec Baldwin and the writer/director James Toback. The film was shot in Cannes and depicts the difficulties f...

JJ Abrams; Hermione Lee on Penelope Fitzgerald; Time in TV from 2013-11-04T19:55

With Mark Lawson, including an interview with critic and writer Hermione Lee about her new biography of Penelope Fitzgerald, who published her first novel at the age of 60, and won the Booker Pr...

Tinie Tempah; Carlos Acosta; Gloria from 2013-11-01T19:53

With Kirsty Lang.

The British rapper Tinie Tempah became a global sensation in 2010 with his debut album, winning the 2011 Brit Award for Best British Breakthrough Act. As he releases his ...

David Beckham; Graham Nash; Dracula from 2013-10-31T19:50

With John Wilson.

David Beckham talks about being a photographic muse - and of what's it's been like, living his life in front of a camera-lens.

Singer-songwriter Graham Nash found f...

Joan Collins, Castiglione, Ian Rankin on Rory Gallagher, Drinking Buddies from 2013-10-30T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Joan Collins on her new memoir, picking the wrong husbands, not giving away her age, and why she wasn't the first choice for the now iconic role of Alexis Colby in Dynast...

Susan Stroman; Short Term 12; Ross Noble from 2013-10-29T16:36

With Mark Lawson,

Susan Stroman, the American theatre director and choreographer whose productions include the multi-award winning The Producers, talks about her new musical, The Scottsbor...

Sandra Bullock; Leonard Bernstein; The most-performed plays from 2013-10-28T16:59

With Mark Lawson.

Sandra Bullock, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2010, is now tipped for Oscar success again for her role in Gravity, in which she plays a medical engineer l...

25/10/2013 from 2013-10-25T17:14

With Kirsty Lang

Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir Eat, Pray, Love spent nearly 200 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and was made into a film starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem....

Earth, Wind and Fire; From Here to Eternity, Chinese paintings; Sir Anthony Caro from 2013-10-24T19:04

With Kirsty Lang.

From Here To Eternity is given the musical treatment by Sir Tim Rice, the lyricist who gave us Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, with Pop Idol contestant Darius Campbell ...

Judi Dench, Julian Barnes on Daumier, Ambassadors, Ibsen's Ghosts from 2013-10-23T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Dame Judi Dench discusses her role in the new film Philomena, in which she plays a 70-year-old Irish woman who is looking to trace her son, taken away from her when she w...

From Derry-Londonderry, UK City of Culture 2013 from 2013-10-22T18:48

Mark Lawson presents a special programme from Derry~Londonderry, UK City of Culture 2013.

This year's Turner Prize for contemporary art is on show in Derry~Londonderry and features artists...

Susan Hill; Pop art design; GF Newman; Fake movie trails from 2013-10-21T18:46

With Mark Lawson.

Writer Susan Hill is now probably best known for her ghost story The Woman in Black, which became a long-running play and a major film. Her new novel Black Sheep is set i...

Morrissey autobiography; Clio Barnard; Glee's Cory Monteith tribute from 2013-10-18T18:50

With John Wilson.

Following in the footsteps of Homer's Odyssey, Morrissey's Autobiography has been published as a Penguin Classic. The singer takes readers through his childhood in Manche...

Prince Avalanche reviewed; Masterpiece in a primary school; Theatre director Michael Blakemore from 2013-10-17T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

The film Prince Avalanche is a tale of two men (played by Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch) who, as they spend a summer painting the traffic markings on a country highway, shar...

Paul McCartney; El Dorado; Sebastian Junger on Tim Hetherington from 2013-10-16T19:03

With John Wilson.

Sir Paul McCartney talks about his latest album (called New), he sets the record straight regarding his relationship with John Lennon, and admits that he finds it difficu...

Rufus Norris; David Jason; Jeremy Deller from 2013-10-15T19:20

With Mark Lawson

This morning it was announced that Rufus Norris will succeed Nicholas Hytner as the new director of the National Theatre. Norris, who has been associate director of the Na...

The Light Princess; Paul Klee; Enough Said from 2013-10-14T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

In one of his final films, the late James Gandolfini stars alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld) in Enough Said. The pair play two single parents whose romance runs in...

Penelope Lively; Julian Fellowes' Romeo and Juliet; Paddy McAloon from 2013-10-11T17:03

With Kirsty Lang.

Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, has adapted Romeo And Juliet for the big screen, inserting his own blank verse in the process. Andrew Dickson, the author o...

Tom Hanks; Alice Munro; Dana Schutz from 2013-10-10T18:56

With Mark Lawson.

Tom Hanks reflects on saying no to film offers, playing real people, and his latest role in Captain Phillips, which depicts the ordeal of Richard Phillips, captain of a c...

Jennifer Saunders; The Commitments on stage; Elizabethan portraits from 2013-10-09T17:35

With Mark Lawson.

Two major exhibitions of portraits open this week. Elizabeth I and Her People, at the National Portrait Gallery, focuses on paintings of the queen and her courtiers, as w...

BBC National Short Story Award; Mark Lewisohn on The Beatles; The Fifth Estate from 2013-10-08T19:55

With John Wilson.

Front Row is live from the BBC National Short Story Award ceremony, where the chair of the judges, Mariella Frostrup, announces the winner of the £15,000 first prize, and...

John Eliot Gardiner, Le Week-End, Breathless from 2013-10-07T19:33

With Mark Lawson

Breathless is a new prime-time period drama from ITV set in a London hospital during the early sixties. The programme follows the lives of a group of doctors and nurses an...

Anoushka Shankar; TV drama Truckers; Frank Auerbach from 2013-10-04T18:50

With John Wilson.

Sitar player Anoushka Shankar discusses her latest album, Traces Of You, which features vocals from her half-sister, the singer Norah Jones. The album was influenced by t...

Saoirse Ronan; Thatcher meets the Queen; Erotic art from Japan from 2013-10-02T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Saoirse Ronan was only 13 when she was Oscar and BAFTA nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Atonement. Since then, she has starred in The Lovely Bones, By...

David Tennant and Gregory Doran; Bill Bryson; Sex on film and TV from 2013-10-01T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

David Tennant and RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran discuss their forthcoming production of Richard II. Tennant talks about switching accents and the difference between...

Sunshine on Leith; Adil Ray; Malcolm Mackay; Art Under Attack from 2013-09-30T18:53

With Mark Lawson.

The film Sunshine on Leith follows two young soldiers struggling to re-adjust to life in Edinburgh after returning from Afghanistan. Based on a stage musical drawing on s...

Austenland, Stephen Poliakoff, Hannah Kent, Elmgreen and Dragset from 2013-09-27T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

The romantic comedy Austenland, based on a novel of the same name, centres on a single 30-something American woman who travels to Britain to visit a resort where the Jane...

Atlantis; Michael Morpurgo; Hannah Arendt; BBC National Short Story Award from 2013-09-26T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

Atlantis is the new family drama from the BBC, aiming to fill the Saturday night slot vacated by Merlin and Doctor Who. The action takes place in the mythical city of Atl...

Johnny Vegas, William Boyd, BBC Short Story Award from 2013-09-25T18:55

With Mark Lawson

Comedian and actor Johnny Vegas - real name Michael Pennington - talks to Mark about dropping out of seminary school before embarking on a career in stand-up comedy and ho...

Fourth Plinth art; Stephen King reviewed; Alfred and Adrian Brendel; BBC Short Story Award from 2013-09-24T19:05

With Mark Lawson.

The artworks competing to occupy Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth in 2015 and 2016 were unveiled today. Shortlisted artists Marcus Coates and Liliane Lijn discuss their d...

Hugh Jackman; The Wrong Mans; BBC National Short Story Award 2013 from 2013-09-23T16:32

With Mark Lawson

Hugh Jackman returns to our cinema screens this week, starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in the thriller Prisoners, about a man who takes the law into his own hands when h...

BBC Short Story Award; Jack Vettriano retrospective; poet John Cooper Clarke from 2013-09-20T19:05

With John Wilson,

Front Row announces the shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Awards 2013. Chair of the judges Mariella Frostrup talks about the five authors nominated for the prize...

Woody Allen interview, with Sally Hawkins and Mike Leigh from 2013-09-19T18:45

With Mark Lawson, who interviews writer and director Woody Allen.

Allen's new film Blue Jasmine stars Cate Blanchett as Jasmine, a wealthy Manhattan socialite, and Sally Hawkins as Ginger,...

David Walliams and Sheridan Smith; poet Dannie Abse at 90; Booker Prize changes from 2013-09-18T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

David Walliams and Sheridan Smith talk about working together in a new staging of A Midsummer's Night's Dream, with Walliams in the role of Bottom and Smith as Titania/Hi...

Sting; Australian art at the Royal Academy from 2013-09-17T18:50

With John Wilson.

Sting discusses The Last Ship, his latest album and the first original material he has released for nearly a decade. Based on Sting's experiences growing up in a shipbuil...

Derek Jacobi; Naomi Watts on Diana; Orphan Black from 2013-09-16T19:30

With Mark Lawson.

Sir Derek Jacobi's acting career spans half a century. As he publishes an autobiography, he reflects on his early desire to act, stage fright, and still wanting to surpri...

Mark Rylance; prisons on television; actors on songs from 2013-09-13T19:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Mark Rylance is currently taking a break from acting, and is concentrating on directing a new production of Much Ado About Nothing, which stars Vanessa Redgrave and James...

Francis Bacon meets Henry Moore; Manic Street Preachers; Jason Byrne; In a World from 2013-09-12T18:55

With John Wilson.

As a new exhibition bringing together works by Henry Moore and Francis Bacon opens at the Ashmolean in Oxford, art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston reviews the show and di...

Mercury Music Prize, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Dennis Kelly from 2013-09-11T19:00

With Mark Lawson, including news of the shortlist for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for album of the year, announced today.

Travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, who died in 2011, walked fro...

Lee Evans, White House Down, Man Booker shortlist from 2013-09-10T18:55

With John Wilson.

Comedian Lee Evans returns to stage in Barking in Essex, the last play written by screenwriter Clive Exton (Entertaining Mr Sloane, 10 Rillington Place, Jeeves and Wooste...

Rush; Ian Hislop and Nick Newman; Thomas Pynchon's new novel from 2013-09-09T19:10

With Mark Lawson.

The 1970s Formula 1 rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt is the focus of a new film Rush, directed by Ron Howard with a script by Peter Morgan. Alyson Rudd reviews t...

Cillian Murphy, Mira Nair, revenge songs, Million Second Quiz from 2013-09-06T19:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Actor Cillian Murphy, who reached a global audience in films such as Batman Begins and Inception, now stars as a gang leader in the BBC Two drama Peaky Blinders, set in B...

Alan Cumming; Marlowe's Edward II; new feminist comedians from 2013-09-05T18:50

With Kirsty Lang.

Skinny jeans, phone calls and cameramen recording intimate footage all appear in a mediaeval setting, in a new National Theatre production of Christopher Marlowe's Edward...

Actress Tamsin Greig; novelist Jonathan Coe; Martin Bailey on Van Gogh's Sunflowers from 2013-09-04T11:28

With Mark Lawson.

Tamsin Greig, familiar to Radio 4 listeners as Debbie Aldridge in The Archers, is also well known from TV comedies such as Black Books and Green Wing, along with numerous...

Stephen Fry; Liz Lochhead on The Great Tapestry of Scotland; The Great Beauty from 2013-09-03T18:55

With Mark Lawson

The Italian film The Great Beauty was acclaimed at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and now arrives in British cinemas. Set in contemporary Rome, it's the story of an age...

About Time reviewed; UB40 interview; school documentaries from 2013-09-02T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

About Time, a new film written and directed by Richard Curtis, is the story a 21 year old, played by Domhnall Gleeson, who is told by his father (Bill Nighy) that he has ...

Seamus Heaney tribute from 2013-08-30T19:30

Mark Lawson reflects on the life and work of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, whose death was announced today.

Writers including Edna O'Brien, Colm Toibin, Michael Longley and ...

Simon Schama, Big Data art, Night of the Demon from 2013-08-29T19:00

With Kirsty Lang

Historian Simon Schama discusses the challenge of bringing his latest project The Story of the Jews to television, the importance of story-telling to the Jewish experience...

Conductor Marin Alsop, Philip French, Jean Seberg, returning TV series from 2013-08-28T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

American conductor Marin Alsop discusses becoming the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms. She also reflects on toying with the idea of conducting with one...

One Direction film; John Byrne; director Nic Roeg; the comedy 'straight man' from 2013-08-27T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock's latest film is a 3D documentary about the boy band One Direction. The film promises a behind-the-scenes look at the famous five-p...

Harrogate Crime Writing Festival from 2013-08-26T18:50

With Mark Lawson, who reports from this year's Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

Ruth Rendell and Jeanette Winterson discuss their friendship, which began when Winterson was a house-sitter...

We're the Millers; Terry Gilliam; Franz Ferdinand; Bob Dylan portraits from 2013-08-23T17:36

With John Wilson.

Film director and former Python Terry Gilliam discusses the re-mastering of his classic film Time Bandits, for a new DVD release, as his new film The Zero Theorem heads f...

Fran Healey from Travis; Simon Bird and Jonny Sweet on Chickens; Identity theft in crime fiction from 2013-08-23T16:12

With Mark Lawson.

Fran Healy, lead singer of the band Travis, discusses their first new album for six years, and reflects on a career which includes the hits Why Does it Always Rain on Me,...

Vince Gilligan, What Maisie Knew, Nadifa Mohamed from 2013-08-21T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Mark meets Vince Gilligan, the creator of hit American TV series Breaking Bad, about a chemistry teacher who becomes a drugs overload after being diagnosed with cancer. Listen

Naughty Boy; Lovelace; Elmore Leonard from 2013-08-20T19:00

John Wilson meets Naughty Boy, the British-born Pakistani songwriter, musician and producer, who has worked with Emeli Sande and Britney Spears and is now releasing his debut album Hotel Cabana....

Tom Stoppard, Elysium review, Charlaine Harris from 2013-08-19T19:00

With Mark Lawson

Sir Tom Stoppard has written Darkside, a new radio play starring Bill Nighy and Rufus Sewell, to mark the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon....

Cultural Exchange Finale from 2013-08-16T19:00

John Wilson brings the Cultural Exchange project to a close, with Armando Iannucci, Laura Mvula, Germaine Greer, Paul Weller, Terence Stamp, the Archbishop of Canterbury and others choosing thei...

Edinburgh Special with Reginald D Hunter, David Peace, Julie Madly Deeply from 2013-08-15T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Reginald D. Hunter discusses race, sex and anatomy in his latest Edinburgh show In the Midst of Crackers. He reflects on fourteen years of coming to the festival and expl...

Peter Doig exhibition; Chris Brookmyre; Riz Ahmed's Cultural Exchange from 2013-08-14T19:00

With John Wilson.

Edinburgh born artist Peter Doig moved in Trinidad in 2002, and his new exhibition No Foreign Lands concentrates on the work he has painted since he has lived there. Show...

John Agard; David Walliams in Big School; CJ Sansom on Doctor Who from 2013-08-13T19:00

With Mark Lawson

David Walliams writes, and stars in Big School as the Deputy Head of Chemistry in a comprehensive school who's smitten by the new French teacher, Catherine Tate, but finds...

The Clash from 2013-08-13T15:27

With John Wilson.

The Clash were the noisy sound of rebellion in the late 1970s, a band who refused to perform on Top of the Pops, sold their double album for the price of a single LP, and...

Ruth Rendell, 2 Guns, Michael Grandage, working Britain docs from 2013-08-12T19:14

With Mark Lawson.

Ruth Rendell won the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award last month. She speaks to Mark about writing sixty novels in fifty years, how...

Roddy Doyle; Josie Rourke; Liola reviewed; Why modern Westerns don't work from 2013-08-08T19:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Booker Prize-winning Irish author Roddy Doyle discusses why he decided to resurrect one of his earliest characters - Jimmy Rabbitte who first appeared in The Commitments ...

The art and craft of translating fiction from 2013-08-07T18:50

Novelist Naomi Alderman reports on the art of translating fiction, with writers Ian McEwan, A S Byatt, Ali Smith and David Baddiel.

Every novelist dreams of being translated into dozens of...

Foxfire, Cornelia Parker, Nick Payne from 2013-08-05T18:50

With Kirsty Lang.

Foxfire is a new film adapted from Joyce Carol Oates' award-winning bestseller, set in America in 1953. Five headstrong teenage girls form a secret society, the Foxfire g...

Louis de Bernieres, Doctor Who, Cerys Matthews, John Burningham from 2013-08-02T19:24

With Kirsty Lang.

The writer Louis de Bernières, best known for his novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin, discusses his first volume of poetry, Imagining Alexandria. De Bernieres has been writ...

Andrey Kurkov, workplace TV, Australian circus, Jeffrey Archer from 2013-08-01T18:50

With Kirsty Lang.

The acclaimed Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov is best known in the UK for his cult novel Death and the Penguin. He reflects on the origins of his new book, The Gardener...

The Heat, Catherine O'Flynn, Milton Jones, Philip Pullman from 2013-07-31T18:55

With Kirsty Lang.

The Heat is the latest gross-out comedy from Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids. It stars one of its alumni, Melissa McCarthy, as an unorthodox cop who has to team up...

Only God Forgives; Nicola Benedetti; Walter De Maria; Mass Observation from 2013-07-30T19:10

With John Wilson.

Ryan Gosling and Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Pusher) team up again for the crime thriller Only God Forgives. Set in the Bangkok underworld, the film has ...

Tony Grisoni, Richard Rogers, Imperial War Museum from 2013-07-29T18:55

With John Wilson.

Tony Grisoni, writer of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the Red Riding TV series, discusses his latest project: Southcliffe is a new four-part drama for Channel 4, abo...

Birmingham's new library; Naturally 7; killer whale film Blackfish from 2013-07-26T18:50

With John Wilson.

In 2010 Dawn Brancheau, a trainer at the Seaworld theme park, died after being dragged into the water by Tilikum, Seaworld's largest performing Orca. A new documentary, B...

Kevin McNally; new Fourth Plinth art; Terry Jones on Under Milk Wood from 2013-07-25T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Kevin McNally has acted on stage opposite Jude Law and Kenneth Branagh, and has appeared in more than two dozen films, including all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies....

Steve Coogan, Ruth Rendell's Cultural Exchange, Peter Bazalgette from 2013-07-24T16:47

With Mark Lawson.

Steve Coogan returns as his best-known character, Norwich radio DJ Alan Partridge, in a new film Alpha Papa, which sees Partridge involved in an unusual hostage situation...

The Wolverine, Ian Dury's art, Man Booker longlist, James Blake from 2013-07-23T19:00

With John Wilson.

Hugh Jackman returns to the role of Wolverine in his new film, embroiled in a conflict that forces him to confront his own demons. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews The Wolveri...

Burton and Taylor; Denise Mina; Noah Baumbach; Mark Ravenhill's Cultural Exchange from 2013-07-22T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West star as the ultimate celebrity couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, in a new BBC Drama written by William Ivory. Focusing on...

Wadjda, Philipp Meyer, Alison Balsom, Paul Franklin from 2013-07-19T19:15

With John Wilson.

Wadjda is the first film from Saudi Arabia to be directed by a woman, Haifaa Al Mansour. It's the story of an 11-year-old girl who enters a Koran recitation competition i...

Punchdrunk; Conran on Paolozzi; Laura Mvula; Riba Stirling Prize from 2013-07-18T19:00

With John Wilson.

Susannah Clapp reviews the new Punchdrunk production The Drowned Man, A Hollywood Fable. The company is known for not using stages or even seats, and their groundbreaking...

Clive James on Dante, A Season in the Congo, Paula Milne's Cultural Exchange from 2013-07-17T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Writer and poet Clive James discusses his ambitious version of Dante's 14th century epic poem The Divine Comedy. He reflects on the challenge and pleasure of translating ...

Family Tree, Cush Jumbo, Easy Money, Conrad Shawcross from 2013-07-16T19:44

With Mark Lawson.

Christopher Guest, the writer best known for This Is Spinal Tap, makes his BBC debut with Family Tree, a TV comedy series about an ancestral quest starring Chris O'Dowd f...

The World's End; The Color Purple musical; David Sedaris; Badults from 2013-07-15T18:46

With Mark Lawson.

The World's End is a new comedy film from Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, completing a trilogy which began with Shaun of the Dead and continued with Hot Fuzz. Ad...

Architect Richard Rogers, Gospel Prom, Ian Rankin from 2013-07-12T18:50

With John Wilson.

Architect Richard Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside, is the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. Timed to coincide with his 80th birthday...

Sergei Polunin, David Baddiel, Rankin from 2013-07-11T18:55

With John Wilson.

Sergei Polunin is the youngest dancer ever to be made a principal with the Royal Ballet, a role he unexpectedly quit after two years aged 21. Earlier this year he suddenl...

Top of the Lake; Rachel Joyce; Pat Barker from 2013-07-10T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Top of the Lake is a new TV drama series, directed by Oscar-winner Jane Campion, whose works include The Piano and Portrait of a Lady. The series, set in the remote mount...

Murray Gold on Doctor Who; Olivia Colman in Run; Maggi Hambling from 2013-07-09T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Composer Murray Gold discusses his music for Doctor Who, to be performed in two BBC Proms concerts this weekend. He also explains his aims when writing for such a much-lo...

Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth; The xx; Monsters University from 2013-07-08T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Sir Kenneth Branagh returns to performing and directing Shakespeare, taking the title role in a new production of Macbeth at the Manchester International Festival. This f...

Manchester International Festival from 2013-07-05T19:00

With Mark Lawson at the Manchester International Festival.

Film-maker Adam Curtis and the band Massive Attack are the co-creators of the event that launched this year's Manchester Internat...

Michael Simkins on acting, A Field in England, Brian Sewell's Cultural Exchange from 2013-07-04T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

A Field In England is the first British film to be simultaneously released in cinemas, on DVD, video on demand and terrestrial television. Directed by Ben Wheatley and st...

Elton John in conversation from 2013-07-03T19:00

With John Wilson.

Elton John reflects on his return to musical basics on his forthcoming album The Diving Board, to be released later this year. He also considers the impact of early fame ...

Emma Watson in The Bling Ring, Anna Chancellor, Clarke Peters' Cultural Exchange from 2013-07-02T18:55

With John Wilson.

Emma Watson stars in The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola's film about a teenage gang who raid the Hollywood homes of young celebrities. Jason Solomons reviews.

Actress A...

Now You See Me; Henning Mankell; African art at Tate Modern from 2013-07-01T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman and Jesse Eisenberg star in a new film Now You See Me, in which four illusionists pull off bank heists during their elaborate shows and rewar...

Amy Winehouse; Alex Gibney on Wikileaks. from 2013-06-28T18:50

With John Wilson.

American film-maker Alex Gibney won the 2008 Best Documentary Oscar for Taxi To The Dark Side - about the American government's use of torture. He talks to John about Jul...

Mary, Queen of Scots; Mike Figgis; Marianne Jean-Baptiste on Miles Davis from 2013-06-27T18:50

With John Wilson.

Mary, Queen of Scots: betrayed Catholic martyr or murdering adulteress? A new exhibition at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh re-examines Mary Stewart through...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Lee Hall; Arts Funding from 2013-06-26T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Natalie Haynes reviews the new West End stage musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, directed by Sam Mendes, and starring Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka.

The Chan...

Vermeer exhibition; tennis on film; pianist Mitsuko Uchida from 2013-06-25T18:45

With Mark Lawson,

For the first time, three Vermeer paintings of female musicians are on show together at the National Gallery, London. They form the centrepiece of a new exhibition examin...

This Is the End; Jonathan Dee; Lowry; Brian Aldiss from 2013-06-24T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life, a new exhibition at Tate Britain, compares Lancashire born artist L S Lowry with the French tradition of the time and argues for h...

Giorgio Moroder, site-specific art, Tim Firth, Cultural Exchange from 2013-06-21T18:55

With John Wilson.

Disco legend, music producer and Oscar-winner Giorgio Moroder is the man behind hits from Donna Summer, The Three Degrees and Sparks. In a rare interview, Moroder reflect...

David Edgar, Errol Flynn, Airport Live, Glenn Patterson from 2013-06-20T19:20

With Mark Lawson

The business side of aviation and the logistics of the industry are the focus of a series of TV documentaries this week. The bosses of easyJet and Ryanair reveal their bus...

Lenny Henry, Joan Bakewell, Foghorn Requiem and the Kate Greenaway prize winner from 2013-06-19T18:55

With John Wilson.

Lenny Henry returns to the stage after a succesful run playing Othello. He now stars in the Pulitzer prize-winning play Fences by American playwright August Wilson. Lenny...

Before Midnight, Conor McPherson, The Duckworth Lewis Method, Rachel Whiteread from 2013-06-18T19:30

With Mark Lawson

Before Midnight is the last instalment in the acclaimed film trilogy that began with Before Sunset and continued with Before Sunrise. Jesse and Celine, who enjoyed brief e...

Daniel Radcliffe; World War Z; Neil Gaiman's Cultural Exchange from 2013-06-17T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Daniel Radcliffe discusses playing the title role of Billy in the darkly comic stage play The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh (writer and director of In Bruges). ...

I Am Nasrine; The White Queen; Paul Weller from 2013-06-14T18:50

I Am Nasrine is the BAFTA-nominated debut film from Tina Gharavi. It follows teenage refugee Nasrine, forced to leave Iran and start a new life in the UK after a run-in with the police. Tina Gha...

Kim Cattrall on stage. Cornelia Parker. Brian Aldiss. Gwyneth Lewis from 2013-06-13T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Kim Cattrall plays a fading Hollywood star in a new staging of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. Marianne Elliott directs the play, which is set in the late 1950s...

The Amen Corner; Much Ado About Nothing; Peter James; Stephen Hough from 2013-06-12T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

James Baldwin's play, The Amen Corner, tells the story of Margaret, the uncompromising pastor of a Harlem church, who has to face a secret from her past. Marianne Jean-Ba...

Man of Steel; AL Kennedy; Rolando Villazón from 2013-06-11T18:45

With Mark Lawson,

Man of Steel, the latest Superman blockbuster, explores how Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) became a superhero. Amy Adams plays Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane and Michael Shan...

Judith Kerr; Admission; Mark Haddon from 2013-06-10T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Author and illustrator Judith Kerr is best known for her much-loved children's books, which include The Tiger who Came to Tea and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. In the we...

Marc Chagall, Laura Marling, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Colm Tóibín from 2013-06-07T13:25

With John Wilson.

Marc Chagall's paintings filled with colour, floating figures and Jewish motifs are among the most distinctive in art. A new exhibition at Tate Liverpool traces the creat...

Miranda Hart, Martin Amis, Kwame Kwei-Armah's Cultural Exchange from 2013-06-06T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Writer and comedy performer Miranda Hart reflects on her career so far, as her book Is It Just Me? appears in paperback.

Martin Amis discusses his 13th novel Lionel...

Anne-Marie Duff, Women's Prize for Fiction, RA Summer Exhibition, Sarah Hall from 2013-06-05T19:15

With Mark Lawson

As actress Anne-Marie Duff (The Virgin Queen, Shameless) takes to the stage as Nina in Eugene O'Neill's 1923 play Strange Interlude, she talks to Mark about the soliloquy ...

Museum of the Year 2013 from 2013-06-05T13:52

John Wilson has news of the winner of the £100 000 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year, as he presents the programme live from the ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The...

Philip Glass; Michael Douglas plays Liberace; P D James on Philip Larkin from 2013-06-03T19:00

With Mark Lawson

Comedian Julian Clary reviews Steven Soderbergh's film Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as Liberace, with Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson.

Ameri...

Sir Alfred Munnings from 2013-06-03T11:26

With Kirsty Lang.

The artist Alfred Munnings is best remembered as a painter of English rural scenes and horses. An ill- judged speech to the Royal Academy in 1949, in which he attacked Pi...

Jeremy Deller - the journey to the Venice Biennale from 2013-05-30T18:50

John Wilson charts the progress of artist Jeremy Deller, as he creates a range of new work for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The journey begins in Jeremy's flat, and includes visi...

Akram Khan; the Iraq War documentaries; Antonia Fraser's Cultural Exchange from 2013-05-29T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Award-winning documentary maker Norma Percy's latest series, The Iraq War, investigates the events that led Britain and America to go to war with Iraq, with testimony fro...

Byzantium; Lucy Kirkwood; Audrey Niffenegger; Nicholas Hytner's Cultural Exchange from 2013-05-28T15:56

With Mark Lawson.

Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) and Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) play mother and daughter in Neil Jordan's vampire film Byzantium. After setting up home in a run-down sea...

Cathy Come Home and This Life producer Tony Garnett from 2013-05-27T18:45

With Mark Lawson.

TV and film producer Tony Garnett's work includes Cathy Come Home, Kes, Cardiac Arrest and This Life. The British Film Institute is now marking his 50 year career with a ...

Paul Morley on the north; lost instruments; Cannes report; Angela Gheorghiu's Cultural Exchange from 2013-05-24T16:34

With John Wilson.

Writer and critic Paul Morley discusses his new book The North: (And Almost Everything In It). The book is part memoir and part history, exploring what it means to be nor...

Erwin Blumenfeld, Lydia Davis, Nigel Kennedy's Cultural Exchange from 2013-05-23T18:55

With John Wilson.

Berlin-born photographer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) was one of the most internationally sought-after portrait and fashion photographers in the 1940s and 1950s. America'...

Khaled Hosseini; Michael Landy; DJs in film; Cultural Exchange with AS Byatt from 2013-05-22T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Khaled Hosseini's debut novel The Kite Runner was an international best-seller. As he publishes a new novel, And the Mountains Echoed, Hosseini reflects on being a writer...

Dan Brown; Wagner at 200; Eddie Braben remembered; Mary Beard's Cultural Exchange from 2013-05-21T15:51

With Mark Lawson.

The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown discusses his latest novel about code-breaking called Inferno, a Dante inspired crime thriller set in the streets, museums and ancient ...

The Big Wedding; James Salter; Enough Tudors Already; David Walliams from 2013-05-20T18:57

With Mark Lawson

Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton star in The Big Wedding, playing an ex-married couple who must pretend to be together for their adopted son's wedding. The starry cast also...

Richard Branson on Tubular Bells, Alison Balsom, Cannes from 2013-05-17T18:54

With John Wilson

Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells was released 40 years ago this month - the first disc on Richard Branson's Virgin Records label. Since then, the album has sold million...

Rankin, Daft Punk, Brilliant Adventures, Terence Stamp's Cultural Exchange from 2013-05-16T19:00

With John Wilson.

The photographer Rankin is known for his cutting-edge fashion and advertising images, and his celebrity portraits. His new show at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool is ...

Andrew Lloyd Webber; playing yourself in TV dramas; Will Self's Cultural Exchange from 2013-05-15T18:56

With Mark Lawson,

Andrew Lloyd Webber discusses the new restoration of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, one of London's oldest theatres. The first theatre building was opened in May 1663, an ...

The Great Gatsby; Eurovision; Anne Tyler's Cultural Exchange from 2013-05-14T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Baz Luhrmann's much-anticipated film version of The Great Gatsby stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. F Scott Fitzgerald's glittering Jazz Age world...

Cultural Exchange - Archbishop of Canterbury; Food on stage; The Fall on TV from 2013-05-13T18:50

With Mark Lawson.

Writer Allan Cubitt discusses his new TV drama The Fall. Set in Belfast, it stars Gillian Anderson as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson, who has been brought in from...

Karl Hyde; Harold Pinter's The Hothouse; Kate Clanchy; Jodi Picoult from 2013-05-10T18:55

With John Wilson.

Karl Hyde, of electronic duo Underworld, has worked with prominent film directors Danny Boyle and Anthony Minghella. Along with his partner Rick Smith, he was also the mu...

Angela Gheorghiu; The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Cultural Exchange - Peter Bazalgette from 2013-05-09T18:55

With John Wilson.

Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu is one of opera's best-known performers, appearing in the world's most prestigious opera houses and concert halls. She reflects on her c...

Mud reviewed; Howard Jacobson's Cultural Exchange; MD Villiers from 2013-05-08T17:16

With Mark Lawson.

Matthew McConaughey stars as a fugitive befriended by two children in Mud, a new drama from acclaimed director Jeff Nichols. The kids try to help him avoid capture and re...

Star Trek reviewed; Cultural Exchange with Germaine Greer; new show at Buckingham Palace from 2013-05-07T19:08

With Mark Lawson.

A diamond ring given by King Charles I to his young wife is one of the highlights of a new exhibition opening this week at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. In Fine...

Kwame Kwei-Armah from 2013-05-06T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

British actor, director and playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah is now Artistic Director of the Center Stage theatre in Baltimore. Mark spent a day with Kwame, discussing his ne...

Agnetha Fältskog; Hannibal reviewed; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from 2013-05-03T18:55

With John Wilson.

Agnetha Fältskog talks about her years with Abba, the painful break-up from her marriage to Björn, her solo career and her new album - the first of original material for ...

Zoe Wanamaker; Cultural Exchange - Suggs; Arne Dahl from 2013-05-02T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Zoe Wanamaker, familiar to TV and cinema audiences from her roles in My Family, Poirot and the Harry Potter films, returns to the stage in a new production of Passion Pla...

Geoffrey Rush; artist Ellen Gallagher; Cultural Exchange - Melvyn Bragg from 2013-05-01T19:03

With Mark Lawson.

Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush stars alongside Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis in The Eye of the Storm, a film based on Patrick White's novel about sharp family tens...

I'm So Excited; Tony Garnett from 2013-04-30T18:59

With Mark Lawson

Pedro Almodovar's film I'm So Excited features Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, and returns to the comedic style of his early works such as Women On The Verge Of A Nerv...

Lucy Moore on Nijinsky, Bernardo Bertolucci's Cultural Exchange, Dead Man Down from 2013-04-29T19:00

With John Wilson,

Nijinsky is known as one of the greatest dancers and most experimental choreographers of the 20th century, but his career was curtailed by mental illness. Lucy Moore has ...

The Eagles, Diana Athill's Cultural Exchange, pubs on stage from 2013-04-26T18:55

With John Wilson.

Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B Schmit of America's biggest-selling band The Eagles discuss a new documentary, History of the Eagles, which charts the ups...

New Le Carré reviewed; The Politician's Husband; In the Fog from 2013-04-25T15:47

With Mark Lawson.

David Tennant and Emily Watson star in a new three part TV drama, The Politician's Husband. Written by Paula Milne, it centres on the family life, and career prospects of...

Nick Park on his Thrill-o-Matic; Othello; Cultural Exchange - Mohsin Hamid from 2013-04-24T19:15

With Mark Lawson

Animator Nick Park has adapted his most famous characters Wallace & Gromit for the small screen, the big screen, the BBC Proms and now the theme park. He invites Mark ...

Iron Man 3; Cultural Exchange with Tamara Rojo; Rene Burri from 2013-04-23T18:55

With John Wilson

In Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr reprises his role as super-hero of the Marvel comics. The film also stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Rebecca Hall. Naomi Alderman reviews.

M...

Cultural Exchange with Tracey Emin; end of TV's Broadchurch from 2013-04-22T19:10

With Mark Lawson.

Tonight Front Row launches Cultural Exchange, in which 75 creative minds share their passion for a book, film, poem, piece of music or other work of art. Tonight Tracey ...

The Job Lot and The Wright Way; Deep Purple from 2013-04-19T18:49

With John Wilson,

A job centre and a local government Health and Safety department are the settings for two new sitcoms. ITVs The Job Lot stars Russell Tovey (Him & Her) and Sarah Hadl...

Matt Damon's Promised Land, Kacey Musgraves, BBC Proms 2013 from 2013-04-18T18:50

With John Wilson.

Matt Damon's new film, Promised Land, based on a story by Dave Eggers, focuses on fracking - extracting gas by fracturing rock layers. Damon plays Steve Butler, an execut...

Howard Brenton; William McIlvanney; Bernardo Bertolucci's latest film reviewed from 2013-04-17T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

On 3 April 2011, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing airport. He disappeared for 81 days and on his release the government claimed his imprisonment relat...

Thriller writer David Baldacci; director Michael Winterbottom; Saloua Raouda Choucair from 2013-04-16T18:50

With Mark Lawson,

David Baldacci is one of the best-known writers of crime thrillers: his books are regularly bestsellers, and have been translated into more than 45 languages. A former Wa...

Olympus Has Fallen; Granta Best of Young British Novelists from 2013-04-15T19:02

With Mark Lawson.

Front Row reveals the Best of Young British Novelists, as selected by Granta magazine, and featuring 20 writers under 40. The prestigious list, which was first published ...

Oliver Stone; First Position; The Sunken Garden opera from 2013-04-12T18:55

With Mark Lawson

Director Oliver Stone's latest project is an ambitious ten-part TV documentary series called Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States. He's teamed up with writer...

Royal Court's Dominic Cooke; Rachel Whiteread and Elisabeth Frink from 2013-04-11T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Dominic Cooke is leaving London's Royal Court Theatre after seven years as Artistic Director. He looks back at his often controversial tenancy and discusses his final pro...

Maya Angelou from 2013-04-10T18:55

Writer and poet Maya Angelou, who has just celebrated her 85th birthday, reflects on her life and career, in conversation with Mark Lawson.

She discusses her six volume autobiography, whic...

Sebastião Salgado, Sarah Brightman, The Gatekeepers from 2013-04-09T19:12

With John Wilson.

Sarah Brightman became a household name when her group Hot Gossip had a number 1 hit with I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper. She went on to perform in the Andrew Lloy...

Tamara Rojo; James Blake; The Place Beyond the Pines from 2013-04-08T18:53

With John Wilson.

Tamara Rojo is the artistic director of the English National Ballet. This is her first season in charge of a company, after years as principal ballerina at the Royal Ball...

Rijksmuseum reopens; Spring Breakers from 2013-04-05T18:50

With John Wilson.

John travels to Amsterdam to visit the Rijksmuseum, re-opening after a decade of renovations. The 19th century building - home to Rembrandt's masterpiece The Nightwatch -...

Richard Bean; Olga Kurylenko; Arne Dahl from 2013-04-04T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

Richard Bean's play One Man, Two Guvnors, a re-working of A Servant of Two Masters, has proved one of the biggest theatrical hits of recent years. His earlier play Smack ...

Julian Barnes from 2013-04-03T18:55

With Mark Lawson.

Julian Barnes won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 for his novel The Sense of an Ending, following the award the same year of the David Cohen Prize for lifetime achievement, ...

Museum of the Year shortlist, A Late Quartet, Greg Bellow from 2013-04-02T19:00

With Mark Lawson.

The film A Late Quartet stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Walken as members of a world renowned string ensemble, struggling to deal with illness, ego and lust ...

British cultural exports to China, from Mamma Mia! to architecture from 2013-04-01T18:55

Kirsty Lang reports on how British culture is hoping to find new markets and audiences in China.

Cultural exports heading east range from musicals such as Mamma Mia!, which aims to fill ne...

Anne Tyler in conversation with Mark Lawson from 2013-03-29T19:55

A rare interview with writer Anne Tyler, who talks to Mark Lawson in her home in Baltimore. She reflects on her approach to writing novels, including Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Digging t...

Documentary-maker Penny Woolcock; singer Michael Bolton from 2013-03-28T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Film-maker Penny Woolcock reflects on how she took to the streets of Birmingham with members of rival gangs, in an attempt to resolve long-standing and often violent divi...

Glenn Patterson, John Yorke on narrative, TV formats from 2013-03-27T20:15

With Mark Lawson.

The art of storytelling, from earliest writings to today's TV soaps, is the subject of a new book Into the Woods: A Five Act Journey Into Story by John Yorke. Yorke has b...

John Logan; Suggs; In the House reviewed from 2013-03-26T19:51

With Mark Lawson.

Playwright John Logan is also known as the writer of award-winning films like Gladiator, Skyfall and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. This week he returns to the London sta...

Danny Boyle's Trance, Gillian Lynne, The NHS in a Day from 2013-03-25T20:05

With John Wilson.

Danny Boyle - director of Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire - this week releases his first film since his Olympic opening ceremony last year. In Trance...

The Book of Mormon; Lee Mack; London Zoo Tiger House from 2013-03-22T19:50

With John Wilson

The Broadway hit musical The Book Of Mormon has opened in London. The show is a satirical tale of Mormon missionaries visiting a Ugandan village threatened by a brutal war...

Nigel Kennedy; TV drama The Village; writer Esther Wilson from 2013-03-21T20:00

With John Wilson.

Maverick violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy talks about his admiration for Fats Waller, Dave Brubeck, Ravi Shankar and Bach - all of whose music features in his new album. And...

Alan Bennett interview from 2013-03-20T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Alan Bennett has been a feature of British cultural life for over 50 years, first as an actor in Beyond the Fringe and later as a dramatist, screenwriter and diarist, cre...

Kay Mellor on The Syndicate; Compliance; new takes on Scandinavian drama from 2013-03-19T20:00

With Mark Lawson

In the film Compliance, a police officer phones a fast food restaurant and tells the middle-aged manageress that a young employee is accused of stealing. He asks her to de...

Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Jack the Giant Slayer review from 2013-03-18T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner discusses his fascination with Bach as he prepares to lead a nine hour marathon of the composer's work at the Royal Albert Hall. In mid-...

Our Queen documentary; John Ashbery; Beyond the Hills review from 2013-03-15T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Michael Waldman is a TV documentary maker who has gained unprecedented access to the royal family to make Our Queen. The programme follows the Queen during 2012 as she ce...

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel from 2013-03-14T19:55

With John Wilson.

Gustavo Dudamel, the young Venezuelan conductor of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, has become one of the most high-profile classical musicians in the world. He retu...

Pompeii at the British Museum; maths in music; new literature prize from 2013-03-13T18:16

With John Wilson.

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum is the British Museum's giant examination of daily life in the cities destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. John takes...

Edmund de Waal; The Paperboy; the art of George Bellows from 2013-03-12T20:05

With Mark Lawson.

Edmund de Waal, author of the bestselling memoir The Hare with the Amber Eyes, reflects on finding novels written by his grandmother, Elisabeth. She grew up in Vienna, a...

Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer; Steve Carrell in Burt Wonderstone; Simon Starling's Phantom Ride from 2013-03-11T20:11

With Mark Lawson

Stephenie Meyer is the author of the phenomenally successful Twilight series. The latest of her young adult books to be adapted for the screen is The Host. She reflects on...

William Boyd's first play; Hilary Mantel; Seven Deadly Sins from 2013-03-08T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Novelist William Boyd has taken two short stories by Chekhov and turned them into his first stage play, called Longing. Starring Tamsin Greig, Iain Glen and John Sessions...

David Bowie - the Return from 2013-03-07T20:00

With John Wilson.

Tony Parsons, Miranda Sawyer and La Roux's Elly Jackson discuss David Bowie's music and influence, in the light of his new album The Next Day.

As the Victoria and ...

Mark Strong: comedy duo Anna and Katy; Tash Aw from 2013-03-06T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Actor Mark Strong is familiar from TV dramas including Our Friends in the North, Prime Suspect and The Long Firm, and feature films such as Green Lantern, Sherlock Holmes...

Side Effects; Lara Croft's comeback from 2013-03-05T19:50

With John Wilson.

Side Effects is a new psychological thriller from director Steven Soderbergh. He claims that it is his final film for cinema, in a career which began with Sex, Lies and V...

Oz the Great and Powerful; Julia O'Faolain; Written on Skin from 2013-03-04T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Sam Raimi's film Oz The Great and Powerful is an imagined prequel to L. Frank Baum's novel The Wizard of Oz. James Franco stars as Oscar Diggs, a circus magician from Kan...

Yinka Shonibare; playing prime ministers on stage; film classification from 2013-03-01T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Haydn Gwynne, Nathaniel Parker and Paul Ritter reflect on the experience of playing Margaret Thatcher, Gordon Brown and John Major respectively in Peter Morgan's new play...

Best-selling British solo artist Robbie Williams from 2013-02-28T20:00

With John Wilson.

Robbie Williams first came to prominence in the boy-band Take That, and went on to become Britain's most popular solo male artist, selling over 60 million albums worldwid...

Edith Pearlman; Trelawny of the Wells review; crime TV from 2013-02-27T19:59

With Mark Lawson.

Director Joe Wright, whose film credits include Atonement and Anna Karenina, makes his stage debut with a new production of Pinero's Trelawny of the Wells. Described as P...

Claire Foy, Dinos Chapman and The Bay from 2013-02-26T20:04

With John Wilson.

Claire Foy stars with James McAvoy in a new production of Macbeth, set in a post-apocalyptic Scotland riven with war and climate disaster. She reflects on the challenges...

Sue Perkins, Brett Anderson, and Arbitrage reviewed from 2013-02-25T19:50

With Mark Lawson.

Sue Perkins is the writer and star of the new TV sitcom Heading Out about a gay vet who is struggling to come out to her parents. She reflects on the process of creating...

Damien Hirst; To the Wonder from 2013-02-22T19:50

With John Wilson

Damien Hirst talks about humour in art, on the day that a limited edition of 50 signed prints of his diamond encrusted skull go on sale for Red Nose Day. Entitled, For The...

Jacksons interview; Banksy auction from 2013-02-21T20:05

With John Wilson.

The Jackson brothers are in the UK for a short concert tour. Jackie, Marlon and Tito talk about performing together for the first time in three decades and the early days...

A Chorus Line: Song for Marion; new play about football pioneer Walter Tull from 2013-02-20T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

A Chorus Line, the musical based on the true stories of aspiring dancers, was the longest running show in the history of New York theatre. Now a major new staging of the ...

Nicole Kidman, Margaret Forster, Cloud Atlas from 2013-02-19T20:00

Nicole Kidman has taken on two emotionally challenging roles in the psychological horror Stoker and the thriller The Paperboy. She talks to Mark Lawson about her decision to take risks with the ...

Paul Abbott; the art of Roy Lichtenstein; tribute to Richard Briers from 2013-02-19T10:02

With Mark Lawson.

The pioneering pop artist Roy Lichtenstein found inspiration in comic books and advertisements. As a major exhibition of his work opens at Tate Modern in London, writer ...

Simon Beaufoy; Rokia Traore and Salif Keita; novelist John Green from 2013-02-15T16:54

With Kirsty Lang.

Sixteen years ago a small British film, set in Sheffield, about a group of redundant steelworkers who decide that stripping could be a way out of their problems, became a...

Skyfall title sequence; Picasso show; Nairobi crime fiction from 2013-02-14T20:00

With Kirsty Lang.

Skyfall, the highest-grossing Bond film of all time, is about to appear on DVD. Daniel Kleinman, the designer of the dark opening title sequence with Bond underwater afte...

Duchamp, Mark Ravenhill goes running, and actor David Oyelowo from 2013-02-13T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

The artist Marcel Duchamp is the focus of a new exhibition at the Barbican, London. The Bride and the Bachelors explores his influence on four great modern masters - com...

Mea Maxima Culpa, Ray Cooney, Marianne Elliott from 2013-02-12T20:01

With Mark Lawson.

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI happens to coincide with the release this week of a new cinema documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, which featu...

Ben Affleck, Jonathan Miller and Barrie Rutter, This Is 40 from 2013-02-11T19:55

With Mark Lawson.

Ben Affleck enjoyed a triumphant night at the Baftas, winning both the best director and best film awards for Argo. He talks about how he approached making a film based o...

Tracey Thorn; Gael García Bernal; Warm Bodies; Show tunes from 2013-02-08T20:00

With Kirsty Lang

Tracey Thorn is best known as one half of Everything But the Girl, the band she formed with her partner Ben Watt while they were still at University in the early 1980s. No...

David Morrissey, Jake Bugg, Glam! at Tate Liverpool from 2013-02-07T20:00

With John Wilson.

Glam! at Tate Liverpool is an exhibition re-assessing the pop styles and sounds of the early 1970s. The writer and former vintage clothes boutique owner Flic Everett join...

Comedian Harry Hill and Hollywood actor John C Reilly from 2013-02-06T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Harry Hill has returned to stand-up comedy after years fronting the television show he created, ITV's TV Burp. He discusses how stand up has changed since he was last on...

Hopkins as Hitchcock, Ice Age, Antony Sher from 2013-02-05T19:52

With Mark Lawson.

Anthony Hopkins plays "the Master of Suspense" in a new film which looks at how Hitchcock made one of his best known films, Psycho, and explores his relationship with his...

Terry and Bill Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, I Give It a Year from 2013-02-04T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Terry Jones and his son, director Bill Jones, discuss working together on the film A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman. Based on rec...

Charles Dance, author John Green, French cinema's forgotten man from 2013-02-01T19:55

With Kirsty Lang

The actor Charles Dance is best-known for playing quintessential Englishmen and villains. He reflects on his latest TV role as an ageing former rock-band manager, compares...

Lesley Garrett, British Sea Power and House of Cards from 2013-01-31T20:30

With Kirsty Lang.

It's been eight years since Lesley Garrett stepped on to the opera stage. Television, West End musicals and Strictly Come Dancing have been occupying her instead. Now she...

Rowan Atkinson on stage, Costa winner Hilary Mantel, and Samuel West from 2013-01-30T19:55

With Mark Lawson

Rowan Atkinson takes on his most serious role yet as the eponymous hero of Simon Gray's play Quartermaine's Terms. Atkinson and director Richard Eyre discuss the challenge...

Light Show; the life of Benjamin Britten; Port reviewed from 2013-01-29T17:28

With Mark Lawson.

Light Show at the Hayward Gallery in London is the first survey of light-based art in the UK and brings together artworks from the 1960s to the present day, from 22 artis...

Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams; Kurt Schwitters exhibition from 2013-01-28T20:01

With Mark Lawson.

Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams star in a new production of Harold Pinter's play Old Times, in which three characters are locked away in a secluded farmhouse and r...

Wilko Johnson; William Scott; The Turn of the Screw from 2013-01-25T20:00

With John Wilson.

Wilko Johnson, one of Britain's most charismatic guitarists, has terminal cancer, with doctors suggesting that he has less than a year to live. As he prepares for farewel...

Alexei Sayle on his return to stand-up; Vanessa-Mae; 500 word plays from 2013-01-24T19:50

With Kirsty Lang.

Alexei Sayle, often described as the godfather of alternative comedy, is returning to solo stand-up shows after a break of more than 16 years. Sayle, who was known throug...

Lincoln, Hilary Mantel, Lesley Joseph and Brian Conley from 2013-01-23T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln has been nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Daniel Day-Lewis is favourite to win Best Actor for his portra...

Denzel Washington, AS Byatt on Edouard Manet from 2013-01-22T19:45

With Mark Lawson.

Denzel Washington has won an Oscar nomination for his role in the film Flight. He plays an airline pilot who miraculously lands a stricken plane. At first he's hailed as ...

Jessica Chastain; Michael Winner remembered from 2013-01-21T19:50

With Mark Lawson. Jessica Chastain is nominated for an Oscar for her role in Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's film about an elite military and intelligence team hunting for Osama Bin Laden. S...

Ruthie Henshall; Call the Midwife; artists on the election trail from 2013-01-18T17:10

With Kirsty Lang.

The TV drama series Call the Midwife follows the working and personal lives of a team of midwives working in east London in the 1950s and is based on the memoirs of Jenni...

Poet Kathleen Jamie; John Bramwell from I Am Kloot; ENO's financial losses from 2013-01-17T20:30

With Mark Lawson Kathleen Jamie won the 2012 Costa Poetry award for her collection The Overhaul. She translates some of the Scots dialect in the collection and explains why writing a poem is lik...

Actor Brian Cox, video artist Tony Oursler, and Vikings in Scotland from 2013-01-16T19:55

With John Wilson

Dame Liz Forgan is the outgoing Chair of Arts Council England. Last night in her final speech in the role, she said that culture was a deep necessity for human beings, and...

The Sessions, Kennedy doc Ethel, Polly Stenham and Francesca Segal from 2013-01-15T20:30

With Mark Lawson.

Columnist Bel Mooney reviews The Sessions, a film based on the true story of poet and journalist Mark O'Brien. O'Brien was paralysed by polio as a boy and at the age of 3...

Django Unchained, John Sessions, and Jonathan Lynn, writer of Yes, Prime Minister from 2013-01-14T19:55

With Mark Lawson. In Quentin Tarantino's latest film Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississip...

My Mad Fat Diary; cellist Matthew Barley from 2013-01-11T19:50

With Kirsty Lang. A Mormon community in Lancashire provides the setting for The Friday Gospels, a novel by Betty Trask Prize-winner Jenn Ashworth. She was raised as a Mormon until she was a teen...

Oscar Nominations 2013 from 2013-01-10T20:00

With Mark Lawson. Nominations for the 2013 Oscars were announced this afternoon. Steven Spielberg's Lincoln heads the field with 12 nominations, followed by Life of Pi with 11. Film reviewers L...

Tom Odell, Moby Dick, Utopia reviewed from 2013-01-09T20:00

With John Wilson.

David Cameron, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and David Attenborough are among 135 people each reading a chapter a day of Herman Melville's epic novel Moby Dick, on ...

Les Miserables; Ben Miller; Mo Yan's new novel from 2013-01-08T20:00

With Mark Lawson.

Tom Hooper, director of the King's Speech, has now taken on one of the most successful musicals of all time, Les Miserables. Jason Solomons reviews the film in which acto...

Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn in Gangster Squad; author Sally Gardner from 2013-01-07T19:50

With Mark Lawson,

Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn star in Gangster Squad, in which the Los Angeles police in the late 1940s battle a mafia boss. Penn plays a ruthless mobster opposite Gosling ...

Haim, Mr Selfridge, The Imposter, theatre ticket pricing from 2013-01-04T20:12

Haim - the Los Angeles guitar trio of sisters - were announced this morning as the winners of the BBC Sound of 2013. Over 200 influential music experts, DJs, bloggers and music critics created a...

Comedian Jack Whitehall, Michael Dobbs on Borgen, and writer Stuart Neville from 2013-01-03T19:55

With Mark Lawson

Comedian and actor Jack Whitehall was hardly off our screens in 2012 - playing a struggling newly-qualified teacher in self-penned sitcom Bad Education and as the über-po...

Costa Book Awards category winners announced; look ahead to 2013 from 2013-01-02T15:16

With Mark Lawson, including the announcement of the category winners in the Costa Book Awards 2012 for novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's book.

As the new year gets unde...

Andy Serkis and Neil Young on the impact of technology in the arts from 2013-01-01T19:45

With John Wilson

Digital technology is developing at a rapid pace. John investigates how new technology will shape how we experience culture in the coming year.

Andy Serkis, who has ...