Front Row: Archive 2014

The American writer Toni Morrison is renowned for novels which focus on the experience of black Americans, particularly emphasising black women's experience in an unjust society and the search for cultural identity. Her books include Beloved, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize, Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye, and in 1993 she was awarded the Noble Prize for literature. In a special programme recorded at this year's Hay Literary Festival, she talks to Razia Iqbal about, among other things, her writing, her childhood, being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, and what place the issue of race has in America today. Presenter: Razia Iqbal Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

As actress Carey Mulligan makes her West End debut in David Hare's 1995 drama Skylight, she discusses playing opposite Bill Nighy and how she chooses film roles. A new exhibition, Making Colour at the National Gallery in London, charts and analyses the variety of raw materials used by artists across the centuries to provide colour in paintings and other works of art, Shahidha Bari reviews. 30 years ago this week, a protest at the Orgreave coking plant turned into the most notorious confrontation of the 1984-85 miners' strike. Artist Jeremy Deller, poet Helen Mort and playwright Beth Steel discuss why the events of June 18th 1984 proved such fertile ground artistic response. And following the news that Harrison Ford has injured his ankle on the set of Star Wars, Adrian Wootton discusses how film-makers work around cast injuries.

The tenor, baritone and conductor Plácido Domingo discusses his return to the Royal Opera House to conduct Jonathan Kent's production of Puccini's Tosca. Alex Clark reviews Robert Galbraith's (aka JK Rowling) new novel The Silkworm. Jason Solomons reviews Clint Eastwood's film Jersey Boys, about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. And Laura Mvula and Julian Lloyd Webber discuss the new BBC Music initiative Ten Pieces, announced today. Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Historian and broadcaster Amanda Vickery gives her verdict on the film Belle, set in the eighteenth century, which tells the true story of the illegitimate daughter of a British naval officer and a slave, who was brought up by her great uncle in Georgian London. Bafta award-winner Roger Graef has been making documentaries for fifty years. A pioneer of "fly-on-the-wall" formats and films made in closed institutions such as prisons, police stations and government ministries, Roger has just been given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sheffield DocFest. He joins Kirsty to discuss his work - and to give his predictions for the future of documentary-making. Dazzle Ships were used in the First World War to confuse the enemy. A variety of British ships were painted in bright, colourful patterns to disorientate and confuse German sailors trying to judge the vessels' speed and direction. As two new Dazzle Ships are created in the UK, Front Row hears from the project curator and a naval historian. Tom Rachman's fi

Tonight, Helena Bonham Carter talks to Kirsty Lang about her role in The Young And Prodigious T.S.Spivet - and on the unusual part her own brother played in her upcoming film, Suffragette. Also in the programme: a review of the exhibition, The Human Factor, which considers how artists represent human figures - and Syrian writers discuss the art that's currently coming out of the violent conflict there. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Rebecca Nicholson Production Co-Ordinator: Blaise Hesselgren.

Damian Barr talks to Dolly Parton about how she writes her songs, her poor childhood in Tennessee, and her passion for reading; Sarah Crompton reviews a new stage production of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons; and an interview with Turner prize winning photographer Wolfgang Tillmans.

With Matthew d'Ancona Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House, talks about Puccini's first great operatic success, Manon Lescaut. We review Devil's Knot, the latest film from Atom Egoyan. Based on a true story about the savage murders of three boys in Arkansas in 1993, the film stars Colin Firth as Ron Lax, the case's private investigator. Writer Anne Washburn talks about her play Mr Burns, where The Simpsons provide the narrative in a post-apocalyptic world, and pop songs assume a similarly revered cultural position. Art critic Adrian Searle discusses a large retrospective of Banksy's work including paintings, prints and sculptures. Street art is not included in the exhibition, which has been curated without the involvement of the mysterious artist. Producer Claire Bartleet.

With Matthew d'Ancona. A tribute to the Young Ones and Black Adder actor Rik Mayall whose death was announced today; a review British Folk Art at Tate Britain, a collection of mostly unknown art from local museums round the country. Sir John Tusa describes his vision of the current state of the arts in the UK and sets our the range of leadership skills needed by those who run arts bodies. On the 50th anniversary of the film Zulu, Matthew talks to Prince Buthelezi who played his own great grandfather King Cetshwayo in the story of the battle at Rorke's Drift between 150 British soldiers and 4,000 Zulu warriors, and how at a time of apartheid restrictions the film set was a non-racist one. Plus, we consider the current storylines of EastEnders and Coronation Street where a murder on each show has increased viewing figures to over 8 million on some nights. Coronation Street Producer Stuart Blackburn and TV executive Mal Young, who has overseen programmes including EastEnders, discuss the mechanics of executin

Performance artist Marina Abramovic discusses her new project 512 Hours at the Serpentine Gallery in London in which there is no art on display, simply Abramovic herself welcoming 300 visitors a day to an empty gallery space; Hotel is a new play by Polly Stenham, best known for writing That Face and Tusk Tusk. Set in an exclusive hotel on a beautiful but poverty-stricken island, a family's luxury holiday is interrupted by violence. Susannah Clapp reviews. Emma Healey's debut novel Elizabeth Is Missing is told from the perspective of 82-year-old Maud who is suffering from dementia. Emma discusses the inspiration behind her book and reveals the tactics of some of the nine publishers who tried to woo her. And composer David Lang on his composition for 1000 voices, Crowd Out, to be performed in Birmingham this weekend, inspired by a trip to the Arsenal football stadium.

As Dirty Rotten Scoundrels extends its West End run, star Robert Lindsay reflects on the challenges of staging a hit musical, and father son kora stars Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté perform music from their new album. Also tonight, Rachel Cooke reviews series two of the hit Netflix drama Orange is the New Black, and London's Foundling Museum celebrates its 10th birthday and marks the 250th anniversary of William Hogarth's death with a new exhibition of work by David Hockney, Yinka Shonibare, Grayson Perry and Jessie Brennan, inspired by Hogarth's A Rake's Progress.

John Wilson has live news of the winner of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and speaks to the artist Cornelia Parker who has curated a monochrome room at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. He also meets English National Ballet's lead principal Daria Klimentová as she prepares for her final professional performance, in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Albert Hall, and hears about two stage adaptations of American anti-war novels currently on in the UK.

Kirsty Lang talks to conductor and violinist Bernard Haitink as he looks back over his career as he celebrates his 85th birthday. Catherine Bray reviews buddy cop movie sequel 22 Jump Street, starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. Róisín Murphy, the lead singer of Moloko, is back with a solo EP all in Italian, covering some classic Italian torchsongs. She tells Kirsty why she's decided to make life difficult for herself by singing in a language she can't speak fluently. And the directors of a new free-running theatre show The Roof, which takes place in a converted outdoor car park next to London's National Theatre, discuss the challenges of parkour on rooftops and why the audience are handed out headphones as they enter the arena.

Fruitvale Station is the debut film from director Ryan Coogler and it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance in 2013. It narrates the last day in the life of Oscar Grant, a young African American man who was shot by transport police in California on New Year's Day in 2009. Gaylene Gould reviews the film. Clean Bandit scored a number one with their single Rather Be which fused classical music with electronic dance rhythms. As they release their debut album, they discuss how they found their musical style and the reaction from the classical world. Terry Gilliam is returning to the English National Opera to direct Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, teaming up again with music director Edward Gardner. Terry and Edward discuss the director/conductor relationship and the appeal of Berlioz's seldom performed work. Author Joshua Ferris, best known for his debut novel Then We Came to the End, discusses his latest book, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. Set in a Manhattan dental practice, it explores faith, be

In a special programme from the Hay Festival, John Wilson talks to thriller writer Lee Child about the latest in his Jack Reacher series. Award-winning biographer Lucy Hughes-Hallett explains why she is writing her first novel. Children's authors and former Children's Laureates Michael Morpurgo and Julia Donaldson discuss how their writing has developed over the course of their careers. Plus songwriter, author and performer Cerys Matthews talks about how the poetry of Dylan Thomas has inspired her.

Tonight's Front Row, presented by Samira Ahmed, reviews Ken Loach's new film Jimmy's Hall - based on the true story of 1930s Irish hero Jimmy Gralton, who defied his parish priest and built a community hall. Also in the programme: Liel Leibovitz on Leonard Cohen's enduring appeal and why he wrote a biography of him; Geoff Dyer on being a writer-in-residence aboard an American naval vessel; and three fictional US television characters take on the British Royal family.

With Kirsty Lang. A tribute to the poet and author Maya Angelou, Simon Russell Beale discusses performing all of Shakespeare's sonnets; a review of Angelina Jolie as the evil Queen in Maleficent. Plus, we hear about the work and life of MF Husain, dubbed in the art world as the Picasso of India.

Kirsty Lang discusses Venus in Fur, the new film by Roman Polanksi; playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, whose 2001 play Bezhti was pulled from theatres after rioting, on her new work for the Birmingham Rep Theatre - Khandan - about cultural clashes in a modern Sikh family; Boyd Hilton reviews HBO / Sky Atlantic drama The Normal Heart, starring Julia Roberts as a doctor dealing with the AIDs crisis in 80s New York; and author Michael Cunningham (The Hours), who has based the characters in his new novel The Snow Queen on real-life friends.

Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood discusses the world premiere of her first opera Pauline, live from Vancouver; Ranald McInnes on the Glasgow Art School fire; Neel Mukherjee on his new novel The Lives of Others, set during the political unrest in India in the 1960s; Amat Escalante, director of new film Heli, reveals the background to his drama about drugs, violence and corruption in a remote community in rural Mexico; and Jake Arnott reviews new British TV drama Quirke starring Gabriel Byrne and written by Andrew Davies and Conor McPherson, an adaptation of the novels by Benjamin Black (John Banville). Producer Jerome Weatherald.

John Wilson with guitarist and songwriter Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders who discusses her new solo album Stockholm. Hynde looks back at being on campus in her native Ohio in 1970 on the day the National Guard opened fire on unarmed students, leaving four dead. As two exhibitions of work by Mondrian open at Tate Liverpool and Turner Contemporary in Margate this summer, the curators discuss Mondrian's art and legacy. Also tonight, we hear from the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and review a new production of Miss Saigon, which returns to the London stage 25 years after it first opened.

Kirsty talks to Kathleen Turner and Ian McDiarmid who are starring in Bakersfield Mist in London's West End, and meets artist Bill Viola who has created a new permanent installation for St Paul's Cathedral. Also tonight, musician St Vincent discusses her literary influences, and should opera stars be critiqued on their appearance?