Front Row: Archive 2013

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-Avon. Hilary Mantel and Mike Poulton, who has adapted the novels, discuss the challenges of transposing such vast and densely populated books to the stage.Critics Catherine Bray and Adam Smith review Oldboy, Spike Lee's re-make of the Korean revenge drama, and discuss how it compares with other Hollywood versions of foreign-language dramas.The historic department stores Liberty of London and Bergdorf's in New York come under the spotlight this week. A three-part Channel 4 documentary series goes behind the scenes at Liberty's, while a new film Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's hears from leading figures in the fashion world about the profile of the family-run store. Finance writer Lucy Kellaway reviews both.Producer: Jerome Weatherald.

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 Weatherfield local Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls).As their controversial new show "Come and See" opens at the Sackler Serpentine Gallery in London, visual artists Jake and Dinos Chapman discuss their attitude to their subject matter and their sometimes difficult relationship with their audience.French director François Ozon's latest film, "Jeune et Jolie", is about a 17-year-old girl exploring her sexuality by becoming a high-class call girl. Novelist MJ Hyland delivers her verdict.And as previously unpublished JD Salinger stories see the light of day, John asks why some authors want their work to remain under wraps until long after their death.Producer: Ekene Akalawu.

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 set amidst the current reform to the structure of the Scottish police - and Rebus finds himself in the middle of a culture clash between his fellow old-hands, and younger officers who use social media and what Rebus calls "touchy-feely policing methods".The Bible is an epic, 10 hour mini-series that dramatises the Old and New Testaments - from Genesis to Revelation. Each episode is action-packed: the first one, for example, includes Eden, Noah, Abraham and Isaac, and Moses parting the Red Sea. Natalie Haynes considers whether the series has mass-appeal, or is strictly for viewers interested in religion.The Beatles, David Bowie and Pink Floyd have all had their music mixed in the studio by legendary producer and engineer Ken Scott. He discusses working in Abbey Road, why The Beatles' White Album proved to be pivotal in his ca

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 £25,000 prize cover genetics in sport, Lance Armstrong's doping, international football, rowing, Hitler's Berlin, corruption in cricket, and a racehorse doping gang. The shortlist in full (alphabetically by author's surname):The Boys In The Boat: An Epic True-Life Journey to the Heart of Hitler's Berlin by Daniel James Brown The Sports Gene: What Makes The Perfect Athlete by David Epstein Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket's Underworld by Ed Hawkins I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Lagercrantz and Ruth Urbom Doped: The Real Life Story of the 1960s Racehorse Doping Gang by Jamie Reid Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong by David WalshMark talks to choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, who is renowned for dance creations of visceral energy. This autumn tbe Southbank Centre

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 novel, poetry, biography and children's book categories and respond to the choices of books and writers.Comedian Russell Brand talks about the ideology behind his new tour The Messiah Complex - including why he is calling for a revolution. Brand also discusses whether there are limits to what he will tackle on stage, and how performing in Turkey made him re-evaluate how much he talks about sex while performing.Brian de Palma's 1976 horror movie, Carrie, was the first of Stephen King's books to be turned into a film. It was a box-office success - and its two female stars, Sissy Spacek as Carrie and Piper Laurie as her mother, were both nominated for Oscars. Now Carrie has just been remade, with Chloë Grace Moretz stepping into Sissy Spacek's shoes - but is it as scary as the original? Film critic Matt Thorne reviews.Producer: Oli

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 Walt Disney. Sarah Crompton reviews.The Politician's Wife screenwriter Paula Milne talks about the inspiration behind her drama Legacy, a new Cold War thriller for BBC2, starring Romola Garai, Charlie Cox and Simon Russell Beale.Award-winning violinist Janine Jansen discusses her new album of Bach Concertos and her relationship with her instrument, the 'Barrere' by Antonio Stradivari (1727), which is on extended loan.Producer: Claire Bartleet.

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 about Eric Morecambe, and the award-winning The Play What I Wrote. The writers and stars of this latest homage, Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens, discuss the reasons for the comedians' enduring appeal.Performance poet and rapper Kate Tempest won this year's Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry for Brand New Ancients, an hour long spoken story depicting the intertwining lives of two families. As she begins a tour which will take the show all over the country, she explains who the Brand New Ancients are and reveals the play that changed her life.James Bond producers found themselves embroiled in a legal dispute with Kevin McClory - a co-writer of the 1965 film Thunderball - over who invented the cat-stroking supervillain Blofeld. As a result, the character was left on the shelf for 30 years but with news that the relevant rig

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, and photographs based on Dylan Thomas's 'play for voices'. Peter Blake looks back over his ambitious project and discusses his fascination for Thomas's celebrated work.A new film documentary, Leviathan, provides an insight into the harsh world of North Atlantic commercial fishing. With no narration, little dialogue, and long lingering shots of life aboard a fishing vessel, the film has divided audiences. Documentary film maker Molly Dineen gives her response.Iain Sinclair and Professor Jeffrey Richards tell the story of the chequered history of Gaslight, Thorold Dickinson's adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's play, which was suppressed by a Hollywood studio when it bought up the rights. Legend has it that the film only survives now because the director smuggled out a copy under the cloak of darkness.Sarah Ruhl's play In the Nex

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 encouraged her to roll cigars and drink sherry as a child, and what a Samurai warrior was doing in her kitchen.Hull has been named as UK City of Culture 2017, beating competition from Swansea Bay, Leicester and Dundee. John Godber, playwright and former Artistic Director of Hull Truck Theatre Company, and writer and journalist David Mark discuss Hull's historic and contemporary cultural significance.Lawrence Fox and Imogen Stubbs star in a new stage version of Strangers on a Train by Craig Warner, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, and famously filmed by Hitchcock. Critic Peter Kemp was at the opening night.Turner & the Sea at the National Maritime Museum claims to be the first full-scale examination of J.M.W. Turner's lifelong fascination with the sea. The exhibition features 120 works by Turner and his contempor

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 Adele Exarchopolous complained about gruelling love scenes which took days to film. Subsequently, the director Abdellatif Kechiche said that the movie should not be released, as it had been sullied by accusations that it was a "horrible" shoot. Briony Hanson, a former programmer of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival delivers her verdict.Last Tango in Halifax won the 2013 Bafta for Best Drama Series and went on to be broadcast in America to great acclaim. Series two begins tonight on BBC One and picks up where we left Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid's reunited childhood sweethearts. Writer Sally Wainwright discusses how she approached the follow-up.With news today that film producers are to make a sequel to the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life", film critic Mark Eccleston explores some other surprising and unlikely fi

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-apocalyptic state of Panem, where the Hunger Games are a televised fight to the death between teenagers. Rosie Swash gives her verdict.The realities of the modern political world come under scrutiny in Michael Ignatieff's new book Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics. The Canadian academic, writer and broadcaster shelved his university career to enter politics, becoming leader of the country's Liberal Party in 2008. On the line from Toronto - where the city's controversial mayor is fighting for political survival - Ignatieff reflects on his bruising electoral defeat and what he learnt on the front line of 21st century politics.Adrian Lester, Rory Kinnear and Lucy Kirkwood were among the winners at last night's Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Mark spoke to the night's winners as they reflected on the past year on stag

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 final series, creator Adam Price discusses why it was so important for the central character of the Prime Minister to be female and why Danish television has taken the world by storm in recent years.Jason Manford's career has taken him from stand-up to prime time presenter to singer, after winning TV talent show Born to Shine. Currently touring a new comedy show, Manford discusses entertaining the troops in Afghanistan, his scientific evaluation of his performances and, following his departure from The One Show, reflects on the roller coaster nature of fame.Collider, a new exhibition at The Science Museum, takes visitors into the heart of the biggest scientific experiment of our time, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Through the use of performance, music and video installations, the exhibition explains the discovery of the

With Mark LawsonAuthor 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 a decade to write. The plot centres around the theft of a priceless painting, the goldfinch of the title, which is stolen from a museum after a horrific bombing in the opening chapters. Donna Tartt talks about the long gestation period for her novels, and how studying Greek tragedy informed the book's structure.Actor Forest Whitaker discusses his starring role in The Butler, a film inspired by the real-life story of a White House butler who served during seven presidential administrations. Through the eyes of the butler and his family, the film follows the changing tides in American politics and race relations - from the assassinations of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, to the Black Panthers, and Watergate.The Pet Shop Boys' latest single is called Thursday. David Quantick considers which days of the week are the least

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 film about drug dealers on the US / Mexico border, starring Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz, with an original screenplay by Cormac McCarthy.As the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Richard II, starring David Tennant, is streamed live to cinemas across the UK tonight, Lorne Campbell, artistic director of Northern Stage in Newcastle and Tom Morris from Bristol Old Vic debate the effect that live screening has on regional theatre.Johnny Cash biographer Robert Hilburn was the only journalist to witness the Folsom Prison Concert in 1968. He talks to John Wilson about Cash's troubled life and career.Producer Timothy Prosser.

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 The Protecting Veil, for cello and orchestra. Nicholas Kenyon discusses his life and work. Plus a recent Front Row interview with Tavener himself.Curtain: Poirot's Last Case will see David Suchet making his final appearance as Agatha Christie's iconic Belgian detective. Crime writers Dreda Say Mitchell and Natasha Cooper, with crime fiction specialist Jeff Park, discuss the TV drama alongside a new translation of Pietr the Latvian: the first novel in Georges Simenon's Maigret series.Don Juan is given a modern day treatment in Don Jon, written, directed and staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Also starring Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore, the comedy explores how films can lead to unrealistic expectations when it comes to finding love and a lasting relationship. Bel Mooney reviews.Producer Claire Bartleet.

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 British war veterans who have suffered life changing injuries. The series of photographs has been published in a new book "Wounded: The Legacy of War". Bryan Adams discusses working with injured soldiers and his aim to show the effects of war.Mark interviews the Chinese pianist Lang Lang, as he releases a new disc of music by Prokofiev and Bartok, with conductor Sir Simon Rattle.As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, two new films revisit the 22nd November 1963. Parkland, staring Zac Efron, Paul Giamatti and Marcia Gay Harden, focuses on people who were unexpectedly caught up in events - including hospital staff and the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald. In the TV documentary The Day Kennedy Died, key witnesses, including the doctor who tried to save Kennedy's life, offer their version of ev

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 the renowned cellist Raphael Wallfisch. On Sunday they both take part in a concert in Vienna marking the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Anita Lasker-Wallfisch's reflects on her time in the prison camp, described in her memoir Inherit the Truth, which is republished this week.Gary Barlow discusses why it has taken him 14 years to produce a new solo record, how it felt to be dropped from his record label after Take That split, and what he thinks of criticism of The X Factor.A new British Library exhibition, Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Making of Modern Britain makes the case that the Georgians were the architects of modern Britain, introducing many of the interests and pursuits that endure today. Historian Amanda Vickery reviews.Producer Ellie Bury.

With Kirsty LangKirsty 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.The architect Frank Gehry, whose Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles feature the undulating metallic curves for which he has become known, opens a new exhibition of his work this week. Frank Gehry discusses his new sculptures, a series of artworks based on fish, a recurrent motif in his art and architecture, as well as his designs for the new development at Battersea Power station in London.Stanley Spencer's masterpiece is a series of murals he painted in a small chapel in the Hampshire countryside. The paintings depict his life on the Salonika front during World War I, but concentrate on the domestic rather than the combat, on doing the laundry and eating jam sandwiches. The murals have now been removed while the chapel is undergoing restoration and is on show in London and then Chichester

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 flees hardship in her own country only to face a different set of challenges in her new life.Lady Gaga's third album Artpop is released in the UK next week. Gaga's recent performance on The X Factor to promote the album attracted hundreds of complaints about its explicit nature. Meanwhile Lorde, a 16-year-old from New Zealand, has topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic singing about the glamorous world of pop that at once attracts and alienates teens. Kitty Empire discusses both singers' albums.nut is the new play by Olivier award-winning playwright debbie tucker green, whose previous plays include born bad and random. It follows a character called Elayne and those closest to her over one day in contemporary London. Shahidha Bari reviews.And with news that the actor David Morrissey will voice the audiobook of the sing

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 faced by filmmakers trying to find funding for their projects, with contributions from Ryan Gosling and Diane Kruger. Ryan Gilbey reviews this movie about the movie business.In Doctor Who's 50th anniversary year 11 authors have been commissioned to write short stories about the 11 Doctors. It was announced today that the final author in the series is Neil Gaiman who has written a story about Matt Smith's Doctor, called Nothing O'Clock. He talks to Mark about creating his own villain and why Margaret Thatcher makes a cameo appearance.As Channel Four receives complaints about the latest joke about Prince Harry's social life, we ask media lawyer Duncan Lamont about the use of irony as a defence - when is a joke not a joke, in terms of fictional wisecracks about real people.Californian soprano Angel Blue, a former model, is an awa