Front Row: Archive 2013

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, the show includes his designs for the Pompidou Centre, the Lloyds building and the Millennium Dome. Richard Rogers talks to John about dyslexia, Prince Charles and everybody's democratic right to see a tree from their window.Preparations are underway for the first Gospel music Prom. Conductors Ken Burton and Rebecca Thomas join Prom host Pastor David Daniel to discuss the history of British gospel music, what it means today and whether having a religious belief is important to be a performer. To illustrate what audiences at the Royal Albert Hall and on BBC Radio 3 will hear, members of the London Adventist Chorale sing in the studio. In tonight's Cultural Exchange, Ian Rankin chooses the 1973 album Solid Air by the British singer-songwriter and guitarist John Martyn.Producer Claire Bartleet.

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 suddenly left the cast of a new ballet version of Midnight Express, days before its UK premiere. As he takes the lead in a Moscow production of Coppélia in London, Polunin discusses this role and his career highs and lows.David Baddiel's first full stand-up show for over 15 years concentrates on the idea of celebrity. In Fame - Not The Musical, he argues that famous people don't talk about how the level of fame can fluctuate, and suggests that he is no longer as famous as he used to be. He discusses his return to the stage, and also reveals that he feels partly responsible for Sachsgate, the infamous prank calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to Andrew Sachs.In 1936 Dame Laura Knight became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy since 1769. As a new exhibition of her work opens at the National Portrait Gallery,

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 mountains of New Zealand, stars Holly Hunter and Mad Men actress Elisabeth Moss. When a 12 year old girl disappears, Moss's character takes a keen interest in the police case, and returns to her hometown to pick up the investigating duties. Rachel Cooke reviews.Rachel Joyce's novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, was the bestselling debut of 2012. She talks discusses her new book, Perfect, in which the usual parent/child roles are reversed, when the life mother of a ten year old boy starts to unravel.The England and Wales Cricket Board has released a poem entitled #Rise For England, which is on the front cover of programmes throughout the Ashes series and features in a short film played on screen at all five match venues. Actor and cricket lover Michael Simkins reflects on the long tradition of poetry about the game and as

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-loved series, and how advances in technology have affected his work.Run is a four part Channel 4 series of interlinked stories, with each episode concentrating on a different character. The cast includes Olivia Colman, Lennie James, Katie Leung and Jamie Winstone, and the first episode stars Olivia Colman as a single mother with some difficult choices to make, whilst trying to keep her family together after an act of random violence. Writer Dreda Say Mitchell reviews. Black and white films have returned to the big screen in recent weeks, with Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing and Ben Wheatley's A Field in England, and Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha arrives in the UK later this month. Film critic Ryan Gilbey reflects on why these directors have forsaken colour photography, and considers other directors who have followed a similar

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 follows a decade-long hiatus in his long relationship with Shakespeare - from his RSC years, through the Renaissance Theatre Company and films including Henry V, Hamlet and Love's Labours Lost. Dramatist Charlotte Keatley reviews.Monsters University is a prequel to Monsters, Inc, the 2001 film from the animation studio Pixar. The film sees Mike and Sulley (voiced by Billy Crystal and John Goodman) attend the classes of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), to learn how to scare children. Mark Eccleston reviews.When the South London band The xx released their debut album in 2009, its quiet ambience gained critical acclaim, became the soundtrack for several TV programmes and won the Mercury Music Prize. Its follow up, Coexist, topped the UK charts. As they prepare for start of their Manchester International Festival residenc

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 International Festival. Adam Curtis discusses his approach to directing a film which works with the live music, to create an experience that he and the band hope will redefine the idea of the gig.During the 1980s and 1990s, Garry Kasparov dominated the world of chess. His much-publicised match against the IBM computer, Deep Blue, is the inspiration for a new play by Matt Charman, called The Machine. Matt and the play's director Josie Rourke discuss dramatizing a game of chess with only one human player.At 4am this morning Mark arrived at the Whitworth Gallery for the start of a show which will last about 65 hours. In the Gallery, the performance artist Nikhil Chopra aims to connect his native India with Manchester through a variety of personal and political explorations. Just before sunrise, he reflected on becoming a live artwork, a

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 starring Reece Shearsmith from The League Of Gentlemen, it's a Civil War drama about a group of soldiers who ingest some magic mushrooms and encounter a mysterious figure who may, or may not, be the devil. Professor Roger Luckhurst decides whether it's a trip worth taking.With a CV that includes EastEnders, The Iron Lady and West End productions of Mamma Mia! and Yes, Prime Minister, Michael Simkins has a wide range of acting experience. He talks to Mark about his book which offers a practical guide to aspiring actors, including tips on what to do on stage if someone misses their cue and why you should always read the whole script.Eagle-eyed viewers of the new film Chasing Mavericks might notice that the new surf drama is credited to two directors, because Michael Apted completed the last few weeks of photography when the origi

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 on young performers, the continuing influence of soul and classical music on his own songs and the effect of his two young sons on his performing career.Producer John Goudie.

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 Anna Chancellor discusses her role as Amanda in Noel Coward's Private Lives on stage. Anna won acclaim for roles on TV in Spooks and Pramface and was nominated for a BAFTA for BBC One's The Hour - and is still remembered as Hugh Grant's jilted fiancée Duckface in Four Weddings and a Funeral.For Cultural Exchange, actor and musician Clarke Peters selects an anthropological book: They Came Before Columbus, by Dr Ivan Van Sertima. Dr Van Sertima argued that the Indians whom Columbus encountered had already met Africans, long before Columbus had got there. This would mean that Africans had first arrived in the Americas not as slaves, but far earlier - as explorers and traders.A new apocalyptic comedy This is the End features James Franco, Seth Rogen and Emily Watson playing James Franco, Seth Rogen and Emily Watson. And this week Status

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 reward the audiences with the money. But the FBI and Interpol are on their case. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews.The Swedish writer Henning Mankell is best known for his series of novels featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander, but this accounts for only a fraction of his work, which includes books for children, plays, and novels set in Africa, where he spends half his time. Henning Mankell discusses his latest novel, A Treacherous Paradise, set in Mozambique, and how his Wallander series has tended to overshadow his other output.For the first time in its history, Tate Modern is focussing on the rarely told story of African and Arabic modernism. Sudanese painter Ibrahim El-Salahi gets his first major exhibition in the UK, with a retrospective that spans five decades and over one hundred paintings. Meanwhile Benin-born artist Meschac Gaba h

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 Julian Assange, the subject of his latest film, We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks, and reveals that his next project is about the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.Amy Winehouse's personal pictures, outfits, record collection and items from her school days are in a new exhibition co-curated by her brother Alex. As the second anniversary of her death approaches, Rosie Swash assesses what this exhibition reveals about the singer, and considers her posthumous influence on fashion, writers and other musicians, including Patti Smith and Green Day.Amanda Levete, the architect whose buildings include the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground and the Selfridges Department Store in Birmingham, chooses a house - Casa Malaparte on Capri - for her Cultural Exchange. She explains how the unusual building, which is on an isolated cliff

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 portraits, documents, jewellery and furniture. Poet and dramatist Liz Lochhead - whose play, Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, looked at the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth I - reviews the exhibition.Film director Mike Figgis is best-known for Timecode and Leaving Las Vegas, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. His latest project is Suspension Of Disbelief, a noir thriller which focuses on the art of film-making and narrative. He discusses storytelling in cinema, the current state of the UK film industry and his experiences directing James Gandolfini on the set of The Sopranos.Front Row pays tribute to stage designer Mark Fisher, who completely transformed the way that rock shows took place, and designed for The Rolling Stones, U2, Peter Gabriel and Pink Floyd, as well as for the Beijing and London Ol

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 Chancellor George Osborne today announced a 7% cut in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's budget, and a 5% cut to budgets for arts organisations, as part of the government's spending review. Broadcaster Janet Street-Porter, music commentator Norman Lebrecht and Richard Mantle of Opera North suggest areas of the arts which they believe should receive less funding.The playwright and screenwriter Lee Hall selects his Cultural Exchange. He explains why Briggflatts, an autobiographical poem by Basil Bunting, has revealed new layers of meaning over the 30 years that he has been re-reading it.The concert promoter AEG has been warned by the Advertising Standards Authority after they described a Kanye West gig as a "one off" London show, only to announce more dates. Lawyer Duncan Lamont discusses the legal issues around advertising "one

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 examining music as a motif in Dutch painting of the 17th Century. Composer Michael Berkeley considers the various roles played by musical instruments in the art of that period. For many writers working in TV drama, the trickiest things they have to deal with are the notes from the producers. At their worst, such notes can confuse and undermine a writer's vision. At their best, they can help a writer to see a better way of telling the story. Peter Bowker, writer of Blackpool, Desperate Romantics and Monroe, and Patrick Spence, the executive producer on Murphy's Law, Lilies, and Hancock and Joan, reflect on the best and the worst notes writers receive.As Wimbledon gets under way, Ed Smith reviews two tennis documentary films. Venus and Serena shows the lives of the champion sisters as children, in their shared home and battling illne

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 his pre-eminence as a painter of the industrial city. Rachel Cooke reviews.The writer Jonathan Dee, whose novel The Privileges was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, discusses his latest work. A Thousand Pardons explores what it means to apologise and the tradition of apology and forgiveness in public life. Jonathan Dee talks about receiving an angry e-mail from a reader shocked by the novel's dramatic twist.This is the End is the latest collaboration from Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, following Superbad and Pineapple Express. It's set at a glamorous party, where James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill play versions of themselves, with cameos from stars including Rihanna and Emma Watson. The festivities are in full swing when the apocalypse arrives. Viv Groskop reviews.The writer Brian Aldiss, best known for his s

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 reflects on his humble beginnings, his rise to fame and his recent comeback with Daft Punk.As Roger Hiorns' blue crystal sculpture Seizure is moved from a derelict council flat in south London to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, artist Richard Wilson and critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston consider the importance of site-specific art and what happens when an installation is transferred to an environment other than its original location.Tim Firth, writer of the stage version of Calendar Girls - one of the most successful plays in recent British theatre - has turned his hand to a musical. The result is This Is My Family, which explores family life from the perspective of a 13 year old girl, and opens this week in Sheffield. Tim Firth and Daniel Evans, artistic director of Sheffield Theatres, discuss the project.For Cultural Exchange, Francin

With Mark LawsonThe 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 business models tonight in Flights and Fights: Inside the Low-Cost Airlines, and Airport Live concludes with its final report from Heathrow. Henry Sutton, whose novels include Flying, reviews both.Northern Irish novelist Glenn Patterson selects his Cultural Exchange, the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney, about the life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer George M. Cohan.Tomorrow the Royal & Derngate theatre in Northampton will open an art house cinema named after Hollywood screen icon Errol Flynn. Flynn, who was born in Australia, became famous in the 1930s for playing swashbuckler roles in films including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk. But the actor spent his early acting career with the Northampton Repertory Company. Mark visits the Errol

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 Henry discusses the importance of the play and the challenge of memorising his lines in a role where he's rarely off the stage.The winner of the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for children's book illustration is announced today. Previous winners include Raymond Briggs, Shirley Hughes, Lauren Child and Quentin Blake. John talks to this year's winner.The foghorn is a disappearing sound from the British coastline - increasingly made redundant by the advances of GPS technology. Now an ambitious project is using GPS technology in the service of a Foghorn Requiem. Composed by Orlando Gough, the requiem features three brass bands, a flotilla of vessels positioned offshore, and the Souter Lighthouse Foghorn itself. Composer Orlando Gough and artist Lise Autogena discuss a one-off musical performance that aims to fuse the sounds from lan

With Mark LawsonBefore 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 encounters in Vienna and Paris, are now married with children, but as their summer holiday in Greece comes to an end, the light seems to be going out of their relationship. Antonia Quirke delivers her verdict on one of modern cinema's most famous and enduring couples, played by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke.Neil Hannon (frontman and founder of The Divine Comedy) and musician Thomas Walsh discuss their second cricket-inspired album Sticky Wickets, and the formation of their band The Duckworth Lewis Method. They also reveal how they arranged special guests including Daniel Radcliffe, Stephen Fry and Henry Blofeld.The Weir, a series of ghost stories told in an Irish pub, was a huge hit for playwright Conor McPherson over a decade ago. His latest play The Night Alive returns to the theme of how the past can haunt the present in unex

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). Radcliffe describes the challenges of taking on a distinct west coast Irish accent and portraying someone with severe disabilities, who wants to leave his remote island home when a Hollywood film crew comes to town. The actor also talks about his career choices post-Harry Potter and a potential return to his famous role, why he expects people to dislike him, and whether he would want to take the lead in Doctor Who.Adapted from Max Brooks' novel with the same name, World War Z is the latest zombie apocalypse film. It stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a United Nations investigator who travels the world to try work out a cure for the zombie pandemic. Jenny McCartney gives her verdict.Neil Gaiman, whose books include Stardust and Coraline, chooses a work by the Victorian artist Richard Dadd - The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke - paint