Front Row: Archive 2013

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 Hadland (Miranda). Ben Elton has written the BBC's The Wright Way, which stars David Haig. Viv Groskop reviews.Ian Gillan and Ian Paice, long-standing members of the band Deep Purple, discuss their forthcoming album Now What?! The heavy metal pioneers also talk about their Smoke on the Water 70s heyday, multiple lineups, and how the band has evolved over the decades.Krister Henriksson, best-known in Britain as the star of the Swedish TV series Wallander, is making his debut on stage in the UK, in a one-man play, Doktor Glas. Adapted from a classic Swedish novel by Hjalmar Söderberg, it's the tale of a 19th century physician who falls madly in love with the wife of a corrupt clergyman. Will it attract the same enthusiastic audiences who adore Swedish dramas on British television? Author and Wallander fan Kate Saunders gives the cr

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 executive sent to a rural town to gain drilling rights, who comes into conflict with an environmental campaigner. The film reunites Damon with Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant. Natalie Haynes reviews.Radio 3 and Proms Controller Roger Wright reveals highlights of this summer's BBC Proms season - including Marin Alsop, the first woman to conduct The Last Night Of The Proms.Singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves has taken US country and western music by storm, topping the country charts with her songs inspired by the darker side of life in small-town America. Guitar in hand, Kacey Musgraves reflects on her inspirations, and how she hopes to confound the expectations of the music industry.The contenders for this year's Deutsche Börse Prize for photography include two projects in which the photographers have curated images they have

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 related to tax evasion. Howard Brenton's latest play is based on an account of conversations with Ai, in which he told the story of that imprisonment. Howard Brenton discusses the creation of the play, and also the DVD release of his memorable but never repeated 1986 noir BBC series Dead Head.William McIlvanney's Laidlaw trilogy of crime novels created a hard-drinking, Glaswegian, middle-aged cop with marital issues that inspired a generation of fellow Scottish writers including Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre, Val McDermid and Denise Mina. As the Laidlaw series is republished, William McIlvanney talks about Raymond Chandler, poetry and the moment he realized that not everybody's mother read the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.Io e Te (Me and You) is the latest film from Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director of Last Tango in Paris.

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 Washington Attorney, Baldacci finds inspiration in stories shared with him by FBI agents. He reflects on the explosions which left three people dead at the end of the Boston marathon.Tate Modern displays the first major UK exhibition of the Lebanese artist Saloua Raouda Choucair. Born in 1916, Choucair studied under Fernand Leger in 1940s Paris and became a pioneer of abstract art in the Middle East. The retrospective charts five decades of her work, reflecting her fascination with mathematics, science and Islamic art. Shahidha Bari reviews.Director Michael Winterbottom talks about The Look of Love, his biopic of Soho entrepreneur Paul Raymond. Steve Coogan portrays the owner of the strip club Raymond's Revue Bar, and the soft porn magazine Men Only.Producer Claire Bartleet.

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 in 1983, is released once a decade: the class of 1983 included Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and Rose Tremain. The editor of Granta John Freeman and writer A L Kennedy, who was selected in both 1993 and 2003, unveil the new list and reflect on their judging process.The White House is the setting for the action film Olympus Has Fallen, starring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. After the US president is taken hostage by terrorists, a disgraced former guard (Butler) finds himself playing a vital role. Elaine Showalter reviews.Mark reports from Derry-Londonderry, as it celebrates its 100th Day as City of Culture 2013. Throughout the year hundreds of events will take place, involving both international artists and local people. Mark speaks to the organisers of a photography project which aims to show the personal his

With Mark LawsonDirector 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 Peter Kuznick to look back at events that at the time went under-reported, but that shaped America over the 20th century. Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick discuss the challenge of such a large undertaking and the inevitable controversy that it has attracted.First Position is a film about the ballet world. It shows a group of 11-17 year olds as they prepare to enter the Youth America Grand Prix, where scholarships to ballet schools and dancing contracts can be won. Dance critic Judith Mackrell reviews the film.Cloud Atlas writer David Mitchell and composer Michel van der Aa have collaborated on a new opera, The Sunken Garden, which opens tonight at the Barbican in London. Including 3-D film, and singers on stage as well as film, the story is about a 'soul stealer'. They talk to Mark Lawson about the project and how they worked

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 production, The Low Road by Bruce Norris.And in the week that Nicholas Hytner announced the date for his departure as Artistic Director of the National Theatre, Kenneth Branagh, Marianne Elliott, Sam Mendes and Kwame Kwei-Armah reveal where they stand as potential contenders for the top job.Michael Dobbs, who was Conservative Chief of Staff under Margaret Thatcher, and Haydn Gwynne who is currently portraying Thatcher on stage in The Audience, reflect on the ways that the former Prime Minister has been represented in culture.And two exhibitions by leading women artists open in London this week. In her new show Detached, Rachel Whiteread continues her exploration of casting the inside of objects including sheds, doors and windows. And sculptor Elisabeth Frink, who died twenty years ago, has an anniversary retrospective which cele

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, which began with I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, a book which is now taught in schools around the world. Dr Angelou is frank about her extraordinary life, family and the issue of race in modern America.Producer Penny Murphy.

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 Lloyd Webber musicals Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, eventually marrying Lloyd Webber. Aptly enough her latest project is a trip into space, and she discusses her plans for the journey and the album it has inspired.The Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado has just opened his new exhibition, Genesis, at the Natural History Museum in London. Like his two ambitious earlier projects - Workers and Migrations - Genesis is a long-term exploration of global issues, in a series of large-scale monochrome prints which on this occasion celebrate nature and examine the balance of human relationships with the planet. In a rare interview Sebastiao Salgado discusses the challenge, which was eight years in the making, and which took him to 32 countries and some of the remotest and most inhospitable locations in the world.The Gatekeepers i

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 Ballet, where she danced all the major roles. She talks to John about her vision for the ENB.The film The Place Beyond The Pines, an epic story of fathers and sons, crime and punishment, stars Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle rider and bank robber whose sins are visited upon his only child. Antonia Quirke delivers her verdict.James Blake was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2011 for his self-titled debut album of melancholy electronica, largely made in his bedroom while still at university. His second album Overgrown is released today. He explains how the success of his first release has informed the new record.On the first day of the MIP TV programmes sales conference at Cannes, TV buyers from around the world are out in force looking for the next drama, format or documentary most likely to prove a global hit. Peter White from Bro

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 - not only has a new Asian Pavilion and restored galleries, but also the display of its collection has been transformed: visitors can now see the 8,000 exhibits chronologically, following the story of 800 years of Dutch art and history.Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) and Selena Gomez (Wizards Of Waverley Place) are set to shed their clean-cut tween appeal as they star in the film Spring Breakers, alongside James Franco. Four college girls experience the darker side of hedonism after robbing a bank to fund their vacation. Critic Leslie Felperin reviews.The lead singer of Wire, Colin Newman, discusses the influence of his post-punk band on groups like Blur, Franz Ferdinand and REM, and why they are resurrecting old ideas for their new album Change Becomes UsProducer Rebecca Nicholson.

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 Family Robinson - a dark comedy about the family of a well-to-do drug dealer - now receives a new production starring Keith Allen and Denise Welch. Richard Bean reflects on drugs, gags, and being labelled a right wing playwright.Actress Olga Kurylenko, who reached a global audience in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, discusses her latest role in Oblivion, a dystopian thriller which also stars Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman. The Ukrainian-born actress, who moved to France when a teenager to work as a model, talks about her journey from small town Ukraine to Hollywood.A new Nordic crime drama starts on BBC Four this weekend. Arne Dahl, from Sweden, follows a team of detectives in pursuit of a serial killer, and follows the popular Scandinavian dramas The Killing, Borgen and Wallander. Arne Dahl is the pseudonym of writer J

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, which celebrated his work including Flaubert's Parrot and A History of the World in 10 and a Half Chapters. However, during this period of public recognition and spotlight, Barnes was privately grieving after the death of his wife, the literary agent Pat Kavanagh, from cancer in 2008.His new book Levels of Life travels from a history of hot air ballooning, via a short story about the French actress Sarah Bernhardt to his memoir of becoming a widower. In this special interview Julian Barnes explains why despite being fiercely private, he was drawn to write about his experience of grief and reflects on why his work has always defied easy classification.Producer Ellie Bury.

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 on the cusp of their 25th anniversary. Composer Michael Berkeley reviews.Front Row announces the ten contenders for the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013. Judges Stephen Deuchar and Bettany Hughes discuss the shortlist, and how they compare large scale building projects with public outreach programmes and imaginative curatorial ideas.Greg Bellow reflects on his father, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Saul Bellow, and the experience of finding moments of family life appearing in his father's fiction. He also considers the divisions between the public perceptions of Saul Bellow as a literary heavyweight, and his own feelings about him as a father. Tom Hanks, star of Forrest Gump, Apollo 13 and Sleepless in Seattle, is making his Broadway theatre debut in Lucky Guy, a play by Nora Ephron. Tara Gadomski reflect

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 newly-built theatres, to films, where producers have to negotiate a system of quotas for foreign movies, and success is not always predictable.Kirsty also speaks to singer Mary-Jess Leaverland, whose singing career was launched after she won a Chinese TV talent show, and to architect Chris Wilkinson, from the practice Wilkinson Eyre, one of the British teams winning commissions in China.Producer Penny Murphy.

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 to America and The Accidental Tourist. She discusses her interests and influences, and her 20th novel, which she's currently writing. Producer Penny Murphy.

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 divisions between them. Her documentary, One Mile Away, follows on from her film 1 Day, a fictional account of criminal gangs in the same location.Singer-songwriter Michael Bolton has sold more than 50 million records and won multiple Grammy awards in a career spanning 25 years. More recently he's reached a new younger audience with his spoof music video Captain Jack Sparrow, made in collaboration with comedians from Saturday Night Live. He explains how he was persuaded to parody himself and why it paid off.Tomorrow night's Front Row is a rare interview with the acclaimed novelist Anne Tyler. Mark looks ahead to the interview, and Anne Tyler discusses a final sentence which won praise from one of America's most revered writers.

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 been Head of Channel 4 Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production, overseeing programmes including Skins, Shameless, EastEnders, Spooks, Casualty and Omagh, as well as The Archers on Radio 4. He discusses what lies behind our fascination and hunger for stories, and what makes a story work.As the latest theatre award shortlists make the news, actor Michael Simkins reveals what it's like for performers who are not nominated for awards when their co-stars are.Novelist Glenn Patterson discusses Good Vibrations, his bio-pic of Ulster's punk pioneer Terri Hooley, the record shop owner who discovered The Undertones.Two new TV programmes - The Great British Sewing Bee and The Intern - take familiar formats and apply a twist. Viv Groskop gives her verdict. Producer Stephen Hughes.

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 stage with Peter And Alice, based on a real-life meeting between the people who inspired two classics of children's fiction, Alice In Wonderland and Peter Pan - Alice Liddell Hargreaves and Peter Llewellyn Davies, played by Judi Dench and Ben Wishaw.Kristin Scott Thomas stars in Francois Ozon's latest film, In the House. It's a comedy about a school student and his literature teacher. The boy displays a rare spark of creative-writing talent and his stories hook the teacher and his wife with devastating results, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Rachel Cooke reviews.Suggs, the lead singer of Madness, is about to embark on a UK tour in which he looks back over his life, from his birth in Hastings to the disappearance of his father and his time with the band. Suggs, aka Graham McPherson, discusses the show and the contin

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, starring James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel, an art auctioneer who has become mixed up with a group of criminals, joins up with a hypnotherapist to recover a lost painting. Mark Eccleston reviews.Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day is a new eight part series filmed over on one day across the NHS. The programme aims to highlight the increasing demands that the service faces and how these have changed since its inception 70 years ago. Executive producer Amy Flanagan and director Shona Thompson discuss the challenges involved in the production.Choreographer Gillian Lynne is to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Laurence Olivier Awards. Her long career includes dancing for George VI, choreographing Yentl and Man of La Mancha, along with two of Andrew Lloyd Webber's greatest successes - Cats and