Front Row: Archive 2014

With John Wilson. The poets laureate of the UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland will share a stage for the first time this Friday. All the poets laureate are women - and this has never happened before in the history of the laureateships. Carol Ann Duffy, Gillian Clarke and Liz Lochhead discuss their roles as national poets and talk about reflecting a nation in verse. Reece Shearsmith (Psychoville, The League Of Gentlemen) swaps surreal dark comedy for factual drama in The Widower. Based on the crimes of convicted murderer, Malcolm Webster, the three part series charts the events that led to a charming male nurse systematically attempting to murder more than one wife. Chris Dunkley reviews. Elizabeth McGovern discusses performing with her band, Sadie And The Hotheads. Best-known for playing Cora, the Countess of Grantham, on Downton Abbey, McGovern currently switches between filming Downton Abbey in the day, and performing on stage with The Hotheads at night. She talks about song-writing and h