Front Row: Archive 2012
257 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 9 years ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsMagazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
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Episodes
The Rolling Stones in conversation with John Wilson
August 25, 2021 19:00 - 27 minutes - 25.4 MBFollowing the announcement of the death of the musician Charlie Watts, tonight’s Front Row is an archive edition featuring John Wilson in conversation with the band he was a member of - The Rolling Stones. The programme was recorded in 2012 to mark 50 years since the band’s first performance. In it, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood reflect on life in the Rolling Stones as they prepare to return to the stage.
Neil Young interviewed
August 06, 2014 07:00 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBWith John Wilson. In a rare extended interview, the Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young discusses his latest disc, a selection of traditional songs, recorded with the uninhibited rock band Crazy Horse. The album includes a version of God Save The Queen, the anthem Young recalls singing as a schoolboy in Canada. Young, who topped the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic 40 years ago with his LP Harvest, also reflects on the role of the protest song in the age of the TV talent sh...
Julian Fellowes, Rumer and Maureen Lipman in the Front Row Quiz
December 31, 2012 19:45 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBMark Lawson turns quizmaster to test the cultural knowledge of two teams in the Front Row Quiz of the Year. Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and film-maker Asif Kapadia join team captain Natalie Haynes to compete against actress Maureen Lipman and singer Rumer, under the captaincy of crime writer Mark Billingham. Questions cover a wide range of the year's events, and there's a teasing round of Nordic TV crime drama clips - in their original languages. Producer Claire Bartleet.
British actors in America
December 28, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBWith Mark Lawson. Damian Lewis, Hugh Laurie, Thandie Newton, Adrian Lester, Clive Owen and Ashley Jensen are among the actors who discuss the highs and lows of working as British performers in America. Many high profile American TV shows and films are casting British actors in key roles. The success of programmes such as Homeland and House are testament to the strong parts tempting British actors across the pond. Director Stephen Frears explains his theory that there is a crisis in Americ...
The creative backstage stars of Strictly, Downton and the Olympics
December 27, 2012 19:55 - 28 minutes - 26 MBKirsty Lang turns the spotlight on the backstage stars, some of the key individuals behind-the-scenes who play a key role in big events and major TV shows. The band from Strictly Come Dancing lurk at the back of the stage in the shadows as the brightly-lit action takes place on the dance floor in front of them. Band leader Dave Arch, bass player Trevor Barry and singers Haley Sanderson and Lance Ellington give us an insight into the view from the back, and what they can do when things don't...
Neil Young, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger and more on their musical roots
December 26, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 26 MBJohn Wilson talks to musicians including Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Paul McCartney, Emeli Sandé, Jonny Greenwood and Pete Townshend about their first musical influences. Neil Young reveals why he recently recorded a version of God Save The Queen, the anthem he sang regularly during his Canadian childhood. Paul McCartney discusses how songs by the great American tunesmiths of the 1930s, which he heard in his childhood home, influenced his own approach to writin...
Working with the family
December 25, 2012 19:55 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. Jack Whitehall, Greg Davies, Niamh Cusack and Frances de la Tour are among the performers and artists who share memories and reflections on working with close members of their families. Christmas is the time when people are most likely to spend time with their closest relatives. But for some in showbusiness the holidays are not a rare family reunion but a continuation of a professional relationship or, for writers and comedians, an encounter with the relatives who have b...
People of the Year 2012, part 2
December 24, 2012 19:45 - 28 minutes - 26 MBMark Lawson unwraps interviews with arts headline makers of 2012, in the second of two programmes. Writer E L James reflects on a year in which she became a global publishing phenomenon, with her best-selling trilogy which began with Fifty Shades of Grey. Mark looks back at the Olympic Opening Ceremony, with director Danny Boyle and designer Thomas Heatherwick, who created the highly original cauldron for the Olympic flame. Singer Emeli Sandé remembers how nervous she felt moments before ...
People of the Year 2012
December 21, 2012 19:45 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBMark Lawson unwraps new interviews with arts headline makers of the year, in the first of two special programmes. In the wake of the record-breaking success of the James Bond film Skyfall, Judi Dench reflects on her role as M, and director Sam Mendes discusses the pressures of working on such a high-profile movie - and whether he knew about Bond's secret role in the Olympic opening ceremony. Hilary Mantel remembers the night when she won the Man Booker Prize for the second time - the onl...
The Impossible; Simon Amstell; Arts Funding
December 20, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Kirsty Lang. A new film The Impossible, starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, focuses on the powerful tsunami which occurred in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day 2004, and killed over 280,000 people. The film shows how events affected one family on a Christmas holiday in Thailand. Novelist Kamila Shamsie reviews. Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, and Tom Morris, Artistic Director at Bristol's Old Vic Theatre, discuss the future of arts funding. Leading figures in the arts, includi...
Dustin Hoffman's Quartet reviewed; singer Katy Carr; comedy DVDs
December 19, 2012 19:55 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Kirsty Lang. Barry Norman reviews Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut, Quartet. The film is set in a home for retired opera singers and features Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly and Michael Gambon among the all-star cast. Katy Carr is a singer, songwriter and aviator. She's half Polish and her album, Paszport, focuses on Polish stories from World War II, including a veteran who escaped from Auschwitz. She reflects on how she turns personal histories into songs. The release of new DVDs b...
Salman Rushdie, Victoria Wood, Christmas Jukebox Jury
December 18, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson Salman Rushdie has written his first ever screenplay, an adaptation of his own Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight's Children. He reflects on condensing the family saga which follows India from Colonialism to Partition, about filming in Sri Lanka, and about the experience of writing his memoir, Joseph Anton. Victoria Wood discusses her TV drama Loving Miss Hatto, in which Francesca Annis and Alfred Molina play real-life concert pianist Joyce Hatto, who died in 2006, and he...
Don McCullin; Martin Freeman; albums of the year
December 13, 2012 18:29 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith John Wilson. Photographer Don McCullin was on Front Row earlier this year talking about an exhibition of some of his most famous photographs of conflict, from Vietnam to Iraq. He said then that - at the age of 75 - his days on the frontline were over. But this morning The Times newspaper published new McCullin photographs of life on the streets of Alleppo, Syria, taken over the last few days. He explains why he decided to go back. Martin Freeman discusses playing Bilbo Baggins in the ...
William Boyd; Ravi Shankar remembered; video games of the year
December 12, 2012 19:55 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MBWith Kirsty Lang. Writer William Boyd discusses the television adaptation of his novel, Restless, which stars Michael Gambon, Michelle Dockery and Charlotte Rampling. Ravi Shankar, who has died at the age of 92, took the sitar to a global audience, and was a huge influence on many musicians. Choreographer Akram Khan pays tribute. Dramatist Martin Crimp discusses his new play In the Republic of Happiness. It centres on a family Christmas interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Uncle Bo...
Paul Thomas Anderson on The Master; Jim Cartwright returns to the stage
December 11, 2012 20:35 - 28 minutes - 26 MBWith Mark Lawson. Director Paul Thomas Anderson reflects on his film The Master, which has already won numerous awards and is heavily tipped for Oscar success. In the week that Green Day release the third in a trilogy of albums and Peter Jackson announced that The Hobbit will be divided into three parts, Mark asks whether three is the magic number for films, novels and albums, with Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Toby Litt and David Hepworth. Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars in the film Smashed, a com...
Paul Auster, Tom Robinson plays Beck
December 07, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBWith John Wilson. Paul Auster is the best-selling author of The New York Trilogy and Moon Palace. His latest book, Winter Journal, takes him in a more reflective direction, examining his own life through a series of autobiographical fragments and memories. He explains why he refuses to call the book a memoir and why - despite priding himself on being a safe driver - he has given up driving completely. The musician Beck has sold millions of CDs, but his latest album Song Reader exists only...
Ali Smith, Dave Brubeck, crime fiction
December 06, 2012 20:00 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. The 1992 film The Bodyguard, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, was a huge box office hit. Now a stage musical version of the film has opened, with Heather Headley in the leading role. Music critic Rosie Swash gives her verdict. Writer Ali Smith combines fiction and essays in her new book Artful. She discusses the challenges involved in working in different forms. The pioneering jazz pianist Dave Brubeck has died at the age of 91. Front Row pays tribute to the...
All-female Julius Caesar; writer Mike Bartlett on The Town
December 05, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBWith Mark Lawson. Mamma Mia and The Iron Lady director Phyllida Lloyd returns to the stage with a new all-female staging of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It's set in a women's prison and contains a heavy-metal soundtrack. Harriet Walter takes the role of Brutus alongside Frances Barber as Caesar. Writer and critic Bidisha reviews. Playwright Mike Bartlett is known for writing Earthquakes in London, Love Love Love, 13 and for adapting Chariots of Fire into a stage production. His first telev...
Ben Folds; Elizabeth Price; Charles Dickens museum
December 04, 2012 19:45 - 28 minutes - 26 MBWith John Wilson. Elizabeth Price has won this year's Turner Prize for work including her video installation The Woolworths Choir of 1979. She discusses her inspirations and what winning the prestigious art prize might mean for her future plans. Ben Folds is best known for his musical career, notably with his band Ben Folds Five, but he is also a keen photographer and takes his camera on tour, sometimes capturing images of the audience at his gigs from the stage. Ben Folds discusses why Be...
Seven Psychopaths, Beryl Bainbridge's art
December 03, 2012 19:45 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MBMartin McDonagh won the 2008 Best Original Screenplay Oscar for In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell as an unlucky hit-man. In McDonagh's new film, Seven Psychopaths, Farrell is a struggling screenwriter dragged into the Los Angeles crime world when his quirky friends (Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken) kidnap a dog belonging to a gangster (Woody Harrelson). Kamila Shamsie reviews. Novelist Beryl Bainbridge, who died in 2010, won the Whitbread Prize twice and was nominated for the Booker Pri...
The Mouse and His Child; Sightseers; Robert Greene; Cecilia Bartoli
November 30, 2012 16:39 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Kirsty Lang. Following the huge success of Matilda, the RSC has a new Christmas show for family audiences. The Mouse and His Child is based on a book by Russell Hoban, and features the adventures of two wind-up mice, a purple elephant, and Manny Rat who pursues the mice as they try to find their home. Writer Jamila Gavin reviews.. Writer Robert Greene has inspired rappers such as Jay-Z and 50 Cent and attracted hard-to-reach readers, including prisoners, with his best-selling books wh...
Roddy Doyle, Boris Godunov, The Staves, TV Drama The Fear
November 29, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Kirsty Lang, Booker Prize-winning novelist Roddy Doyle talks about his new novella, Two Pints. It's a year's dialogue between two men in a Dublin pub over their pints. Beginning with the landmark Royal visit to Ireland in May 2011 and ending with the Paralympics last September, they set the world to rights and talk about the day's news. Michael Boyd's last production as Artistic Director of the RSC is an adaptation of Pushkin's Boris Godunov. Theatre critic Andrew Dickson reviews the...
Daniel Radcliffe in A Young Doctor's Notebook, Oliver Sacks, the Hunt
November 28, 2012 19:55 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. Daniel Radcliffe and John Hamm star in A Young Doctor's Notebook, a new four-part TV comedy drama based on a collection of short stories by the celebrated Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov. Including graphic scenes, the series is partly based on the author's experiences as a young country doctor working at the dawn of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Leading neurosurgeon Henry Marsh reviews. Oliver Sacks' seminal 1985 book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat described so...
Great Expectations; Bryan Ferry; Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
November 27, 2012 20:15 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBWith Mark Lawson. Bryan Ferry discusses The Jazz Age, a new album of instrumental versions of his greatest hits including Love Is The Drug, Virginia Plain and Avalon. Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong are the writing duo behind Channel 4 comedies Peep Show and Fresh Meat. In the week that Peep Show began its eighth series and the current series of Fresh Meat ends, they reflect on their unusual collaborative methods and the perils of getting to know the actors too well. Helena Bonham Carter, Ra...
Trouble With the Curve; Sports Book of the Year; theatre awards
November 26, 2012 18:08 - 28 minutes - 26 MBWith Mark Lawson. Dame Judi Dench, Danny Boyle and Simon Russell Beale were just some of the winners at last night's Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Despite the glamour of the ceremony, the mood was reflective, with speeches addressing proposed funding cuts to arts organisations. The night's winners reflect on the past year on stage. Clint Eastwood returns to the big screen in baseball drama Trouble With The Curve. He plays a veteran scout on a last trip before retirement. Joining him on...
Brian Eno; Michael Hoffman; Spike Lee's Michael Jackson documentary
November 23, 2012 19:45 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Kirsty Lang Producer and musician Brian Eno discusses his new album Lux and his new app, which allows listeners to create their own music by selecting a variety of shapes and sounds. The story behind Michael Jackson's multimillion selling album, BAD 25, is shown in a new Spike Lee documentary. A fan of Jackson, Spike Lee wanted his film to remind audiences of the talent and creativity behind a singer whose troubled life and early death has overshadowed his musical career. Music journa...
22/11/2012
November 22, 2012 20:01 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. When Matthew Bourne established the dance company Adventures in Motion Pictures in 1987, his pioneering fusion of contemporary dance, classical ballet, and theatre thrilled audiences worldwide, won prizes on both sides of the Atlantic, and divided critics. He discusses his new production of Sleeping Beauty and what he's learned from Strictly Come Dancing. It's exactly 99 years since the birth of composer Benjamin Britten, and next year's centenary celebrations include nu...
The Mousetrap at 60, Calixto Bieito on Carmen, New Russian Art
November 21, 2012 19:45 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery play The Mousetrap has now been continuously in performance in London for 60 years, and the first ever touring production of the show is currently on a 60 date tour. Front Row sent three crime writers - Frances Fyfield, Mark Billingham and Suzette A Hill - to see The Mousetrap at three different locations. All three join Mark to debate whether the production has aged well. The theatre director Calixto Bieito is renowned for his ra...
Neil Diamond; Costa Shortlists
November 20, 2012 19:52 - 28 minutes - 26 MBWith John Wilson. Front Row reveals the shortlists for this year's Costa Book Awards. Gaby Wood of the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian's Alex Clark join John to discuss the nominations for the best first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book. The morning after appearing on The Royal Variety Performance, American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond talks to John about his five decades in music. Relationships, mental illness and a dance competition all come together in the film Si...
Derek Jacobi, End of Watch, Denise Mina
November 19, 2012 19:52 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. Actor Derek Jacobi talks about his new TV series, Last Tango In Halifax, co-starring Anne Reid, Sarah Lancashire and Nicola Walker. He also reflects on moving away from traditional character roles, his desire to appear in a film franchise, and whether he would ever return to the role of King Lear. Crime writer Denise Mina discusses how she has worked on a graphic novel version of Stieg Larsson's best seller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and plans to adapt all three vol...
Jimmy Page; natural history programmes over the years
November 16, 2012 18:59 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBWith Kirsty Lang. Jimmy Page is the guitarist and founder member of Led Zeppelin. As Celebration Day, a film of their one-off 2007 reunion concert is released on DVD, Jimmy reflects on the performance, and why it's very unlikely the band will re-form. Sir David Attenborough is celebrating six decades of natural history programmes for the BBC. Charles Lagus was his cameraman in the 1950s when they worked as a two-man team on Zoo Quest. Simon King is a cameraman and film maker who's worked w...
Ben Elton, Danny Boyle on regional theatre cuts, computer art
November 15, 2012 19:55 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith John Wilson Ben Elton began his career as a stand-up comedian, and went on to write TV comedies, musicals and novels including Popcorn. His latest novel is Two Brothers, inspired by his family history about adopted brothers who go on to fight on opposite sides of the second world war. He reveals why this is a story he'd always wanted to tell. Danny Boyle - film-maker and impresario behind the London Olympics Opening Ceremony - joins regional theatre directors from across the UK who ar...
Billie Piper in The Effect; Twilight; author Phil Rickman
November 14, 2012 12:25 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson Billie Piper stars in The Effect, a new play by Lucy Prebble about drugs trials and mental health. It's Prebble's first major new work since her success with ENRON, her play about the American financial scandal. Senior consultant neurosurgeon Henry Marsh reviews. The Heresy of Dr Dee is the latest in a series of novels about the Tudor astrologer and magician Dr John Dee by writer Phil Rickman. The novel explores the mysterious death of Amy Dudley, wife of Elizabeth I's fa...
A Bigger Splash; The Hour returns; photography from the Middle East
November 13, 2012 19:59 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBWith Mark Lawson. This week sees the return of The Hour, the drama set in a TV newsroom in the 1950s. The series picks up where the last one left off with ambitious producer Bel, played by Romola Garai, attempting to keep Dominic West's newsreader Hector in check, with a little help from Peter Capaldi as the new head of news. Former Deputy Director of BBC News Mark Damazer gives his verdict. A new Tate Modern exhibition takes David Hockney's A Bigger Splash and Jackson Pollock's action pa...
Quentin Blake interviewed; Hitler's dark charisma discussed
November 12, 2012 19:59 - 28 minutes - 26 MBWith Mark Lawson. Quentin Blake is known for his illustrations of books by Roald Dahl and Michael Rosen, as well as his work as a writer and an exhibiting artist. In his 80th year and as he publishes a new book of drawings, he reflects on how the breadth of his work, from children's books to hospital wards, makes him one of Britain's most recognized artists. Dramatist Anya Reiss, who was a teenager when her first play ran in 2010 at the Royal Court in London, has now adapted Chekhov's The ...
Jeff Wayne; The Orphan of Zhao
November 09, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Kirsty Lang. Jeff Wayne has made a new version of his 1978 hit album The War Of The Worlds, now starring Liam Neeson as the narrator, stepping into Richard Burton's shoes - with Ricky Wilson, Gary Barlow and Joss Stone taking on the roles sung originally by David Essex, Justin Hayward and Julie Covington. Jeff Wayne reflects on the original appeal of HG Wells' story, and the aspects of the show he has now changed. Gregory Doran's first production since taking over as Artistic Director...
Alan Bennett's play People; Michael Winterbottom's film Everyday
November 08, 2012 19:45 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson, Alan Bennett's new play People stars Frances de la Tour as a former model living in her family's crumbling stately home. The comedy, staged at the National Theatre, focuses on the future preservation of the house, with options ranging from a heritage site to location hire for a porn film. Writer Kate Saunders reviews. Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov - whose books include Death and the Penguin - talks to Mark about how he was almost seduced by the Writer's Union into being...
Director Michael Haneke; how to cry on stage; Full English
November 06, 2012 19:50 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBWith Mark Lawson. In a rare interview, acclaimed director Michael Haneke talks about his most recent film, Amour, which won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Festival. Haneke, whose previous films include Funny Games and The White Ribbon, discusses how he works with actors, and the films he has turned down. Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, 9 to 5 The Musical and Our Boys are just three of the many current stage productions featuring actresses and actors who have to cry on stage. Actors Laurence ...
Anna Friel in Uncle Vanya, The Sapphires, letters from the Mary Whitehouse archive
November 05, 2012 20:00 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. Anna Friel returns to the stage in a new production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, with a cast which also includes Ken Stott, Laura Carmichael and Sam West. Writer and performer Viv Groskop reviews. In 1964, a devoutly Christian Shropshire schoolteacher co-launched a Clean Up TV campaign - and it turned her into a media star. Mrs Mary Whitehouse wrote letters of complaint to programme-makers, politicians, pop stars and playwrights. A selection of her correspondence, preserved ...
The Shining, Lucy Kirkwood, Colm Toibin, Some Girls
November 02, 2012 19:55 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Kirsty Lang. As the longer, American version of The Shining is released in the UK for the first time, a new documentary about the film's obsessive fans is also in cinemas. Room 237 documents the various theories about Stanley Kubrick's horror classic and what it really means. Jon Ronson, the director of Stanley Kubrick's Boxes, gives his response to the documentary and the longer version of The Shining. Lucy Kirkwood is one of the UK's most high-profile young playwrights. Her new pla...
John Goodman, Orhan Pamuk, Andrew Rawnsley on Secret State
November 01, 2012 19:55 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBWith Mark Lawson. Actor John Goodman discusses his latest role in Argo, Ben Affleck's film about a high-risk cinematic solution to the Iranian hostage crisis in the late '70s, which is based on a true story. Secret State is a new TV adaptation of Chris Mullin's novel A Very British Coup. Gabriel Byrne stars as the Deputy Prime Minister thrown into the limelight when his boss disappears. Political journalist Andrew Rawnsley reviews the programme. Orhan Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...
Rust and Bone, Aerosmith, paper art, and hotels on film
October 31, 2012 16:56 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBWith Kirsty Lang. Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard's follow-up to his award-winning prison drama A Prophet is an earthy romantic fable about the unlikely relationship between a bare-knuckle boxer and a trainer of killer whales. Marion Cotillard, the star of Rust and Bone, talks to Kirsty, and critic Sandra Hebron reviews the film. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith discuss their album, Music From Another Dimension. The band members talk about working with Julian Lennon and Johnny Depp...
The Master; Seduced by Art; Thomas Adès
October 30, 2012 20:01 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. The film The Master is an impressionistic tale of an American war veteran who drifts into a cult led by a charismatic writer. Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to There Will Be Blood is partly inspired by the activities of novelist and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and the director even invited Scientologist Tom Cruise to a personal screening. Lionel Shriver, author of We Need To Talk About Kevin, delivers her verdict. Seduced By Art is the National Gallery's first ...
Tom Wolfe in conversation with Mark Lawson
October 29, 2012 20:00 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBMark Lawson interviews the American writer Tom Wolfe, as he publishes a new novel, Back to Blood, which is set amidst the wealth, sex and crime of contemporary Miami. It's now 25 years since Wolfe published his first novel, the controversial best-seller Bonfire Of The Vanities, and his new book is also a dissection of racial tension in urban America. The writer reflects on what, if anything, has changed in the intervening years. In a wide-ranging conversation, Wolfe also discusses political...
Jez Butterworth, Wizards vs Aliens, soundscapes for journeys
October 26, 2012 18:48 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson Dramatist Jez Butterworth talks about the pressures of following on from the success of his play Jerusalem, which starred Mark Rylance. His new play The River stars Dominic West and is being staged in a very small theatre. Jez Butterworth explains the choice of venue, and the unusual ticketing arrangements introduced to cope with demand. Doctor Who and Sarah Jane Adventures writers Russell T Davies and Phil Ford have created a new action thriller, Wizards vs Aliens. In th...
Mark Gatiss as Charles I; Posy Simmonds; 2013 City of Culture plans
October 25, 2012 18:50 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. Mark Gatiss stars as King Charles I in Howard Brenton's play 55 Days, which focuses on the period culminating in the trial and execution of the monarch, as Oliver Cromwell takes control. Peter Kemp reviews. Cartoonist and writer Posy Simmonds, whose creations include Tamara Drewe, discusses Mrs Weber's Omnibus - a collection of the newspaper comic strips she began in 1977 and continued for more than a decade. The strips centre on three middle-class, middle-aged school fri...
Thomas Keneally, Dan Stevens, 25 years of Michael Palin's TV travels
October 24, 2012 18:50 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith Mark Lawson. Thomas Keneally, who won the Booker Prize for Schindler's Ark, discusses the inspiration for his new novel The Daughters of Mars. Set in 1915, the book focuses on two Australian sisters who join the war effort as nurses, bringing a guilty family secret with them. Keneally talks about his technique of taking historic subjects and showing them from an individual perspective. Dan Stevens, best known for his role as Matthew Crawley in ITV's Downton Abbey, is making his first...
Poet Sharon Olds, Squeeze on tour
October 23, 2012 18:50 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBWith Kirsty Lang. When poet Sharon Olds' husband told her he was leaving her, she took out her notebook and started writing. Her new volume, Stag's Leap, charts the death of that marriage in a collection of poems now shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize for Poetry. Sharon Olds is known for being a poet of the personal, and she joins Kirsty to discuss her latest revelations. A black female lead character is a rare sight in television, which is why Scandal - a new drama from the US about pol...
Skyfall director Sam Mendes, Kevin Costner's TV series
October 22, 2012 19:00 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBWith Kirsty Lang. Sam Mendes, director of the new James Bond film Skyfall, discusses the vital ingredients needed to make a successful 007 adventure, and the art of updating Ian Fleming's classic character for a contemporary audience. Kevin Costner won the Best Actor in a mini-series award at the Emmys this year for his performance in the TV drama Hatfields & McCoys. He's not the only Hollywood star winning acclaim on TV - Claire Danes, Julianne Moore and Jessica Lange all also won Emmys...
Ginger & Rosa, Ralph Steadman on birds, the man who lights the Rolling Stones
October 19, 2012 19:00 - 28 minutes - 26 MBWith Kirsty Lang. Ginger & Rosa is a coming-of-age drama set during the Cuban missile crisis about two teenage girls who find that the bomb has brought them together. A heady mix of jazz, love, politics and shrink-to-fit jeans, it's a partly autobiographical tale from director Sally Potter, best known for Orlando. Writer and Spare Rib founder Rosie Boycott delivers her verdict. Ralph Steadman is famous for his illustrations accompanying the work of Hunter S Thompson and his political and s...