Front Row: Archive 2012

With Mark Lawson.Mark talks to Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, who star as the demon barber of Fleet Street and his partner in crime Mrs Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Todd.Having created the hugely successful Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes has turned to the Titanic story for his new ITV mini-series. Writer and critic Kate Saunders gives her verdict.Novelist Russell Banks discusses the issues surrounding his latest work The Lost Memory Of Skin, which follows a convicted sex offender on probation.Producer Ellie Bury.

With John Wilson. Virtuoso violinist David Garrett began his professional career at the age of 10, and now has an international career as a classical and crossover performer. He reflects on the pressures of youthful fame and his uneasy relationship with his father. He also plays his Stradivarius in the studio. Artist David Hall has filled a cavernous room with 1001 old cathode ray tube TV sets, which are tuned to the five analogue channels, creating a cacophony with the sound turned up loud. David Hall describes the origins of the project, and veteran TV critic Philip Purser and The Telegraph's Digital Media Editor Emma Barnett give their reactions to it.Poet and writer Andrew Motion discusses his return to Treasure Island in his follow-up novel Silver. Young Jim Hawkins and Natty, the daughter of Long John Silver, take to the high seas in search of Captain Flint's bounty, left behind by their fathers years before. Singer and songwriter Plan B's new single ill Manors is an abrasive protest rap, with reference

With John Wilson.Jessica Hynes and Douglas Hodge star in the four part TV drama One Night. Each episode takes the point of view of a different character during the course of a hot summer evening, as underlying social tensions and race issues come to the boil. Rachel Cooke reviews.John reports from Hastings, as the new Jerwood Gallery prepares to open its doors. The Gallery has provoked some local protests, and John sounds out current attitudes and meets the Gallery's director Elizabeth Gilmore. Blood on the Altar, by journalist and novelist Tobias Jones, tells the true crime story of the murder in 1993 of a teenage girl in the remote Basilicata area of Italy. The crime was only solved in 2010 in the light of a similar killing in Bournemouth. Tobias Jones discusses his fascination with the story and its Italian context.Producer: Philippa Ritchie.

With Mark LawsonAs the UK's largest exhibition of the sculpture of Joan Miró opens at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Mark meets Miró's grandsons, Emilio Fernández Miró and Joan Punyet Miró. They discuss the career of an artist who at the age of 81 described himself as "an established painter but a young sculptor". In the new film thriller Contraband, Mark Wahlberg stars as a family man and former smuggler, dragged back into crime by his naive brother-in-law. Novelist M J Hyland reviews.What did Shakespeare's plays sound like when first performed? The British Library is releasing a Shakespeare CD in what is claimed to be the original pronunciation. Actor Ben Crystal discusses how listening to Shakespeare performed this way changes our understanding of his language.As Ken Russell's notorious 1971 film The Devils becomes available on DVD for the first time, in its original X certificate version, the film's editor Michael Bradsell and original cast member Murray Melvin share their memories of making it.Producer Ekene

With Mark LawsonIrving Berlin's three daughters reflect on their father's career as one of America's most successful songwriters. They also discuss their inherited responsibilities for his music and the continuing appeal of songs such as Cheek to Cheek and Puttin' On the Ritz, the light of a new UK stage version of the film Top Hat.The National Gallery's new exhibition Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude, features the two paintings Turner donated to the gallery on the strict condition that they be hung alongside two specific paintings by the 17th century Old Master, Claude. The exhibition's curator Susan Foister and art critic William Feaver discuss the conditions and stipulations artists have made about how their work is displayed during their lifetime and beyond.Dramatist Helen Edmundson discusses her new play Mary Shelley, based on the life of the author of Frankenstein. The play centres on the scandalous relationship between Mary Shelley and her husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the impact it ha

Actress Lesley Sharp talks about returning to her role as Manchester police officer DC Janet Scott in the TV drama Scott and Bailey, alongside Suranne Jones. She reflects on how the series approaches the work of the murder squad, and discusses her career which includes The Full Monty and Mike Leigh's Vera Drake. Matt Damon stars in the new film We Bought A Zoo, based on a British true story about a man who decided to take on a struggling zoo. Directed by Cameron Crowe, the film moves the action to California. Gaylene Gould reviews.Noah Stewart is a young American tenor who grew up in Harlem and has already played Don Jose in Carmen, Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly and Rodolfo in La Boheme. This week he releases a CD of songs, and opens at the Royal Opera House in Judith Weir's new opera Miss Fortune. He reflects on working with a living composer, flying with a blanket over his head to avoid germs, and the views of his mother on his career so far. Producer Nicki Paxman.

British director John Tiffany, who had a huge success with the play Black Watch, is now working on a Broadway musical version of the romantic film Once. The film, set in Dublin, won an Oscar in 2007 for best original song - but wasn't a musical. John Tiffany discusses how he's brought an Irish bar to the New York stage. Writer Lyndsay Faye's new crime thriller, Gods Of Gotham, is set in 1840s New York, when the city's police force was founded. Much of the novel is written in Flash, the criminal slang of the day, which was documented by the city's first police chief. Lyndsay Faye reflects on how she researched the era. Kirsty visits Lincoln Hospital, in the South Bronx, where they've introduced a scheme to allow artists and performers without health insurance to trade their creative talents for treatment. Writer and performer Mike Daisey is a self-confessed geek, whose latest show, The Agony And Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs, describes his love affair with technology. He describes how this led him to China, to seek ou

With Mark Lawson. Artistic double-act Gilbert and George discuss their working methods, as they open a new exhibition called The London Pictures, based on words taken from newspaper billboards. Novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce re-assesses the work of writer Alun Owen, best known for A Hard Day's Night, as three of his 1969 TV dramas, with Sean Connery, Michael Caine and Paul Scofield, are released on DVD. "I've had a hard life and I write it down", sings Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith on the title track of her new album, Intersection. It examines a difficult period of her life, fraught with relationship bust-ups and turmoil. As she starts a UK tour, she also reveals why she so enjoys performing in Bristol and Milton Keynes.Novelist and critic Kim Newman reviews John Cusack as the latest incarnation of Edgar Allan Poe in the new film The Raven, and consider Poe's long cinematic history. Producer Stephen Hughes.

Mark Lawson talks to Andrew Lloyd Webber, who reflects on Love Never Dies, his follow-up to Phantom of the Opera, which is now released on DVD. In a special edition of Front Row, Lloyd Webber explains what was wrong with the original production of Love Never Dies, why he regrets taking Cats off the West End stage, what his plans are for the new ITV talent search for Jesus Christ Superstar, and why his next project is a musical based on the tragic life of osteopath Stephen Ward, one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair. Producer Timothy Prosser.

With John Wilson, who meets Lloyd Newson, director of DV8 physical theatre, whose new work focuses on questions of freedom of speech in a multicultural society. Michael Winterbottom explains why he transposed Thomas Hardy's Tess Of The D'Urbervilles from 19th century Dorset to 21st century India.Love Life is a new ITV drama written by Bill Gallagher, whose previous credits include Lark Rise to Candleford. The three part series explores the complications inherent in romantic relationships. Writer and critic Natalie Haynes gives her verdict.Jim White lines up his fantasy team of footballers who have transferred their talents to the silver screen.Producer Stephen Hughes.

With Mark Lawson.Andrew Stanton is an Oscar-winning film-maker whose credits include Toy Story and Finding Nemo. His latest film is John Carter, a sci-fi time travel fantasy set on Mars. He reflects on working with Steve Jobs at Pixar and how directing live action differs from animation.Alyson Rudd reviews two new TV documentaries which both focus on a sporting challenge - Racing With The Hamiltons, looking at the motorsport aspirations of Lewis' brother Nic, and David Walliams' Big Swim.Andrew Carwood and his early music choir The Cardinall's Musick are touring the UK this year performing music by the Elizabethan composer William Byrd, for which they recently won the Gramophone Recording of the Year Award. Carwood reflects on how difficult it must have been for the devoutly Catholic Byrd in Reformation England and how this double-life produced such majestic music. Producer Ellie Bury.

With Naomi Alderman. Therapists and their patients now play a key part in drama and fiction, whether it's Watson meeting his analyst in the BBC series Sherlock or the recent return of Freud and Jung to our cinema screens in the film A Dangerous Method.Naomi Alderman reports on current portrayals of therapy, talking to Sophie Hannah, who recalls her own experiences of hypnotherapy as research for her new novel, and to Yael Hedaya, one of the writers on the original version of the TV drama In Treatment, an Israeli production now available in the UK. Matthew Sweet and Deborah Levy reflect on depictions of psychoanalysis from the days of silent cinema to the acclaimed series The Sopranos and beyond.Psychotherapist Brett Kahr offers an insider's assessment of his fictional counterparts, and also considers why some writers fear that any kind of therapy might undermine their creativity. French psychiatrist and writer Francois Lelord, whose novels feature a questing psychiatrist called Hector, discusses whether books

With John Wilson. Antonia Fraser and Caitlin Moran have both recorded audio versions of their memoirs. They discuss the challenges of reading their intimate thoughts aloud. Bruce Springsteen's new album Wrecking Ball mixes his muscular rock with folk influences and a strong sense of anger. Kate Mossman, Reviews Editor of Word Magazine, gives her response to it.Today the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland announced that they have found the funds needed to buy Titian's painting Diana and Callisto, saving it for the nation. John asks John Leighton of the National Gallery of Scotland whether the £45m price-tag represents good value at this time. Radio 4 is inviting you to nominate New Elizabethans - people who have made an impact on the UK from 1952 to today. This week Front Row is asking writers and artists for their suggestions, and tonight architect Amanda Levete suggests a man who's made a significant contribution to the urban environment around the world. Producer Philippa Ritchie.

With Mark Lawson.Christina Ricci discusses her role in Bel Ami, a film based on Maupassant's novel about a young man's scheming rise to power in Paris, through his relationships with influential women. Ricci reflects on how she first read the book as a teenager, her transition from child to adult star and how she combines films with TV roles such as Maggie in Pam Am.Make Bradford British is a two-part documentary series which aims to see if people of different racial, religious and cultural backgrounds can live happily together. Eight people from Bradford, who all failed a citizenship test, are asked share a house in a microcosm of a multicultural society. Gabriel Tate reviews. The Trinidad-born actor and playwright Errol John died in 1988, and is largely overlooked, but next week his play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl receives a new National Theatre production. Written in 1953, the play focuses on soldiers returning to Trinidad after the second world war. Writer Kwame Kwei-Armah, director Michael Buffong and actre

In the new film This Means War, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine play two CIA agents waging an epic battle against each other when they find they are dating the same woman, played by Reese Witherspoon. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews. Radio 4 is inviting you to nominate New Elizabethans - people who have made an impact on the UK from 1952 to today. This week Front Row is asking writers and artists for their suggestions, and tonight novelist Ian Rankin nominates a pioneering English singer and songwriter who had a habit of reinventing himself.The award-winning screen-writer Paula Milne talks about her new six-part TV drama White Heat, starring Juliet Stevenson and Lindsay Duncan. The series charts the lives of seven characters who share a student flat in 1960's London and follows their interwoven lives up to the present. Shalom Auslander's novel, Hope: A Tragedy, is a satirical exploration of what it would mean to find an elderly Anne Frank living in one's attic. The novel examines the burden of history and remembrance fo

With Mark Lawson, John Adams' controversial opera The Death of Klinghoffer, based on the true story of a hijacked cruise liner in 1985, has just had its first performance at English National Opera in a new production directed by Tom Morris, co-creator of the National Theatre's adaptation of War Horse. Sarah Crompton gives her response to the first night.Award-winning comedian Sarah Millican discusses moving her comedy from the stage to the TV screen, and also reflects on her row with a fan who recorded one of her shows on a mobile phone.In the new comedy film Wanderlust, Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd play an over-stressed couple who leave the pressures of Manhattan to join a freewheeling community where the only rule is 'to be yourself'. Antonia Quirke reviews.Radio 4 is inviting you to nominate New Elizabethans - people who have made an impact on the UK from 1952 to today. This week Front Row is asking writers and artists for their suggestions, and tonight playwright Mark Ravenhill nominates a pioneering th

Novelist and games writer Naomi Alderman asks why video games haven't received the cultural recognition of other art forms. On her quest, she meets some of the most important and powerful people in today's entertainment industry. They run companies worth millions of pounds and make games played by tens of millions of people around the world, yet they rarely find their way into the spotlight. She also finds out how writers contribute to the shaping of new game narratives, and looks to the future, when games might well react to the personality of the player. Producer Stephen Hughes.

With Mark Lawson. Mark reports on the latest art-work to adorn the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar - a golden boy on a rocking horse designed by Elmgreen and Dragset. and unveiled today by Joanna Lumley, who discusses the work. Peter Ackroyd reflects on his biography of Wilkie Collins, author of the Moonstone and The Woman in White, and friend of Charles Dickens, whose personal life was full of secrets. In Basildon is a new play by David Eldridge about a close knit Essex family coming to terms with a recent death. Writer Tim Lott gives his verdict. And Mark speaks to two of the ten composers taking inspiration from Handel's Water Music for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The new works will be performed as part of the 1000 boat flotilla travelling down the Thames on June 3. Debbie Wiseman, whose film scores include Tom and Viv and Wilde, and Christopher Gunning, whose music includes the theme for Poirot, talk about the challenges of re-imagining Handel's famous score.Producer Timothy Prosser.

With Mark Lawson. The actress Olivia Colman talks about her breakthrough year, in which she has followed supporting roles in Peep Show and Rev with an award-winning lead in Paddy Considine's film Tyrannosaur and the role of Carol Thatcher alongside Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady. She's now appearing in a new stage production of Noel Coward's play Hay Fever. Woody Harrelson stars as a wayward LA policeman in Rampart, a film exploring the fallout of the LAPD's 1990s corruption scandal. Crime writer Dreda Say Mitchell gives her verdict on this bad cop, bad cop story.As e-books account for an increasing percentage of total book sales, many in the publishing industry are keen for the UK to instigate an e-book chart, along with the other readily-available sales figures. Jonathan Nowell from chart compilers Nielsen and Philip Jones from The Bookseller discuss why this is yet to happen.Producer Ellie Bury.

With Mark Lawson. Mark Eccleston reviews Black Gold, a film about warring Arabian tribes during the 1930s oil boom, which was financed by Qatar and stars Antonio Banderas as a desert sheikh and Freida Pinto as a harem charmer. Three decades after publishing the first of her hugely successful Adrian Mole books, Sue Townsend talks about her new novel about modern family life, The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, and how losing her eyesight has affected her writing process. Charlotte Keatley's play My Mother Said I Never Should is, according to the National Theatre, one of the most significant plays of the 20th Century. Charlotte tells Mark about her latest play, Our Father, and explains why writing a play is like unravelling a dream.Producer Timothy Prosser.