Front Row: Archive 2012

With Mark Lawson. Three decades after TV viewers around the world asked 'Who shot JR?', the saga of the Ewing family arrives in the 21st century, with a revamp of Dallas. In the new version, JR, Bobby and Sue Ellen are joined by the next generation - with just as many rivalries and power-struggles as before. David D'Arcy reviews. Turner Prize-winning artist Rachel Whiteread discusses her new commission, the facade of the Whitechapel Art Gallery. She explains how she found inspiration.The Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are awarded for writing and illustrating books aimed at young people. Unusually this year the same book has won both medals: A Monster Calls was written by Patrick Ness, completed from an idea left by the late Siobhan Dowd, herself a winner of the Carnegie in 2009, and Jim Kay provided the book's atmospheric illustrations. They join Mark to reflect on their collaboration. Front Row is reporting from the four contenders for the Art Fund Prize for museums. Ten years ago, the Watts Gallery near

With John Wilson,John reports from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, one of the contenders for the Art Fund Prize for museums, in the company of Alexander McCall Smith who has used it as a location in his novels. Front Row is reporting from all four shortlisted museums, before announcing the winner next Tuesday.Tom Cruise and Russell Brand star in Rock of Ages, a film adaptation of the jukebox musical, where classic 80s rock songs form the backdrop to a love story set on LA's Sunset Strip. Music writer Kate Mossman gives her verdict.The author of Afghan war novel The Watch, Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, explains how he wrote the book without setting foot in the country or talking to a soldier, and offers his own thoughts on the reasons why other novelists have not tackled this controversial subject.And, an interview with Jon McGregor, winner of the lucrative International Impac Dublin Literary Award is which is voted for by libraries around the world.Producer Erin Riley.

With Mark Lawson. Front Row is reporting this week from the four remaining contenders for the Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries. Our first visit is to the Hepworth, Wakefield, which recently celebrated its first birthday. Actor Alan Howard is known for his high profile RSC roles including Henry V and Hamlet. His latest project is the stage premiere of a series of monologues by Samuel Beckett. He and director Jonathan Holmes reflect on the challenges of bringing these texts to the stage.In the early 1770s Denmark was rocked by a scandalous love affair between Caroline Mathilda, the English-born Danish queen, and Johan Struensee, doctor to her husband King Christian VII. Now the story has been made into a film, starring Mads Mikkelsen as the doctor. Biographer Kathryn Hughes reviews.BAFTA winning writer-director Dominic Savage returns to TV with a new series exploring five overlapping love stories, all set in Margate - where he grew up. The tales have been created by Savage, but the dialogue is largely i

With Mark Lawson. Novelist Toby Litt reviews David Cronenberg's new film Cosmopolis, based on the novel by Don DeLillo. It stars Twilight's Robert Pattinson as a billionaire cocooned in his limousine, crossing Manhattan to get a haircut.Janet Suzman has played most of the major theatrical roles for women, including Cleopatra, Ophelia, Shaw's Saint Joan and Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. Now she has published a book, Not Hamlet, in which she reflects on the 'frail position of women in drama', arguing that they do not enjoy the same status as their male counterparts. A major new exhibition called Invisible: Art of the Unseen includes plans for an architecture of air and a pair of blank canvases entitled Magic Ink. Richard Cork reviews this unexpected collection of works. American writer Ben Marcus talks about his new novel, The Flame Alphabet, a dystopian story about an epidemic hitting America - the sound of children's speech has become lethal. Producer Dymphna Flynn.

With Mark Lawson. Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt is probably best known for his play The Visit. Now director Josie Rourke has included his lesser known work The Physicists in her first season at the Donmar Warehouse. Mark considers Dürrenmatt's life and legacy with writer Jack Thorne, Josie Rourke, performer and director Simon McBurney, and Jerzy and Mary Olson Kromolowski who wrote the screenplay for The Pledge, a film based on the novella Requiem for the Detective Novel.Professor Green is a Hackney-born rapper who gained a reputation as a formidable performer after winning successive freestyle competitions. He went on to win MOBO and NME awards and has worked with artists including Lily Allen and Emeli Sande. He reflects on how his life has changed since entering the limelight.Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2010, and today his latest novel, The Dream of the Celt, is published in English. Front Row examines the effect of winning the Nobel Prize on authors including Doris Lessing,

With Mark Lawson,Woody Allen has allowed his life and creative process to be documented on-camera. With unprecedented access, filmmaker Robert Weide followed the notoriously private film legend over a year and a half; discussing topics including his creative choices and response to his critics, the split with Mia Farrow and reveals that when he finished Manhattan he didn't like the film and didn't want it to be shown. Antonia Quirke assesses what we learn about the prolific film maker.American writer Richard Ford's new novel Canada opens in the vast landscape of Great Falls, Montana, in the 1950s, where a young solitary child Dell Parsons' world is turned upside-down when his parents commit a bank robbery. Richard Ford discusses the background to the book, and why readers usually have a five-year wait for his next novel.Two comedies with women in the starring roles are coming to our television screens. Dead Boss was co-written by and stars Sharon Horgan as a woman who has been falsely imprisoned for murdering

In an extended interview, Mark Lawson talks to writer Hilary Mantel, who won the Booker Prize with her novel Wolf Hall, and has now written a sequel, Bring Up The Bodies.Producer Nicki Paxman.

Neneh Cherry first made her name performing her hit Buffalo Stance on Top of the Pops while seven months pregnant. She later went on to collaborate with other artists including Youssou N'Dour and Michael Stipe. Her new album The Cherry Thing is another collaboration, this time with Swedish jazz trio The Thing, and includes covers of artists like The Stooges and Neneh's father Don Cherry. She explains how her upbringing informed her sound and why jazz is more than a musical genre.Kirsty Lang talks to Maria Semple, formerly a writer on US TV shows including Ellen and Arrested Development. Her novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette is an epistolary comedy about paranoid parenting, loathing Seattle and a loving daughter's journey to Antarctica to find her troubled mum.As the Transit Of Venus makes a rare appearance on June 5th and 6th, Front Row considers the various ways that it's inspired art, literature and music over the centuries.Death Watch predicted reality television a good ten years before it became a reality

With Mark Lawson.Director Ridley Scott returns to science fiction with Prometheus, starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender. It follows a group of scientists who travel to a distant world, where they encounter a threat to human existence. How does it compare to Scott's earlier blockbuster, Alien? Naomi Alderman gives her verdict.Michael Morpurgo and his biographer Maggie Fergusson discuss how they have collaborated on his life story, From War Child to War Horse. In seven chapters she describes how the unbookish boy who wanted to be an army officer became a best-selling children's author; and Michael responds with seven new stories. They reflect on the sometimes painful aspects of his childhood and his relationship with his own children. Jodie Whittaker and Christopher Eccleston star in a new National Theatre production of Antigone by Sophocles. Peter Kemp reviews.Ken Loach recently complained about the certificate awarded to The Angels' Share by the British Board of Film Classification. In order to qualif

With Mark Lawson. Novelist John Irving discusses his new book In One Person, which has, like all of his novels, been written back to front with the ending first. It's a doorstop rather than a novella, but Irving explains that when you're looking at the impact of 30 or 40 years on a life it's hard to be brief. Trade and politics forged a bond between Manchester and the countries of West Africa that dates back to the 19th century. A new citywide festival - We Face Forward: Art from West Africa Today - seeks to update that bond through contemporary art and music. Writer Jackie Kay, whose memoir exploring her Scottish and Nigerian heritage won the Scottish Book of the Year Award last year, joined Mark on the festival's art bus and took a tour round the exhibitions.British designer Thomas Heatherwick was described by Terence Conran as a "Leonardo da Vinci of our times". His range of creations includes a bridge that rolls open and closed, the new Routemaster bus, a seed-bank and the cauldron to hold the Olympic Fla

With John Wilson.Musician and writer Patti Smith joins John to talk about her new album, BANGA, which features a song in memory of Amy Winehouse. Film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews Snow White And The Huntsman, a twist on the classic fairy tale - which stars Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron.Ben Drew, aka rapper Plan B, discusses his directorial debut Ill Manors and explains why he's always thought of himself as a film director who sings rather than vice versa.Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson. Ken Loach's latest film, The Angels' Share, is a comedy set in Scotland, following the fortunes of Robbie, a young Scottish gangster who discovers that he has a "nose" - a natural aptitude for judging whisky. Columnist Suzanne Moore gives her verdict.Singer Rumer released her first album Seasons of My Soul to much acclaim in 2010. Her second album is a collection of songs originally made famous by male artists. She discusses how she chose the songs and how she coped with her nerves at a recent performance at the White House, singing for President Obama.American writer, poet and musician James Sallis discusses his latest crime novel, Driven - a sequel to Drive, which was adapted as a film last year, starring Ryan Gosling. Driven is set seven years after the events in Drive, and the nameless Driver finds that his past still stalks him.Writer Travis Elborough charts the close connections between British crime fiction and British beaches - not just for readers sitting by the sea with a book, but

With Kirsty Lang. Tracey Emin discusses how she feels about returning to her home town of Margate with an exhibition including new works conceived specially for Margate and exploring themes of love, sex and eroticism. In January 1937 in Peking the body of a teenage British girl was discovered, with her heart removed. She was the daughter of an ex-British consul and the crime, which shook both the Chinese and western community, was never solved. Writer and historian Paul French explains why he became obsessed by the story and how, 75 years on, he has come up with a solution to the mystery.Jason Solomons brings news from the Cannes Film Festival, as the jury prepares to announce the winners of the main prizes. Music and speech played an important role in the 1960s Black Power movement in America. Writer Pat Thomas has spent years tracking down rare recordings, which include spoken word discs from Motown's Black Power imprint. Music writer Kevin LeGendre joins Pat to consider how musicians and performers respond

With Mark Lawson. The artist Tom Phillips is celebrating his 75th birthday today. To mark this, his classic book A Humument is being reprinted which he first embarked on in 1966, and there is a new exhibition of his recent and early art works. Phillips discusses his constantly-evolving book, and his long-term artistic projects, including The Seven Ages of Man, which takes the form of a series of tennis balls covered in the artist's own hair. The last episode of the award-winning medical drama House is being broadcast tonight. As Hugh Laurie says goodbye to his maverick role, the writers are playing with viewer expectations by titling the finale 'Everybody Dies'. Writers Sam Vincent, Stephen Churchett and Matthew Graham, who were behind the final episodes of Spooks, Inspector Morse, Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars, discuss the challenges of wrapping up a hit series.On the day Arnold Wesker celebrates his 80th birthday, young playwrights Ryan Craig and Amy Rosenthal discuss the influence of Wesker's plays on th

With Mark Lawson. The Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire now arrives on stage, with the Hampstead Theatre turned into the arena of the 1924 Paris Olympics. And the new cinema documentary Personal Best has followed young British sprinters over the last four years, on the road to London 2012. Sports presenter Eleanor Oldroyd compares these stories of athletic dedication. Henry Moore: Large Late Forms is a new exhibition for which a series of the artist's giant bronze sculptures have been transported from their usual place in the fields outside Moore's home in Hertfordshire to a central London gallery on the back of a vast flatbed truck. Curator Anita Feldman discusses the logistical challenge of bringing these enormous artworks indoors.Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky talks about his fascination with the environment, in the light of two new exhibitions. Burtynsky: Oil considers the mechanics, distribution and use of some of the world's most highly contested resources, while Monegros - Dryland Farming dep

With Mark LawsonJohn Simm, star of the TV series Life on Mars, reflects on his return to the stage in Sheffield in Betrayal, Harold Pinter's drama of marital infidelity told backwards. Engelbert Humperdinck is aiming for UK Eurovision success with Love Will Set You Free at the contest's final on Saturday. But what about the competition? David Hepworth and Rosie Swash, our Eurovision Jukebox Jury, identify this year's hits and misses. Writer George R.R. Martin discusses his bestselling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, which is the source of the television series Game of Thrones. He admits that the scale of the books has led to some continuity errors, and reveals how far some of his fans are prepared to go when expressing their enthusiasm. Producer Claire Bartleet.

With Kirsty Lang. Wes Anderson's new film Moonrise Kingdom is set in New England in the summer of 1965. Two 12 year olds fall in love and run away together into the wilderness, with a local search party out to find them. Natalie Haynes reviews the film which stars Bill Murray, Ed Norton, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand. Joanne Harris discusses her new novel Peaches for Monsieur le Curé, which returns to the fictional French village of Lansquenet, first seen in her her best-seller Chocolat, which was also adapted into a feature film. Richard Wilson, the installation artist, is best known for the work 20:50 - a room half-filled with highly-reflective sump oil. He reveals details of Slipstream, his new sculpture for the 2014 opening of the new Heathrow Terminal 2. Over 70 metres long and weighing 77 tons, the aluminium work will describe the shape carved through space by a stunt plane. Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With Mark LawsonA retrospective of Rolf Harris' art and other talents - from singing to swimming - is about to open in Liverpool. He discusses his work, his love of gum-trees, and what he and the Queen chatted about whilst he was painting her portrait.How does an actor convincingly play drunk without forgetting his lines or falling off stage? Actors Michael Caine, David Suchet and Leo Bill reveal their tips, and National Theatre stage manager Ian Connop offers a guide to mixing stage drinks.As part of the BBC's Shakespeare Unlocked season Paul Whitehouse chooses his favourite piece of Shakespeare.Singer Ian Bostridge pays tribute to German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whose death was announced today. Producer Lisa Davis.

With Mark Lawson. Shameless creator Paul Abbott and writer Sean Conway discuss their unusual new TV drama series Hit & Miss, about a pre-op transgender contract killer.American suburban life turns sour as new neighbours meet in Lisa D'Amour's play Detroit, acclaimed in the US and now receiving its British premiere at the National Theatre. Gaylene Gould reviews.After Ali G, Borat and Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen's latest creation is an African tyrant, for his new film The Dictator. Ryan Gilbey gives his verdict.The poet Benjamin Zephaniah reflects on the character of Puck, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, as part of the BBC's Shakespeare Unlocked season.We pay tribute to the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes who has died aged 83. Producer Ellie Bury.

With John Wilson. Kevin Rowland discusses the changing face of Dexys Midnight Runners, who topped the charts three decades ago with Come On Eileen, and now release their first album in 27 years. Painter Brice Marden reflects on the golden age of American art and his early years as Robert Rauschenberg's assistant and as a guard on a Jasper Johns retrospective. British ballgowns from the past 60 years are the focus of a major new exhibition, which features dresses from the days of the debutante, as well as contemporary pieces from Alexander McQueen and Giles Deacon. Fashion writer and historian Bronwyn Cosgrave reviews.The Archbishop Of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, chooses his favourite piece of Shakespeare, as part of the BBC's Shakespeare Unlocked season. Producer Stephen Hughes.