With John Wilson. Wilko Johnson, one of Britain's most charismatic guitarists, has terminal cancer, with doctors suggesting that he has less than a year to live. As he prepares for farewell UK concerts in March, he reflects on how his diagnosis has made him feel "vividly alive". And, guitar in hand, he demonstrates the distinctive terse sound which powered the band Dr Feelgood in the 1970s, when they became one of the UK's most influential live acts. To mark the centenary of the birth of painter...
Jan 25, 2013•29 min
With Kirsty Lang. Alexei Sayle, often described as the godfather of alternative comedy, is returning to solo stand-up shows after a break of more than 16 years. Sayle, who was known throughout the 1980s for his politically charged rants, reflects on the reasons for his stage come-back, and gives his views on the current generation of comedians. Anna Maxwell Martin, Tamzin Outhwaite and Gina McKee star in Di And Viv And Rose, a play written by Amelia Bullmore, well-known to TV audiences for her o...
Jan 24, 2013•29 min
With Mark Lawson. Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln has been nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Daniel Day-Lewis is favourite to win Best Actor for his portrayal of the 16th American president Abraham Lincoln, as he fights to abolish slavery. Elaine Showalter reviews. Northern Irish crime novelist Adrian McKinty has just published the second book in his Sean Duffy trilogy. I Hear the Sirens in the Street features Duffy, a Catholic detective inspector in the RUC at t...
Jan 23, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Denzel Washington has won an Oscar nomination for his role in the film Flight. He plays an airline pilot who miraculously lands a stricken plane. At first he's hailed as a hero, but then questions start to arise about what actually happened. Denzel Washington reflects on the role, and his long Hollywood career. Manet: Portraying Life is the first major British exhibition of Edouard Manet's portraits - including 50 paintings as well as pastels and photographs from private and pu...
Jan 22, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Jessica Chastain is nominated for an Oscar for her role in Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's film about an elite military and intelligence team hunting for Osama Bin Laden. She discusses the demands of her role in a film which has generated controversy about the role of torture in the story. The death of film-maker Michael Winner was announced today. Barry Norman, who followed Winner's movie career from the 1960s onwards, and Andrew Neil, who first employed him as a restauran...
Jan 21, 2013•28 min
With Kirsty Lang. The TV drama series Call the Midwife follows the working and personal lives of a team of midwives working in east London in the 1950s and is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth. The second series starts on Sunday on BBC One. Writer and reviewer Dreda Say Mitchell reflects on its appeal, and whether it can sustain its success. Ruthie Henshall is an actress, singer and dancer and has starred in many popular musicals - including Les Miserables, Cats and Cabaret. She's about to ...
Jan 18, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson Kathleen Jamie won the 2012 Costa Poetry award for her collection The Overhaul. She translates some of the Scots dialect in the collection and explains why writing a poem is like washing the dishes. John Bramwell of I Am Kloot discusses the making of their new album Let It All In, which was produced by Elbow's Guy Garvey. John Berry, artistic director of the English National Opera discusses the company's financial woes, in the light of its recently-announced loss of more than £2...
Jan 17, 2013•28 min
With John Wilson Dame Liz Forgan is the outgoing Chair of Arts Council England. Last night in her final speech in the role, she said that culture was a deep necessity for human beings, and appealed to politicians not to cut the arts budget. Dame Liz will be in the Front Row studio for a live interview. Actor Brian Cox reveals what it was like working in his hometown of Dundee for the first time in the television adaptation of the Radio 4 comedy series Bob Servant. And the star of Manhunter expla...
Jan 16, 2013•29 min
With Mark Lawson. Columnist Bel Mooney reviews The Sessions, a film based on the true story of poet and journalist Mark O'Brien. O'Brien was paralysed by polio as a boy and at the age of 38 set out to finally lose his virginity with the help of a sex-worker. The Sessions is directed by Ben Lewin who himself is a survivor of childhood polio. The Kennedy dynasty is the focus of a new documentary Ethel, in which Ethel Skakel gives a candid interview about life with her late husband Robert Kennedy. ...
Jan 15, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. In Quentin Tarantino's latest film Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. Jacqueline Springer reviews. Jonathan Lynn was the co-writer behind the British satirical sitcoms Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister in the 1980s. As a new series of Yes, Prime Minister returns to our screens with a new cast including David Haig as Jim Hacker and Henry Goodman as S...
Jan 14, 2013•28 min
With Kirsty Lang. A Mormon community in Lancashire provides the setting for The Friday Gospels, a novel by Betty Trask Prize-winner Jenn Ashworth. She was raised as a Mormon until she was a teenager, and she reflects on why she wanted to write about her experience as a British Mormon, when most literature focuses on American Mormon communities. My Mad Fat Diary is a new TV comedy drama series, based on the real life journals of Rae Earl, who recorded her teenage life in Lincolnshire. Stand-up co...
Jan 11, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Nominations for the 2013 Oscars were announced this afternoon. Steven Spielberg's Lincoln heads the field with 12 nominations, followed by Life of Pi with 11. Film reviewers Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Chris Tookey discuss the contenders live in the studio. Cameron Mackintosh reflects on possible British success as one of the producers of the musical film Les Miserables, which has eight nominations. Animation directors Peter Lord and Sam Fell reveal stories behind their nominated f...
Jan 10, 2013•29 min
With John Wilson. David Cameron, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and David Attenborough are among 135 people each reading a chapter a day of Herman Melville's epic novel Moby Dick, on a website curated by writer and whale enthusiast Philip Hoare. He talks about choosing an appropriate reading for the Prime Minister, and pairing chapters with works by artists such as Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Tony Oursler - director of the video for David Bowie's new single - who created today's image ...
Jan 09, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Tom Hooper, director of the King's Speech, has now taken on one of the most successful musicals of all time, Les Miserables. Jason Solomons reviews the film in which actors, including Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe, had to sing live on set. The latest novel from Mo Yan, the Chinese winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature, has been published in English before Chinese. Described as a "bizarre romp through the Chinese countryside" Pow! examines life in contemp...
Jan 08, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson, Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn star in Gangster Squad, in which the Los Angeles police in the late 1940s battle a mafia boss. Penn plays a ruthless mobster opposite Gosling as an LAPD outsider, who tries to bring order to the streets by breaking the law. Kamila Shamsie reviews. Great Night Out is a new ITV comedy drama which focuses on four childhood friends, who are now in their mid-thirties and enjoy a weekly get-together in Stockport. The cast includes Ricky Tomlinson who plays ...
Jan 07, 2013•28 min
Haim - the Los Angeles guitar trio of sisters - were announced this morning as the winners of the BBC Sound of 2013. Over 200 influential music experts, DJs, bloggers and music critics created a shortlist of 15 artists as their favourite new acts for the year ahead, and chose Haim as the winners, following in the footsteps of Adele, Ellie Goulding and Michael Kiwanuka. On the line from Los Angeles Haim give their response to the news. Mr Selfridge is ITV's new Sunday night drama - telling the st...
Jan 04, 2013•29 min
With Mark Lawson Comedian and actor Jack Whitehall was hardly off our screens in 2012 - playing a struggling newly-qualified teacher in self-penned sitcom Bad Education and as the über-posh JP in Channel 4's Fresh Meat. He explains how he destroyed his chances of playing Harry Potter and why it's his mum's fault he's obsessed with Robert Pattinson. Danish political TV drama Borgen - the second series of which starts this weekend - follows the attempts to form and maintain a coalition government ...
Jan 03, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson, including the announcement of the category winners in the Costa Book Awards 2012 for novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's book. As the new year gets underway, Skyfall director Sam Mendes, Fifty Shades author E L James, Bring up the Bodies writer Hilary Mantel, and presenter Clare Balding look ahead to what their own 2013 holds. And nominations for this year's Oscars are announced next week and likely nominees will be four films with disability at their centre; R...
Jan 02, 2013•29 min
With John Wilson Digital technology is developing at a rapid pace. John investigates how new technology will shape how we experience culture in the coming year. Andy Serkis, who has recently reprised the role of Gollum in The Hobbit, has been so inspired by the technology behind some of his famous roles, that he has set up a studio to develop the art of performance capture in the UK. Serkis demonstrates the multiple ways in which technology can be used in films and video games. Neil Young explai...
Jan 01, 2013•29 min
