With John Wilson. Film director and former Python Terry Gilliam discusses the re-mastering of his classic film Time Bandits, for a new DVD release, as his new film The Zero Theorem heads for the Venice Film Festival. Jennifer Aniston stars as a stripper turned pretend suburban wife and mother in the film We're The Millers. She becomes involved in the plans of a small-time drug dealer, played by Jason Sudekis, who enlists a fake family to help him smuggle marijuana across the Mexican border. Mark...
Aug 23, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Fran Healy, lead singer of the band Travis, discusses their first new album for six years, and reflects on a career which includes the hits Why Does it Always Rain on Me, Driftwood and Sing. At the recent Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Mark talked to three writers about how new technology makes it more difficult for characters to disappear without trace, or to hide or change their identities. With Lottie Moggach, Colette McBeth and Michael Robotham. Simon Bird, one of the st...
Aug 23, 2013•29 min
With Mark Lawson. Mark meets Vince Gilligan, the creator of hit American TV series Breaking Bad, about a chemistry teacher who becomes a drugs overload after being diagnosed with cancer. Meg Rosoff reviews the film What Maisie Knew. Based on the 1897 novel by Henry James, the film is set in modern day New York and stars Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan as parents going through an acrimonious custody battle, in which their young daughter Maisie has become a pawn. Nadifa Mohamed, the award winning ...
Aug 21, 2013•29 min
John Wilson meets Naughty Boy, the British-born Pakistani songwriter, musician and producer, who has worked with Emeli Sande and Britney Spears and is now releasing his debut album Hotel Cabana. Zoe Williams reviews the film Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried as Deep Throat actress Linda Lovelace. An extract from John's 2002 interview with the American crime writer Elmore Leonard, whose death was announced today. And Harry Nilsson's biographer Alyn Shipton discusses the life and career of the si...
Aug 20, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson Sir Tom Stoppard has written Darkside, a new radio play starring Bill Nighy and Rufus Sewell, to mark the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon. In discussing the play Stoppard talks about thought experiments, moral philosophers, and Mamma Mia. Elysium is a science fiction thriller set in a future where privileged elite live on the space station Elysium while the rest of the population remains on a damaged earth. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, who is best...
Aug 19, 2013•29 min
John Wilson brings the Cultural Exchange project to a close, with Armando Iannucci, Laura Mvula, Germaine Greer, Paul Weller, Terence Stamp, the Archbishop of Canterbury and others choosing their favourite artwork. John looks back at the 75 selections made over the past four months, and identifies trends and surprises. Visit the Cultural Exchange website for all 75 interviews and archive clips featuring Jack Nicholson, Bette Davis, Nina Simone and more. Also on the Cultural Exchange website: Joh...
Aug 16, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Reginald D. Hunter discusses race, sex and anatomy in his latest Edinburgh show In the Midst of Crackers. He reflects on fourteen years of coming to the festival and explains why he thinks the world has become a more stupid place in that time. Novelist David Peace is best known for the Red Riding Quartet and The Damned United, a fictional portrait of Brian Clough's spell at Leeds United. His new novel, Red or Dead, focuses on the legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly. Cabare...
Aug 15, 2013•28 min
With John Wilson. Edinburgh born artist Peter Doig moved in Trinidad in 2002, and his new exhibition No Foreign Lands concentrates on the work he has painted since he has lived there. Showing at Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh it is the first major exhibition of his work to be shown in the country of his birth. Art critic Moira Jeffrey reviews. Crime-writer Chris Brookmyre's new novel Flesh Wounds is the third in a series to follow private investigator Jasmine Sharp and Detective Superint...
Aug 14, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson David Walliams writes, and stars in Big School as the Deputy Head of Chemistry in a comprehensive school who's smitten by the new French teacher, Catherine Tate, but finds a love rival in the shape of PE master Philip Glenister. Critic and ex-teacher Natalie Haynes delivers her verdict. Award winning poet John Agard received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry earlier this year. Agard, who was born in Guyana and moved to Britain in 1977, talks about what the award means to him. He...
Aug 13, 2013•29 min
With John Wilson. The Clash were the noisy sound of rebellion in the late 1970s, a band who refused to perform on Top of the Pops, sold their double album for the price of a single LP, and won an international audience and critical acclaim. Three decades after their acrimonious split, band members Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Nicky 'Topper' Headon re-unite to reflect on their career and their legacy, as they prepare to release a box set of all their music. And from the Front Row archives, we hea...
Aug 13, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Ruth Rendell won the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award last month. She speaks to Mark about writing sixty novels in fifty years, how she's managing Inspector Wexford's retirement, her friendship with PD James and her second career as a Life Peer in the House of Lords. Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg star as two undercover agents attempting to infiltrate a drugs cartel by posing as criminals - but neither are aware of the others true ide...
Aug 12, 2013•29 min
With Kirsty Lang. Booker Prize-winning Irish author Roddy Doyle discusses why he decided to resurrect one of his earliest characters - Jimmy Rabbitte who first appeared in The Commitments 25 years ago - in his new novel The Guts. He also reflects on topics of conversation among men his own age, and offers his top tip to stop snoring. Sir Richard Eyre has returned to the National Theatre to direct Liola, a drama by the Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. Set in rural Sicily at the end of the 19t...
Aug 08, 2013•29 min
Novelist Naomi Alderman reports on the art of translating fiction, with writers Ian McEwan, A S Byatt, Ali Smith and David Baddiel. Every novelist dreams of being translated into dozens of foreign languages, but the relationship between author and translator can be fraught. If it goes right, it can lead to close friendship - but what happens when it goes wrong? And is a translation ultimately closer to being an original work than we might think? Naomi also joins three professionals for a transla...
Aug 07, 2013•28 min
With Kirsty Lang. In Johnny Depp's latest film, he plays Tonto, the loyal companion to the Lone Ranger, played by Armie Hammer. The masked hero and his Native American friend fought injustice together in the Wild West, in a popular American TV series of the 1950s - but will the 21st century cinema version of The Lone Ranger be as successful? Writer Matt Thorne gives his verdict. Artist Conrad Shawcross has transformed the Roundhouse in London into a giant clock for his latest work Timepiece. How...
Aug 06, 2013•29 min
With Kirsty Lang. Foxfire is a new film adapted from Joyce Carol Oates' award-winning bestseller, set in America in 1953. Five headstrong teenage girls form a secret society, the Foxfire gang, in defiance of the violent male-dominated culture of their small town. American writer Diane Roberts reviews. Nick Payne's new play, The Same Deep Water As Me, explores the murky world of personal injury claims. Lawyers Andrew and Barry are focussing on legitimate clients until Andrew's old school friend a...
Aug 05, 2013•29 min
With Kirsty Lang. The writer Louis de Bernières, best known for his novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin, discusses his first volume of poetry, Imagining Alexandria. De Bernieres has been writing poems since he was 12, but didn't want to publish until he felt he had 'hit his peak'. He discusses how he was inspired by his love of the Greek poet Cavafy to write about the ancient world, love affairs and the fleeting nature of youth. We assess the form of the bookies' favourites for the next Doctor Who,...
Aug 02, 2013•29 min
With Kirsty Lang. The acclaimed Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov is best known in the UK for his cult novel Death and the Penguin. He reflects on the origins of his new book, The Gardener from Ochakov, a dark satire where a young man can time travel between 2010 and 1957 Ukraine, with the help of a vintage Soviet police uniform. Two new TV documentary series begin tonight, aiming to reveal what it is like to work in retail and sales at the moment. Channel 4's The Dealership shows Essex car sales...
Aug 01, 2013•29 min
With Kirsty Lang. The Heat is the latest gross-out comedy from Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids. It stars one of its alumni, Melissa McCarthy, as an unorthodox cop who has to team up with an officious, highly strung FBI agent, played by Sandra Bullock. Critic Jane Graham delivers her verdict on this odd couple comedy. Catherine O'Flynn won the Costa First Novel Award in 2008 with her book What Was Lost, set in and around her native Birmingham. Her new novel, Mr Lynch's Holiday, focuses on ...
Jul 31, 2013•29 min
With John Wilson. Ryan Gosling and Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Pusher) team up again for the crime thriller Only God Forgives. Set in the Bangkok underworld, the film has divided critics with its use of violence and an unconventional narrative structure, and even Gosling has admitted the film could alienate audiences. Crime writer Dreda Say Mitchell gives her verdict. Violinist Nicola Benedetti nominates a favourite concerto for Cultural Exchange, in which leading creative minds...
Jul 30, 2013•28 min
With John Wilson. Tony Grisoni, writer of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the Red Riding TV series, discusses his latest project: Southcliffe is a new four-part drama for Channel 4, about a random killer on the loose in a small English rural town. Architect Richard Rogers nominates a favourite public space for Cultural Exchange, in which leading creative minds share a cultural passion. As the Imperial War Museum London partially re-opens its doors during its major redevelopment, John takes a ...
Jul 29, 2013•28 min
With John Wilson. In 2010 Dawn Brancheau, a trainer at the Seaworld theme park, died after being dragged into the water by Tilikum, Seaworld's largest performing Orca. A new documentary, Blackfish, explores how Tilikum came to be in captivity and asks whether whales kept as performing animals will inevitably become aggressive. Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan Or The Whale, reviews. The vocal group Naturally 7 are about to perform at this year's BBC Proms. They demonstrate how they create the so...
Jul 26, 2013•29 min
With Mark Lawson. Kevin McNally has acted on stage opposite Jude Law and Kenneth Branagh, and has appeared in more than two dozen films, including all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He now stars in The Mill, a new four-part TV drama, which depicts events in rural-industrial England in 1833 and is based on the extensive archive of Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire. He discusses the appeal of playing characters who are far from likeable, and reveals how he thinks it helped that he was a little t...
Jul 25, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Steve Coogan returns as his best-known character, Norwich radio DJ Alan Partridge, in a new film Alpha Papa, which sees Partridge involved in an unusual hostage situation at a local radio station. Steve Coogan discusses the evolution of the character from the small to the big screen, the pressure from fans to reprise his 'hit' character, and how his fears of turning into Alan Partridge himself inspire his performances. For Cultural Exchange, crime writer Ruth Rendell discusses ...
Jul 24, 2013•28 min
With John Wilson. Hugh Jackman returns to the role of Wolverine in his new film, embroiled in a conflict that forces him to confront his own demons. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews The Wolverine. The late singer-songwriter Ian Dury is best known as the front man for Ian Dury and the Blockheads and for writing songs including Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick. But before he became an entertainer, Dury trained at the Royal College of Art and had a career as an artist that lasted nearly a decade. As an exh...
Jul 23, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West star as the ultimate celebrity couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, in a new BBC Drama written by William Ivory. Focusing on the period when they appeared together on Broadway in Noel Coward's Private Lives, Burton and Taylor imagines the complex relationship between the ex-husband and wife. Linda Grant reviews. Writer Denise Mina has received the Theakstons Old Peculier crime novel award, for the second year running. Her winning no...
Jul 22, 2013•29 min
With John Wilson. Wadjda is the first film from Saudi Arabia to be directed by a woman, Haifaa Al Mansour. It's the story of an 11-year-old girl who enters a Koran recitation competition in order to buy a bike with the winnings, even though women are discouraged from cycling and are banned from driving cars. Critic Shahidha Bari delivers her verdict. American writer Philipp Meyer's ambitious new novel, The Son, maps the legacy of violence in the western United States. When a young man is taken c...
Jul 19, 2013•29 min
With John Wilson. Susannah Clapp reviews the new Punchdrunk production The Drowned Man, A Hollywood Fable. The company is known for not using stages or even seats, and their groundbreaking immersive style - in previous shows like Sleep No More - has had a huge influence in contemporary theatre. As an Eduardo Paolozzi retrospective opens in Chichester, John meets the artist's lifelong friend Sir Terence Conran. Conran, who has since had success in design, retail and restaurants, remembers helping...
Jul 18, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. Writer and poet Clive James discusses his ambitious version of Dante's 14th century epic poem The Divine Comedy. He reflects on the challenge and pleasure of translating the 14,233 lines which took him several years, while struggling with ill health which made him wonder whether he'd live to see it published. Directed by Joe Wright and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the UK premiere of A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire opens on stage this week. Set in the Congo during the countr...
Jul 17, 2013•29 min
With Mark Lawson. Christopher Guest, the writer best known for This Is Spinal Tap, makes his BBC debut with Family Tree, a TV comedy series about an ancestral quest starring Chris O'Dowd from Bridesmaids and The IT Crowd. Antonia Quirke discusses whether Guest has turned the laughs all the way up to 11. Josephine and I, written by and starring Cush Jumbo, is a one-woman show about the life of dancer, singer and actress Josephine Baker. Jumbo reflects on why she wanted to bring Baker's story to t...
Jul 16, 2013•28 min
With Mark Lawson. The World's End is a new comedy film from Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, completing a trilogy which began with Shaun of the Dead and continued with Hot Fuzz. Adam Smith reviews. Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning dramatist Marsha Norman discusses how she adapted Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple as a musical for the stage. The show is about to receive its British premiere. Marsha Norman also reflects on how she teaches the art of writing for musicals. Badults i...
Jul 15, 2013•28 min
