Front Row: Archive 2011

With Mark Lawson.

Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones star in a new stage production of Driving Miss Daisy, the Pulitzer prize-winning play which inspired an Oscar-winning film. Peter Kemp reports from the opening night.

Des O'Connor has worked as an entertainer for over 45 years, including over 1000 appearances on the London Palladium stage. Now - at the age of 79 - he is making his debut in a West End musical, in Dreamboats and Petticoats. He reflects on his career, including the jokes made by Morecambe and Wise.

Frank Cottrell Boyce has written sequels to Ian Fleming's children's adventure Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with the blessing of the Fleming Estate. He discusses the challenges of continuing a children's classic.

The Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer has won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature. Writer Anders Roslund reflects on how the news has been received in Sweden.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Actor and director Kenneth Branagh returns to the stage in his native Belfast this week in Sean Foley's adaptation of the French farce The Painkillers, alongside Rob Brydon.

In this Front Row special, Kenneth Branagh reflects on returning to Belfast, and looks back over his extensive career on stage, film and TV, which has featured Shakespeare, Chekhov, John Osborne, Hollywood movies and the role of the weary police inspector in the British TV adaptation of Henning Mankell's best-selling Wallander crime novels.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With John Wilson

In a rare interview, singer Johnny Mathis talks about his 55 year career, during which he has sold 350m records. Mathis talks about his operatic vocal training, reveals why he chose music over Olympic high-jumping, and recalls working with the band Chic on a disco album that has never been released.

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green star in Perfect Sense, a new film by David Mackenzie, in which a global epidemic begins to deprive people of their sensory perceptions. Critic Kate Muir reviews.

Gerhard Richter's work is being exhibited at Tate Modern, in the first major retrospective of the leading German artist in London for over 20 years. The collection spans nearly five decades and coincides with the artist's 80th birthday. Rachel Cooke reviews.

Photographer David Bailey revisits the East End of his childhood for his new mixed-media exhibition Hitler Killed The Duck. Bailey has been creating works which mix painting and photography for many decades and these works will be shown in public for the first time. Bailey discusses his passion for paint and those early trips to the local picture house during the war.

Producer Claire Bartleet.

With Mark Lawson.

The acclaimed literary biographer Claire Tomalin publishes a new life of Dickens this week, ahead of the bicentenary of his birth next year. She discusses the author's contradictions and insecurities and whether they were an essential part of his genius.

Rowan Atkinson returns to his role as the spy with no sense of fear but plenty of gadgets, in the film Johnny English Reborn. He talks about the similarities between Johnny English and Mr Bean, the art of pulling faces and the importance of cars in his work.

Artist Grayson Perry pays homage to thousands of forgotten and anonymous craftsmen by picking 200 objects from the British Museum's collection to display in his exhibition The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman. At the centre of the show is a decorated cast iron coffin ship, made by Perry himself. Natalie Haynes reviews.

Producer: Nicki Paxman.

Mark Lawson meets the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, as she publishes The Bees - her new collection of poems.

They discuss her love of the book as a physical object, how she writes from the body, and why now, when she starts to write a poem she always finishes it.

She reflects on the role of the Poet Laureate, and describes the impossibility of writing poetry after the death of her mother and the poem that resurrected her poetic ability.

She also talks about her love of football and the deal she's struck with David Beckham. Finally she explodes the myth of the Poet Laureate's "butt of sack".

Producer Ekene Akalawu.

With Mark Lawson.

Actor and writer James Corden reflects on his career so far, and admits that some of the work he produced after his initial successes was sub-standard. Corden has just published an autobiography, and is touring in the acclaimed National Theatre production One Man, Two Guvnors.

Justin Lee Collins and X Factor winner Shayne Ward star in Rock of Ages, a new musical touted as 'Mamma Mia! for men'. The show weaves a narrative around 80s rock anthems. David Quantick reviews.

Leeds enjoys a special place in the history of British cinema: it was once the centre for the manufacture of film projectors. This has inspired a new work from Turner Prize nominee Lucy Skaer. She and cinema projectionist Alan Foster give Mark a guided tour in the Lyric Picture House, Armley, Leeds,

Producer Georgia Mann.

With Mark Lawson.

Film director Lars von Trier hit the headlines with his provocative remarks about Hitler and Nazism at the Cannes

The latest novel in Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher series arrives in bookshops tomorrow. This is the 16th thriller following the life of former military policeman Reacher, and Lee Child reflects on why he keeps returning to his grizzled hero.

Steven Spielberg's latest project is the multi-million dollar television drama Terra Nova. The action takes place 85 million years ago in a prehistoric alternate reality. Naomi Alderman reviews.

Paratrooper turned artist Derek Eland asked front-line soldiers in Afghanistan to write about their experiences. The notes are on display in a new installation at the Imperial War Museum North. Eland discusses how the soldiers felt about sharing their feelings.

As the source of the catchphrase 'Fire up the Quattro' from Ashes to Ashes becomes a matter of dispute between the actor and the writer, Michael Simkins reflects on the complex relationship between performers and script-writers.

Producer Georgia Mann.

With Mark Lawson, who talks to actor Tim Pigott-Smith as he takes the title role in King Lear at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

Cultural Historian and Pre-Raphaelite biographer Fiona MacCarthy reviews the new Ford Madox Brown retrospective at Manchester Art Gallery.

And novelist Nicholas Royle reviews Hidden, a new BBC One conspiracy thriller starring Philip Glenister.

Producer Ekene Akalawu.

With John Wilson, who presents live from the BBC National Short Story Award ceremony, with news of this year's winner of the £15,000 prize, announced by the chair of judges Sue MacGregor.

Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason reveals some of the untold stories behind previously-unheard tracks by the band, now released for the first time. Jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli played on a version of Wish You Were Here (Yehudi Menuhin declined the invitation), and you can hear the results on tonight's progamme.

Helen Mirren stars as a former Mossad agent, brought out of retirement to catch an elderly Nazi, in the new film thriller The Debt. Mark Eccleston reviews.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With Kirsty Lang.

Martin Scorsese's latest music documentary focuses on the 'quiet Beatle' George Harrison, with contributors including Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Pattie Boyd and Phil Spector. Beatles fan David Hepworth gives his verdict.

In February this year a Cultural Olympiad project invited people to contribute a piece of wood with a personal significance to create a 30-foot modern sailing boat. The resulting 7-man boat will sail to the site of the London Olympics next year, and will be a living archive of people's stories and lives. Olympic silver-medalist sailor and boat builder Mark Covell and Gary Winters, the co-founder of the team behind The Boat Project, take Kirsty round the boatyard to see how far the vessel is progressing.

Shirley Bassey's rise from poverty to international stardom has been dramatised for BBC Two. The title role is played by rising star Ruth Negga, best known for her role in Misfits, with Lesley Sharp playing Shirley's mother. Music writer Jacqueline Springer assesses this portrayal of the legendary singer.

Bridget Nicholls, artist-in-residence at London Zoo, refers to herself as a dating agent: bringing artists and scientists together to work on insect-related projects, such as the Ant Ballet which can be seen at London Zoo next month. Bridget explains how much we have to learn from insects, both scientifically and artistically.

Producer Claire Bartleet.