Front Row: Archive 2011

With Mark Lawson.

Mike Leigh's new play at the National Theatre, Grief, didn't have a title until two weeks ago, but it still sold out months ago, such is the anticipation around a new Mike Leigh work. Secrecy surrounded the project and the cast, including Lesley Manville, Leigh's long-term collaborator, were forbidden to give interviews about it. Will it live up to expectations? Gaylene Gould reviews.

Booker prize-winning author A S Byatt describes her life-long fascination with Ragnarok, the Norse mythological story of Armageddon, and explains her approach to re-working ancient gods for modern readers.

Nirvana's Nevermind, Primal Scream's Screamadelica and Simply Red's Stars were all released in September 1991. All three albums made a huge impact in the 1990s, but two decades on have they stood the test of time? Caspar Llewellyn Smith and Rebecca Nicholson, music writers from different generations, give their verdict.

What does postmodernism mean, and where did it come from? These questions are explored by the V&A's new exhibition, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990. Author Lawrence Norfolk reviews.

Producer: Philippa Ritchie.

With Mark Lawson.

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times is a new cinema documentary in which the film-makers were given unprecedented access to the newsroom for a year, at a time when this American institution was undergoing a period of great change. Former newspaper editors Kelvin MacKenzie and Andreas Whittam Smith review.

Tom Stoppard discusses a revival of his classic comedy Travesties, which depicts a fictional meeting between James Joyce, Lenin and Tristan Tzara. Over 30 years after its original performance, the playwright reflects on which of the jokes are lost to a modern audience.

Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, the writers behind Peep Show, discuss their new TV comedy series Fresh Meat. It follows six ill-assorted student house-mates starting out at university, with a cast including stand-up comic Jack Whitehall.

Producer Philippa Ritchie

With Mark Lawson.

Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte star in Warrior, a new film in which two brothers take each other on in a brutal competition of Mixed Martial Arts fighting. BBC sports correspondent Eleanor Oldroyd reviews.

Frank Oz worked on Sesame Street before creating his own animation series The Muppet Show, providing the voice for Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. He moved on to voice Yoda in Star Wars. As he puts the finishing touches to directing Saul Rubinek's stage play Terrible Advice, Frank Oz looks back over his varied career.

Tenor Ian Bostridge talks about his new book A Singer's Notebook - a collection of diary entries, essays and reviews written about the world of classical music, where he has spent two decades working with many leading conductors and specialising in music by Britten, Janacek, Schubert and Weill.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With John Wilson. Ryan Gosling stars in two contrasting films in cinemas from Friday. In Drive, a thriller based on the cult novel by James Sallis, he plays a Hollywood stunt driver moonlighting as a getaway driver in the criminal underworld of Los Angeles. In the rom-com Crazy, Stupid, Love, he plays a handsome lothario acting as wingman for an older guy returning to the singles scene. Antonia Quirke reviews and discusses Ryan Gosling's career.

Mike Scott of the band The Waterboys explains how the Nobel-winning Irish poet W B Yeats has become co-writer on his new album. A selection of Yeats' poems - including September 1913 and An Irish Airman Forsees His Death - have been set to music by Scott on the Waterboys' record An Appointment With Mr Yeats.

John Wilson takes a tour of 'Firstsite', the new £28m art gallery in Colchester, Essex, designed by Uruguayan-born Rafael Vinoly. The architect explains how Roman archeaological remains beneath Colchester dictated the form of the single-storey, crescent-shaped building - dubbed the 'golden banana'. Architect Rafael Viñoly shows John around the Firstsite art centre in Colchester.

Andrew O'Hagan's debut book, The Missing, was a meditation on people who disappear from their lives- and the families they leave behind. Inspired by his own experience as a reporter camped outside Fred and Rosemary West's home while the bodies of their victims were being discovered, and acclaimed as a portrait of mid-1990s Britain, it was shortlisted for three major literary awards. Now O'Hagan, together with director John Tiffany (Black Watch), has adapted his book into a new production for Glasgow's Tramway theatre. Critic Mark Brown reviews.

Kirsty Lang talks to actors Dominic West and Clarke Peters about working together on the TV series The Wire and appearing in Othello in Sheffield.

Also Jocelyn Jee Esien discusses moving from comedy on TV, in her series Little Miss Jocelyn, to performing in the European premiere of Don Evans' stage comedy One Monkey Don't Stop No Show, which tours to Sheffield, London, Ipswich, Manchester and Leeds.

And we hear from a group of artists who came together when Britain was suffering widespread racial tensions in the 1980s. Claudette Johnson, Keith Piper and Marlene Smith remember the formation of the Blk Art Group, as the Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield stages a retrospective.

Producer Ekene Akalawu.

With Mark Lawson.

Pam Ayres won Opportunity Knocks in 1975 and has been working as a writer, broadcaster and entertainer ever since. Best known for her comic poems about everyday life, Pam discusses life before and after fame, as she publishes a memoir.

Stephen Merchant, the co-creator with Ricky Gervais of The Office and Extras, has just embarked on his first ever stand-up comedy tour. Detached from his better-known partner and live on stage, how will Merchant fare? Stephen Armstrong saw the show last night and gives his verdict.

The Go-Between, L P Hartley's classic novel of a boy caught up in a web of deception, has been set to music in a new adaptation which receives its world premiere at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Novelist Jane Rogers reviews.

Canadian author D W Wilson talks about his short story The Dead Roads, in which two old school friends compete for the affection of a free-spirited girl, whilst on a road-trip. The story is one of five shortlisted for this year's BBC National Short Story Award. The winning author, to be announced live on Front Row on Monday 26 September, receives £15,000.

Producer: Serena Field.

With Mark Lawson.

Jermaine Jackson discusses setting the record straight with You Are Not Alone, his memoir about his brother Michael.

Comedian Steve Punt reviews No Naughty Bits, a new play about the Pythons' landmark 1975 court struggle to reinstate material censored by a US TV network.

And KJ Orr discusses her short story The Human Circadian Pacemaker, in which a married couple adjust to the shift in their relationship after the astronaut-husband returns from a space trip. This is one of five shortlisted for this year's BBC National Short Story Award. The winning author will be announced live on Front Row on Monday 26 September.

Producer Philippa Ritchie.

With John Wilson.

A new film of John le Carre's classic novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, with John Hurt, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch as fellow spies. Bridget Kendall, BBC diplomatic correspondent and former Moscow correspondent, gives her verdict. A re-print of John le Carre's book has also been brought out - and is available now.

We pay tribute to artist Richard Hamilton, whose death at the age of 89 was announced today.

Royal Ballet star Lauren Cuthbertson visits the Royal Academy's new exhibition Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement. She reflects on whether a 21st century ballerina has anything in common with Degas' 19th century depictions.

Musician Laura Marling discusses about her new album and its literary influences, and performs in the Front Row studio.

Jon McGregor talks about his short story, Wires, one of the five shortlisted for this year's BBC National Short Story Award. The award celebrates the best of contemporary British short fiction. The winning author, to be announced live on Front Row on Monday 26 September, receives £15,000

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

Mark Lawson talks to Roger Moore as the 70s TV series The Persuaders is released on Blu-ray and DVD. The release marks the 40th anniversary of the cult show, in which Moore starred alongside Tony Curtis.

Alison MacLeod discusses her entry for this year's BBC National Short Story Award, as Front Row continues to talk to each of the five authors shortlisted for the 2011 prize, worth £15,000.

Oscar-winning writer Christopher Hampton reflects on his very first play, When Did You Last See My Mother?, in the light of a new staging. It first received a West End production more than four decades ago, when Hampton was just 20.

Producer: Jack Soper.

Rupert Goold's Headlong Theatre Company, the people who created Enron, have devised Decade - an immersive theatrical experience reflecting on the legacy of 9/11 ten years on. The site-specific production takes place in an old trading hall at St Katherine's Dock in London and is written by a team of authors including Abi Morgan, Alecky Blythe and Mike Bartlett. Jonathan Freedland reviews.

Sue MacGregor, chair of the judges for this year's BBC National Short Story Award, announces the shortlisted writers live on Front Row tonight. Following the announcement, Kirsty Lang will interview the first of the successful authors, with the other four writers being interviewed on Front Row next week. The winner of the £15,000 award will be announced live on Front Row on Monday 26 September.

Singer-songwriter Mara Carlyle has had an eventful musical career. After being dropped by her record company, her independently-released latest album Floreat, seven years after her critically acclaimed debut, was destroyed in a warehouse fire during the recent riots. Mara explains the numerous re-namings of her album as bad luck kept striking and how her fortunes changed thanks to a furniture company.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.