Front Row: Archive 2013

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 identity. Directed by Icelandic film and theatre director Baltasar Kormákur, the film is based on a graphic novel series. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews.

The recession has so far been fertile ground for TV producers and this week sees the beginning of two new series looking at work, and lack of it, in Britain. The writer Tony Parsons and historian Kathryn Hughes review Benefits Britain 1949 on Channel 4 and Paul O'Grady's Working Britain on BBC One.

Theatre director Michael Grandage offers his choice for the Cultural Exchange.

Producer Stephen Hughes.

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 19th century, the play centres on Liola - a charming young man who has caused controversy by fathering three sons with different women. Andrew Dickson reviews the new version by Tanya Ronder, which is performed by an Irish cast.

The theatre director Josie Rourke brings the 1987 comedy drama film Broadcast News, starring William Hurt and Holly Hunter, to the Cultural Exchange.

Disney's summer blockbuster The Lone Ranger, which stars Johnny Depp as Tonto, has flopped at the US box office and is expected to lose millions of dollars. Adam Smith explains why, despite many attempts to re-vamp the genre, Westerns from Wild Wild West, via Cowboys and Aliens to Jonah Hex have failed to deliver.

Producer Olivia Skinner.

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 translation slam. Adriana Hunter, Daniel Hahn and Frank Wynne discuss their different English versions of paragraphs from the French novel Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.

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. However, it's a clock with a difference, as it has no face and incorporates a sun-dial which casts shadows on the floor of the performance venue.

With this year's Edinburgh Festival fringe now in full swing, Stephen Armstrong reports on the comedy which has caught his eye so far.

Actress Gemma Chan nominates the 1987 film The Princess Bride for the Cultural Exchange.

It's arguably the best of times of jazz fans hoping to build a collection of classic albums, as LPs by jazz legends of the past are re-issued on CD at bargain prices, often in box sets. Kevin Le Gendre considers the pleasures and pitfalls of the piles of cut-price jazz classics.

Producer Olivia Skinner.

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 appears with a plan to make a quick buck. Payne's last play, Constellations, was a love story set against a background of quantum physics - and he talks about choosing weighty topics for his dramas.

Artist Cornelia Parker, best-known for blowing up a garden shed and suspending the fragments, reveals her Cultural Exchange choice: Dust Breeding, a photograph by the American surrealist, Man Ray.

Charlotte Mendelson discusses her latest novel, Almost English, which has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for fiction. The heroine, Marina, is a 16 year old brought up by loving but embarrassing elderly Hungarian relatives. In a bid to become a polished and elegant woman, Marina goes to a very English boarding school. Charlotte Mendelson talks about her own family's complicated history and learning to spell the Hungarian words in her novel.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

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, including Peter Capaldi, better known as foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It.

Singer-songwriter Cerys Matthews reveals her choice for Cultural Exchange.

As John Burningham's first book Borka: The Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers reaches its 50th anniversary, Kirsty visits the illustrator and author in his home and talks about the books, his unconventional education, and his addiction to online auctions.

Producer Stephen Hughes.

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 salesmen in action, while BBC Three's Shoplife follows a group of young people who are employed at the Metrocentre in Gateshead. Tiffany Stevenson gives her verdict.

With three Australian circus troupes taking to the stage at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and another currently entertaining audiences in London, Kirsty talks to the creative minds behind two of these shows - Wunderkammer and Limbo - to find out why Australian circus seems to be soaring.

For Cultural Exchange, writer Jeffrey Archer chooses the painting Ecce Homo by the 19th Century Italian artist Antonio Ciseri, which depicts the moment Pontius Pilate presented Jesus to a hostile crowd.

Producer Dymphna Flynn.

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 a decaying new development in Spain. Among the British ex-pats scratching a living there is Eamonn, who is taken by surprise when his father - a retired Birmingham bus driver - turns up out of the blue. Catherine O'Flynn reflects on her choice of locations and her research trips to a Birmingham bus garage.

Milton Jones is a stand up comedian best known for his dead pan one liners, zany shirts and sticky-up hairdo. As he prepares to take his current touring show to the Edinburgh Festival, he talks to Kirsty about life on the road, his grandfather and how Mock the Week really works.

For Cultural Exchange, His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman chooses a song by the French singer-songwriter and poet Georges Brassens (1921-1981). Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète translates as Plea to be buried on the beach at Sète, Brassens' home town. It is inspired by Paul Valéry's poem Le Cimetière Marin.

Producer Karla Sweet.

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 share an artistic passion.

Sculptor Antony Gormley pays tribute to fellow artist Walter De Maria, who has died at the age of 77. Walter De Maria's most renowned work is The Lightning Field, in which he placed 400 stainless steel poles in a vast grid in a remote area of New Mexico. Antony Gormley share his memories of De Maria, who became a reclusive figure, and was rarely photographed or interviewed - although he performed as a musician alongside Lou Reed and John Cale in New York in the 1960s.

A new exhibition Mass Observation: This is Your Photo offers an examination of the role of photography in the Mass Observation Archive. Mass Observation was founded in 1937 as a radical experiment in social science, art and documentary to create a kaleidoscopic view of 'ordinary life'. Iain Sinclair responds to the exhibition at the Photographers Gallery in London.

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 look at the two new art exhibitions on display. Architecture of War examines the impact of conflict on the landscape and environment, and 5000 Feet is the Best - Omer Fast's multi-layered film about drone warfare - launches IWM Contemporary.

Artist and illustrator Ralph Steadman discusses his contribution to a festival about Surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp in Herne Bay, inspired by a trip Duchamp took to the Kentish coast in 1913. He wrote a postcard back to Paris declaring "I am not dead... I am in Herne Bay", and on his return started working on his famous ready-mades, fuelled by his experiences of the English seaside. Steadman reveals why he's donating his own urinal, which started life in the gentlemen's convenience of the Hackney Empire.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.