Front Row: Archive 2013

With Kirsty Lang

Tracey Thorn is best known as one half of Everything But the Girl, the band she formed with her partner Ben Watt while they were still at University in the early 1980s. Now semi-retired from music, the singer has written a memoir about her career in the music industry, Bedsit Disco Queen. Tracey Thorn talks to Kirsty Lang about her ambivalent attitude to fame and how she was so shy as a teenager that she auditioned to be the singer in a band from inside a wardrobe.

Gael García Bernal discusses his Oscar-nominated film, No, set in Pinochet's Chile. García Bernal stars as an advertising executive hired to spearhead the "No" campaign against the military dictator in the 1988 referendum.

Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud has just released her debut solo CD, Centre Stage, an album of classic songs from musicals. She joins a long list of diverse singers who have covered show tunes. Cultural commentator Sarfraz Mansoor discusses the various reasons artists are attracted to show tunes, and what it is they - and their fans - get out of it.

Nicholas Hoult stars as a curiously introspective teenage Zombie in romantic comedy Warm Bodies. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews the latest twist on the "zom rom com".

Producer: Olivia Skinner.

With John Wilson.

Glam! at Tate Liverpool is an exhibition re-assessing the pop styles and sounds of the early 1970s. The writer and former vintage clothes boutique owner Flic Everett joins John to discuss whether Glam! shines.

Jake Bugg started playing guitar and singing at the age of 12, and five years later he was performing at Glastonbury. Last October, his debut album entered the charts at the No. 1 spot. He reflects on life in the fast lane.

David Morrissey, the Liverpudlian actor who gave us Stephen Collins in State of Play and Gordon Brown in The Deal, talks about his latest venture, playing The Governor in the third season of the post-apocalyptic US zombie drama The Walking Dead, alongside fellow Brit, Andrew Lincoln.

The latest film from the acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda is called I Wish. The film centres on the adventures of two young boys as they attempt to reunite their divorced parents. Novelist M J Hyland gives her verdict.

Producer Ekene Akalawu.

With Mark Lawson.

Harry Hill has returned to stand-up comedy after years fronting the television show he created, ITV's TV Burp. He discusses how stand up has changed since he was last on the comedy circuit, his attachment to his oversized collars, working on X Factor the Musical and launching a giant inflatable sausage on stage.

The actor John C Reilly, best known for We Need to Talk about Kevin and his Oscar-nominated performance in Chicago, talks about starring in Wreck It Ralph, an animated film about an arcade game character. He explains how, unlike most animated films, the actors started with the dialogue and the animators created the characters based on their mannerisms.

James McAvoy is about to take to the stage as Macbeth at the age of 33, and Simon Russell Beale will play King Lear next year at the age of 52 - but are they too young to take on these roles? And should Juliet always be played by a teenager? Front Row considers the optimum age for leading Shakespearian parts.

Producer Nicki Paxman.

With Mark Lawson.

Anthony Hopkins plays "the Master of Suspense" in a new film which looks at how Hitchcock made one of his best known films, Psycho, and explores his relationship with his wife Alma, played by Helen Mirren. Novelist and Hitchcock aficionado Nicholas Royle reviews.

Antony Sher discusses Richard III, gay marriage and taking the lead in satirical play, The Captain Of Köpenick. Described by its author, Carl Zuckmayer, as a German fairy tale, the story shows how an ex-convict shoemaker manages to impersonate an officer and as a result gains money and power.

Novelist Michelle Paver, creator of a fantasy series set in the pre-agricultural Stone Age, joins Mark to discuss the British Museum's exhibition of Ice Age sculpture, ceramics and ornaments.

World-renowned Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has been named as recipient of the 2013 RIBA Royal Gold Medal. He talks to Mark about his work and why it was so useful that his own father was a cabinet-maker.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson.

Terry Jones and his son, director Bill Jones, discuss working together on the film A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman. Based on recordings made by Chapman, the animated film also includes the voices of fellow Pythons Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam.

Chiwetel Ejiofor talks about his role in Dancing on the Edge, the new TV drama from writer and director Stephen Poliakoff, in which he plays a 1930s jazz band leader. He also reflects on previous roles, which include Othello on stage.

The new TV series Being Eileen continues the story of the dysfunctional Lewis family, first seen in the one-off Christmas drama Lapland. Chris Dunkley looks back at the tradition of turning one-off dramas into long-running series.

The film I Give It A Year is the directorial debut of Dan Mazer, co-writer of films including Borat and Bruno. Unlike traditional rom-coms, the story unfolds after the wedding, with Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne playing newly-weds battling against a potential break-up. Gaylene Gould gives her verdict.

Producer Olivia Skinner.

With Kirsty Lang

The actor Charles Dance is best-known for playing quintessential Englishmen and villains. He reflects on his latest TV role as an ageing former rock-band manager, compares the experiences of working on both sides of the Atlantic, and looks back on his career.

A giant white pet robot and malfunctioning computers feature in In the Beginning Was the End, the latest site-specific production by the theatre company dreamthinkspeak. In the past they have performed in a vast disused department store, and an underground abattoir. The performance takes place in a series of tunnels and offices underneath Somerset House in London. Tristan Sharps, the artistic director of dreamthinkspeak, walks us through the labyrinth of tunnels and the technology that lies within.

Rene Clement was once dubbed the French Hitchcock, his war-time drama Forbidden Games won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1952, the BAFTA for best film from any source and the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. His thriller Plein Soleil is considered to be the best of the many adaptations of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley series. And yet, he is all but forgotten, even in his home country of France. The mysterious case of the disappearing director is investigated by Ginette Vincendeau, Ian Christie and Matthew Sweet.

Producer: Penny Murphy.

With Kirsty Lang.

It's been eight years since Lesley Garrett stepped on to the opera stage. Television, West End musicals and Strictly Come Dancing have been occupying her instead. Now she's back with Opera North, the company she began her career with, in a new production of Poulenc's one woman opera La Voix Humaine. She reflects on playing a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and sets a challenge for contemporary opera composers.

Feast is a new play created by writers from Cuba, Brazil, America, Britain and Nigeria, and directed by Rufus Norris. It explores the Yoruba culture and what happened to it after slavery created a far flung diaspora. British writer Gbolahan Obisesan and director Rufus Norris discuss the genesis of the project.

A new DVD From the Sea to the Land Beyond is a lyrical portrait of Britain's coastline from 1901 to the present day. The film travels through both World Wars, into peacetime and the modern age, and is all drawn from the BFI National Archive. The coast is explored as a place of leisure, industry and wild nature, and the film has been directed by Penny Woolcock, with a specially composed soundtrack by Brighton band British Sea Power. Penny Woolcock and British Sea Power's Martin Noble talk about their collaboration.

An American adaptation of Michael Dobbs' political thriller House Of Cards is a genuine first, being a major TV series that is not being shown on television. Instead this big budget drama, starring Kevin Spacey, will be available only via Netflix, the download website. Mark Damazer delivers his verdict on whether this particular house of cards will stand or fall.

Producer Stephen Hughes.

With Mark Lawson

Rowan Atkinson takes on his most serious role yet as the eponymous hero of Simon Gray's play Quartermaine's Terms. Atkinson and director Richard Eyre discuss the challenges of such a quiet and sedentary part, and why audiences who turn up expecting to see Mr Bean quickly adapt to the tone of the play.

Hilary Mantel was announced last night as the winner of the £30,000 Costa Book of the Year award for her novel Bring Up the Bodies. She discusses her golden year, having already won the Man Booker Prize for the same novel.

Samuel West discusses his role as King George VI in Roger Michell's film Hyde Park on Hudson. Also starring Bill Murray as Franklin D Roosevelt, the film focuses on the weekend in 1939 when the King and Queen visited Roosevelt in an attempt to persuade America about the threat of World War II.

Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, reveals his plans for the Theatre's 50th birthday celebrations, and hints at when he will end his tenure, which began in 2003.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With Mark Lawson.

Light Show at the Hayward Gallery in London is the first survey of light-based art in the UK and brings together artworks from the 1960s to the present day, from 22 artists including Dan Flavin, Olafur Eliasson and Jenny Holzer. Lighting designers Paule Constable and Patrick Woodroffe give their response to the works on show.

Paul Kildea discusses his biography of Benjamin Britten, which has already made the news when he claimed that the composer's death was hastened by syphilis.

Playwright Simon Stephens' new play, Port, opens at the National Theatre this week. Directed by Marianne Elliott, it tells the story of a family in Stockport. We first meet 11 year old Racheal, and six-year-old Billy in 1988, and the play follows them over the next 13 years of their lives. Peter Kemp reviews.

Producer Ellie Bury.

With Mark Lawson.

Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams star in a new production of Harold Pinter's play Old Times, in which three characters are locked away in a secluded farmhouse and reminisce about their early days together in London. The two actresses discuss the play and how they are addressing the challenge of alternating roles during the show's run.

The one-time Dada artist Kurt Schwitters fled the Nazis, was interned at a camp in the Isle Of Man, and spent the rest of his life after the war in a barn in the Lake District. As his work goes on show in a major new Tate exhibition, novelist Iain Sinclair delivers his verdict.

Two films by the off-spring of famous directors are about to reach our cinemas. Chained is a psycho-drama directed by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of the man who gave the world Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, David Lynch; Antiviral is a futuristic satire on celebrity culture helmed by Brandon Cronenberg, the son of Videodrome and Crash auteur David Cronenberg. Ryan Gilbey discusses whether sons and daughters can ever emerge from the daunting shadow cast by their famous film-making parents.

And with issues of strong language in the air in Django Unchained and the edited repeats of Fawlty Towers, Mark considers how you teach books which contain words now considered unacceptable, but which are present in school set texts - such as Of Mice and Men. What kind of dilemma does this present for teachers and how do students respond? Two teachers discuss the issue.

Producer Dymphna Flynn.