Front Row: Archive 2013

With Kirsty Lang.

With Mark Lawson.

With John Wilson.

David Cameron, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and David Attenborough are among 135 people each reading a chapter a day of Herman Melville's epic novel Moby Dick, on a website curated by writer and whale enthusiast Philip Hoare. He talks about choosing an appropriate reading for the Prime Minister, and pairing chapters with works by artists such as Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Tony Oursler - director of the video for David Bowie's new single - who created today's image of a whale's eye.

To mark the 150th birthday of the London Underground tomorrow, John and author Iain Sinclair go down the escalators to discuss the Tube's contribution to our culture, from the graphic-design, murals and architecture at the stations themselves, to the ways the Tube has cropped up in art, books and films - from Henry Moore's wartime drawings to American werewolves chasing hapless commuters.

Utopia is a new TV thriller which focuses on a mysterious graphic novel and the sinister events that befall a group of people when they get hold of an original manuscript of it. Graphic novel enthusiast Rachel Cooke gives her verdict.

Winner of the 2013 Brits Critics' Choice award Tom Odell has been writing music since he was 13. Now aged 22, he signed a record deal after four gigs. He discusses his debut EP Songs From Another Love, and the expectations that can accompany a high-profile award.

Producer Olivia Skinner.

With Mark Lawson.

Tom Hooper, director of the King's Speech, has now taken on one of the most successful musicals of all time, Les Miserables. Jason Solomons reviews the film in which actors, including Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe, had to sing live on set.

The latest novel from Mo Yan, the Chinese winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature, has been published in English before Chinese. Described as a "bizarre romp through the Chinese countryside" Pow! examines life in contemporary China. Alex Clark discusses Mo Yan's take on Chinese society.

Ben Miller returns to our screens this evening in the second series of Death in Paradise, a quirky TV crime drama set on the island of Guadeloupe. He reflects on playing a British police inspector who finds he is a fish out of water when he lands a job as the island's new detective.

Producer Olivia Skinner.

With Mark Lawson,

Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn star in Gangster Squad, in which the Los Angeles police in the late 1940s battle a mafia boss. Penn plays a ruthless mobster opposite Gosling as an LAPD outsider, who tries to bring order to the streets by breaking the law. Kamila Shamsie reviews.

Great Night Out is a new ITV comedy drama which focuses on four childhood friends, who are now in their mid-thirties and enjoy a weekly get-together in Stockport. The cast includes Ricky Tomlinson who plays the landlord of the local pub. Creators Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni (The Worst Week of My Life) discuss finding humour in male relationships.

Today the Royal Opera House is inviting live cameras into the backstage areas never normally visible to audiences. Online viewers can watch multiple rehearsals and interviews, and can even get involved by asking questions and submitting videos of themselves singing Va Pensiero from Nabucco. Opera critic Rupert Christiansen gives his verdict on this experiment in openness.

Sally Gardner's book Maggot Moon was the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award and is in the running to receive the Book of the Year award, which is announced later this month. She reflects on the inspiration for her novel, which focuses on a 15-year-old dyslexic boy living in a violent, dystopian 1950s England.

Producer Claire Bartleet.

Haim - the Los Angeles guitar trio of sisters - were announced this morning as the winners of the BBC Sound of 2013. Over 200 influential music experts, DJs, bloggers and music critics created a shortlist of 15 artists as their favourite new acts for the year ahead, and chose Haim as the winners, following in the footsteps of Adele, Ellie Goulding and Michael Kiwanuka. On the line from Los Angeles Haim give their response to the news.

Mr Selfridge is ITV's new Sunday night drama - telling the story of the man behind the Oxford Street store and how it began in 1909. It stars the American actor Jeremy Piven in the title role and is written by Andrew Davies. The BBC's Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders, reviews it.

The Imposter was one of the best reviewed films of last year and the most popular documentary in British cinemas. The remarkable story of a Frenchman who assumes the identity of a missing American teenager is released on DVD next week and is reviewed by Sandra Hebron.

Ten years after the National Theatre introduced their Travelex sponsored £10 ticket scheme, theatres are experimenting with ticketing initiatives to attract new audiences and ensure the maximum return in austere times. Dominic Hill from the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Trina Jones from the Rep Theatre in Birmingham and Josie Rourke from The Donmar Warehouse in London discuss the importance of getting the ticket price right.

Producer Stephen Hughes.

With Mark Lawson

Comedian and actor Jack Whitehall was hardly off our screens in 2012 - playing a struggling newly-qualified teacher in self-penned sitcom Bad Education and as the über-posh JP in Channel 4's Fresh Meat. He explains how he destroyed his chances of playing Harry Potter and why it's his mum's fault he's obsessed with Robert Pattinson.

Danish political TV drama Borgen - the second series of which starts this weekend - follows the attempts to form and maintain a coalition government by the female Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg. Conservative Peer Michael Dobbs and Labour MP Gisela Stuart give their verdicts.

Irish novelist Stuart Neville discusses his new historical thriller Ratlines, set in Ireland in the 1960s. When a German businessman is found murdered in a guest house, it transpires he is just one of a number of former Nazis granted asylum by the Irish government.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With Mark Lawson, including the announcement of the category winners in the Costa Book Awards 2012 for novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's book.

As the new year gets underway, Skyfall director Sam Mendes, Fifty Shades author E L James, Bring up the Bodies writer Hilary Mantel, and presenter Clare Balding look ahead to what their own 2013 holds.

And nominations for this year's Oscars are announced next week and likely nominees will be four films with disability at their centre; Rust and Bone, Amour, Untouchable and The Sessions. But how far do these big screen depictions represent a watershed in portrayals of severe disability? Critic Scott Jordan Harris assesses their impact.

Producer Penny Murphy.

With John Wilson

Digital technology is developing at a rapid pace. John investigates how new technology will shape how we experience culture in the coming year.

Andy Serkis, who has recently reprised the role of Gollum in The Hobbit, has been so inspired by the technology behind some of his famous roles, that he has set up a studio to develop the art of performance capture in the UK. Serkis demonstrates the multiple ways in which technology can be used in films and video games.

Neil Young explains why his dislike of the compressed sound offered by mp3 recordings has led him to invent his own digital music format, which he hopes will be more representative of a musician's performance.

Discussing virtual theatre, art in a digital age and making their predictions for the future are technology writer Bill Thompson, Chair of Artangel and co-owner of Somethin' Else productions Paul Bennun and digital entrepreneur and product designer Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino.

Producer Claire Bartleet.