Front Row: Archive 2013

With Mark Lawson.

The RSC's stage adaptations of Hilary Mantel's bestselling novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are currently in rehearsal before their sell-out run in Stratford-upon-Avon. Hilary Mantel and Mike Poulton, who has adapted the novels, discuss the challenges of transposing such vast and densely populated books to the stage.

Critics Catherine Bray and Adam Smith review Oldboy, Spike Lee's re-make of the Korean revenge drama, and discuss how it compares with other Hollywood versions of foreign-language dramas.

The historic department stores Liberty of London and Bergdorf's in New York come under the spotlight this week. A three-part Channel 4 documentary series goes behind the scenes at Liberty's, while a new film Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's hears from leading figures in the fashion world about the profile of the family-run store. Finance writer Lucy Kellaway reviews both.

Producer: Jerome Weatherald.

John Wilson gets a sneak preview of the latest Coronation Street set at its new home in Salford Quays. He talks to the series creator Tony Warren, Executive Producer Kieran Roberts, and Weatherfield local Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls).

As their controversial new show "Come and See" opens at the Sackler Serpentine Gallery in London, visual artists Jake and Dinos Chapman discuss their attitude to their subject matter and their sometimes difficult relationship with their audience.

French director François Ozon's latest film, "Jeune et Jolie", is about a 17-year-old girl exploring her sexuality by becoming a high-class call girl. Novelist MJ Hyland delivers her verdict.

And as previously unpublished JD Salinger stories see the light of day, John asks why some authors want their work to remain under wraps until long after their death.

Producer: Ekene Akalawu.

With John Wilson.

Ian Rankin talks to John about the latest investigation by his much-loved detective, John Rebus - who has returned to the Edinburgh CID, but at a lower rank. The story is set amidst the current reform to the structure of the Scottish police - and Rebus finds himself in the middle of a culture clash between his fellow old-hands, and younger officers who use social media and what Rebus calls "touchy-feely policing methods".

The Bible is an epic, 10 hour mini-series that dramatises the Old and New Testaments - from Genesis to Revelation. Each episode is action-packed: the first one, for example, includes Eden, Noah, Abraham and Isaac, and Moses parting the Red Sea. Natalie Haynes considers whether the series has mass-appeal, or is strictly for viewers interested in religion.

The Beatles, David Bowie and Pink Floyd have all had their music mixed in the studio by legendary producer and engineer Ken Scott. He discusses working in Abbey Road, why The Beatles' White Album proved to be pivotal in his career, and the techniques he developed to create a distinctive sound.

Stephen Shore is a pioneer of contemporary photography; after developing his style at Andy Warhol's Factory in the 1960s, he was the first living artist to have a solo exhibition of colour photography at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York. Shore continues to focus on the everyday subject matter that brought him attention - open highways, motel interiors, pedestrians and plates of food - but now works in Hebron, Abu Dhabi and Ukraine. Shore discusses his new exhibition, Something + Nothing, which shows his newer photographs side-by-side with work from the 1970s.

Producer: Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson.

The winner of the 25th William Hill Sports Book of the Year is announced live on Front Row from the ceremony in London. The books by the six authors shortlisted for the £25,000 prize cover genetics in sport, Lance Armstrong's doping, international football, rowing, Hitler's Berlin, corruption in cricket, and a racehorse doping gang.

The shortlist in full (alphabetically by author's surname):

The Boys In The Boat: An Epic True-Life Journey to the Heart of Hitler's Berlin by Daniel James Brown

Mark talks to choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, who is renowned for dance creations of visceral energy. This autumn tbe Southbank Centre celebrates her company's 25th anniversary.

The French writer Marcel Pagnol is best-known for the 1986 screen adaptations of two of his books: Jean De Florette and Manon Des Sources. Actor Daniel Auteuil shot to fame in both films, and he's now directing Pagnol's Marseille trilogy: Marius, Fanny Et César. Fanny and Marius are released this week. Novelist Kamila Shamsie reviews.

Producer: Timothy Prosser.

With Mark Lawson.

Front Row announces the shortlist for each category for this year's Costa Book Awards. Critics Sam Leith and Gaby Wood discuss the books nominated in the novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children's book categories and respond to the choices of books and writers.

Comedian Russell Brand talks about the ideology behind his new tour The Messiah Complex - including why he is calling for a revolution. Brand also discusses whether there are limits to what he will tackle on stage, and how performing in Turkey made him re-evaluate how much he talks about sex while performing.

Brian de Palma's 1976 horror movie, Carrie, was the first of Stephen King's books to be turned into a film. It was a box-office success - and its two female stars, Sissy Spacek as Carrie and Piper Laurie as her mother, were both nominated for Oscars. Now Carrie has just been remade, with Chloë Grace Moretz stepping into Sissy Spacek's shoes - but is it as scary as the original? Film critic Matt Thorne reviews.

Producer: Olivia Skinner.

With Mark Lawson.

Saving Mr. Banks dramatises the real-life story behind the creation of Disney film Mary Poppins, starring Emma Thompson as Poppins author P.L. Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. Sarah Crompton reviews.

The Politician's Wife screenwriter Paula Milne talks about the inspiration behind her drama Legacy, a new Cold War thriller for BBC2, starring Romola Garai, Charlie Cox and Simon Russell Beale.

Award-winning violinist Janine Jansen discusses her new album of Bach Concertos and her relationship with her instrument, the 'Barrere' by Antonio Stradivari (1727), which is on extended loan.

Producer: Claire Bartleet.

With Kirsty Lang.

Morecambe and Wise are remembered and revived in a new stage production called Eric And Little Ern, which follows on from a TV biopic of the double-act, a one-man show about Eric Morecambe, and the award-winning The Play What I Wrote. The writers and stars of this latest homage, Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens, discuss the reasons for the comedians' enduring appeal.

Performance poet and rapper Kate Tempest won this year's Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry for Brand New Ancients, an hour long spoken story depicting the intertwining lives of two families. As she begins a tour which will take the show all over the country, she explains who the Brand New Ancients are and reveals the play that changed her life.

James Bond producers found themselves embroiled in a legal dispute with Kevin McClory - a co-writer of the 1965 film Thunderball - over who invented the cat-stroking supervillain Blofeld. As a result, the character was left on the shelf for 30 years but with news that the relevant rights have been acquired from the McClory estate, it looks like our most famous screen villain could be given a new lease of life. To reflect on the character of Blofeld and why he has become so ubiquitous in popular culture, journalist Stephen Armstrong came to the rescue.

And 50 years after his death, the Chronicles of Narnia writer CS Lewis has been honoured with a memorial stone in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, explains how the selection process works.

Produced by Ella-mai Robey.

With Kirsty Lang.

The artist Peter Blake's new exhibition Under Milk Wood is the culmination of a 25-year project, in which he's created a series of illustrations, portraits, watercolours, and photographs based on Dylan Thomas's 'play for voices'. Peter Blake looks back over his ambitious project and discusses his fascination for Thomas's celebrated work.

A new film documentary, Leviathan, provides an insight into the harsh world of North Atlantic commercial fishing. With no narration, little dialogue, and long lingering shots of life aboard a fishing vessel, the film has divided audiences. Documentary film maker Molly Dineen gives her response.

Iain Sinclair and Professor Jeffrey Richards tell the story of the chequered history of Gaslight, Thorold Dickinson's adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's play, which was suppressed by a Hollywood studio when it bought up the rights. Legend has it that the film only survives now because the director smuggled out a copy under the cloak of darkness.

Sarah Ruhl's play In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) was nominated for three Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize after its initial Broadway run in 2009. Opening tonight at the St James Theatre in London, the play shows how 19th Century medicine used the female orgasm as a cure for hysteria, and how the invention of electricity transformed the treatment. Sarah Ruhl discusses the inspiration for the play and reflects on why it has been a hit in some surprising locations.

Producer: Stephen Hughes.

With Mark Lawson.

As the first part of her autobiography is published, actress Anjelica Huston discusses her unconventional childhood with her father, film director John Huston, and why he encouraged her to roll cigars and drink sherry as a child, and what a Samurai warrior was doing in her kitchen.

Hull has been named as UK City of Culture 2017, beating competition from Swansea Bay, Leicester and Dundee. John Godber, playwright and former Artistic Director of Hull Truck Theatre Company, and writer and journalist David Mark discuss Hull's historic and contemporary cultural significance.

Lawrence Fox and Imogen Stubbs star in a new stage version of Strangers on a Train by Craig Warner, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, and famously filmed by Hitchcock. Critic Peter Kemp was at the opening night.

Turner & the Sea at the National Maritime Museum claims to be the first full-scale examination of J.M.W. Turner's lifelong fascination with the sea. The exhibition features 120 works by Turner and his contemporaries, including The Fighting Temeraire. Art critic Charlotte Mullins gives her response to this latest Turner show.

Producer: Jerome Weatherald.

With Mark Lawson.

Blue Is The Warmest Colour won the top prize, the Palme D'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, but was quickly mired in controversy when the actresses Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopolous complained about gruelling love scenes which took days to film. Subsequently, the director Abdellatif Kechiche said that the movie should not be released, as it had been sullied by accusations that it was a "horrible" shoot. Briony Hanson, a former programmer of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival delivers her verdict.

Last Tango in Halifax won the 2013 Bafta for Best Drama Series and went on to be broadcast in America to great acclaim. Series two begins tonight on BBC One and picks up where we left Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid's reunited childhood sweethearts. Writer Sally Wainwright discusses how she approached the follow-up.

With news today that film producers are to make a sequel to the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life", film critic Mark Eccleston explores some other surprising and unlikely film sequels.

Writer Jez Butterworth and director Ian Rickson had one of the biggest critical hits of the last decade with their 2008 play Jerusalem. Now they have returned to the work which set light to their careers in 1995, Mojo. The new West End production of Mojo stars Rupert Grint, Brendan Coyle and Ben Whishaw as gangsters in 1950s Soho. Jez Butterworth and Ian Rickson discuss Mojo, Jerusalem and two decades of working together.

Producer: Ellie Bury.