Front Row: Archive 2013

With Mark Lawson.

Writer Susan Hill is now probably best known for her ghost story The Woman in Black, which became a long-running play and a major film. Her new novel Black Sheep is set in a mining village, and like many of her books, it's full of emotional claustrophobia, isolated characters and set at an unspecified time in the 20th century. She reflects on her long career and her approach to fiction.

The Corrupted, a major new Radio 4 drama series, plots the course of one family against the backdrop of a revolution in crime, as the underworld extends its influence to the very heart of the establishment. Mark talks to its creator G F Newman, the award-winning writer of Judge John Deed and Law And Order.

Pop Art Design is the first major exhibition in this country to examine the relationship between artists such as Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton and Roy Lichtenstein and the world of commercial design - from posters to album sleeves to architecture. Critic William Feaver delivers his verdict.

Producer Dymphna Flynn.

With John Wilson.

Following in the footsteps of Homer's Odyssey, Morrissey's Autobiography has been published as a Penguin Classic. The singer takes readers through his childhood in Manchester, The Smiths' success and subsequent court battles, insights into personal relationships - and unexpected stories, including an invitation to appear in Friends. Philip Hoare, a winner of The Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction, reviews.

Director Clio Barnard, who won acclaim for The Arbor, her portrait of the Bradford writer Andrea Dunbar, talks to John about her new film The Selfish Giant, loosely based on a story by Oscar Wilde, which now focuses on two boys lured into the world of scrap metal.

Nelson, Navy, Nation is a new permanent gallery at the National Maritime Museum. Opening on Trafalgar Day (21 October) it looks at how the Royal Navy shaped individual lives and the course of British history in the 18th century - a period when sea-faring heroes were national celebrities. Naval historian Dr Sam Willis reviews.

Tonight's edition of Glee is a tribute to actor Cory Monteith, who died earlier this year and who played the central role of Finn Hudson in the series. Boyd Hilton, TV editor of Heat magazine, discusses how programme-makers deal with unexpected tragedies or cast-absences in long running series.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson.

The film Prince Avalanche is a tale of two men (played by Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch) who, as they spend a summer painting the traffic markings on a country highway, share a journey of self-discovery. Novelist M J Hyland reviews.

Mark visits a Luton primary school, as the children get to see a Frank Auerbach painting, on loan for the day. The work came from the Ben Uri Gallery as part of the Masterpieces in Schools programme, a partnership between the Public Catalogue Foundation and BBC Learning. Mark joins the children as they prepare to see a masterpiece first-hand, many of them for the very first time, and hears their thoughts about Auerbach's Mornington Crescent, Summer Morning II.

Michael Blakemore joined the National Theatre as an Associate Director in 1971 under the leadership of Sir Laurence Olivier. His memoir Stage Blood tells the story of his time at the theatre and reveals the reasons behind his dramatic exit in 1976 after speaking out against Peter Hall's leadership. He reflects on why now was the right time to tell his story.

Producer Claire Bartleet.

With John Wilson.

Sir Paul McCartney talks about his latest album (called New), he sets the record straight regarding his relationship with John Lennon, and admits that he finds it difficult to say "I love you".

The legend of a lost city of gold in South America captivated Europeans for centuries. A new exhibition at the British Museum unravels the myth of El Dorado - it was a man, not a city, and "The Golden One" was covered in powdered gold as part of a ritual. Rachel Campbell-Johnston reviews.

War photojournalist Tim Hetherington was killed covering the Libyan conflict in 2011. He'd been Oscar-nominated earlier that year along with his co-director and friend Sebastian Junger. Now Sebastian has made a moving documentary-portrait of his colleague. He talks to John about Tim's courage, his distinctive approach to photography and the effect Tim's death has had on his work.

Producer Timothy Prosser.

With Mark Lawson

This morning it was announced that Rufus Norris will succeed Nicholas Hytner as the new director of the National Theatre. Norris, who has been associate director of the National Theatre for two years, where he directed the Amen Corner and London Road among other productions, will take over from April 2015. Rufus Norris talks to Mark Lawson about his future plans.

As Sir David Jason, the star of Only Fools And Horses, Open All Hours, The Darling Buds of May, and A Touch of Frost, marks his five decade long career with an autobiography, he reveals why his career began almost by accident and how he can do an uncanny impression of Julian Clary.

The artist Jeremy Deller shows Mark around his latest exhibition, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, which has opened at Manchester Art Gallery. The show, which will tour the UK, explores what Deller sees as the continuing impact of the Industrial Revolution on British popular culture.

Producer Ekene Akalawu.

With Mark Lawson.

In one of his final films, the late James Gandolfini stars alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld) in Enough Said. The pair play two single parents whose romance runs into problems. Sarah Crompton reviews.

The singer-songwriter Tori Amos has written a new musical for the National Theatre, in collaboration with the playwright Samuel Adamson. The Light Princess is adpated from a fairy tale, with a new feminist twist. Tori Amos and Samuel Adamson discuss their partnership and how they worked within the traditional structure of a musical while breaking the rules.

Stephen Fry and Karl Pilkington have both been travelling around the world, for TV documentaries which examine cultural attitudes. Stephen Fry: Out There looks at attitudes towards homosexuality, while in The Moaning of Life, Karl Pilkington investigates Marriage, Happiness, Kids, Vocation and Death. Rachel Cooke reviews.

The work of the artist Paul Klee is explored in a major new exhibition at Tate Modern. The show focuses on the decade that Klee spent teaching and working at the Bauhaus, the centre of modern design in the 1920s, developing his unique style. Author Iain Sinclair reviews.

Producer Olivia Skinner.

With Kirsty Lang.

Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, has adapted Romeo And Juliet for the big screen, inserting his own blank verse in the process. Andrew Dickson, the author of The Rough Guide To Shakespeare, delivers his verdict.

Booker Prize-winning novelist Penelope Lively, now in her 80s, discusses the impact of ageing and the fallibility of memory as her memoir Ammonites and Leaping Fish is published.

The Bridge was a Scandi TV drama about a body found on the bridge between Denmark and Sweden and the cultural differences that informed the investigation of the murder. Now it has been adapted for British and French audiences as The Tunnel, with the body found halfway across the Channel Tunnel. Former Times Paris correspondent Kate Muir gives her verdict.

It's 25 years since the band Prefab Sprout enjoyed their greatest chart success with the single The King of Rock 'N' Roll, and a decade since their last album of new material, but now founder-member Paddy McAloon is back with a new disc. He discusses finding inspiration in a school cinema trip to Romeo and Juliet, the effects of tinnitus, and whether a song about a deal with the Devil reflects his own experience of the music business

Producer Ellie Bury.

With Mark Lawson.

Tom Hanks reflects on saying no to film offers, playing real people, and his latest role in Captain Phillips, which depicts the ordeal of Richard Phillips, captain of a cargo ship taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009. Captain Phillips is directed by Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Supremacy).

It was announced today that Alice Munro has been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature. AS Byatt and Hermione Lee discuss the Canadian author, who writes short stories rather than novels.

And Mark talks to the American artist Dana Schutz, whose colourful and fantastical paintings are on show at The Hepworth gallery in Wakefield.

Producer Timothy Prosser.

With Mark Lawson.

Two major exhibitions of portraits open this week. Elizabeth I and Her People, at the National Portrait Gallery, focuses on paintings of the queen and her courtiers, as well as merchants, soldiers, artists and writers, offering insight into the rise of the 'middling sort' or middle classes in late 16th Century England. The National Gallery's Facing the Modern has portraits from early 20th Century Vienna by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and lesser known female artists showing how the newly-rich industrialists used portraits to express their aspirations. Charlotte Mullins gives her verdict.on.

Jennifer Saunders discusses her life and career, from being heckled at the Comedy Store with Dawn French in the 80s to worldwide success with Absolutely Fabulous. She also talks about her little-known foray into French movies, why the French and Saunders show is over and why she might finally make an Absolutely Fabulous film.

Roddy Doyle's debut novel The Commitments was made into a hit film in 1991. Its latest incarnation as a stage musical received its premiere last night. Writer and critic Kate Mossman reviews the show.

Producer Ellie Bury.

With John Wilson.

Front Row is live from the BBC National Short Story Award ceremony, where the chair of the judges, Mariella Frostrup, announces the winner of the £15,000 first prize, and we hear from the winning writer.

The Beatles biographer and historian Mark Lewisohn discusses the first in his trilogy of books about the band, Tune In , which ends in 1962 as they're about to release their first single Love Me Do. The work is a weighty tome, running to 960 pages, and examines their lives week by week in the run-up to global fame, with the help of letters written by the group to their fans, which have been unearthed for the first time.

The Fifth Estate is cinema's take on the story of Wikileaks, played out through the friendship and subsequent rivalry of website activists Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl). Rosie Boycott reviews.

Producer Olivia Skinner.