Front Row: Archive 2013

With John Wilson,

Front Row announces the shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Awards 2013. Chair of the judges Mariella Frostrup talks about the five authors nominated for the prize, the process of judging the competition and how the exceptional stories stood out. John Wilson also speaks to the first of the nominated authors about their magical and uncanny short story. Front Row will be hearing from the rest of the shortlisted authors and the five stories are broadcast next week on Radio 4.

Punk poet John Cooper Clarke tells John what he thinks of the Arctic Monkeys' version of his poem I Wanna Be Yours, which features on their number one album AM, and why he was partly responsible for the band's name.

Jack Vettriano is one of the UK's most popular artists, his paintings are well known and widely reproduced as greeting cards and posters. But, despite his commercial success, Vettriano's work has often met with a less than enthusiastic response from critics. Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow is holding a major retrospective of his work, which includes some of his best loved works which are normally in private collections. Art Critic Moira Jeffrey reviews.

American artist Richard Serra is renowned for his monumental steel sculptures, harking back to his childhood (his father worked in a shipyard) and to the steel mills he worked in as a young man. Drawing is also important to him: he sees it as a way of exploring new ideas and materials. He's now approaching his seventy-fifth birthday and as a new exhibition of his work opens Richard Serra discusses his career, and how art has affected his personal life, as he gives John a personal tour of the twelve drawings which were specially created for this display.

Producer Claire Bartleet.

With Mark Lawson, who interviews writer and director Woody Allen.

Allen's new film Blue Jasmine stars Cate Blanchett as Jasmine, a wealthy Manhattan socialite, and Sally Hawkins as Ginger, her poor sister in San Francisco. They end up together when Jasmine's husband is declared bankrupt.

Blue Jasmine is already one of Woody Allen's most financially successful films, proving a hit at the US box office.

In this Front Row special, Mark talks to Woody Allen about Blue Jasmine, his unique methods of working and why he never watches his own films. And there are interviews with Mike Leigh, who Allen cites as one of his favourite directors, and actress Sally Hawkins, who has worked with both directors.

Producer Timothy Prosser.

With Mark Lawson.

David Walliams and Sheridan Smith talk about working together in a new staging of A Midsummer's Night's Dream, with Walliams in the role of Bottom and Smith as Titania/Hippolyta. They discuss the difficulties of taking on Shakespeare, the dark sensuality of the play and theatrical rituals and pranks.

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is currently open to writers from the UK, Ireland and the Commonwealth - but in changes confirmed today, any novel originally written in English and published in the UK could be a contender, opening the Prize to writers from the USA in particular. Ion Trewin, Literary Director of the Booker Prize Foundation, reveals the details.

The distinguished Welsh poet Dannie Abse celebrates his 90th birthday on Sunday. Although best-known for his poetry, Dannie Abse is also a doctor, playwright and author - and he discusses his long career.

Producer Nicki Paxman.

With John Wilson.

Sting discusses The Last Ship, his latest album and the first original material he has released for nearly a decade. Based on Sting's experiences growing up in a shipbuilding community on Tyneside, The Last Ship is a narrative about the demise of the industry seen through the eyes of a range of characters. Sting talks about the autobiographical element of the songs, and how he is writing a Broadway musical about the same subject, which is due to open next year.

Australia, at the Royal Academy in London, is the first major survey of Australian art in the UK for over 50 years, and includes work by early 19th century settlers, aboriginal artists, impressionists, and 20th century painters such as Sidney Nolan. Charlotte Mullins reviews.

Front Row announces the winner of Gramophone magazine's Recording Of The Year 2013, and John talks to the winning artist.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson.

Sir Derek Jacobi's acting career spans half a century. As he publishes an autobiography, he reflects on his early desire to act, stage fright, and still wanting to surprise in his 70s.

Orphan Black is a new 10 part TV drama serial which focuses on human cloning. Sarah Manning is the anti-heroine, and orphan, who stumbles into an intriguing set of circumstances that force her to realise she's not alone. Novelist Nicholas Royle reviews.

Naomi Watts discusses playing Diana, Princess of Wales, in a film which covers the final two years of her life and her relationship with Dr Hasnat Khan. She talks about preparing for the role, the problems associated with telling Diana's story and the balance between real life events and an artistic interpretation of them.

Producer Ekene Akalawu.

With Kirsty Lang.

Mark Rylance is currently taking a break from acting, and is concentrating on directing a new production of Much Ado About Nothing, which stars Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones. He discusses his approach to the play, and reflects on the success of his role in Jez Butterworth's play Jerusalem, for which he won numerous awards as hard-living Johnny 'Rooster' Byron.

Prisons and the lives of prisoners have provided an enduring fascination for film and TV producers and viewers alike, with series such as Porridge and Prisoner Cell Block H, and more recently Bad Girls and Prisoners' Wives. This summer has seen two new prison dramas - Wentworth Prison, Channel 5's re-imagining of Prisoner Cell Block H, and Orange Is the New Black, the Netflix series which has proved a great success for the streaming network. To examine why prisons offer such a draw, Front Row brought together Dick Clement, co-creator and writer of Porridge, Pete McTighe, scriptwriter for Wentworth Prison, and Maureen Chadwick co-creator and writer of the ITV series Bad Girls.

As actor Dominic West makes a speaking appearance on Rizzle Kicks' new album, David Quantick considers the other thespians who have lent their voices to pop records, from Brian Blessed to Vincent Price and Stephen Fry.

Producer Stephen Hughes.

With John Wilson.

As a new exhibition bringing together works by Henry Moore and Francis Bacon opens at the Ashmolean in Oxford, art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston reviews the show and discusses artistic pairings.

Manic Street Preachers' 11th studio album is out next week. Bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire reveals how Rewind the Film is a new departure for the band, as they acknowledge the passing of the years and reflect on the longevity of their musical career.

Viv Groskup reviews In a World, a quirky rom-com set in the cut-throat world of movie trailers, where a handful of voice-over artists compete to say those immortal lines - In a world.... Lake Bell wrote, directed and stars in the film, which won the Best Screenplay award at Sundance.

The comedian Jason Byrne discusses his BBC One show Father Figure, a new sitcom involving an Irish grandmother, slapstick and a studio audience, and is adapted from Byrne's series on Radio 2.

Producer Ella-mai Robey.

With Mark Lawson, including news of the shortlist for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for album of the year, announced today.

Travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, who died in 2011, walked from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in the early 1930s. This resulted in two best-selling books, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water. Colin Thubron and biographer Artemis Cooper discuss how they pieced together Leigh Fermor's unfinished manuscript and diaries to produce the final part of the trilogy, The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos.

And Dennis Kelly, who wrote the book for the hit musical Matilda and created the cult Channel 4 series Utopia, on his debut play for the Royal Court Theatre in London. The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas is about a man who tries to make his fortune by telling lies.

Producer Tim Prosser.

With John Wilson.

Comedian Lee Evans returns to stage in Barking in Essex, the last play written by screenwriter Clive Exton (Entertaining Mr Sloane, 10 Rillington Place, Jeeves and Wooster) before his death in 2007. The play centres on a dysfunctional criminal family from Essex and co-stars Sheila Hancock and Keeley Hawes. Lee Evans discusses swearing, Samuel Beckett, and the plumber providing inspiration for his forthcoming tour.

Roland Emmerich, director of disaster movies Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, is about to release his latest, White House Down, in which a heavily-armed group of paramilitary invaders target the President of the United States. Kate Muir reviews.

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize for fiction was announced today. Contenders for the £50,000 prize are Jim Crace, Colm Toibin, Eleanor Catton, Jhumpa Lahiri, NoViolet Bulawayo and Ruth Ozeki. Chair of judges Robert Macfarlane and judge Natalie Haynes discuss their selection. The winner is announced on 15 October.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With Mark Lawson.

The 1970s Formula 1 rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt is the focus of a new film Rush, directed by Ron Howard with a script by Peter Morgan. Alyson Rudd reviews the film that includes Lauda's 1976 crash that nearly claimed the driver's life.

The Wipers Times is a 90-minute TV drama about the men behind a satirical newspaper created for soldiers on the Western Front in the First World War. Co-writers Ian Hislop and Nick Newman discuss their project which is based on a true story, and stars Michael Palin and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

Thomas Pynchon's new novel Bleeding Edge is a historical romance set in New York at a time between the early days of the internet and the events of September 11, 2001. Novelist and Pynchon expert Lawrence Norfolk reviews the eighth novel from this famously private author, who once told CNN "my belief is that recluse is a code word generated by journalists ... meaning, 'doesn't like to talk to reporters...'".

And Mark reports on a literary first: the new novel by the Scottish writer Angus Peter Campbell will be published simultaneously in Scots Gaelic and in English. Angus Peter has written two versions of the book, which is mostly set on the Isle of Mull, an English language edition entitled The Girl on the Ferryboat and a Gaelic-language edition called An Nighean Air an Aiseig.

Producer Dymphna Flynn.