Front Row: Archive 2014

A review of Monty Python's tour which sees John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin on stage together for the first time in over 40 years; actor Mark Ruffalo on playing drunk in his new film Begin Again also starring Keira Knightley; acclaimed South African playwright and director Yaël Farber on her re-imagining of The Crucible; plus ahead of his appearance at the Cheltenham Centenary Prom, one-handed pianist Nicholas McCarthy discusses his technique and with historian Alexander Waugh, looks back at music that was created due to the physical effects of war.

Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe discuss their BBC late-night Prom which includes the world premiere of A Man From the Future, about Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing; Private Eye editor Ian Hislop reviews last night's opening of the Richard Bean play Great Britain starring Billie Piper, which deals with Leveson and the phone-hacking affair; English National Opera's Artistic Director John Berry on today's announcement of Arts Council cuts in funding; and Romesh Gunesekera on Noontide Toll, his new collection of related stories which deal with the effects of Sri Lanka's civil war.

Screenwriter Jimmy McGovern talks about his new BBC drama, Common, which was inspired by a letter from a mother whose son was imprisoned under the controversial Joint Enterprise law. Tony Hatch, composer of TV theme tunes for Crossroads, Neighbours and Sportsnight, looks back over his career and the hits he wrote for Petula Clark, Scott Walker and The Searchers. Amanda Hopkinson reviews a new Royal Academy exhibition, Radical Geometry, which focuses on art produced during a 50-year period in distinct parts of South America, and Ryan Gilbey reviews The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared, a new film adapted from the novel by Swedish author Jonas Jonasson. And as Ed Sheeran's album X - which is pronounced "multiply" - reaches number one, David Quantick discusses numbers in music.

Tonight's Front Row considers the big-screen debut of Mrs Brown, Brendan O'Carroll's TV creation. Whilst not receiving critical acclaim, the award-winning programme regularly attracts millions of viewers - so does it work as a film?

Also in the programme - Richard Wilson on performing Beckett's monologue, Krapp's Last Tape; Arcade Fire's Will Butler speaks from Glastonbury as the band prepares to go onstage; and Michelle Magorian recalls writing her classic novel, Goodnight Mister Tom.

Plus, how artists respond creatively to bridges.

Presenter: Matthew D'Ancona

Kirsty Lang discusses a huge exhibition of Scottish contemporary art which features over 100 artists at over 60 venues throughout Scotland.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich talks about headlining Glastonbury this weekend.

A review of new film Keeping Rosie, starring Maxine Peake as a disgruntled city high flyer.

How the novel Dr Zhivago was used as an ideological weapon by the CIA during the Cold War .

And Kneehigh's latest play, Dead Dog In A Suitcase, a reworking of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, opens in Liverpool.

Image: ‘Real Life, Rocky Mountain’, courtesy of the artist Ross Sinclair

Kirsty Lang talks to actress Lesley Manville and director Richard Eyre about filming their award-winning production of Ibsen's Ghosts.

Best-selling author James Patterson on giving away his own money to UK bookshops.

National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner on Richard Bean's new play Great Britain, a satire on the press and politics.

And a review of the National Museum of Scotland's exhibition Ming: The Golden Empire. With art historian Duncan McMillan.

Dennis Hopper starred in cult films like Easy Rider and Apocalypse Now - but he was also a fine photographer. In tonight's Front Row, Eamonn McCabe and John Wilson consider a new exhibition of Hopper's images.

John Wilson with the Manic Street Preachers ahead of their appearance at Glastonbury. Kevin Brooks, winner of the 2014 Carnegie Medal for children's literature for his novel The Bunker Diary. Allegra McEvedy reviews the film Chef. And war artist Anna Redwood documents the Desert Rats last tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Presenter: John Wilson

Kirsty reviews the new film The Fault in Our Stars, adapted from John Green's best-selling young adult novel and speaks to Peter Brook, whose new play In the Valley of Astonishment explores the sensory condition synaesthesia. Also tonight debut novelist and director of creative writing at Harvard University Bret Anthony Johnston discusses his novel Remember Me Like this, about a kidnapped child who returns home after four years.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Don Johnson became a household name through his role as shiny suited Miami police officer Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice. He discusses the art of the comeback as he stars alongside Sam Shepherd in new film Cold in July. Novelist Carys Bray discusses her own devout Mormon upbringing in the North-West of England which lies at the heart of her debut novel A Song For Issy Bradley. As new poems are discovered by Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, we speak to his acclaimed biographer Adam Feinstein about their significance. Plus we discuss why some established authors are choosing to self-publish their work with writer Kate Pullinger and Cathy Rentzenbrink of the Bookseller.