Front Row: Archive 2014

The American writer Toni Morrison is renowned for novels which focus on the experience of black Americans, particularly emphasising black women's experience in an unjust society and the search for cultural identity. Her books include Beloved, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize, Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye, and in 1993 she was awarded the Noble Prize for literature. In a special programme recorded at this year's Hay Literary Festival, she talks to Razia Iqbal about, among other things, her writing, her childhood, being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, and what place the issue of race has in America today.

Presenter: Razia Iqbal

As actress Carey Mulligan makes her West End debut in David Hare's 1995 drama Skylight, she discusses playing opposite Bill Nighy and how she chooses film roles. A new exhibition, Making Colour at the National Gallery in London, charts and analyses the variety of raw materials used by artists across the centuries to provide colour in paintings and other works of art, Shahidha Bari reviews. 30 years ago this week, a protest at the Orgreave coking plant turned into the most notorious confrontation of the 1984-85 miners' strike. Artist Jeremy Deller, poet Helen Mort and playwright Beth Steel discuss why the events of June 18th 1984 proved such fertile ground artistic response. And following the news that Harrison Ford has injured his ankle on the set of Star Wars, Adrian Wootton discusses how film-makers work around cast injuries.

The tenor, baritone and conductor Plácido Domingo discusses his return to the Royal Opera House to conduct Jonathan Kent's production of Puccini's Tosca. Alex Clark reviews Robert Galbraith's (aka JK Rowling) new novel The Silkworm. Jason Solomons reviews Clint Eastwood's film Jersey Boys, about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. And Laura Mvula and Julian Lloyd Webber discuss the new BBC Music initiative Ten Pieces, announced today.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Historian and broadcaster Amanda Vickery gives her verdict on the film Belle, set in the eighteenth century, which tells the true story of the illegitimate daughter of a British naval officer and a slave, who was brought up by her great uncle in Georgian London.

Bafta award-winner Roger Graef has been making documentaries for fifty years. A pioneer of "fly-on-the-wall" formats and films made in closed institutions such as prisons, police stations and government ministries, Roger has just been given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sheffield DocFest. He joins Kirsty to discuss his work - and to give his predictions for the future of documentary-making.

Dazzle Ships were used in the First World War to confuse the enemy. A variety of British ships were painted in bright, colourful patterns to disorientate and confuse German sailors trying to judge the vessels' speed and direction. As two new Dazzle Ships are created in the UK, Front Row hears from the project curator and a naval historian.

Tom Rachman's first novel, The Imperfectionists, about a failing newspaper received rave reviews. His second novel The Rise & Fall of Great Powers, starts off in failing bookshop. He talks to Kirsty about why he thinks books, if not newspapers, will survive the digital future.

Kirsty Lang - Presenter

Tonight, Helena Bonham Carter talks to Kirsty Lang about her role in The Young And Prodigious T.S.Spivet - and on the unusual part her own brother played in her upcoming film, Suffragette.

Also in the programme: a review of the exhibition, The Human Factor, which considers how artists represent human figures - and Syrian writers discuss the art that's currently coming out of the violent conflict there.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Damian Barr talks to Dolly Parton about how she writes her songs, her poor childhood in Tennessee, and her passion for reading; Sarah Crompton reviews a new stage production of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons; and an interview with Turner prize winning photographer Wolfgang Tillmans.

With Matthew d'Ancona

Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House, talks about Puccini's first great operatic success, Manon Lescaut.

We review Devil's Knot, the latest film from Atom Egoyan. Based on a true story about the savage murders of three boys in Arkansas in 1993, the film stars Colin Firth as Ron Lax, the case's private investigator.

Writer Anne Washburn talks about her play Mr Burns, where The Simpsons provide the narrative in a post-apocalyptic world, and pop songs assume a similarly revered cultural position.

Art critic Adrian Searle discusses a large retrospective of Banksy's work including paintings, prints and sculptures. Street art is not included in the exhibition, which has been curated without the involvement of the mysterious artist.

Producer Claire Bartleet.

With Matthew d'Ancona.

A tribute to the Young Ones and Black Adder actor Rik Mayall whose death was announced today; a review British Folk Art at Tate Britain, a collection of mostly unknown art from local museums round the country. Sir John Tusa describes his vision of the current state of the arts in the UK and sets our the range of leadership skills needed by those who run arts bodies.

On the 50th anniversary of the film Zulu, Matthew talks to Prince Buthelezi who played his own great grandfather King Cetshwayo in the story of the battle at Rorke's Drift between 150 British soldiers and 4,000 Zulu warriors, and how at a time of apartheid restrictions the film set was a non-racist one.

Plus, we consider the current storylines of EastEnders and Coronation Street where a murder on each show has increased viewing figures to over 8 million on some nights. Coronation Street Producer Stuart Blackburn and TV executive Mal Young, who has overseen programmes including EastEnders, discuss the mechanics of executing a big storyline.

Presenter : Matthew d'Ancona

Performance artist Marina Abramovic discusses her new project 512 Hours at the Serpentine Gallery in London in which there is no art on display, simply Abramovic herself welcoming 300 visitors a day to an empty gallery space; Hotel is a new play by Polly Stenham, best known for writing That Face and Tusk Tusk. Set in an exclusive hotel on a beautiful but poverty-stricken island, a family's luxury holiday is interrupted by violence. Susannah Clapp reviews. Emma Healey's debut novel Elizabeth Is Missing is told from the perspective of 82-year-old Maud who is suffering from dementia. Emma discusses the inspiration behind her book and reveals the tactics of some of the nine publishers who tried to woo her. And composer David Lang on his composition for 1000 voices, Crowd Out, to be performed in Birmingham this weekend, inspired by a trip to the Arsenal football stadium.

As Dirty Rotten Scoundrels extends its West End run, star Robert Lindsay reflects on the challenges of staging a hit musical, and father son kora stars Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté perform music from their new album. Also tonight, Rachel Cooke reviews series two of the hit Netflix drama Orange is the New Black, and London's Foundling Museum celebrates its 10th birthday and marks the 250th anniversary of William Hogarth's death with a new exhibition of work by David Hockney, Yinka Shonibare, Grayson Perry and Jessie Brennan, inspired by Hogarth's A Rake's Progress.