Front Row: Archive 2014

Double Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz on working with Tim Burton in Big Eyes, and responds to rumours surrounding his role in the new James Bond film.

Kirsty goes backstage at the National Theatre on the set that really is the star of Treasure Island - it's a ship, a pub, a cave and a strange, pulsating island. And a pirate's corpse.

Radio 3's Petroc Trelawney reviews Mozart in the Jungle, a new 'webseries' about a wild young conductor who tries to rejuvenate the New York Symphony.

And, novelists Lawrence Norfolk and Kate Pullinger discuss the implications of the recent data released by e-reader Kobo about which books are most often left unfinished.

Ridley Scott's Moses epic Exodus: Gods and Kings is reviewed by Adam Smith; investigative journalist John Sweeney and Baltimore-based crime novelist Laura Lippman discuss the phenomenon of the 'Serial' podcasts; The Shoemaker's Holiday director Phillip Breen tells Samira Ahmed about his RSC production of Thomas Dekker's Elizabethan comedy of class, conflict and cobblers in love; and Quvenzhané Wallis and director Will Gluck on their new film adaptation of Annie.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Forty years after his breakthrough play - John, Paul, George, Ringo...and Bert, the celebrated playwright, musician, and novelist Willy Russell reveals the word he has chosen for the new Front Row neon artwork. He joins Kirsty Lang on the roof of the BBC's Salford home to turn it on.

A review of Kon-Tiki, a new film about Thor Heyerdahl's famous journey across the Pacific ocean.

Tomorrow the West Yorkshire Playhouse will be the setting for the UK's first ever 'dementia friendly' theatre performance - a specially adapted theatre performance of a new production of Irving Berlin's Broadway musical White Christmas. Front Row visited the Playhouse to find out more about this performance from those involved with developing it.

Sir Paul McCartney tells John Wilson about creating a song for the video game Destiny and missing the days of vinyl.

Peter Schade, Head of Framing at the National Gallery, talks about the gallery's first ever campaign to raise money to buy a frame. It's one he's found for Titian's An Allegory of Prudence.

Ian McDiarmid stars as Shylock in the Almeida Theatre's new production of The Merchant of Venice. He and director Rupert Goold talk about setting the play in the bright lights of Las Vegas.

And amid the controversy over the singing of Delilah as a rugby anthem John talks to Barry Mason, the man who wrote the song.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn discuss bringing their musical Cats back to London's West End.

Jessie Burton, award-winning author of The Miniaturist, and curator Alice Sage discuss the appeal of dolls' houses as a new exhibition Small Stories: At Home in a Dolls' House opens at The Museum of Childhood.

As the late Mary Soames' collection of personal objects is auctioned, Giles Waterfield reviews rarely-seen paintings by her father Winston Churchill.

Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, discusses painting a realistic portrait of childhood and why his protagonist never ages.

Producer: Ellie Bury

Historian Tom Holland delivers his verdict on a new TV drama series charting the life of adventurer Marco Polo.

As English National Ballet prepares to stage its Christmas stalwart, Nutcracker at the London Coliseum, Samira Ahmed visits the company's warehouse in Kent to meet the team behind the scenes.

With the approach of the centenary of the WWI Christmas truce on the Western Front, playwright Phil Porter, whose new play at the RSC dramatises the truce, and historian Emily Mayhew discuss how the remarkable events of the day have been represented in culture.

And Ryan Gilbey reviews a new documentary film Manakamana, shot entirely in a cable-car high above Nepal.

Producer Craig Smith.

With Kirsty Lang.

Roger Michell talks about his new ITV drama, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, about the retired teacher attacked by the press after being falsely suspected of killing Joanna Yeates in 2010.

As teenage 'vlogging' sensation, Zoella, becomes embroiled in a row over hiring a ghostwriter for her best-selling debut novel, Girl Online, we look at the rise of the scribes for hire.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall reviews new documentary film The Green Prince which won the Global Audience award at the Sundance Festival. It's the extraordinary story of the son of a founding leader in the Palestinian organization, Hamas, who becomes a spy for the Israelis.

Jeffery Richards talks about the Golden Age of Pantomime in Victorian England and explains how some of our finest panto traditions came about and have lasted.

Plus in the week that part of the Burrell Collection moves from Glasgow to London and then overseas, we find out about William Burrell - the man behind the extraordinary amassing of pieces like rare lace, carpets, Tudor furniture, as well as sculpture by Rodin and paintings by Manet, Cezanne and Degas.

Author Sarah Waters has followed her gothic novel The Little Stranger with her first play which is also a ghost story that aims to spook audiences. She discusses working with experimental theatre-maker Christopher Green to devise a play in which all is not as it seems.

Mike Scott of The Waterboys discusses the band's new album Modern Blues, and explains why it was important for the band to record it in Nashville.

Dawn Walton, Director of Eclipse Theatre Company and Tom Morris, Artistic Director of the Bristol Old Vic, give their response to today's speech by Peter Bazalgette, Chair of Arts Council England, in which he urges racial diversity and inclusion across the board in arts institutions.

Two new documentaries lift the lid on the action behind the scenes at two of the world's most well-known art museums - the National Gallery in London and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Sarah Crompton asks whether museums and galleries make good subjects for films.

Presenter: John Wilson

Jim Broadbent talks to Kirsty Lang about playing Father Christmas for the third time in his new film Get Santa; Matt Haig and Katherine Woodfine on Young Adult Fiction; Croatian playwright Tena Stivicic discusses her play 3 Winters at the National Theatre; Stephen Armstrong brings us his pick of the year's comedy DVDs; and following the news that the British Museum has loaned one of the Elgin Marbles to the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Peter Aspden considers the role museums and galleries can play when political harmony between nations breaks down.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

The composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle discusses his music as a season celebrating his 80th birthday begins at London's Southbank Centre.

Iain Lee reviews The Grandmaster, the new film from Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, which traces the life of the Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man, who taught Bruce Lee.

Boyd Hilton receommends the boxsets that should be making their way into stockings this Christmas.

"Great Hera!" - Jill Lepore, author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman, discusses the strange origins of this female superhero inspired by early 20th century feminism and created by man.

Producer: Ellie Bury