Front Row: Archive 2014

Kirsty Lang talks to the enfant terrible of the fashion world, designer John Paul Gaultier, as a retrospective of his work opens at the Barbican Centre in London. Gaultier discusses where the inspiration for his iconic striped t-shirts and the conical bras worn by Madonna came from and explains why he has always been inspired by London style.

As Michael Palin announces his first one man show, he talks to Kirsty about going on tour at 71, trying to make audiences laugh and taking the his first lead role in a TV drama for more than 20 years.

Christy Moore, the Irish folk singer, looks back over his five-decade musical career and his 25 solo albums as he prepares to perform a series of concerts in the UK.

Welsh director Gareth Evans had a surprise hit with 2012's The Raid, an Indonesian martial arts film which took place in a run-down fifteen story apartment block. He's now followed it up with The Raid 2, catching up with the hero Rama, battling the enemies he made in the first instalment. Briony Hanson reviews.

Producer: Olivia Skinner.

Kirsty Lang talks to Emmy Award-winning actor Brendan Gleeson about his role in new film Calvary; as it opens at London's Apollo theatre, writers Jack Thorne and John Ajvide Lindqvist discuss adapting vampire tale Let the Right One In for the stage; Mary Beard reveals the six shortlisted authors for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, discusses the new exhibition The First Georgians: Art & Monarchy 1714-1760, at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.

Producer: Ellie Bury.

Kirsty Lang talks to Rory Bremner about satire, snobbery and starring in Noel Coward's play Relative Values; bestselling children's author, and creator of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson takes Kirsty on a tour of an exhibition which recreates her childhood bedroom - and features extracts of her teenage diaries that reveal an early desire to write more realistic books than those of Enid Blyton.

Produced by Nicola Holloway

Photo: Rory Bremner and Patricia Hodge in Relative Values, Harold Pinter Theatre

On Front Row tonight, Richard Ayoade talks to John Wilson about the practicalities of making The Double, a film about a doppelganger - and about why, when directing, he never uses technical jargon. Also in the programme: reviews of the stage musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Crimson Field - a new TV series about nurses in World War 1; and we look back at forty years of the Sunday Times Bestseller list.

On Front Row tonight Kirsty Lang talks to Kate Winslet about her new film Divergent - aimed at young adults she plays an arch villain in a dystopian future and she explains why making the film made her feel old; and Kirsty meets German author Timur Vermes who's written a best-selling satire depicting Hitler as a present day celebrity after awakening from a 66-year sleep in 2011.

There's a review of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon's new tv series The Trip to Italy and we go backstage at rehearsals for Matthew Bourne's new dance production of Lord of the Flies in Salford.

Plus - as a rail design exhibition opens at the National Railway Museum in York and RIBA shortlists entrants in their aesthetic overhead line structures competition, we consider the design of rail-gantries past and present.

Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

With John Wilson

Writer Chris Chibnall talks to John about his new play at the Salisbury Playhouse, Worst Ever Wedding, a comedy about a mother organising her daughter's wedding. Chris is best known for Broadchurch, the gripping TV series about a murder in a close community in Dorset. Chris discusses the step from writing heightened suspense to farcical comedy, and why featuring Dorset in his work is so important to him.

Author Kamila Shamsie reviews Shan Khan's directorial debut Honour, an urban thriller set in west London, starring Paddy Considine and Aiysha Hart. Mona is a young British Muslim girl on the run from her family after they find out about her relationship with a Punjabi boyfriend. In a bid to save their family honour, her mother and older brother hire a bounty hunter to help track Mona down.

Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova is widely recognised in classical music as one of the world's leading virtuosos and has recorded her first album of an eclectic range of Brazilian music - Stradivarius in Rio. She discusses her dramatic defection to the West in 1983, plus learning to improvise the music she played for her new album which was recorded in just two days, and with no rehearsals.

John visits Pangaea. Not the prehistoric supercontinent but the exhibition which hopes to reunite two of the continents which formed that landmass - Africa and South America - through contemporary art.

Produced by Ella-mai Robey.

With John Wilson

Director Darren Aronofsky's latest film, Noah, is a contemporary take on the Hollywood biblical epic - starring Russell Crowe as the Old Testament patriarch who organises the construction of a vast ship, and Anthony Hopkins as his grandfather, Methuselah. However, Aronofsky's Noah is no saint, but a flawed husband and father. Briony Hanson, the British Council's Director of Film, reviews.

Rachel Seiffert's latest novel, The Walk Home, looks at sectarian tensions in Glasgow through the eyes of Stevie, a young worker on a building site, and - a generation back - Lindsey, his Irish mother who left her family to run her own life and Stevie's uncle Eric, who ran away for love. Rachel herself is half-German, and talks to John about family tensions.

Alex Beard discusses his first season launch in his role as Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House. Having spent six months in the role he discusses creative plans - which includes seven opera and ballet world premieres - and the challenges that lie ahead.

The sculptor Phyllida Barlow shows John Wilson her latest work, dock 2014, which has been commissioned for the Tate Britain's Duveen Galleries. The artwork is made up of seven different sculptures and is inspired by the Tate's location by the river Thames. Phyllida Barlow discusses creating vast sculptures from everyday materials and directing a team of expert riggers to install her work.

Produced by Ella-mai Robey.

With Kirsty Lang

Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs, talks about the challenges of making their new album - Education, Education, Education and War - after the departure of their co-founding drummer, and also about his role as judge on BBC1's The Voice and the reservations he had about doing it initially.

Muppets Most Wanted is the latest film featuring Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang, who this time fall prey to an evil mastermind who bears a striking resemblance to Kermit himself. Duped by tour manager Dominic Badguy - played by Ricky Gervais - the Muppets soon find themselves unwittingly taking part in a the crime of the century. Comedian Viv Groskop reviews.

Sebastian Barry is one of Ireland's leading writers. He talks about his new novel The Temporary Gentleman, which continues his story of 20th century Ireland told through the McNulty family of Sligo. Jack McNulty is a 'temporary gentleman', an Irishman whose commission in the British army in the Second World War was never permanent. Sebastian tells Kirsty about how Jack is based on his maternal grandfather, with whom he shared a bed as a child, listening to tales of his adventures in Africa, India and as a bomb disposal expert during the war.

To mark Radio 4's Character Invasion tomorrow - when fictional characters will be taking over the network - Front Row asked five of Britain's leading actors to talk about their experience of playing an iconic character. Tonight actress Cush Jumbo discusses the challenges of playing Mark Antony in an all-female production of Julius Caesar set in a women's prison.

Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

A number of former US soldiers have recently published books which focus on their time serving with US forces in the second Iraq War. Phil Klay's series of short stories - Redeployment - and Kevin Powers' debut collection of poems - Letter Composed During a Lull in Fighting - are just two books which cover the first-hand experience of war, and its physical, emotional and psychological effects. Phil Klay and Kevin Powers discuss war as inspiration for literature and their own experience of desert warfare.

20 Feet From Stardom won the Academy Award for Best Documentary at this year's Oscars. The film looks behind the stars of music to focus on their backing singers and the important contribution these singers have made to the history of pop, as well as the difficulties of breaking out into the spotlight. Jacqueline Springer reviews the film.

Union is a play by Scottish playwright Tim Barrow which explores the 1707 Act of Union with England which linked the English and Scottish Parliaments. The play examines the context of bankruptcy and political turmoil which led the Scottish politicians to accept bribes in exchange for supporting the act. Tim Barrow discusses the pertinence of the subject to the forthcoming independence referendum and explains why he thinks Scottish children should be given better education on this period of history.

To mark Radio 4's forthcoming Character Invasion Day - when fictional characters will be taking over the network - Front Row asked five of Britain's leading actors to talk about their experience of playing an iconic character. Jane Horrocks discusses playing the withdrawn LV with a talent for mimicking great singers in the award-winning play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and the subsequent film.

With Kirsty Lang.

Anne Hathaway is back in cinemas this week in Rio 2, an animated film about a rare blue macaw, set in Brazil. She reprises her role as the voice of Jewel, a free-spirited bird, who discovers that the family she thought had been killed are still alive and living in the Amazon jungle. Anne Hathaway discusses the challenges of playing an animated character and what she looks for when choosing a role.

Believe is a new American fantasy and adventure TV drama series from Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) and Star Wars writer J.J. Abrams. A young girl with mysterious powers is placed under the protection of an escaped Death Row inmate, who must shield her from the mysterious forces out to hunt her down. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh gives her verdict.

The African-American photographer Lorna Simpson discusses the work on show in her new retrospective at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. Large-scale photographs printed on felt are on display alongside her video works, watercolours and drawings, which often deal with themes of identity, desire and race.

To mark Radio 4's forthcoming Character Invasion - when fictional characters will be taking over the network - Front Row asked five of Britain's leading actors to talk about their experience of playing an iconic character. Tonight, David Threlfall describes his experience of playing Frank Gallagher for a decade in the Channel 4 drama series Shameless.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.