Front Row: Archive 2014

With John Wilson.

Critic Matt Wolf discusses the reasons that new musicals from both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice will be closing early, on the same day.

Comedian Stewart Lee returns to our screens this weekend with series 3 of the Bafta-winning Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. This time satirist Chris Morris is taking Armando Ianucci's role as counsellor/interrogator, intercut with the cynical, meta stand-up that Lee is known for. He discusses the differences between the Stewart Lee we see onscreen and his real personality.

Alan Davies returns to our screens in the first new series of Jonathan Creek for five years, the offbeat crime drama written by One Foot in the Grave's David Renwick. Davies reprises his central role as an inventor of magic tricks who also has a talent for solving mysteries. Critic Naomi Alderman gives her response to the show's return.

Playwright Peter Gill discusses his World War I drama Versailles, about the treaty that would define the future of Europe, the Middle East and the rest of the world.

With John Wilson.

Based on the bestselling novel by Markus Zusak, the film of The Book Thief - starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson - tells the story of a spirited young girl Liesel in World War II Germany. Liesel finds solace from the war by stealing books and sharing them with others. Novelist Meg Rosoff reviews.

Professor Joseph Rykwert is one of the few critics to win the prestigious Royal Gold Medal for architecture for a body of work that includes the ground-breaking book The Idea Of a Town. Written in 1963, it warned of the problems of traffic congestion in cities and the rise of the high-rise building. He tells John if anything has improved over the last 50 years.

The comedian and actress Isy Suttie, from the TV series Peep Show, discusses her new stage role in a 'musical fable' The A-Z of Mrs P, about Phyllis Pearsall, the woman who set out to map an entire city in 1936, resulting in the classic A-Z map of London.

Two books of monologues for black actors have been published to provide young performers with a diverse range of speeches to use at auditions. The monologues are taken from the Black Play Archive and have been compiled by theatre producer Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway. She and actor Jimmy Akingbola explain why these books are needed and discuss whether there is a glass ceiling for black British actors.

Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

With Tom Sutcliffe

Actresses Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells have created a sitcom, Doll & Em, about a Hollywood star who hires her best friend as her personal assistant. They talk to Mark Lawson about playing exaggerated versions of themselves and how their own close friendship inspired the series.

The 1942 battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest in the history of warfare. Stalingrad 3D is the first Russian film made completely with 3D IMAX technology and is Russia's highest grossing film to date. Film historian Ian Christie reviews.

Award winning writer David Grossman talks about Falling Out of Time. Combining drama, prose and poetry, the book tells the story of bereaved parents setting out to reach their lost children. David Grossman, whose own son died in 2006, discusses the art of writing about loss and grief.

Producer: Timothy Prosser.

Nymphomaniac is the latest film from acclaimed Danish director Lars Von Trier. It stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as Joe, a woman who describes herself as "nymphomaniac", telling her story to a man who has found her in the street after a beating. In the flashbacks to her past, the young Joe is played by Stacey Martin alongside a cast that includes Shia LaBeouf and Christian Slater. Antonia Quirke reviews.

Joanne M. Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat, has written her first epic fantasy novel for adults, The Gospel of Loki. Based on ancient mythology, the book follows the rise and fall of the Norse gods from the perspective of the trickster Loki, popularised in Marvel's Thor comics which have recently been adapted into blockbuster films.

Robert Cohan is widely described as the founding father of Britain's contemporary dance movement. His career, spanning over 6 decades, has included dancing with Ginger Rogers and the legendary Martha Graham. Cohan, who was born in America, discusses how he came to revolutionise British dance whilst rehearsing a reimagining of his only female solo Canciones Del Alma.

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson star in True Detective, a new HBO detective series. The show follows two contrasting detectives as they investigate a ritual killing in Louisiana.

Producer: Claire Bartleet.

With John Wilson

Andrew Sachs' new autobiography describes his journey from arriving in Britain as a young Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany to playing Manuel in Fawlty Towers. He discusses the physical hazards of being Manuel and his reaction to the infamous prank phone-calls from Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand.

Tonight musician Martin Carthy is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Radio 2 Folk Awards. Carthy discusses his love of playing live, starting out in the early 60s, getting over his annoyance about Paul Simon's success with Scarborough Fair, and making his first album with daughter Eliza.

John visits The Courtauld Gallery in London to discover the story behind one of the most beautiful and enigmatic objects in their collection; a seven hundred year old bag made in Northern Iraq.

And with the film awards season in full swing, Stephen Armstrong looks at the art of the awards speech, from the inspiring, to the cringe-worthy and the downright bizarre.

Producer: Gabriella Meade.

With John Wilson.

Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante reveals her plans for a prequel focusing on the early life of DCI Tennison. Who will play the iconic detective?

The makers of Spooks have teamed up with writer Lucy Kirkwood (Skins, Chimerica) to create a new Sky1 drama about firemen, starring Jamie Bamber and Jodie Whittaker. Sarah Crompton reviews.

Andrew Graham Dixon reviews Strange Beauty, a new exhibition of German Renaissance painting at the National Gallery, which includes work by Hans Holbein and Albrecht Dürer.

And musician Jon Hopkins on his Mercury nominated album Immunity, in which he uses real sounds such as exploding fireworks and creaking doors, on his relationship with Brian Eno, and on improvising for Coldplay.

With John Wilson.

The legendary film-making duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were commemorated today with the unveiling of an English Heritage blue plaque. The plaque was unveiled by Thelma Schoonmaker, film-editor and Powell's widow, and by film-director Martin Scorsese. Both talk to John about their love of Powell and Pressburger's work.

The Welsh director Kieran Evans has won the BAFTA for an Outstanding Debut for his feature film Kelly + Victor. Evans, who started his career as a music video director, discusses what winning the BAFTA means to him.

John talks to the actress Lesley Sharp (Scott and Bailey, Clocking Off) about A Taste of Honey, the taboo-breaking play which was written by Shelagh Delaney in 1958 when she was only 18. Set in working class Salford in the 1950s, it's about social prejudice and the volatile relationship between a mother and her teenage daughter.

Only Lovers Left Alive, the latest release from independent director Jim Jarmusch, is a vampire romance drama nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton star as the music-loving, undead couple Adam and Eve, who have been married for centuries. Briony Hansen reviews.

Producer: Olivia Skinner.

With Kirsty Lang

As the US political drama House of Cards returns for its second season, actor and producer Kevin Spacey discusses the success of streaming and looks ahead to his plans for his remaining 18 months as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.

The Lego Movie was the big hit at the U.S. box office last weekend, taking almost three times as much as The Monuments Men, and winning rave reviews in the process. Critic Jane Graham considers whether it's really just a long advert for a toy company.

Belfast novelist Glenn Patterson's new novel The Rest Just Follows focuses on three teenagers in the city who are growing up amidst the Troubles in the 1970s. Patterson discusses the setting for his book, and his nomination for this weekend's BAFTA awards for his screenplay for the film Good Vibrations.

John Travolta jets into London this weekend to take part in an on-stage interview about his career, following the example of Al Pacino and Sylvester Stallone who also spent "An Evening With" a British audience. Writer Antonia Quirke considers the appeal of the film star Q&A.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With John Wilson.

Architects Richard Rogers and Norman Foster discuss their 50-year friendship in a rare interview together, and reveal which of each the other's buildings is their favourite, as the exhibition The Brits Who Built the Modern World opens at RIBA's new Architecture Gallery.

In 1982 Simon Parkes paid just £1 to buy the former Astoria cinema in Brixton, south London. He turned it into the Brixton Academy and, over the next 14 years, put on gigs by the likes of The Clash, Bob Dylan and U2. On the publication of his memoir Live At The Brixton Academy, Simon Parkes gives John Wilson a tour of the historic venue.

The US artist George Condo began his artistic career as an assistant to Andy Warhol but he has become renowned for his grotesque figures and portraits which feature misshapen limbs, asymmetrical eyes and terrifyingly toothy mouths, controversially notable in a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. More recently he has become widely known for a collaboration with Kanye West. Condo discusses his career and two new exhibitions of his work.

Producer: Ellie Bury.

With Kirsty Lang.

Oh What a Lovely War, Joan Littlewood's controversial musical satire about the First World War, is being revived in its original home, the Theatre Royal Stratford East. The 1963 production, which Littlewood intended would mock 'the vulgarity of war', was loved by audiences, but detested by some who saw its message as unpatriotic. Critic and historian Kathryn Hughes reviews the production and considers whether the play has the same impact today.

After the success of the 'Child 44' trilogy, author Tom Rob Smith has just published a somewhat different type of crime novel. 'The Farm' is a psychological thriller, set in Sweden and England, which keeps the reader guessing throughout. He reveals how the main premise for the novel was inspired by a real life event very close to home.

The first series of the television drama, Line Of Duty, found many fans for its study of police corruption. The writer, Jed Mercurio, has now written a second series with a new police officer, Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton played by Keeley Hawes, under investigation. The writer MJ Hyland reviews.

How best to translate a novel is a perennial question, but some authors whose works have been published in China have also found the stories themselves being censored. Kirsty hears from journalist Jonathan Fenby and from literary-translation rights specialist Jenny Robson - and US based crime-writer Qiu Xiaolong and Booker Prize winner AS Byatt relate their two very different experiences.

Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.