Front Row: Archive 2014

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong is the subject of Oscar-winning documentary-maker Alex Gibney's latest film, The Armstrong Lie. In 2009 the film-maker, whose previous documentaries include Taxi to the Dark Side and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, set out to make a film about Armstrong's comeback year after a four-year retirement from the sport, but found himself with a bigger story in the wake of his doping confession on Oprah. Michael Carlson reviews.

Juliet Stevenson stars as Winnie in Samuel Beckett's play of resilience and self-reliance, Happy Days, at the Young Vic. Juliet tells Kirsty about her reservations in playing this major role, seen by some as the female Hamlet, and about the challenges of acting when submerged from the neck up.

In American writer Willy Vlautin's new novel The Free, a young member of the National Guard is returned home after suffering serious brain injury as a result of a roadside bomb in Iraq. The Free charts his slow recovery and the struggles he faces in a country which seems not to care. Vlautin discusses his novel and the dispossessed who feature so much in his work and his songs.

The poet Ahren Warner, who recently took up his position as poet-in-residence at London Zoo, joins Gillian Clarke - who had a similar role at the Museum of Zoology in Cambridge - to discuss the experience of writing from nature, and the inspiration it can bring.

Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

Arts news, interviews and reviews with Kirsty Lang.

With Kirsty Lang.

Two versions of Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers have been reunited for the first time in more than sixty years. Sunflowers is one of The National Gallery's best-loved paintings and it will be shown alongside another version from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Art critic Martin Bailey discusses what seeing the paintings side-by-side tells us about Van Gogh's methods, and why the paintings are so captivating.

In the film, Grudge Match, Hollywood heavyweights Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone star as old boxing rivals who come out of retirement for one final match. Hal Cruttenden, comedian and recent winner of Celebrity Mastermind - with, as his specialist subject, The Rocky Films - reviews.

Author and political cartoonist, Chris Riddell, discusses his gothic novel for eight year olds, Goth Girl: And The Ghost Of A Mouse, which has won the children's category for the Costa Book Awards. Chris Riddell talks about the overlap between the world of Westminster and children's books, and his love of puns and literary references - including the ghost of a mouse who says "call me Ishmael".

Following the publication of Justin Bieber's surprisingly cheerful police mug-shot, Daily Mail columnist Viv Groskop joins Kirsty to assess the art of the celebrity mug-shot.

Theatre director, Max Stafford-Clark, former Artistic Director of The Royal Court, talks about his new book, Journal Of The Plague Year. Described as a 'howl of rage' against the drastic funding cuts to his renowned theatre company, Out Of Joint, the book details Max's correspondence with the Arts Council, and he makes his case to Kirsty for public funding of the arts.

Producer: Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson

Sir Kenneth Branagh talks about his latest film: the return of Tom Clancy's iconic creation, Jack Ryan. In Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the CIA analyst is up against a ruthless Russian oligarch, played by Branagh - who also directed the thriller. He discusses the parallels between directing multi-million dollar action films and stage-productions of Shakespeare, and the influence of Laurence Olivier.

Costa poetry prize winner Michael Symmons Roberts discusses his latest collection, Drysalter. The book is his sixth collection of poetry, consisting of 150 poems, each one fifteen lines long. He explains why it was helpful to have formal constraints to hold the poems together, and the social uses of poetry.

The main galleries of the Royal Academy have been transformed by its latest exhibition, Sensing Spaces, in which seven architectural practices from around the world have been commissioned to allow visitors to engage with structures, perspectives, sounds, textures - even scents. Mark visits the exhibition, together with author and critic Rachel Cooke.

Producer: Gabriella Meade.

With Mark Lawson.

Simon Russell Beale is playing King Lear at the National Theatre, in a new production directed by Sam Mendes. Last night one of the actors lost his voice, prompting Mendes to apologise and bring on the understudy. Simon Russell Beale discusses his approach to the challenging role and what happened behind the scenes last night.

Costa biography prize-winner Lucy Hughes-Hallett talks about The Pike, her biography of the Italian poet and daredevil Gabriele D'Annunzio, which also won the 2013 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction.

Quentin Tarantino has announced that he is dropping his new film Hateful Eight, a follow-up to Django Unchained, after the script was leaked. Film critic Mark Eccleston discusses some of the more extreme examples of script security and why film-makers are so keen to keep their scripts secret.

Producer: Timothy Prosser.

As Conor McPherson's multi-award-winning play The Weir opens in the West End, director Josie Rourke talks about reviving this modern Irish ghost story whilst preparing to screen her production of Coriolanus, starring Tom Hiddleston, in cinemas worldwide.

Julie Hesmondhalgh has been making headlines as her Coronation Street character Hayley Cropper, suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer, leaves the soap by taking her own life. She discusses being involved in a storyline that has generated a national debate, and about her latest role in Blindsided, a new play by Simon Stephens.

Nathan Filer, the winner of the Costa Book Award for the first novel category, discusses his debut The Shock of the Fall. Following a protagonist who suffers from mental health problems, the novel explores themes of guilt, grief and mental illness. Nathan Filer discusses his other career as a mental health nurse and his plans for a second novel.

Classical violinist Vanessa Mae has qualified to compete with the Thai ski team in this year's Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Violinist Tasmin Little explains why violinists and skis are an unusual combination.

With Mark Lawson.

Conductor Simon Rattle remembers Claudio Abbado, the acclaimed Italian conductor and former musical director of La Scala, Milan, who has died aged 80.

The Pulitzer prize-winning play, August: Osage County, a dark comedy looking at the lives of a group of women brought back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in, has been adapted for the screen. The all-star cast includes Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, both nominated for Academy Awards, alongside Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch. Diane Roberts comments on whether the translation from stage to screen is successful.

In the first of five interviews with the authors who have won their categories for this year's Costa Book Awards, Mark talks to Kate Atkinson. She discusses winning the best novel category for her book Life After Life, the unusual structure of the book - in which the protagonist dies and is re-born - and imagining alternative futures.

BBC One's family comedy, Outnumbered, is returning for a fifth series. Hugh Dennis and Tyger Drew-Honey talk about their roles as father and son, the development of the show from improvised to scripted scenes, and watching the family drama with their own families.

Producer: Olivia Skinner.

With John Wilson.

Joyce Carol Oates talks about her latest novel, Carthage, in which a teenage girl disappears having last been seen with her sister's ex-fiancé, an injured soldier recently back from Iraq. In a story told from various perspectives we watch what happens to a family destroyed by tragedy, and to a soldier who can't come to terms with what he's seen during combat.

Writer William Burroughs, artist Andy Warhol and film-maker David Lynch are the subjects of a trio of exhibitions at The Photographers' Gallery in London. The shows set out to illustrate how their personal photographs influenced and informed the work for which they are better known. Art critic Charlotte Mullins gives her response.

As a new interpretation of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers begins on BBC One, Stephen Armstrong considers the enduring appeal of the swashbuckling trio and how each generation has been reflected in new Musketeer adaptations.

Visual effects expert Tim Webber has been Oscar-nominated for sending George Clooney and Sandra Bullock into space in the film Gravity. He reveals that - despite having designed virtual worlds for films including Avatar and Where The Wild Things Are - creating the illusion of zero gravity was the most challenging work of his career.

Producer: Ellie Bury.

Mark Lawson talks to some of the nominees of this year's Oscars including Steve Coogan who has two nominations for best adapted screenplay and best picture for Philomena. David O. Russell's con-artist movie American Hustle received the most nominations, along with Gravity, 10 in all, including best actor, actress, and both supporting roles. Sally Hawkins, who got a best supporting actress nod for Blue Jasmine, is one of the Brits who also got a thumbs up from the Academy Awards.

With Mark Lawson.

Julian Lloyd Webber and his wife Jiaxin Lloyd Webber are touring the UK with a concert featuring world premiere performances of duets for two cellos with piano. They tell Mark about their choice of music from composers such as Vivaldi to Arvo Pärt, Dvorák, Bach, Rachmaninov, Saint-Saëns - and Julian's plans to collaborate with his brother Andrew on the works of the Everley Brothers.

Today sees the opening of a newly built Jacobean theatre next to Shakespeare's Globe. The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is an candlelit venue, seating 340 people with galleried seating as well as historically accurate pit seating area. The first performance is The Duchess of Malfi with Gemma Arterton, and Mark talks to the Globe's artistic director from inside the auditorium.

Dan O'Brien's play The Body of an American, which opens in London next week, explores the moment photographer Paul Watson captured a Pulitzer Prize-winning image of murdered American soldier Staff Sgt. William Cleveland in Mogadishu in 1993. After the success last year of Chimerica, a play exploring the famous 'tank man' image from the 1989 protest in Tiananmen Square, we report on the power of photography to inspire other artforms.

Produced by Dymphna Flynn.