Front Row

Visionary director David Fincher on Mank, his new film about 1930s Hollywood, as seen through the eyes of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) as he races to finish Citizen Kane with Orson Welles.

Mank's screenplay is by Fincher's father Jack Fincher, who started writing it in the early 1990s and died in 2003.

David Fincher's other films, which have earned thirty Oscar nominations, include Fight Club, Se7en, The Zodiac, The Social Network, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Gone Girl and Panic Room.

Fincher also talks about the future of cinema, streaming, and his early career as a director of iconic music videos such as Madonna's Vogue and George Michael's Freedom.

Mank is released on Netflix.

Presenter: John Wilson

2020 marks Ludwig Van Beethoven’s 250th birthday, and pianist Boris Giltburg has taken on the mammoth task of learning, performing and recording all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. What does it take to learn and record eleven hours of music and what can you learn about one of the world’s most famous composers.? Boris discusses the project and shares an exclusive recording.

As Christmas approaches, we all love to curl up with a cocoa in front of a festive film. Netflix and Hallmark are churning out Christmas rom-coms, but why are they so popular? And should we be expecting more from these seasonal sensations? Gavia Baker-Whitelaw and Amanny Mohamed discuss the film phenomenon.

Front Row continues our festive foray into the best parties on screen with artist Scottee. We’re turning up Demis Roussos, cracking open a nice bottle of Beaujolais, but no olives for a celebration of Abigail’s Party.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Wonder Woman was the film that turned the reputation of DC Comics’ foray into big budget movies around in 2017. Director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot return for the sequel which sees Wonder Woman and her love interest, played by Chris Pine, transplanted from the trenches of World War I to the technicolour world of the 80s. Can they repeat the success of the first instalment? Critic Leila Latif reviews.

On the hundredth anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, violinist Jennifer Pike, who has been playing the piece professionally for over half her life, joins Liv to pull it apart, reveal its mysteries to us, and see what makes it a firm favourite in the British musical consciousness.

We know that literature plays a huge role in how we develop our understanding of other people, places and cultures. But a recent survey revealed that of the 11 books the average person reads each year, 33% are either from the same genre or written by the same author and that just 13% of British adults had knowingly read a book from an author of colour over the course of the past year. Liv is joined to explore how we can read differently by two people who’ve been seeking inspiration from unusual sources this year: Stig Abell, who has just published Things I Learned on the 6:28, a diary of his reading over a year, and Amrou Al-Kadhi whose work is featured in an innovative book club which encourages its members to read across borders.

Presenter: Liv Little

Novelist William Boyd and Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies at Oxford, reflect on the work of John le Carré exploring why he was more than a spy novelist, and how history shaped his novels and how they then shaped history.

Comedy duo The Pin join Samira to talk about their West End debut “The Comeback”, which wittily dissects the dynamics of double acts. Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen’s show has been described by Sonia Friedman as “the cure for theatre” in these Covid times.

Aliza Nisenbaum, the Mexican-born New York-based artist, is currently in her temporary studio in Los Angeles in lockdown. From there she discusses her new exhibition at Tate Liverpool, a series of portraits of key workers in the city that she painted during online conversations in August, including an entire team from the Emergency Department at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and other NHS staff on the Covid frontline.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

The death of actress Barbara Windsor was announced today. A household name from EastEnders and the Carry On films, she was also acclaimed for her early performances at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Royal Stratford East. Cultural commentator Matthew Sweet discusses her career.

The DCMS announced today the latest release of money from the Cultural Recovery Fund. Previously they issued grants and this time they’re issuing loans. What will this mean for the UK’s arts sector? Front Row asks minister Caroline Dinenage.

The Chorus of the Royal Northern Sinfonia is premiering a new choral version of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, using the text of the original hymn on which the fantasia is based. Chorus Director Timothy Burke and soprano Joanna Finlay join Front Row.

Spike Lee’s latest film is David Byrne’s American Utopia, a recording of the Broadway stage performance by the former Talking Heads frontman of his 2018 studio album. Kevin Le Gendre reviews the film which also features a number of Talking Heads hits, including Burning Down the House and Once in a Lifetime.

Zaina Arafat talks about her debut novel, You Exist Too Much, a coming-of-age story set between the US and the Middle East. It follows a young woman struggling with her sexuality, her Palestinian heritage and an emotionally distant relationship with her conservative mother.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

The Midnight Sky is George Clooney’s post-apocalyptic new film, which he directs and stars in alongside Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo. Is this Clooney’s Magnum Opus? Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews

Eight years since its announcement and after several delays, futuristic roleplaying game Cyberpunk 2077 is released across consoles and PC this week. Its Warsaw-based studio CD Projekt is famous for The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077 promises to be the most detailed and expansive open-world game out there. But was it worth the wait? Elle Osili-Wood reviews.

As debate continues about the role of the National Trust, whose recent work shedding light on many of its property’s links to slavery, as well as other historical injustices, has drawn criticism from members and a group of Conservative MPs, we ask what is the purpose of the Trust now? To explore the issues John is joined by Kirsty Weakley, Editor of Civil Society News, architectural historian Oliver Gerrish and David Lascelles, 8th Earl of Harewood.

Presenter: John Wilson

Main Image: George Clooney in The Midnight Sky

Writer and director Julia Hart joins Samira to talk about I'm Your Woman, a gritty crime drama set in the 1970s. Rachel Brosnahan (Marvellous Mrs Maisel) stars as a woman forced to go on the run after her husband betrays his partners, sending her and her baby on a dangerous journey.

Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera Owen Wingrave was written for television and first appeared on BBC Two in 1971. Grange Park Opera have produced a new filmed version as part of their ‘Interim Season’, and director Stephen Medcalf joins us in the studio to explain how to film a socially-distanced opera.

Dulwich Picture gallery is staging its first ever photography exhibition, Unearthed, which tells the story of photography through images of plants and botany. The show’s curator Alexander Moore talks about the work of the early pioneers in the 1840s, including the first known Victorian images by Fox Talbot, as well as the eroticisim of Robert Mapplethorpe's pictures and today’s leading innovators

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Ryan Murphy’s new film, The Prom, bursts into song and dance as four down-on-their-luck Broadway stars descend on a small Indiana town in support of a girl who just wants to go to the high school Prom with her girlfriend. The cast includes Meryl Streep, James Corden and Nicole Kidman and the critical reception in the US has been polarised; what does our reviewer Karen Krizanovich make of it?

When theatre director Rebecca Frecknall and playwright Chris Bush began rehearsals for the show that would re-open London's Almeida Theatre after lockdown they had the title, Nine Lessons and Carols, but nothing else. They talk to Kirsty about creating a production, from scratch, with a cast that must maintain social distance; a show that addresses these dark times, but warmly welcomes an audience back to the theatre with lights, sound, and stories.

A comic strip “Our Plague Year” by artist and illustrator Nick Burton, conceived in collaboration with HOME in Manchester, draws parallels between the Great Plague which struck England in the 17th century and the current Coronavirus epidemic. Set in the Derbyshire village of Eyam which, when The Plague took hold, famously chose to cut off all contact with the outside world to stop the contagion spreading. But it’s not just doom gloom and death, the strip is full of dark humour and makes readers wonder whether human society has really changed all that much between then and now.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Viggo Mortensen joins us live to talk about his new film, Falling, his debut as a director, which he also wrote. It's the story of a conservative father moving from his rural farm to live with his gay son's family in Los Angeles.

We’ve been hearing from figures from the creative industries about their Lockdown Discovery, something that has given them great pleasure or solace during the two lockdowns. Today, the novelist Alex Wheatle, aka the Brixton Bard, who has been working with Steve McQueen on his Small Axe series of dramas and who is the subject of this week’s film, reveals his Lockdown Discovery.

Would it be Christmas without A Christmas Carol? Even in 2020, there are still many live productions going on. A new film version by siblings Jacqui and David Morris combines voices of Simon Russell Beale, Daniel Kaluuya and Carey Mulligan with dance performances of Russell Maliphant and others. Sarah Crompton and Tobi Kyeremateng review the film and the phenomenon of Dickens’ story – is it particularly resonant this year? And they’ll consider the new National Theatre at Home subscription service as well as making their own cultural picks of the week.

The winner of this year’s William Hill Sports Book of the Year is The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Putin’s Secret Doping Empire. Grigory Rodchenkov was the head of Russian sport’s doping programme, and this is his detailed account of how he blew the whistle on what's been described by the World Anti-Doping Agency as the biggest sporting scandal in world history. Rodchenkov had to flee Russia and is still in hiding in the US. His editor Drummond Moir discusses the story and the challenges this presented.

Presenter: John Wilson