Front Row

Actress Keeley Hawes has long been a household name and seems to have an uncanny ability to pick parts that place her in the most talked about TV shows of their moment.

In this extended interview we look back on her career, considering those key roles including the Home Secretary in the hugely popular Bodyguard, working on cult lesbian drama Tipping the Velvet, MI5 agent Zoe in spy thriller Spooks, playing a cop sent back to the 80s in Ashes to Ashes, a policewoman under investigation in Line of Duty and a mother of four starting a new life on Corfu in The Durrells.

We'll also hear how Keeley got started as an actress, how she chooses her roles and what changes she's seen in TV over the last 20 years.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

How much were you paying attention to arts and culture in 2018?

Critics Boyd Hilton, Katie Puckrik and Sarah Crompton, Raifa Rafiq from the Mostly Lit podcast, and actress Maureen Lipman battle it out to see who'll be crowned champion in our cultural quiz of the year. Plus what is your favourite cultural depiction of New Year's Eve?

Presenter: Stig Abell

Journalist and novelist Jonathan Freedland remembers the Israeli author Amos Oz who died today.

Tim Robey, Susannah Clapp and Laura Barton - film, theatre and music critics - look ahead to the notable arts events of the upcoming year.

The legendary comic book creator and Marvel figurehead, Stan Lee, died earlier this year. Today, on what would have been his 96th birthday, we pay tribute to his life and work. Comic book artist Dave Gibbons, film critic Gavia Baker-Whitelaw and comic book writer Kieron Gillen discuss.

Presenter: John Wilson

Main image: Amos Oz. Credit: Jason Kempin / Getty Images.

Front Row marks the deaths of three great choreographers.

Internationally-acclaimed land artist Chris Drury's latest project is a dry stone chamber at the end of a remote peninsular overlooking Morecambe Bay in Lancashire.

As the tide recedes, Stig brings us some 'slow radio' as he crosses the causeway and heads for Sunderland Point to meet the artist, as well as Andrew Mason, the Master Craftsman and noted dry stonewaller, as they work on the construction of the Horizon Line Chamber. When it is finished, visitors will be able to go inside the building which will feature a camera obscura projection of the vast open landscape and big sky of Morecambe Bay.

Presenter Stig Abell

It's estimated that almost three million people in the UK now belong to a choir. Kirsty Lang explores why this might be, and looks at the evidence that singing is really good for us.

The Sixteen is a professional choir which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year. It's founder, Harry Christophers, and one of the sopranos, Charlotte Mobbs, talk to Kirsty about starting the choir, changing attitudes towards choral singing, their 2019 plans and their outreach programme, working in communities where arts provision is low.

Ten years ago, musician Martin Trotman was approached by the Birmingham NHS Trust to set up a community choir for those with mental health issues. One choir has grown into four choirs, which welcome all members of the community with the aim of promoting mental and physical wellbeing through music and song. Martin discusses why choral singing is so beneficial, and two members of the Birmingham Wellbeing Choir talk to Kirsty about how it's helped them.

M J Paranzino is a musician and vocal coach with a passion for community singing. She currently runs four choirs, one in Brighton, one in Hastings and two in London. Kirsty joined M J and members of the choirs when they sang at the V&A in London in the run up to Christmas and discovered that all of human life is in a community choir!

Dr Jacques Launay is a lecturer at Brunel University and has done, and continues to do, research into music and social bonding. He explains why our bodies and minds respond so well to singing in a choir.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

In the Bible, Matthew wrote about the Three Wise Men, Luke about the shepherds and the angels, and ever since, Christmas has provided inspiration for writers. John Milton wrote On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, Jane Austen has a Christmas scene in Persuasion, Ernest Hemingway wrote about Paris at Christmas and Helen Fielding, in Bridget Jones’s Diary, has Bridget attending a terrible yuletide family gathering. Writer Matthew Sweet, critic Arifa Akbar and Professor Stephen Regan, who has traced the history of Christmas in English literature, discuss the different ways writers have treated Christmas in their work.

Sheffield-based poet Helen Mort talks about the poetry of the festive season and reads her Christmas poem written especially for Front Row.

Presenter Samira Ahmed

Ben Elton, creator of the iconic Elizabethan sitcom Blackadder II, talks about his fascination with Shakespeare, as Upstart Crow returns to BBC Two for a Shakespeare/Dickens mashup, A Crow Christmas Carol. He's also written the screenplay for All is True, a Shakespeare biopic starring Kenneth Branagh.

Vanessa Kisuule reads her poem Describing Snow in the Aftermath, part of Radio 4's poetry day marking the winter solstice.

As artist Olafur Eliasson installs melting ice blocks outside Tate Modern in order to highlight the dangers of climate change, Stig asks whether political art is becoming more of a call to action. With critics Jacky Klein, Jonathan Jones and artist Bob and Roberta Smith.

And why has misery won out over cheer on Christmas TV in recent years? David Butcher investigates.

Presenter: Stig Abell

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the phenomenally successful stage musical Hamilton, is starring in Mary Poppins Returns, a sequel to Disney’s 1964 classic. He talks to John about following in the cockney footsteps of Dick Van Dyke, and how he referenced the original Mary Poppins in Hamilton.

As Lin-Manuel Miranda’s stage musical Hamilton marks one year on the London stage this week, we look at whether it has created an increased appetite for hip hop musicals. Taking part are the Musical Director of ZooNation DJ Walde, who co-created the musicals Sylvia, Some Like It Hip Hop, and Into The Hoods; Professor of Musical Theatre, Millie Taylor; and Poppy Burton-Morgan, writer and director of the musical In The Willows.

Richard Sherman, now ninety, wrote the music for the original Mary Poppins with his brother Robert. In 2007 he came on Front Row to talk about composing for Walt Disney and performed Walt’s favourite song, Feed the Birds.

Presenter: John Wilson

Eileen Atkins, grande dame of the stage, looks back over her career. The actress famous for her roles in The Crown and Gosford Park, talks about playing Childie in the original stage production of The Killing of Sister George, and co-creating Upstairs Downstairs, as well as some of the famous acting roles she has turned down.

Penny Marshall, the first woman to direct a film that took more than 100m dollars at the box office, has died. She was, too, the second female director to have a film Oscar-nominated for best picture. Marshall starred as Laverne in the long-running hit comedy Laverne and Shirley, directing several episodes before moving on to make commercially and critically successful feature films. Leslie Felperin, who grew up watching Laverne and Shirley, assesses the career of this pioneering director.

BBC One’s This Is My Song is a television series which invites members of the public in to a recording studio to work with famous music producers and create a track for a very personal reason. Samira speaks to two people involved in the series - music producer Sister Bliss from Faithless, and Charles, who, following a double lung transplant, sang in the studio for the first time.

If you're in need of a break from all the sugar-coated seasonal fare, Front Row is offering some substitute Christmas treats for you to consider. Critic Sarah Ditum unwraps her alternative festive book, Stephen King’s The Shinning, a tale of a family forced to survive a homicidal snowy winter.

Presenter Samira Ahmed