Front Row

As Boy George releases his first new album with Culture Club in almost 20 years – simply called Life - he talks about being a changed man and contrasts making music today with the band’s heyday in the 80s.

Academy award winning director Peter Jackson has added colour to archival footage from WWI for the first time in his new film They Shall Not Grow Old. But how is this colourisation achieved and how does changing its colour affect the way we experience the film? BFI National Archive Curator Bryony Dixon and film historian Ian Christie discuss.

John Cooper Clarke, the razor-sharp poet with the rapid-fire delivery, is one of the defining figures of the late 70s. Over the years he’s been variously referred to as The Bard of Salford, The Godfather of Punk Poetry and more recently, perhaps to his own surprise, as a National Treasure. Now 69, he joins Front Row to perform and talk about his first new collection for decades, The Luckiest Guy Alive.

Presenter: John Wilson

Best-selling Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern discusses her new short story collection, Roar, which features 30 stories about 30 different women.

India has unveiled the world's tallest statue, which cost £330 million to build. The 182m high structure in the western state of Gujarat is a bronze-clad tribute to independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Pratiksha Ghildial in the BBC’s Delhi bureau reports on reactions within India.

Lecturer in Korean Studies, Dr Anna Yates-Lu, explains the origins of pansori, a traditional form of Korean opera, and why legendary pansori singer Ahn Sook-Sun, currently in the UK, is its leading exponent.

Julia Roberts stars in the television adaptation of the hit drama podcast series, Homecoming. The series looks back at her work as a counsellor at a mysterious company assessing the mental health of returning soldiers as they rehabilitate into society. TV critic Sophie Wilkinson reviews.

Presenter: Janina Ramirez

Published in 2005, The Book Thief was an international bestseller that went on to become a successful Hollywood film. Now more than a decade later its author, Markus Zusak, is back with a new story, Bridge of Clay, about how five brothers deal with the disappearance of their father.

American playwright Sarah DeLappe discusses her award-winning debut play, The Wolves, as it transfers to the UK. Played out through conversations that happen between the players of an American high school girls' soccer team, it paints a portrait of young womanhood today.

As the centenary approaches of the death of the poet Wilfred Owen on the Western Front, just a week before the end of hostilities in WW1, writers Philip Hoare and David Charters discuss two projects they’ve been working on that focus on his life and work. David’s play A Dream of Wilfred Owen forms part of the Wilfred Owen Commemoration on the Wirral, while Philip’s short film I Was a Dark Star Always pays tribute to the poet, part of which was shot at the French canal where Owen died.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Actor, comedian and opera fan Chris Addison discusses his role in La Traviata: Behind the Curtain, a new series of talks exploring the historical and social context of Verdi’s opera La Traviata for this year’s Glyndebourne Tour. He’s joined by musicologist Flora Willson, who explains why this 19th century work is the most-performed opera in the world.

Dark Heart is the new ITV police procedural by Unforgotten writer Chris Lang, in which troubled detective DI Wagstaff takes on a case involving a series of gruesome vigilante murders. TV critic David Butcher considers if the series brings anything fresh to the genre.

Presenter Kirsty Lang

A six part adaptation of John le Carré’s 1983 spy thriller The Little Drummer Girl has begun BBC One. Florence Pugh and Alexander Skarsgård discuss their roles playing young actress Charlie who is sucked into the shadowy world of espionage amid rising tensions in the Middle East, and Becker, the Israeli intelligence officer who recruits her.

As the clocks go back we investigate the affect the darkening days has on writers, particularly those with mental health issues. Poet Helen Mort and novelist Matt Haig examine how the character of their work, their productivity and their routine changes during the winter months.

Back with his third studio album, Jubilee Road, BRIT award and Ivor Novello winner Tom Odell talks about his inspiration, shying away from fame and performs his latest single, Half as Good as You.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke explains how he composed his first feature film soundtrack for Suspiria, Luca Guadagnino’s remake of the 1977 Dario Argento horror film.

If you've listened to an audiobook, can you say you've read the book? According to the Publishers Association UK, spending on audiobooks has more than doubled in the past five years, to £31m in 2017. We ask literary journalists Sarah Ditum and Sarah Shaffi whether listening to an audiobook counts the same as reading one.

Tim Burton’s debut feature, Beetlejuice, turns 30 this year and is being re-released in cinemas. Now considered a cult classic, it follows a newly-deceased couple, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, as they commission Michael Keaton’s demon Beetlejuice to drive away the ghastly family who have moved into their former home. Horror podcaster Mike Muncer looks back at the film’s success.

Presenter Janina Ramirez

Bohemian Rhapsody, the new biopic of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, is finally in cinemas after eight years in the making. During production, two leading actors quit the project before Rami Malek took on the role of Freddie Mercury, Kate Mossman considers if film is worth the wait.

As he approaches his 80th birthday this week, the conductor and composer Howard Blake looks back over his career which has included more than 700 compositions, including the music for 65 films – most famously for The Snowman - and his Piano Concerto to mark Princess Diana’s 30th birthday.

The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture is worth £30,000 to the winning artist recognised for their contribution to contemporary sculpture. This week an exhibition opens at Hepworth Wakefield showing the shortlisted artists Michael Dean, Mona Hatoum, Magali Reus, Phillip Lai and Cerith Wyn Evans. Art critic Adrian Searle considers their work and what they tell us about sculpture in the UK today.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Mike Leigh discusses his latest film Peterloo, an historical epic that depicts the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter's Field in Manchester turned into one of the most notorious episodes in British history. The massacre saw British government forces charge into a crowd of over 60,000 that had gathered to demand political reform.

Novelist CJ Sansom discusses Tombland, his latest in his Tudor mystery series. The Lady Elizabeth sends lawyer Matthew Shardlake to Norwich to investigate the murder of a distant Boleyn relative during a time of agrarian unrest.

Once the domain of children, playing with friends is increasingly seen as an entertainment option for adults and not just the computer game or sporting variety. We talk to two real life gamers: cosplayer Holly Rose Swinyard who attends conventions where players dress as favourite characters from comics and TV, and Ken Ferguson who blogs about escape rooms, physical puzzle games the like of which are popping up across the UK, to explore the changing role of play in our lives.

Presenter : Kirsty Lang

Author Luke Jennings on his Killing Eve novels, which inspired the recent television series. Jennings reveals what motivated him to create the ruthless assassin, Villanelle, and Eve, the agent hunting her, and the somewhat bizarre relationship the two of them seem to have.

Revulsion is one of the strongest human reactions and if art is designed to instil an emotional response in the viewer, what is the role of disgust in art? As Halloween approaches we explore what makes us disgusted and how artists have used disgust to enthral or repel audiences. We speak to artist Andrea Hasler, whose wax-based sculptures re-imagine luxury goods like handbags with raw fleshy innards, along with art critic Estelle Lovatt and horror fan Kim Newman to explore the role of disgust in visual art and film.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is currently starring in second series The Deuce, a television drama which charts the rise of the porn industry in 1970s New York. We speak to the actress about why she fought to be a producer on the show and what difference that has made both on screen and on set.

Presenter: Stig Abell

Eric Idle is of course a member of the comedy phenomenon Monty Python. His autobiography, or as he fashions it sortabiography, is called Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, after the song he wrote for the end of the troupe’s controversial 1979 film, Life of Brian. He’ll be talking about his role in Python, his career, his friendships with the likes of George Harrison and David Bowie, and the creation of Spamalot.

The latest Halloween film is the 11th in the long-running Halloween franchise. Ignoring all but the original 1978 film to which it is a direct sequel, the 2018 movie is set 40 years later with with Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprising their roles as final girl Laurie Strode and masked murderer Michael Myers. Critic Hannah Woodhead reviews.

With the announcement of the death of Cicely Berry, the legendary voice coach whose seminal work at the RSC revolutionised how actors thought of their voices, we hear from her in her own words.

The House of Commons library has opened its doors to Front Row for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour in honour of its 200th anniversary. It has survived air raids, fires and changes of government, but still little is known about this political institution, with access to the general public seldom granted. It not only houses Greek classics, biographies and historical treasures, but also acts as a vital source for MPs, researching and fact-checking policies and questions for the House.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed