Saturday Review

Robert Redford has given the performance of a lifetime according to many critics in his most recent film "All Is Lost". It's literally a one-man film set entirely at sea with about a page's-worth of dialogue over 100 minutes. Will our panel marvel at this bravura performance by the 77 year old Sundance Kid?

How To be A Heroine (or what I've learned from reading too much) is a book looking at strong female characters in novels and how they've changed over the years and how readers' relationships with them have also developed as they themselves grow up.

Lost Boy is a new play exploring what happened to the children in the Peter Pan story. Set on the eve of the First World War, we re-meet J M Barrie's characters now they've grown up and are preparing to face the world on the edge of horror.

7.39 is a new BBC TV drama based around a flirtatious relationship between 2 commuters on an early morning train. The cast includes Sheridan Smith, Olivia Colman, David Morrissey and Sean Maguire - it seems like a simple premise, but can the drudgery of commuting become dynamic drama?

And we visit The Wallace Collection in London to look at their permanent collection which is uniquely permanent in that a condition of the bequest that founded it states that no item can never be loaned out.

Producer: Oliver Jones.

Love/Hate: what were the works that really divided audiences in 2013? What pushes us to extreme opinions? Comedian and writer David Schneider and the novelists Naomi Alderman and Kamila Shamsie join Tom and an audience for some lively heartfelt debate taking in the year's arts, from Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling to Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.

Producer Sarah Johnson.

Australian novelist Christos Tsiolkas' previous book The Slap became an international best seller. His latest 'Barracuda' explores the mind of a young competitive swimmer who won't countenance the idea of failure; how does his obsession affect all those around him?

Matt Smith (the almost-former Dr Who) takes his first post-timelord steps in a stage musical based on American Psycho, the quintessential yuppie novel. How will they deal with the rat?

The Mind Maps exhibition at the Science Museum in London explores how mental health problems and other psychological disorders have been treated over the past 250 years. It includes objects from the museum's medical collection, archive images and art works, but how hard is it to show how the mind (rather than the brain) works?

A two-part BBC TV drama tells the story of the The Great Train Robbery of 1963. Starring Jim Broadbent as the policeman who made it his mission to track them down; part one tells the story of the robber's planning and execution of the job, and part two follows the police investigation. Is it possible to dramatise a crime without glamorising the criminals?

In the film The Innocents a young governess believes her two wards have become possessed by evil spirits. When it was released in 1961 it was rated certificate X and failed at the box office. In the intervening half century it has been hailed as a horror classic and is now being re-released as a certificate 12. Will a 50 year old black and white horror film appeal to a modern audience?

'Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Acting But Were Afraid To Ask, Dear' is a barbed guide to theatre written by an anonymous theatre reviewer known simply as West End Producer. Chapters include The Correct Way To Bow At The Curtain Call and Getting Into Drama School (learning how to sit in a circle).

Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are Abigail Morris, James Runcie and Cahal Dallat.

Producer: Oliver Jones.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Ellah Alfrey, Craig Raine and Rosie Boycott discuss the following -

Nebraska is the latest work from film director Alexander Payne, it's set in and carrying the name of his home state. Best known for his roles as menacing heavy characters, here Bruce Dern plays a old man who believes he has won a large cash prize and sets off to collect it, causing problems for his family and creating tension among his friends. It has been extremely warmly received in the USA, but what will our reviewers make of it?

Suzanne Berne's first novel won The Orange Prize in 1999; an auspicious start. Her latest, The Dogs of Littlefield, tells the story of smalltown America living under the shadow of a poisoner who is killing much-loved pets leading to rifts within the community. A mix of local townsfolk and academic observers have their theories about whodunnit and why. Can canine assassination sustain the interest of this week's reviewers?

The National Theatre has created seasonal shows in the past which have won acclaim from the press and public alike - His Dark Materials, Coram Boy and War Horse (which has become a fixture in London's West End for 6 years now). This year's offering is a stage adaptation of another favourite children's book - Emil and The Detectives - written in 1929. The cast includes more than 50 children onstage helping to tack down Emil's stolen money; could this turn out to be another War Horse?

An exhibition of photorealism at Birmingham's Museum and Art Gallery is the first major scale retrospective in Europe. The movement began in the USA in the late 60s, and was controversial and scorned by many in the art establishment of the time; but what does a modern audience who live in a high definition world make of this once-daring art?

Daniel Radcliffe makes another bid to shed the Harry Potter image with his latest film, playing homosexual poet Allen Ginsberg, in Kill Your Darlings. Telling the little-known tale of the group of beat writers who became embroiled in a gay murder in 1944, it's a big switch for Radcliffe but will he bring his fans with him?

Producer: Oliver Jones.

New film Saving Mr Banks tells the story of Disney's courting of PL Travers - the woman who wrote Mary Poppins. It wasn't an easy courtship as she didn't want any animation, any songs or even anything that was the colour red in it. Eventually she relented and this film shows her reconciled to the Disney-fication of her work. But is this version anything like reality? And could one expect Disney Studios to make a film about their founder that showed him in anything other than a flattering light?

Irish writer Eimear McBride's first novel A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing was rejected by all the major publishing houses as too difficult. Now it's won the inaugural Goldsmith's Prize- worth £10,000. The prize recognises 'published fiction that opens up new possibilities for the novel form', and the stream of consciousness story of a young girl has been compared to a cross between James Joyce and Edna O'Brien.

This American Life is a radio programme from WBEZ in Chicago and the most popular podcast in the USA. What's it about? How does it consistently win popular and critical acclaim? We listen to a couple of editions of the podcast to see whether it might appeal to a UK audience.

Comedian Larry David came to public attention as co-creator, writer and producer of Seinfeld on US television. He went on to create Curb Your Enthusiasm - and both of these shows have been hailed as groundbreaking comedy and much loved by TV audiences around the world. His newest project is a 90 minute comedy film for HBO, reprising his curmudgeonly obsessive character; does it still seem funny over an hour and a half, or can you have too much of a good thing?

White Light White Heat at The Wallace Collection in London is not a tribute to Lou Reed, but a display of work by contemporary artists such as Tracey Emin and Gavin Turk where they have collaborated with Venetian glass workers. Originally part of this year's Venice Bienalle, it's a small collection, but is it a thing of beauty or an indulgent experiment?

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer Deborah Moggach, Professor John Mullan and deputy editor of The New Statesman Helen Lewis

Producer: Oliver Jones.

Palme d'Or winning film Blue is the Warmest Colour has proved controversial, in part because of its subject matter - it's a story of two young lesbians who fall in love. The author of the original bande dessinee has described the film as porn, and the lengthy explicit sex scenes have caused consternation. And since its release the two actresses have said that they feel exploited. So it's a prize-winning film mired in problems but is it worth paying money to go and see?

Have you ever wondered what Arthur Conan Doyle would make of contemporary crime fiction ? Or how the Marquis de Sade feels about the fact that his plays are largely forgotten and that his name is mostly associated with sexual peccadilloes? A new book from Granta allows present day authors to imagine interviews with artists who - long ago - shuffled off this mortal coil. Is this merely a vanity project for the authors to stretch their skills or can it offer some sort of insight into the mind and working of their dead heroes?

2014 will mark the centenary of Dylan Thomas's birth. The great Welsh poet's most famous work - Under Milk Wood - has long been an inspiration to artist Sir Peter Blake. A new exhibition just opened in the Cardiff shows his interpretation of the story and its characters - he still listens to the radio play at least once a week. How successfully can an Englishman translate one of the classics of Welsh literature?

How can you turn redundancy into art? Earl Lipton is a New Yorker who has created a cabaret show about being made unemployed when his company relocated operations "to Mars". With songs including "Thank You (Financial Crisis Blues)"and "(When I move in with) My aging middle-class parents" it takes a satirical look at the problems that having no job can entail. It also includes a song sung by an abandoned sandwich. No Place To Go is at the Gate Theatre in London.

Jim Al-Khalili OBE is a theoretical physicist and Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey. He has a new series on BBC4/Open University that explores what 95% of what the universe is made up of. Can even he explain to a layman what dark matter is?

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by professor Maria Delgado, journalist Jim White and poet Cahal Dallat.

Producer: Oliver Jones.

The coincidence of a really hot cast and the restaging of a play by a writer whose most recent work was lauded and awarded should be a guarantee of a hit. Jez Butterworth's Mojo was originally staged at The Royal Court in London 18 years ago. His stratospheric success with Jerusalem and a cast that includes Ben Wishaw and Rupert "Ron Weasley" Grint (making his West End stage debut) means there is a lot of press attention and positivity towards "Mojo" at the Harold Pinter Theatre, but is there enough substance beneath the hype?

The Counselor is a film with an impeccable pedigree - starring Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, directed by Ridley 'Bladerunner' Scott, script by Cormac 'No Country for Old Men' McCarthy, it can't go wrong. Or can it?

Fatima Bhutto is a young writer who comes from the famous Pakistani dynasty, and her first novel The Shadow Of The Crescent Moon follows poetry, journalism and non fiction - telling the story of her father's murder. She's been acclaimed for her writing, so is this novel a successful transition into a new genre or treading on new and uncertain ground?

The designer Paul Smith's career began 43 years ago in a tiny windowless shop in Nottingham and now his 'empire' extends to 37 countries around the globe. The Design Museum in London has an exhibition looking at his career and achievements, and it even includes a recreation of his office with a desk so cluttered he's never been able to sit at it, but what does it reveal about the man and his work?

There's a new series on BBC2 looking at Britain during the Cold War. Historian Dominic Sandbrook considers how the UK dealt with the possible threat of nuclear armageddon and a world where nobody was above suspicion. How did the government respond and how did it affect the British people? It's a fascinating subject; how successfully can TV boil it down to a 3 part series?

Sarfraz Manzoor is joined by Ekow Eshun, Esther Freud and Miranda Sawyer

Producer: Oliver Jones.

Life in space is impossible, Gravity is a film about surviving out there. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney play astronauts working on a space shuttle when their lives are threatened by space shrapnel - a disintegrating satellite sends million of pieces of potentially murderous debris hurtling at them. Directed by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, it cost $100m to make and has taken more than $400m at the box office already, but will our reviewers be impressed by the scale of its reach and its success?

Rustication is the first novel in 14 years from the highly-acclaimed writer Charles Palliser. It's a mystery story set in 1864 in a rural village where someone is sending anonymous threatening letters and immolating livestock. The protagonist is a 17 year old opium addict who has tricky relationships with just about everybody, including his own family, but how much can we trust his version of events

Young black British playwright debbie tucker green's latest work - nut - looks at mental health issues. Opening with two friends planning their own funeral orations and wondering which of them will die first and how, it's full of honest language, frank portrayals of long-established relationships and sadness. Does the joyful use of language make for a joyful play?

Between 1927 and 1932, Stanley Spencer was commissioned to paint a series of canvases showing his experience of the first world war to be displayed in a specially constructed chapel in Berkshire. Because of reconstruction work being undertaken on the chapel's fabric, 16 of the paintings are on display outside their original setting (for only the second time in nearly 80 years). Can the non-consecrated context of Somerset House in London do them justice?

Yonderland is the new comedy TV series from the team behind Horrible Histories. Humans and puppets work together to create a fairytale fantasy set in a magical kingdom far far away. With puppets created by Henson alumni, it certainly has a fine pedigree, but will it live happily ever after?

Producer: Oliver Jones.

The new musical from Broadway composers John Kander and Fred Ebb tells the story of a group of 9 young African Americans who- in 1931 - were imprisoned on trumped-up rape charges. They've previously created singing Nazis (Cabaret), loveable mobsters (Chicago) and created the ultimate love song to a city (New York, New York). Have they turned a historical miscarriage of justice into a hit musical?

Philomena is a film starring Judi Dench as the mother of an illegitimate child born in 1950s Ireland and then put up for adoption without her knowledge. Steve Coogan is the investigative journalist who - 50 years later - helps her in her attempt to track him down. It's based on a real life story, but does a potentially sentimental story make a sentimental film?

Arcade Fire is a Grammy winning Montreal band whose 4 albums in 9 years have been gaining more and more critical and popular acclaim. Their latest Reflektor, features a brief contribution from one of their most famous fans, David Bowie, alongside tribal drumming and sounds for "people who've never even heard The Beatles". Is this album a triumph of hype over substance, or further development in the evolution of one of indie rock's great hopes?

Before American author Russell Banks began his writing career he worked as a plumber, and his work always retains a grounding in the real world. Many of the works in his latest collection of short stories are set around his real life in New York and Florida. Do they enhance his reputation and resonate with his heart and soul?

Channel 4's new documentary series about patients at the London's Maudsley Hospital has a controversial title; Bedlam. 1 in 4 of us suffers from a mental health problem, and for the first time TV cameras have been allowed unprecedented access to wards and patients at The Maudsley, but how can it avoid being voyeuristic or making the situation even worse?

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by dramatist Mark Ravenhill, critic and writer Paul Morley and writer Maev Kennedy.

Producer: Oliver Jones.