Front Row: Archive 2011

With Mark Lawson. Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Ryder spy series, has written a new Sherlock Holmes novel. He discusses how he has approached the distinctive narrative voice, and reflects on the potential pitfalls in taking on such well-loved characters. Alice in Wonderland, an exhibition at Tate Liverpool, examines how Lewis Carroll's classic books have inspired a wide range of art, from Victorian paintings to videos. Children's author and illustrator Chris Mould reviews.Dramatist David Edgar talks about his new play Written on the Heart, which marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. The play explores the different fates of the two translators: death at the stake for one, and for the other the possibility of an archbishop's mitre. The next James Bond film will be called Skyfall - which is not one of Ian Fleming's original titles. Language expert David Crystal reflects on the possible sources of the word skyfall, and film critic Mark Eccleston discusses what makes a grea

With Mark Lawson.At the age of 91, P D James has published a new crime novel, which is a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. Death Comes To Pemberley is set in Mr Darcy's ancestral home, where he and Elizabeth Bennet are living in marital bliss, which is suddenly ruptured by a brutal murder on the estate. P D James discusses her passion for Jane Austen and the challenge of living up to the great writer.Collaborators is a new play by John Hodge, whose film scripts include Trainspotting and Shallow Grave. It's set in Moscow in 1938, where writer Mikhail Bulgakov, played by Alex Jennings, accepts a tricky commission: to write a play celebrating the 60th birthday of Stalin, played by Simon Russell Beale. Michael Berkeley reviews.Cellist Steven Isserlis believes that the cello is closest of all instruments to the human voice, and his forthcoming concerts at the Wigmore Hall in London investigate the repertoire for voice and strings. Tenor Mark Padmore joins Steven Isserlis to discuss the tensions between singer and pla

With John Wilson. Justin Timberlake stars in the sci-fi thriller In Time, set in a world where you die after your 25th birthday unless you can afford to buy more time. Timberlake teams up with a young heiress, played by Amanda Seyfried, to try to destroy the system. Natalie Haynes reviews.David Bowie's influence in the 1970s, his most productive decade, is the focus of a new book by Peter Doggett. He charts how the music developed through the decade, and reflects on why Bowie's difficult background, including the shadow of a 'family curse' of madness, led to pioneering and experimental personas. Singer Adele has had to cancel her tour, after the discovery of a haemorrhage on her vocal cords. It's also the time of year when singers live in terror of getting a cold and being forced to cancel performances. Consultant laryngologist John Rubin, voice coach Mary King and soprano Elizabeth Watts discuss the problems singers face, and how they can avoid them. Two British sit-coms are back for second series. BBC Three

With John Wilson, including an interview with novelist and screenwriter Ronan Bennett, whose new TV drama series Top Boy focuses on young drug dealers in Hackney, London. Andrew Lloyd Webber reveals the winners of the first English Heritage Angel Awards, which he founded earlier this year to celebrate the efforts of people attempting to rescue historic buildings or places. He discusses the future funding of restoration projects with Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage. Jack Goes Boating is the directorial debut of the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. He also stars in the film as a shy and awkward limousine driver who is set up on a blind date. Andrew Collins reviews.And to mark Halloween, Jeremy Summerly - conductor and lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music - explains how composers create spooky and scary effects in classical music and film scores.Producer Claire Bartleet.

With Kirsty Lang.Emma Donoghue is the bestselling author of Room, the Booker-nominated novel inspired by the real life Josef Fritzl case. Her latest book is The Sealed Letter, a historical romp that deals with a scandalous 19th Century divorce case. She talks to Kirsty about why she always avoids taking sides among her characters.Music critic Caspar Llewellyn Smith reviews a selection of new albums - including Coldplay's recent Mylo Xyloto; Tom Waits' long-awaited Bad As Me; and Parisienne singer Camille's bilingual Ilo Veyou. Johnny Hallyday has announced he will play his first British concert at the Royal Albert Hall next year. French journalist Agnes Poirier explains the enduring appeal of the Gallic rocker.Martin Sixsmith reviews a new exhibition of Soviet art and architecture at the Royal Academy in London, which explores how the Russian avant-garde aesthetic reflected the energy and optimism of the new Soviet Socialist StatePlus: America's most famous cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, is renowned for performing works

With Kirsty Lang. The enduring fascination with Wallis Simpson continues in The Last of the Duchess, a new play by Nicholas Wright. Juliet Gardiner reviews Richard Eyre's production, and considers Simpson's recent popularity in film, television and literature. Gerard Butler discusses his role in the film Machine Gun Preacher, based on the true story of a drug dealer who becomes a crusader for children caught up in conflict in Africa. Kate Prince is the founder and creative director of Zoo Nation, an award winning dance and theatre company. Their show Into The Hoods became both the first ever hip-hop dance show to open in the West End and the longest running dance show in the West End's history. She tells Kirsty how she's trying to change hip hop's violent image.Space Age technology and ancient Sufi poetry are fused in a new sound installation at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire. Artists Tasawar Bashir and Brian Duffy and astrophysicist Tim O'Brien discuss a work featuring the voice of the celebrated Pakistani musicia

With Mark Lawson.George Clooney directs and stars in The Ides of March, a political drama set on the US primary campaign trail. Ryan Gosling plays an up and coming political strategist, whose idealism is threatened by the discovery of a dirty secret. Baroness Shirley Williams reviews.Jeanette Winterson made her literary debut with Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, a novel with strong autobiographical references to her troubled childhood. She talks about her new memoir, Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?, which promises the true story of her upbringing. As David Attenborough's latest series Frozen Planet starts on BBC One, he discusses how making programmes about the natural world has changed during his career - and why it's now impossible to ignore climate change when filming. As protesters remain camped outside St Paul's Cathedral, Mike Bartlett's new play 13 opens at the National Theatre and explores political and social unrest in contemporary London. Andrew Rawnsley gives his verdict. Producer Georgia Mann

Kirsty Lang meets Italian intellectual and novelist Umberto Eco, now nearly 80, at his home in Milan. The writer looks back at the surprise success of his first novel The Name of the Rose, published when he was 48, which has sold 50 million copies. Following successes with subsequent novels including Foucault's Pendulum and Baudolino, Umberto Eco's sixth novel is published in the UK next week. The Prague Cemetery is a controversial novel set in 19th Century Europe, which focuses on the birth of modern-day anti-semitism. The book has already sold one million copies and abounds with conspiracy theories, forgery and deceit. In a rare interview Umberto Eco, a professor in semiotics, reflects on his fascination for language and the way it is used to deceive, which lies at the heart of much of his writing. Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With Mark Lawson.Anonymous, directed by Roland Emmerich, claims Shakespeare didn't write any plays or sonnets: the real author was the Earl of Oxford - played by Rhys Ifans - who wrote them all in secret. Ryan Gilbey reviews.Stephan Solzhenitsyn, son of the Nobel Prize-winning writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, reflects on his father's life and legacy, as a new collection of his short stories is published in English for the first time. Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis talks to Mark about her new film The Help. She reflects on the differences between acting in Hollywood and on stage, and the roles she is offered as an African-American actress. Producer Georgia Mann.

With John Wilson.Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys reflect on their never-released album Smile, recorded in 1966 and 1967 and now made available for the first time. Brian Wilson remembers the destructive role drugs played in the creation of this legendary 'lost' album, and music broadcaster Paul Gambaccini assesses how it sounds four decades on. Steven Spielberg's new film is an adaptation of the Tintin comic series using motion-captured CGI with Jamie Bell in the leading role of the intrepid boy reporter. Naomi Alderman considers how well the Hergé characters translate into film.Peter Brook's 1964 production of Marat/Sade for the Royal Shakespeare Company caused huge controversy and public outcry. Now, as part of their 50th anniversary season, the RSC are restaging it. Has it retained its shock value? Andrew Dickson has the verdict. Producer: Philippa Ritchie.

With John Wilson. Peter Gabriel's latest project was inspired by his 2010 CD Scratch My Back, in which he gave an orchestral treatment to some of his favourite artists' songs. The former Genesis frontman discusses his new album New Blood, in which he gives highlights from his own solo back-catalogue a similar makeover, including Don't Give Up and Solsbury Hill. Doctor Who's Karen Gillan makes her professional stage debut in a new production of John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence, which stars the Olivier and Tony award-winning actor Douglas Hodge in the massive central role of a disintegrating middle-aged lawyer, clinging to the human wreckage he's left in his wake. Sarah Churchwell reviews. The first major show for over 25 years of the work of surrealist painter Edward Burra opens this weekend. Despite suffering with acute arthritis so that his hands could hardly hold the brush, Burra is one of the most original 20th century British artists, fascinated by the seedy side of life, and inspired by a mixture of

With Mark Lawson,The actress Thandie Newton has set herself a challenge for her first ever stage role. Taking time out from her film career - she won a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for Paul Haggis's Crash - she discusses playing the role of Paulina Salas, a former political prisoner in a Latin American country who was incarcerated and raped by her captors, in Ariel Dorfman's play Death and the Maiden.Romola Garai, star of The Hour and Atonement, reviews a new exhibition of historical actress portraits depicting such superstars of their time as Nell Gwyn, mistress of Charles II, and Dorothy Jordan who had 10 illegitimate children with William IV. The exhibition includes Joshua Reynolds's depiction of Sarah Siddons as a noble Tragic Muse, and a full frontal portrait of a bare-breasted Nell Gwyn.The Slap is a new TV drama series starting on BBC Four, based on Christos Tsiolkas' best-selling novel. At a summer barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his son and the story traces the repercussions of a single eve

With Mark Lawson.In the new film Contagion, an untreatable deadly virus is threatening the world's population. Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Jude Law head the cast, directed by Steven Soderbergh. Matt Thorne reviews.As the hit play Jerusalem returns to the London stage after great success on Broadway, Mark Rylance discusses the role that won him his second Best Actor Tony Award. He describes the subtle changes made to the very English play for the benefit of American audiences and why after more than 250 appearances as Johnny Byron, he still looks forward to every performance.Sir Terry Pratchett reflects on his career as he publishes Snuff, his 50th book and part of the bestselling Discworld series, which began in 1983. He reveals the inspiration behind his latest novel, which centres on a policeman investigating a brutal murder, and discusses the impact of living with Alzheimer's since his diagnosis in 2007.Producer Jerome Weatherald.

With Mark Lawson.Director Lynne Ramsay's new film We Need to Talk About Kevin won considerable acclaim at this year's Cannes festival. She discusses adapting Lionel Shriver's Orange Prize-winning novel for the cinema, where Tilda Swinton plays the tortured mother of Kevin, who goes on a horrific rampage two days before his 16th birthday.Theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh is 65 today. He discusses his four decades in the business, in which he has defied critics with international successes including The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, which is now set to become a film staring Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. He also reflects on working with Andrew Lloyd Webber and finding talent via TV audition shows.Writer Haruki Murakami is a literary superstar in his native Japan, and his books have been translated into dozens of languages. His latest title 1Q84 sold a million copies in one month in his homeland, and is published in English for the first time this week, as three books in two volumes. Novelist Toby

With Kirsty Lang. Tamsin Greig, who plays Debbie in The Archers, returns to the stage in Jumpy, a new play by April De Angelis which focuses on the relationship between a mother and her difficult teenaged daughter. Tamsin discusses why she doesn't see herself as a comic actress, and reflects on the uncertainties of the actor's life.In 1979, Monty Python's film Life Of Brian caused outrage around the world. Michael Palin and John Cleese took part in a televised debate with Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark, to defend their film against charges of blasphemy. A new TV drama, Holy Flying Circus, tells the story of this encounter. Writer Peter Stanford reviews. Former Python turned director Terry Gilliam has made a short film which was wholly financed by an Italian pasta company. Wholly Family is being screened as part of the BFI London Film Festival. He talks about the making of the film - and why he feels he wasn't selling out. A new documentary Blood In The Mobile examines how minerals commonly use

With Mark Lawson.As the band Manic Street Preachers release a compilation of their singles and a volume of Polaroids charting their story, band member Nicky Wire reflects on their career, the loss of Richey Edwards and their continuing belief in singles and albums in a digital age. In the wake of a bomb explosion outside the City of Culture offices in Londonderry, Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of Culture Company 2013, discusses how this event might affect her plans and preparations. As a Dance Marathon begins at the Barbican, London, and the Bush Theatre plans to re-open with a 24 hour continuous performance of 66 new plays, Mark reports on the demands and perils of the marathon show, with Mark Watson, the comedian who managed three stand-up shows lasting 24 hours and more ; DJ Simon Mayo, former world-record holder for the longest radio broadcast ever; theatre critic Michael Coveney, who experienced Ken Campbell's 22 hour play The Warp, and Dr Sarah Jarvis, who offers health warnings. Producer: Lisa Davis.

With John Wilson.Singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher dominated the musical landscape of the 1990s in the band Oasis, alongside his brother Liam. After a final acrimonious split with the band, Gallagher is set to release his first solo album: High Flying Birds. He talks about how the modern music industry baffles him, and why he had to say no to Simon Cowell.Is the art market impervious to the current economic turmoil? As wealthy collectors gather at the Frieze Art Fair in London, art market watchers Godfrey Barker and Sarah Thornton attempt to follow the money. The war photography of Don McCullin is the subject of a new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London. Shaped by War brings together McCullin's frontline work from across the world, including East and West Berlin, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Biafra, and his classic images from the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. Don McCullin discusses his 50 years avoiding bullets in search of the picture that captures the story in a fraction of a second. Produ

With Mark Lawson.Steve Coogan has returned to the character that made him a household name, publishing Alan Partridge's autobiography. He discusses the way Partridge has evolved over the years and whether he's ever considered killing him off.The Comic Strip returns to Channel 4 this week with The Hunt for Tony Blair, in which the former Prime Minister is a 1950s fugitive, on the run for mass murder. Political commentators Quentin Letts and Andrew Rawnsley review. The new Australian film Sleeping Beauty - the debut from writer and director Julia Leigh - tells the story of a university student who signs up for a series of sessions in which her unconscious body is used by men for their erotic fantasies. Author and critic Kate Saunders gives her verdict. Producer Georgia Mann.

With Mark Lawson.Turner Prize nominee Tacita Dean unveils her newly commissioned work in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. Her silent film is displayed on a giant screen which stretches from the floor to the ceiling of the gigantic space. Fim-maker Morgan Spurlock, Oscar-nonimated for his documentary Super Size Me, has turned his attention to product placement, marketing and advertising in movies and TV shows for his new film The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Wearing a suit embroidered with the names of the sponsors he got on board for the film, Morgan Spurlock discusses the challenge of getting corporations to commit substantial sums to finance his project.Real Steel is a science-fiction action film starring Hugh Jackman, set in the year 2020 when humans have been replaced by robots in the boxing ring. Jackman plays a debt-ridden former boxer, who attempts to profit from illegal robot fights. Mark Eccleston reviews.And as Channel 4 announce that they are putting their popular property series Relocation, Relocation 'on

With Kirsty Lang. Vermeer's Women, a new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, features four works by the Dutch master, including The Lacemaker from the Louvre in Paris, on show in the UK for the first time. Tracy Chevalier, whose novel Girl With A Pearl Earring was inspired by a Vermeer painting, reviews the show. The actor Paddy Considine, known for films including In America, Dead Man's Shoes and Hot Fuzz, has written and directed his first feature film. Tyrannosaur is loosely based on Considine's own father, and stars Peter Mullan as a man plagued by violence and rage, whose life changes when he meets a religious charity shop worker. Paddy Considine discusses the film and the difficulties he faces coping with Asperger's Syndrome, diagnosed last year.Mohammed Hanif, Pakistan-born journalist and writer of the prize-winning A Case of Exploding Mangoes, talks about his new novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, the story of a junior nurse in downtown Karachi. He explains the art of being a sit-down come