Front Row

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 can

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 Producer Jerome Weatherald

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 Producer: Hannah Robins

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 Producer Edwina Pitman

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 Producer: Kate Bullivant

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 ac

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

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

Gerard Butler talks to John Wilson about starring alongside Gary Oldman in his latest action film, Hunter Killer. Set deep under the Arctic Ocean, Butler plays an American submarine captain on the hunt for another US vessel in distress when he discovers a secret Russian coup that could lead to another world war. Bigger budgets, bigger explosions and bigger torsos seem to be dominating our movie screens, with actors such as Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg known for their intense workout regimes. But how damaging is this trend for audiences and is bigger always better? Film critic Adam Smith and Mark Twight, the Hollywood personal trainer responsible for getting Superman, Wonder Woman and the cast of 300 into shape, discuss.Leading Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk on her International Man Booker prize-winning novel Flights, her new novel in translation, Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of the Dead, and how the history and politics of her home country informs her literary lifeAnd, a classic song is 55 today...Pres

Willy Loman is very much the heart and soul of Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer-prizewinning play, Death of a Salesman. However as a new production opens at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, two actors Maureen Beattie and Marion Bailey - who have played the role of Linda Loman- join Stig to discuss what they found when they played the salesman’s wife.Crime novelist AA Dhand reviews ‘Informer’ a new criminal intelligence thriller set in East London about a police informant programme targeting radicalised youth. ‘Informer’ stars Paddy Considine and newcomer Nabhaan Rizwan.Geology and technology come together in two new exhibitions. The work of artist Dan Holdsworth is the focus of Continuous Topography at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art in Sunderland, while at York Art Gallery, there’s a group show, Strata-Rock-Dust-Stars. Cherie Frederico, editor of Aesthetica magazine and Dan Holdsworth join Stig to discuss why the planet has become a new frontier for artists working with digital technology.Liverpool-based

#MeToo one year on – what impact has the hashtag popularised by Hollywood actresses had on the arts and on women around the world? We speak to Jude Kelly, Founder & Director of the Women Of the World Foundation, film critic Larushka Ivan Zadeh, Helen Lewis, Associate Editor Of The New Statesman, and to Naomi Pohl, Assistant General Secretary Of The Musicians Union.Forgotten is a new play about the Chinese Labour Corps, the 140,000 Chinese men who at the height of the First World War travelled half way round the world to work for Britain and the Allies behind the front lines, and whose story is hardly known. Playwright Daniel York Loh talks to Kirsty Lang about his play whose title, written in Chinese characters, can also mean for Left Behind or maybe Erased.

The 2011 Norwegian terrorist attack at Utøya island summer camp has been made into a film by Paul Greengrass. The director, whose previous work includes the Jason Bourne thrillers, Bloody Sunday and Captain Phillips, explains his approach to making such an emotional and politically charged picture, which shows both the attack itself and the perpetrator Anders Breivik’s justifying his actions in court.Best mates and actors Lisa Hammond (formerly of EastEnders) and Rachael Spence wanted to make their own show but had no idea where to start. So in 2010 they asked members of the public to come up with stories for them. When they saw Lisa in a wheelchair and Rachael not, what the public suggested was funny, staggering and sad. They made a show about it and called it No Idea. Fast forward to 2018 and Lisa and Rachael felt that by now attitudes had surely changed. Their new show Still No Idea reflects what they found. A new report commissioned by Arts Council England, ‘What is Resilience Anyway?’, offers advice

Desiree Akhavan has not only co-written Channel 4's new comedy drama The Bisexual, but directs and stars in it as well. The series centres on Leila, who after splitting from her long-term girlfriend, attempts to navigate the dating scene as she becomes involved with both men and women.Film critic Rhianna Dhillon reviews ensemble thriller Bad Times at the El Royal starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth and Dakota Johnson, where seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at a rundown motel on the California/Nevada border.The 2018 RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building has been awarded to Bloomberg, London, the billion-pound structure sometimes described as the world’s most sustainable office. Former jury member, architectural historian and writer Tom Dyckhoff comments on this year’s choice.Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage, set in the midst of the Thirty Years War, turns 80 next year. Theatre Directors Rod Dixon and Hannah Chissick discuss why the German playwright's creation continues to

When Stig Abell was in his mid-twenties he went through a period where he would wake up in the middle of the night uncontrollably anxious and found reading, especially the novels of PG Wodehouse, provided respite. In this special programme on World Mental Health Day, Stig goes on a journey to try and understand what it is about reading which can improve mental well-being, and talks to writers Marian Keyes and Laura Freeman, and comedian Russell Kane about the role reading has played in helping their own. He visits Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust to talk to Dr Pravir Sharma about the efficacy of reading as a treatment for mental health conditions and peer support worker Eugene Egan, a former service user, whose involvement in the Trust's Reading Well group has contributed to his recovery amid other positive outcomes.Marian Keyes suffered a period of debilitating, clinical depression. As she recovered she turned to writers such as Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie, finding the gen

An entire disused swimming pool has been built on the ground floor of the Whitechapel Gallery in London for the new exhibition from the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset. The artists discuss how they have been inspired by the work of David Hockney and Ed Ruscha. Then film critic Mark Eccleston art critic Jacky Klein and artist and former Canadian national competitive swimmer Leanne Shapton reflect on the swimming pool in the arts. Kwame Kwei-Armah opens his first season as the Artistic Director of London’s Young Vic with a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night. This reworking of Shakespeare’s comedy, which includes soul music and show tunes from songwriter Shaina Taub, has already impressed audiences in New York. Theatre critic Sam Marlowe gives her verdict.Green Noise is the title of poet Jean Sprackland’s new collection which encapsulates her concerns with the natural world on which she focuses minutely, as well as the sounds of the street, the wind, and resonating history. She reads her work and talks

The actor and entertainer Bernard Cribbins, who will be 90 in December, discusses his new memoir Bernard Who?: 75 Years of Doing Just About Everything, in which he tells his own story, very much in his own way, about a busy career which includes Jackanory , Right Said Fred, Doctor Who, The Wombles, Shakespeare, Hitchcock’s Frenzy, The Railway Children, Crooks in Cloisters, three Carry On films and lots of radio. La La Land duo Ryan Gosling and director Damien Chazelle reunite for First Man, a film about the trials and tribulations of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s bold and costly mission to land on the moon. Ryan plays Neil Armstrong alongside The Crown star Claire Foy as his wife Janet. The actors consider how the astronaut and his wife had to deal with the high-pressured space race whilst processing the death of their young daughter.The new ITV drama series Butterfly focuses on a child who socially transitions from Max to Maxine. Transgender author Juno Dawson gives her verdict on how well the drama tackles the

“It’s about time” is the tagline for the new Doctor Who series, referencing the programme’s time-travelling exploits, but also the arrival of the first female Doctor in the show's history. Jodie Whittaker will be the 13th Doctor and tells us how she's tackling a role with so much history, attention and anticipation around it.Haruki Murakami's novels are awaited by eager audiences not just in his native Japan but the world over. Killing Commendatore is his latest and it delivers all the things his readers have come to expect: brushes with the supernatural, an almost audible soundtrack and a narrator who’s lost his way. How successful is it? Critic Alex Clark reviews and analyses the Murakami phenomenon.Quentin Blake, one of the world’s best loved illustrators, takes us around the first ever exhibition dedicated to his figurative art. Featuring large-scale oil paintings and drawings it reveals a more experimental side to his practice. Blake explains how this darker, more serious work emerged.Presenter: Stig

Alice Walker is famous for prose books such as The Color Purple and In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. But her first book was a collection of poems and she has published eight more. Alice talks about her latest, Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart, which ranges from poems of rage about injustice, poems of praise to great figures - BB King for instance - and celebration of the ordinary like making frittatas. Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is known for her pumpkin installations and her obsession with polka dots. A new documentary charts her career beginning in New York in the 1950s during the Pop Art movement, where she became well known for her provocative immersive exhibitions and performances. It covers her return to Japan in middle-age, checking herself into a psychiatric hospital and fading from public view, to her current status as the world’s bestselling living female artist. The film-maker Heather Lenz tells us about her documentary. Alongside the film, a new show of Yayoi Kusama’s recent work opens this we

In the week Rowan Atkinson returns to the big screen as the hapless spy in Johnny English Strikes Again, which sees him batter innocent bystanders and himself in a series of pratfalls, we look at the art of physical comedy. Jonathan Sayer of Mischief Theatre, classicist and stand-up Natalie Haynes and Dr Oliver Double of the University of Kent attempt to answer an eternal question: why is the unfortunate mishap hilarious - so long as someone else is falling off the ladder?Damien Hirst has just announced that he is scaling back business activities, including laying off 50 staff, to focus on making art. This news coincided with a recent report into the value of Hirst’s work, which found that the artworks he sold at auction in 2008, had plummeted in value when resold. Art market journalist Georgina Adam explains what this all might mean for the artist. Andre Aciman, whose first novel Call Me By Your Name, was turned into an Oscar winning film, discusses his latest novel Enigma Variations, which charts the life a

We announce the winner of the 2018 BBC National Short Story Award and the Young Writers' Award live from West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge and celebrate the power and possibilities of the short story.Judges Sarah Howe and Stig Abell discuss the merits of the entries from the shortlisted authors. In contention for the £15,000 prize are Kerry Andrew, Sarah Hall, Kiare Ladner, Ingrid Persaud and Nell Stevens.Radio 1 presenter Katie Thistleton will also announce the winner of the BBC Young Writers' Award and consider the strengths and emerging themes of the stories with fellow judge Sarah Crossan, the Irish Children's Laureate / Laureate na nÓg.The Student Critics Award is a new scheme mentoring school students in their critical reading, helping this generation to be literary critics in a digital world where everyone can be a reviewer. Poet Dean Atta has been workshopping in a school and describes his work with the young people he met. The BBC National Short Story Award is presented in conjunction with Cambrid