Front Row

Emily Watson discusses her role as Marmee March, the mother of four daughters, in the new BBC TV adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women, set in 1860s Massachusetts against the background of the American Civil War.As the landmark film The Graduate turns 50 today, actress Tracy Ann Oberman and film critic MaryAnn Johanson discuss how the character of the seductress Mrs Robinson shaped the role of the older woman on screen.Ahead of this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special which features the regeneration of the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi, we ask Doctor Who: The Fan Show's Christel Dee exactly what regeneration is, how it works, and what we can expect from the Christmas Special.With only a couple of days left before Christmas, music writer Ben Wardle breathes a sigh of relief that he won't be bombarded for much longer by those perennial Christmas songs, from Wham to Wizzard. He discusses what makes an enduring Christmas pop tune and how having one in your back catalogue can be a nice little earner.Pr

Jodie Foster was a child star who fulfilled that early promise with performances as an adult that won her two Oscars. She went on to direct - four feature films so far. Now she is turning to television, taking charge of an episode of Charlie Brooker's sci-fi series Black Mirror. She talks to John Wilson about this and, after a quarter of a century, the continuing power of The Silence of the Lambs.Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut Molly's Game, starring Jessica Chastain, is based on the true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target. Ellen E Jones reviews.Critic Ellen E Jones gives us her run-down of what films to see at cinemas this ChristmasAs the award-winning hip hop musical Hamilton transfers to London's West End from Broadway, critic Matt Wolf and music journalist Kevin Le Gendre discuss the hotly-anticipated musical phenomenon.With Radio 4 marking winter today as part of its Four Seasons project, the poet Imtiaz Dharker

The actor and one-time theology student James Norton discusses his role as Alex Godman in new TV thriller McMafia. His character begins the series as a public advocate of clean capitalism with his own hedge fund investing only in ethical business, but Alex can't escape his Russian family connections and slowly gets drawn into the dangerous world of international organised crime and corruption. Penny Martin, editor of The Gentlewoman, and Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, deputy editor of gal-dem magazine, discuss the agendas of their respective publications and the independent magazine landscape, which is vibrant and culturally significant.You love opera and would love to nurture such love in a loved one: music critics Norman Lebrecht and Alexandra Coghlan are at hand to help, offering their choices of a recording of an opera to entice the reluctant and a cracker available on a DVD. The Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton is staging The Jungle Book. It's impossible, but try to put 'I'm the King of the Swingers'

Mavis Staples, formerly of the gospel group The Staple Singers, discusses her new album If All I Was Was Black, ten songs which address the continuing racial issues in America today. The singer, who first performed in 1948, also reflects on her association with Martin Luther King and her close friendship with Prince. Her Body and Other Parties is the acclaimed debut short story collection from American writer Carmen Maria Machado. The book sits between magic realism, science-fiction and horror and Carmen reveals what she drew on to create the stories. With Christmas fast approaching - along with stage, film and TV versions à go-go of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - writer, comedian, and self-professed fan of the Christmas ghost story, Danny Robins, explores our endless fascination for them.

As The League of Gentlemen returns to BBC Two for three new episodes we speak to Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson about revisiting the bizarre characters of Royston Vasey. Gina Yashere and Jenny Eclair discuss how the climate for comedy has changed and whether comedians still have a duty to shock.How Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World changed television, with producer John Fairley and Professor Roger Luckhurst from Birkbeck, University of London.Image: Mickey (MARK GATISS), Pauline (STEVE PEMBERTON), Ross (REECE SHEARSMITH) Credit: BBC/James Stack.

Emily Wilson, the first woman to translate The Odyssey, explains why the issues running through the epic - gender, geo-politics, migration - make Homer, writing 3,000 years ago, an author for our times.Emily Wilson is joined by Daniel Hahn who, as well as writing books, translates them from Portuguese, Spanish and French. Comparing their approaches they discuss the art of translating, how it reflects the age in which it is undertaken, its challenges and its importance to our culture today.Michael Cooper, journalist at the New York Times, tells Stig about the latest developments in the drama unfolding around the Metropolitan Opera House's new production of Tosca.As the Hayward Gallery in London prepares to re-open its doors next month after a two-year closure, its director Ralph Rugoff and the architect Richard Battye discuss the renovations and restoration of the brutalist contemporary art gallery.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Theatre director Emma Rice talks about her final production as Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe, The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales. She discusses the inspiration for the show as well as her reasons for leaving her post after only two seasons in the job. Children's writer Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie novels have been much loved since they were first published in America during the Great Depression. Caroline Fraser, the author of a new biography Prairie Fires, and Eddie Higgins, a British member of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, examine Wilder's life and popularity, 150 years since her birth. South London-born actor John Boyega discusses improvising on the set of his latest film, the sci-fi behemoth Star Wars: The Last Jedi and why he likes to mix Hollywood blockbusters with theatre. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald.

Kazuo Ishiguro is the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. To mark the occasion, he talks to John Wilson from Stockholm about his reaction to the award. He highlights issues such as artificial intelligence and genetic research that are firing his imagination. Front Row also hears from his first editor Robert McCrum, Booker-nominated fellow author Mohsin Hamid, and singer Stacey Kent about the powerful, moving, strange and sometimes funny work of the author, whose work ranges from A Pale View of Hills to The Remains of the Day and most recently The Buried Giant.

As the Christmas TV schedules are finalised we round up the best festive telly. With Caroline Frost. Do live music venues need protecting from inner-city property development? We debate a proposed "Agent of Change" law to do just that. With the Rt Hon John Spellar MP and Andrew Whitaker, Planning Director of the Home Builders Federation. The young directors who brought theatre to the Jungle camp in Calais, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, have now written a play about the experience. They discuss staging The Jungle at the Young Vic in London. With news that sales of vinyl records have hit a new 25-year high, music writer Ben Wardle - a self-confessed middle-aged vinyl bore - expresses his concerns over his patch being a little threatened by a new breed of collector, the vinyl hipster.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Helen Fitzhenry.

An eight-part series about the legendary rivalry between Hollywood icons Bette Davis and Joan Crawford comes to BBC2 this Christmas. Matthew Sweet reviews.What makes going to the theatre or cinema a pleasurable experience and what -such as long loo queues, smelly snacks and mobile phones - can ruin a night out. Matthew Sweet stays on to discuss this with journalist Rosamund Urwin.'Snow was general all over Ireland' wrote James Joyce, memorably, in Dubliners. Snow has been a great inspiration to writers and poets. In America Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens and Robert Frost have all written beautiful snow poems. But snow is nothing unusual there. Poets here are inspired by snow partly because it comes unexpectedly. There is always an element of surprise and wonder. Gillian Clarke reads her poem Snow, from her collection, Ice. Anne Washburn thinks that almost every American aged over 30 has seen the sci-fi series The Twilight Zone. The playwright tells Kirsty Lang about bringing this television classic to the E

Vanessa Redgrave has just been awarded the Richard Harris Award which is given to an actor for their outstanding contribution to British film. She talks to Stig about her long career in cinema and theatre. Imperium is the Royal Shakespeare Company's new six-hour production which looks at power politics in ancient Rome, which is based on Robert Harris's bestselling Cicero trilogy. The writer and classical historian Natalie Haynes has seen the production and gives her verdict. French president Emmanuel Macron has called for African artefacts currently held in French museums to be returned to their countries of origin. Cultural historian Andrew Hussey discusses the reaction in France, the practicalities of such a pledge, and what pressure it might put on museums in Britain. The Irish writer Sally Rooney has just been awarded The 2017 Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award for Conversations With Friends. The 26-year-old's debut novel has become a critical and word-of-mouth hit this yea

Christopher Nolan, writer and director of Memento, Inception, Interstellar and the Batman trilogy including The Dark Knight, looks back over his career as the DVD of his most recent film Dunkirk is about to be released.Theatre critic and broadcaster Nick Ahad reviews the new all-black cast production of Guys and Dolls at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. John Lahr, writer and theatre critic, and Dr Lynette Goddard, author of Modern and Contemporary Black British Drama, discuss the issues raised by all-black cast theatre productions.Tonight the UK's City of Culture 2021 will be announced. The contenders are Coventry, Paisley, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Swansea. Arts Minister John Glen and a spokesperson from the winning city tell us what to expect from the new City of Culture.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Kate Bullivant.

Portrait painter Jonathan Yeo discusses his ambitious new cutting-edge sculpture, which features in a new exhibition From Life at the Royal Academy, alongside works by Jeremy Deller, Jenny Saville and Gillian Wearing. Yeo's sculpture of his own head was created on a virtual reality headset, challenging the foundry tasked with making it to find a way of 3-D printing the digital work in bronze, never done before. Artist Anish Kapoor has created a new trophy for next year's Brit Awards. Design journalist Max Fraser assesses the new design and discusses what makes the best award statuette.On the 100th Anniversary of Finnish Independence, the conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, whose career is being celebrated by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a Total Immersion Day at the Barbican, talks about the influence of Finland on his life and music. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Actress Claire Foy talks about returning to play Queen Elizabeth II in series two of Netflix's hugely successful TV series The Crown. Tenor Bryan Hymel, famous for his high Cs, is in performing in both Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in the same evening at the Royal Opera House, Covemnt Gardens. He talks about the challenges of this, and he sings live in the Front Row studio.As Powell and Pressburger's 1946 masterpiece film A Matter of Life and Death returns to the big screen round the UK, we ask film writers Ian Christie and Rosemary Fletcher : How do we pass on our film heritage to a new generation ?

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Stronger, a true story of Jeff Bauman who lost both of his legs when a bomb exploded at the Boston Marathon in 2013. Ellen E Jones reviews the film that charts his recovery.Douglas Henshall discusses his role as journalist and TV news director Max Schumacher in the stage version of the 1976 Oscar-winning film Network at the National Theatre, alongside Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston who plays the troubled news anchor Howard Beale who is famously 'mad as hell' and 'not going to take this anymore!'Performing live Tokio Myers, the pianist who fuses classical piano pieces with pop tracks. Myers came to prominence earlier this year when he won Britain's Got Talent and has just released his debut album. He discusses studying at the Royal College of Music and supporting Amy Winehouse and Kanye West on tour.Shashi Kapoor has died today. We look at the life and work of the Bollywood star with Asian Network's Ashanti Omkar.

Italian Soprano Cecilia Bartoli and Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta come together for an album of baroque arias, in which the voice and cello intertwine in a way they describe as Dolce Duello, a sweet duel. Founding editor Nick Logan, writer and editor Sheryl Garratt, and Paul Gorman, author of The Story of The Face, look back at the era-defining youth music and culture magazine.I Love You, Daddy is a new film by US comedian Louis CK. Due to go on general release in the US today, the film was dropped after allegations of sexual misconduct by the comedian were reported and admitted. Alexandra Schwartz of the New Yorker reviews the controversial film we might never see.And we open the first window of the Front Row advent calendar with a festive celebration of the year's special moments on the programme. Today, Stormzy.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Sir Michael Parkinson discusses his love of jazz and big-band music, and the choices he made for a collection of his favourite songs: Our Kind of Music: The Great American Songbook. He also reflects on his years spent interviewing the showbiz A list. Hull is rounding off its year as UK City of Culture with a new adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol' by Deborah McAndrew who sets it in the port. The Royal Shakespeare Company has a new version by David Edgar, who adapted their world-famous 'Nicholas Nickelby', and The Old Vic has one, too, by Jack Thorne, famous for writing the stage version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Front Row gathers all three to discuss the enduring appeal of Dickens's story, and how to make it new.R J Palacio's award-winning book, Wonder, about a young boy with facial differences, has just been made into a film starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay. Lisa Hammond reviews.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

Amy Sherman-Palladino, the screenwriter and director who found fame with hit show Gilmore Girls, discusses her latest TV comedy drama The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Set in 1950s New York, it's about an Upper West Side housewife who becomes a stand-up comic when her life takes an unexpected turn.As the Film Awards Season gets into full swing with Spielberg's drama The Post winning at the National Board of Review, how will the sex scandals engulfing Hollywood impact on the films lauded this year, and the awards ceremonies themselves? Are costume workers undervalued and underpaid? Gaylene Gould is joined by Catherine Kodicek, Head of Costume at the Young Vic, and Nicole Young from BECTU, to discuss the pay and conditions of costume and wardrobe professionals in theatre, film and television.

We discuss the portrayal of Chinese characters on TV with Shin-Fei Chen, co-creator of BBC Three's Chinese Burn, and writer and theatre director David Tse Ka-Shing. The William Hill Sports Book of the Year, the world's richest and longest-running prize for sports writing, was awarded earlier today to Andy McGrath for Tom Simpson: Bird on the Wire. Kirsty reports from the ceremony where she talked to the authors of the seven books on the shortlist - whose subjects include 'swimming suffragettes', Muhammad Ali and the cyclist Tom Simpson - and speaks to the winner of the £29,000 prize. James Franco on why he stayed in character throughout directing and starring in The Disaster Artist, which tells the story of 2003 cult film The Room - often described as "the Citizen Kane of bad films" - and its enigmatic filmmaker Tommy Wiseau.

Yesterday saw the announcement of the death Rodney Bewes, the actor most fondly remembered playing the aspirational Bob in the BBC sitcom The Likely Lads. His co-star from the series James Bolam talks about working with Bewes in one of sitcom's most famous double-acts and the supposed feud between the two.As Gilbert & George celebrate 50 years of living and working together, Kirsty visits them at their Spitalfields home and studio to discuss their career, a new exhibition called The Beard Pictures and a new book, What is Gilbert & George?Marnie, the book by Winston Graham that inspired Hitchcock's thriller of the same name, has now inspired composer and opera wunderkind Nico Muhly to create his third opera, also called Marnie. Music critic Alexandra Coghlan attended its world premiere at English National Opera and reviews. Plus we ask music critic Norman Lebrecht to discuss whether opera has become a derivative art form, and we pay tribute to Russian opera bass-baritone, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who has d