Front Row

Jim Broadbent stars as an elderly divorcee who receives a letter that unlocks memories of a relationship he had back in the 1960s. He and director Ritesh Batra describe how they've reinterpreted Julian Barnes' novel The Sense of an Ending for film.50 years ago this week Marvin Gaye finished recording a track that would go on to become one of the most iconic love songs ever written. To mark the moment, music journalist Kevin Le Gendre records his own tribute to I Heard It Through the Grapevine.Novelist Matt Johnson started writing as part of his treatment for PTSD after a career in the army and police. Author Johana Gustawsson tackled the horror of her grandfather's deportation to a Second World War concentration camp, to form a family bond that wasn't possible during his lifetime. They discuss how writing has helped them to process difficult life experiences. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Angie Nehring.

Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins has had seven Number One albums and sung around the world to huge audiences, but is a self-described 'newbie' to acting. Making her stage debut in the English National Opera's Carousel, she talks to John about her love of Rodgers and Hammerstein, learning an American accent and her dressing-room nerves.Netflix has replaced its users' star ratings with a simple thumbs up or down because, they say, the five-star system had begun to feel antiquated. Caroline Frost, Huffington Post UK's Entertainment Editor, and Sarah Crompton, Chief Theatre critic for WhatOnStage and former Arts editor of The Telegraph, discuss the pros and cons of star ratings. In April 2015, an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden was burgled. Estimates for the amount stolen range from £25m to £200m, but the heist became as notorious for the gang of ex-criminals in their 60s and 70s who carried it off, as it did for the theft itself. John Wilson visits the vault where the burglary to

Ray Davies is best known as frontman to the Kinks, a quintessentially English band, yet it is America which is at the heart of his most recent project. He talks to us about his first solo album in a decade, Americana, an ambivalent yet deeply personal homage to the country which has inspired him, banned him and almost killed him.Unlike the American Black Panther movement, the British version was largely non-violent. Members included the late writer Darcus Howe, poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and photographer Neil Kenlock. Guerrilla, a new six-part series by Sky Atlantic, uses the movement as a springboard for a tense thriller set in a fictional Black Power underground cell in 1970's London. Broadcaster and author Dreda Say Mitchell has seen it.The Odyssey Project is a new Radio 4 series which sees ten poets offer contemporary poetic responses to Homer's The Odyssey. Poet in Residence, Daljit Nagra reads his own poem and discusses the process of curating the project. This weekend saw the opening in Venice of Damien

The film Going In Style stars Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman as septuagenarians facing poverty after their pensions are cancelled and their bank threatens to foreclose on their homes. Desperate to support their families and pay the bills, they decide to hold up the local bank. They discuss this new genre of "geriatric lads" movies, the bad behaviour of some younger actors, and remember a time when they both did not have enough money to eat.Podcasts have been around for over a decade, but with S-Town breaking all records with 16 million downloads this week, they have become a fixture in the mainstream cultural landscape. Radio critic Pete Naughton takes us through his top picks of the most exciting, innovative ones to listen to right now.As the rainbow flag flies atop the Tate Britain in London to accompany its exhibition Queer British Art 1861-1967, curator Clare Barlow and artist Jack Tan discuss the ideas and issues raised by the show. After the MTV Movie and TV awards have scrapped gender-specific catego

Fay Weldon made her debut as a novelist in 1967. She's been a prolific writer but it's her 1983 novel, The Lives and Loves of a She Devil, that's been her most celebrated work. The tale of a downtrodden wife who exacts a terrible revenge on her husband and his glamorous mistress became a feminist classic and went on to be adapted for television, cinema, and radio. Three decades later she has written a sequel, so why is now was a good time for the She Devil to return?The French-Belgian horror film Raw, written and directed by Julia Ducournau, follows the story of a young vegetarian who turns cannibal after a stint in veterinary school. We review the film that's had people fainting in the aisles and discuss the new wave of women horror directors, with the Director of Film for the British Council, Briony Hanson.One hundred years since Marcel Duchamp purchased a porcelain urinal, signed it with a pseudonym and called it Fountain, art critic Richard Cork discusses how readymade art first shocked and then opened a

David Vann is an Alaskan novelist with a love of the sea and boats. He talks about his latest novel Bright Air Black, which is a visceral retelling of the Medea Myth, imagining her journey across the Black Sea with Jason as they flee with the stolen Golden Fleece.Film director Terence Davies discusses him latest film, A Quiet Passion, about the American poet Emily Dickinson. He reveals how a passion for her poetry became a fascination with her life, and how the more he discovered about her - her withdrawal from life and her spiritual quest to make sense of religion - the more he empathised with her.A 19th century son of York - the artist Albert Moore - is the subject of a new exhibition at York Art Gallery which makes the argument that Moore is a forefather of British abstract art. Moore, known for his detailed paintings of women draped in classical robes, never achieved the kind of fame and prosperity enjoyed by his friends such as Whistler who described him as "the greatest artist that, in the century, Engl

Author Elif Shafak reviews Neruda, the new film about the Chilean poet and communist by director Pablo Larraín. We discuss the alchemic art of casting on screen with the casting directors Lucinda Syson, who has cast Hollywood blockbusters including Gravity, Batman Begins and the new Wonder Woman, and Victor Jenkins, who was responsible for pairing Olivia Colman and David Tennant in Broadchurch as well as working on Humans, Episodes and Grantchester. Busdriver Magnus Mills shot to fame in 1999 when his debut novel The Restraint of Beasts was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but despite plaudits from the literary world such as Thomas Pynchon, he returned to his day job and continues to write. He talks about his latest novel The Forensic Records Society, about a small group of blokes who meet in the backroom of pub every week to listen, in piously enforced silence, to their vinyl collections.Presenter : Kirsty Lang Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

The writer Viv Groskop reflects on the life of the Soviet-era poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, best known for his epic work Babi Yar, who died at the weekend aged 84.The shortlist for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is announced live by judge and novelist Aminatta Forna, who discusses the novels that made it though from the longlist of 16.Pulitzer Prize nominee Rajiv Joseph discusses the European premiere of his award-winning play Guards at the Taj. Taking as its starting point the legends surrounding the building of the Taj Mahal, Joseph's play examines the human price paid throughout history for the whims of those in power.The duelling Slovakian violinists, brothers Vladimir and Anton Jablokov, who have performed on the Last Night of the Proms, bring their instruments to the Front Row studio, and discuss the influence of their Russian grandfather on their choice of the music they perform.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald.

As Evelyn Waugh's classic first novel Decline and Fall has been made into a new BBC television series starring Jack Whitehall, we speak to its adapter James Wood and literary critic Suzi Feay and discuss how Waugh's distinctive but potentially offensive brand of satire plays for a modern audience.Sunday 2 April 2017 is the 50th birthday of Adrian Mole, diarist, poet and would be novelist. In 1982 Leicester-born Sue Townsend took the publishing world by storm with her first book, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 and became the best-selling author of the 1980s, with follow up volumes until her death in 2014. Adrian's poems are now published together in one volume, Adrian Mole the Collected Poems. Radio 4's Poet in Residence Daljit Nagra reads and discusses them with Stig.A new touring play Offside focuses on the beautiful game and puts women centre stage. Poet Hollie McNish, who co-wrote the play, joins director Caroline Bryant to discuss their depiction of women, football, race, sexuality, and the p

The author Hari Kunzru discusses his new novel White Tears, about a pair of blues fans in New York who find themselves in very deep water, and the issues he now faces as a British Indian legal immigrant living in that city.Mica Levi's debut film score for Under The Skin was nominated for a Bafta. Her second film score for Jackie was nominated for an Oscar. And when this classically trained musician is not bringing her sonic talents to the big screen, she's the lead singer of an experimental pop band, Micachu and the Shapes . Currently touring a live performance of her Under The Skin soundtrack, Mica joins John Wilson to discuss why listening to her instincts are her best musical guide.Patrick Marber's Don Juan in Soho was a salacious and satirical swipe at the hypocrisies of society, and has now been revived a decade later with David Tennant as the hedonistic libertine. The writer and director guides us through the seedy, but increasingly sanitised, underbelly of modern London which inspired the play. As it i

As the Broadway classic 42nd Street tap dances its way into the West End, the show's director and writer Mark Bramble discusses the great 'star is born' tale, which sees understudy Peggy Sawyer thrown into the spotlight to take the lead. Anish Kapoor takes Samira round his latest exhibition in which he blurs the line between two-dimensional paintings and three-dimensional sculptures, including a pair of red stainless-steel mirrors.The vast Humber Bridge is the focus of a new artwork for Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Norwegian musician Jan Bang and Hull-based sound recordist Jez Riley French discuss The Height of the Reeds, an interactive soundtrack they have created for Opera North, to be listened to on headphones as you cross the length of the 2,200m bridge. The Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry highlights exciting new work by recognising not just poems on the page, but poetry written for a wide variety of contexts - such as the stage and art instillations. Previous winners have included Andrew Motion,

As Sir Nicholas Serota delivers his inaugural speech as the new Chair of Arts Council England today, the former director of the Tate art galleries discusses his vision for his new role, and to what extent he intends to change the focus of the London-based institution. Set to the Stravinsky score, Pina Bausch's Rite of Spring tells a brutal story of ancient ritual and sacrificial maidens. Jo Ann Endicott, a dancer who trained with Bausch, has been coaching the English National Ballet in their current performance at Sadler's Wells in London. She joins dancer Madison Keesler to talk about this extraordinary, exhausting, and demanding ballet. Some of punk's greatest hits have been covered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and English National Opera for a new album - The Anarchy Arias. Former Sex Pistols bassist, Glen Matlock - the man behind the project - explains why he wanted to fuse punk with opera. Plus music critic Kate Mossman reviews.Main Image: Sir Nicholas Serota. Credit Hugo Glendinning 2016.

Anthony Head, who started his career in the Nescafe Gold Blend adverts and then went on to achieve international fame in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is now on stage in Terence Rattigan's Love In Idleness. He talks about his career spanning several decades.Dreda Say Mitchell reviews the return of BBC drama Line of Duty, starring Thandie Newton. Tim Marlow explores the underground studio of artist Ai Weiwei for the new World Service documentary strand In the Studio, which launches tomorrow.As a British East Asian, mostly female cast perform Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine, director Ng Choon Ping and Kumiko Mendl of Yellow Earth Theatre Company discuss the contemporary resonances in this brutal and controversial play.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser.

Jake Gyllenhaal on his latest movie Life, a sci-fi thriller about a team of scientists aboard the International Space Station who find a rapidly evolving life form from Mars. He discusses the practicalities of simulating zero gravity on film and also his current role in the musical Sunday in the Park with George on Broadway.Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon talks about directing the Tony Award-winning musical An American in Paris, which has just opened in London. This year thirteen new musicals will receive a Broadway premiere, but in the UK only two new musicals are slated for West End premieres, so is the UK is being left behind by America? Jamie Hendry, producer of the forthcoming West End musical, The Wind in The Willows, and Zoë Simpson, independent producer and board member of the Musical Theatre Network discuss the business of putting on a musical.Pauline Black, lead singer of Midlands ska band The Selecter, reviews One Love: The Bob Marley Musical at The Birmingham Rep. Written and produced by direct

Charlotte Rampling came to attention as an actress and model during the Swinging Sixties. She soon became associated with challenging roles such as Lucia the concentration camp survivor who develops a sadomasochistic relationship with a former SS officer in The Night Porter. After a period of depression in the Nineties she burst onto screens again with a best actress Oscar nomination for the film, 45 years, and for her parts in Dexter and Broadchurch on TV. She's now written a very personal and revealing memoir.Harlots is a new 8-part TV series set against the backdrop of 18th century Georgian London. It follows the career of Margaret Wells played by Samantha Morton as she struggles to reconcile her roles as mother and brothel owner. Creator and writer Moira Buffini discusses becoming seduced by the Georgians and how Harlots was inspired by stories of real women.The Clearing is a vision of how we might live if sea levels rise and petrol pumps run dry. Artists Alex Hartley and Tom James discuss the project, wh

The 82-year-old Portuguese artist Dame Paula Rego is the subject of a new BBC Two documentary Secrets and Stories. The intimate portrait of the artist was made by her son, the film-maker Nick Willing, who discusses the very personal nature of the project. Danny Huston makes his stage debut in a new play about the extraordinary life of Hollywood producer Robert Evans currently at the Royal Court, in London. Hailing from the famous film dynasty; he talks about coming to acting late at the age of 38, his memories of his father John Huston and working behind the scenes in the industry. The Ghetto Film School was founded in 2000 by American social worker Joe Hall. He wanted to provide an opportunity for the young people he worked with to learn how to become filmmakers. Almost two decades on, the school is a flourishing project with branches in New York and Los Angeles, and a new partnership with a youth film project in the UK. Joe Hall and his UK film partner Hannah Barry discuss their desire to develop new genera

As Coronation Street develops a controversial story-line about a 36 year old man grooming a teenager, we discuss soaps and their depiction of social issues with Coronation Street's Series Producer Kate Oates, Editor of The Archers Huw Kennair-Jones, and former BBC Drama Controller John Yorke. Ian Rankin and Lewis star Kevin Whately discuss the life and work of Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter, whose death was announced today. For Jarvis Cocker's first album in eight years he's teamed up with pianist Chilly Gonzalez to conjure up the ghosts of the legendary Chateau Marmont Hotel in Hollywood. At the piano they imagine what has gone on behind closed doors in Room 29. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Leonard Cohen said of him 'all of us are footnotes to the words of Chuck Berry', while Bob Dylan described him as 'the Shakespeare of rock & roll'. Kandia Crazy Horse, editor of Rip It Up, the Black Experience of Rock'n'Roll, and music critic Kevin Le Gendre, discuss some key Chuck Berry songs to show what they reveal about Berry's influences, his stature as a world-class musician, and the huge influence he had on those that followed him.The Lost City of Z is a film inspired by the real-life adventures of explorer Percy Fawcett. Survival expert Ray Mears gives us his verdict. Continuing Radio 4's poetic celebration of the Spring Equinox, Patience Agbabi reads her poem Mr Umbo's Umbrellas, written especially for the occasion.Of all the paintings by the artist Sir Howard Hodgkin who died earlier this month, it was his portraits that were most often overlooked. However, this week the National Portrait Gallery stages the first exhibition of these works, which cover the period from 1949 to the present. One of

Kirsty Lang discusses the life and work of the Nobel Prize winning poet and playwright Derek Walcott, whose death at the age of 87 was announced today.Costume designer Jenny Beavan, who won an Oscar for Mad Max: Fury Road and whose previous films include Sherlock Holmes and Tea with Mussolini, discusses the art of creating an iconic costume with film historian Ian Christie.David Darcy in New York reports on President Trump's proposal to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts.Laura Snapes explores the emergence of playlists in music.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser.

Daniel Kaluuya stars in Get Out, director Jordan Peele's racial satire about contemporary America. Already a hit at the US box office, the casting of a British actor in a film about US race relations has sparked debate about the number of roles for black actors. Film journalist Ashley Clark has the Front Row review. An experimental production at the National Theatre has no script and features a cast in their 70s and 80s. Director Phelim McDermott, actor Anna Calder-Marshall and Joan Bakewell discuss how issues facing older people can, and should, be shown on stage. Kirsty visits Compton Verney's exhibition Creating The Countryside, which examines how artists have represented the great outdoors, from Gainsborough to Grayson Perry. Also part of the new season is The Clearing, a vision of how we may have to live if sea levels rise and petrol pumps run dry. Artists Alex Hartley and Tom James explain. And Front Row continues to look at what the charts reveal about pop music today. Laura Snapes argues that streamin