Front Row

Hugh Jackman on his film The Front Runner, in which he plays Democratic contender Gary Hart, who in 1987 was ahead in the polls before an alleged affair shot down his chances of becoming US President.The winner of the Costa Biography Award, announced on Front Row this week, is The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es. The author discusses his book which tells the story of a 9-year-old Jewish Dutch girl, Hesseline – or Lien – who was handed by her parents to Bart van Es’s grandparents in 1942 to be fostered and kept safe during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Lien is now 85 and living in Amsterdam, and together they recount a remarkable story of tragedy and survival.As Italy decides not to lend three Leonardo Da Vinci paintings to the Louvre in Paris for their blockbuster exhibition of the old master's work, art journalist Anna Somers Cocks reports on how much loans of this kind are used as symbolic political gestures.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah Robins