Front Row

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 the...

Soprano Joyce DiDonato on tackling the vocal pyrotechnics of Rossini and why she's bringing opera to the inmates of Sing Sing, New York's maximum security prison. Puppets are currently centre stage in three theatrical productions in the UK - Pinocchio at the National Theatre, The Grinning Man in the West End and The Tin Drum on tour. We speak to Toby Olié, in charge of puppetry on Pinocchio and To...

Benjamin Clementine performs live from his second album I Tell a Fly. He tells us why an experimental concept album felt like the right way follow up to his Mercury Prize winning 'At Least For Now'. Dominic Dromgoole on his year long Oscar Wilde season in London's West End, and Franny Moyle on the influence of the women in Oscar Wilde's life. David LaChapelle is the celebrity photographer of choic...

Inua Ellams on his acclaimed play Barber Shop Chronicles, which explores masculinity from the perspective of the barber's chair, both in London and Africa. Tennis champion Billie Jean King's show match against notorious chauvinist Bobby Riggs in 1973 is the subject of a new film Battle of the Sexes, starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell. Mark Eccleston reviews. Briony Hanson discusses Godless, Netf...

A new Modigliani exhibition at Tate Modern shows the most extensive display of the Italian Jewish painter and sculptor's work yet seen in the UK, including 12 of his famous nudes. Sarah Crompton reviews. Front Row reveals this year's Costa Book Awards shortlists. Critics Alex Clark and Toby Lichtig comment on the writers chosen in the five categories: novel, first novel, poetry, biography and chil...

Priscilla Presley talks about life with Elvis and 40 years of looking after his legacy, as she takes part in a concert tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who accompany Elvis Presley's voice live. Cate Blanchett plays 13 characters each reciting a different artist's manifesto in her new film, Manifesto. We talk to Cate and director Julian Rosefeldt about translating what was an art install...

Fenella Fielding's most famous moment is in Carry on Screaming as she reclines seductively on a couch in a red velvet dress, asks Harry H Corbett "Do you mind if I smoke?" and steam billows. The line gives the title to her memoir, co-authored with Simon McKay. On her 90th birthday, she reminisces about playing Hedda Gabler, being a foil to Morecambe and Wise... and that Carry On moment. The painte...

Noel Gallagher, former songwriter and guitarist for Oasis, discusses his new album Who Built The Moon? He tells us why he chose to go solo after the break-up of the band and discusses his ongoing estrangement from his brother Liam. There are tanks on the streets of Harare, from there Togara Muzanenhamo talks about the life, and role, of the poet in Zimbabwe today. He reads poetry inspired by the f...

Robert Pattinson on his new film Good Time, set in the streets of Queens as the consequences of a bank robbery entangle his character Connie in a violent web of swift, provocative responses and lies. It's a million miles from Twilight and he talks about his choice of films since his role in the hugely successful franchise. Poet Ian McMillan has written libretto for the first opera to be performed...

Dee Rees talks about her new film, Mudbound, which explores the racial divide in 1940s Mississippi. As questions continue to be asked of The Old Vic's theatre board in light of the Kevin Spacey allegations, we discuss the role of the board in British theatre with Rt Hon Ed Vaizey MP, former Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries and current board member of the National Youth...

Annette Bening discusses her role as Oscar-winning actress Gloria Grahame in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, the story of the real-life romance between Grahame and a struggling young actor from Liverpool. As the Music Managers Forum celebrates 25 years with its annual Artist and Manager Awards tomorrow, John looks at what makes a good music manager and how the role has changed since the '60s -...

Sheridan Smith is a comic actor (The Royle Family, Gavin and Stacey), a serious dramatic actor (Flare Path, The Moorside, Dustin Hoffman's film Quartet) and a star of musical theatre, from Bugsy Malone when she was 16 to Funny Girl. Now she has released her first solo album. She talks about the songs she has chosen and her career so far. The acclaimed actor Maxine Peake has written a play for Hull...

Hollywood star Christian Slater and director Sam Yates discuss David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross, in which Slater is currently starring. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a film based on the true story of William Moulton Marston, his wife and his mistress who created Wonder Woman. It explores the creation of the female super hero as well as their poly-amorous re...

Hugh Grant explains how his early career in repertory theatre has helped him play faded actor Phoenix Buchanan, the villain in Paddington 2. Stephen Fry talks about his new book Mythos, a retelling of the Greek myths, and why he finds the tales of the gods, monsters and mortals of Ancient Greece so appealing. The two lead characters in the new cinematic release Call Me By Your Name are gay, yet th...

Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook, the Louvre in Abu Dhabi plus film director Yorgos Lanthimos

Kenneth Lonergan, who recently won an Oscar for the screenplay to his film Manchester By the Sea, talks to Kirsty Lang about adapting E.M. Forster's Howards End for television. Hannah McGill discusses the acclaimed film The Florida Project, in which a young mother struggles to provide for her daughter while staying at a motel near Disney World. As two exhibitions curated by artists open in Belfast...

Novelists Joanne Harris and Jonathan Coe discuss their latest books which are both fairytales. Coe's The Broken Mirror is a modern fable with a political message while Harris' A Pocketful of Crows is based on traditional folklore. Director Luca Guadagnino talks about his acclaimed film Call Me By Your Name, a gay love story set in the Italian sun in the 1980s, starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie...

The actor and comedian Josie Lawrence is currently tackling Bertolt Brecht in a production of Mother Courage and her Children at Southwark Playhouse in London. She discusses the morality of Mother Courage with Samira and explains why the part was at the top of her theatrical bucket list. In the wake of Prue Leith revealing the Bake Off winner, TV Times journalist Emma Bullimore looks at the length...

To coincide with the publication of a book which collects all her artwork from the past decade, Tracey Emin comes into the Front Row studio to look back at that prolific period which saw her represent Britain at the Venice Biennial. Twenty-five years after publishing The Ice House, the first of her many highly successful crime novels, Minette Walters discusses her historical fiction debut, The Las...

As she makes her debut at the Royal Opera House in Lucia di Lammermoor, Lisette Oropesa talks about combining a career as one of the world's top sopranos with a passion for running marathons. Richard Flanagan won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. He talks to Shahidha Bari about his follow-up novel, First Person, based on his own experience of ghost-writing a notoriou...

Bill Bailey talks to Shahidha Bari ahead of his UK tour, and tries out the new Front Row keyboard. Philip Pullman discusses his new novel La Belle Sauvage, a prequel to the best-selling trilogy His Dark Materials, and his collection of essays on storytelling, Daemon Voices. Sarah Churchwell reviews the TV mini-series Alias Grace, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel about a 19th century servan...

Annie Leibovitz looks back at her career of nearly 50 years, in which she's photographed many of the world's leaders, celebrities and the Royal Family. With the publication of her book Annie Leibovitz Portraits 2005-2016 she reflects on the turbulent decade and how that has informed her more recent work. Andy Serkis discusses his directorial debut, Breathe, the true story of Robin Cavendish. At 28...

Nicholas Hytner, who used to run the National Theatre, has a new project - The Bridge Theatre. Richard Bean (who wrote One Man Two Guvnors) and Clive Coleman discuss their play Young Marx, the theatre's opening production, which reveals how the man who brilliantly analysed the workings of the capitalist economy was hopeless with money. Stranger Things, the retro Netflix teen sci-fi series, was a s...

Revelations about Harvey Weinstein's casting couch have led some of the biggest voices in Hollywood to talk about this being a watershed moment. So tonight we'll be asking where we are when it comes to sexism and the treatment of women in the arts. And how are leaders in the creative industries responding? Joining us live will be Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of London's Royal Court Theatr...

Kiwi director Taika Waititi, known for Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Flight of the Conchords, on bringing his comedic style of indie film-making to the Hollywood superhero blockbuster in Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok. Eisenstein's film about the Russian Revolution, October, is about to be screened in its newly restored original version, with the London Symphony Orchestra performing the original score li...