Front Row

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 refl...

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 publishe...

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...

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 i...

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 gener...

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 cl...

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 crit...

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, neve...

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 s...

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...

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...

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 Roy...

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 Boar...

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...

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 -...