Front Row

Kirsty Lang talks to Sean Foley, director of The Painkiller, a farce that reveals Kenneth Branagh's skills as a physical, comic actor and Rob Brydon's as a dramatic actor. Alison Graham reviews Follow The Money, a new Danish TV crime drama from Borgen co-creator Jeppe Gjervig Gram. The French author Maylis de Kerangal has been longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for her novel, Mend The Living. Set over the period of 24 hours, it deals with the difficult issue of organ donation, exploring it from the perspectives of many of those involved.And Front Row celebrates St Patrick's Day with the Irish - and American - supergroup, The Gloaming.

In If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me, opening at the Young Vic, Jane Horrocks and a band of musicians and dancers reinterpret a selection of hits from some of the Northern male artists of the 1970s and 80s. Jane and her director, Aletta Collins, talk about how they put the show together.High-Rise is a dystopian thriller based on JG Ballard's 1975 novel, starring Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons. Mark Eccleston reviews.'Russia and the Arts: The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky' explores how Russian portraiture enjoyed a golden age between the late 1860s and the First World War. While Tolstoy was publishing Anna Karenina and Tchaikovsky was taking Russian music to new heights, Russian art was developing a new self-confidence. Curator Dr Rosalind Blakesley shows us round this new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.Sylvia Anderson, the co-creator of Thunderbirds, has died aged 88. She invented the show with her late husband back in the Sixties and also voiced the character of Lady Penelope. Mary Turner, who created t

Marguerite is a satirical comedy set in 1921 France, about a tone-deaf would-be opera diva who thinks she can sing. Music broadcaster Petroc Trelawny reviews.Antonio Pappano discusses conducting Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov for the first time, in a new production at the Royal Opera House with Bryn Terfel as the troubled Russian Tsar.The death of Anita Brookner has been announced. Front Row pays tribute to the Booker Prize winning novelist who was best known for exploring themes of social isolation through her female protagonists.The first major retrospective of the American artist and photographer Paul Strand (1890-1976) in the UK for over 40 years opens at the V&A in London this week. Photographer Eamonn McCabe, The Guardian's former picture editor, gives his response to Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the 20th Century, which charts Strand's 60-year career and includes his abstract and documentary photography.Presenter : Kirsty Lang Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

James MacMillan pays tribute to Peter Maxwell Davies, who has died aged 81, and John Wilson revisits an interview the composer gave him a decade ago.Jim Powell talks about his new novel Trading Futures which begins tonight as Radio 4's Book at Bedtime. A mid-life crisis about a former city trader, this short book blends elements of King Lear and Reggie Perrin.John Wilson talks rock and roll survivor, Iggy Pop about his latest and, the geront terrible hints, last album, Post Pop Depression. John hears about Iggy's ambition, how he worked with David Bowie and what he now describes as his baritone voice. Producer: Julian May.

The Ones Below is a dark and tense thriller, focussing on the relationship between two sets of first time expectant parents. After a tragic accident, a divide develops between them and a series of sinister clues lead to an unsettling discovery. Kate Muir, film critic for The Times, joins Kirsty Lang to discuss David Farr's big screen directorial debut.Afghan rapper and activist Sonita shares her experience of almost being sold into a forced marriage and director Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami describes her award-winning documentary telling Sonita's story, screened at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival this evening and next week.The BBC's Arts Editor and former Media Director at the Tate, Will Gompertz, considers the impact of BP's decision to end its sponsorship of the gallery after 26 years.As the BBC announce a season celebrating sitcoms, Boyd Hilton takes a look at its latest comedy offering Stop/Start. The pilot episode airs tonight as part of the long running series Comedy Playhouse which gave birth to TV cla

As the death is announced of production designer Sir Kenneth "Ken" Adam, director Nicholas Hytner remembers working with him on The Madness of King George III.Martin Parr, photographer and chronicler of British culture, gives John Wilson an early preview of the new show he has curated at the Barbican in London, Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers, as well another exhibition of his own photographs, Unseen City, in which he gives an unprecedented insight into the pomp and pageantry of the City of London.In a controversial move, Bradford's National Media Museum is transferring its collection of 400,000 photographs and exhibits to London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Colin Ford, the museum's former director, joins John in the studio.Assemble, a collective of architects and designers, won the Turner prize last year for their urban regeneration project in Liverpool. They talk to John Wilson about Art Gym - their latest Merseyside collaboration - which has just opened at Tate Liv

Record producer Sir George Martin was known as the "fifth Beatle" but he also produced comedy records with the likes of Flanders and Swan and The Goons, as well as inventing creative production techniques that changed the sound of popular music. Comedian Bernard Cribbins and composer David Arnold remember the musical genius who has died, aged 90.The Witch is a new horror film set in New England in the 1630's. When their crops fail and their new born son vanishes a devout Christian family, living on the edge of a wilderness, is enveloped by fear and paranoia. Deborah Hyde, editor of the Skeptic magazine, reviews Robert Eggers' directorial debut.Motown the Musical, based on the American record producer Berry Gordy's memoirs, tells the story of how the music label transformed the sound of America. Featuring songs by Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Jackson 5, and Stevie Wonder it shows how these artists came to make the uplifting and enduring popular music in history. Music journalist Jacqueline Springer reviews.Anna Me

Radio 4's Book of the Week is Seamus Heaney's translation of Book VI of The Aeneid, read by Ian McKellen. Samira Ahmed speaks to Catherine Heaney, the poet's daughter, and his editor, Matthew Hollis, about her father's love of the poem, the place of Latin in his life, and bringing the poet's final work out of the underworld of his study and into the light of day. Anomalisa, the Academy Award nominated stop-motion animation from Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson is a darkly comedic and surreal journey into the mind of a self-help author who is crippled by the mundanity of his life until he meets a sales rep whilst on a business trip. Jenny McCartney reviewsHistorian David Coke and conductor and harpsichordist Bridget Cunningham discuss a new recording of Handel's music by London Early Opera, focused on London's famed Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The master Venetian painter Giorgione paved the way, in the early 1500s, to the golden age of luminous colour and even the first landscape in the history of art, however

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

George Clooney stars in the Coen brothers' latest film Hail, Caesar!, a comedic homage to Hollywood's Golden Age in the early 1950s. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh joins Kirsty Lang to review the film which also features Josh Brolin, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson and Ralph Fiennes. It's in cinemas from today, certificate 12A.David Threlfall has left the bad-lands of Manchester in Shameless for those of La Mancha, playing the errant knight in James Fenton's adaptation of Don Quixote for the Royal Shakespeare Company. David tells Kirsty why the nutty knight is an important figure for us today, and James Fenton reveals how, in telling his story, Cervantes invented the novel, and the modern novel, all at once. Don Quixote is on at the Swan Theatre in Stratford until 21st May.In the opening scene of BBC3's first online drama, Thirteen, Ivy Moxam escapes from the cellar, her prison for the last thirteen years. After a desperate 999 call from a phone box, she is picked up by the police and taken to be interviewed. This 5-p

Richard Gere's latest film Time Out Of Mind sees him playing a homeless man who struggles to survive on the streets of New York City, Dreda Say Mitchell reviews the film which is a personal project for Gere, aimed at drawing attention to the plight of the homeless.John Osborne first offered Look Back in Anger to Derby Theatre, but it was rejected. They're making amends with a 60th anniversary production, and a new play, Jinny, written in response to it from a female perspective. Samira Ahmed talks to the director Sarah Brigham and Benedict Nightingale, who as a young critic, saw the original production.Tanita Tikaram rose to fame in the 1980s with the album Ancient Heart. It sold 4m copies and produced four chart singles including Twist in My Sobriety. The singer discusses her new album Closer to the People which is influenced by Anita O'Day, Philip Glass and Thelonious Monk.Was Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) Europe's first abstract artist, before even Kandinsky and Mondrian? A new exhibition at the Serpentine Ga

Gillian Slovo's latest novel, Ten Days, begins in London on a run down council estate where a young black man is accidentally killed whilst being restrained by police. In the days that follow, a peaceful demonstration turns into violent protest and the resulting riots begin to spread countrywide. Gillian Slovo discusses her book, and reveals how it was inspired by interviews she did with police, politicians, rioters and residents involved in the riots of 2011.Botticelli Reimagined at the V&A explores the ways artists from the Pre-Raphaelites to the present day have responded to the Renaissance painter's work. Curator Ana Debenedetti has brought together the largest collection of his paintings in Britain since 1930 and exhibits them alongside works such as the Botticelli-themed dress that Lady Gaga wore for her Artpop tour, to a clip of Ursula Andress emerging like Venus from the waves in Dr No. She explains what makes Botticelli such an inspiration. It was announced today that the creator of Coronation St

Professor Sir Peter Cook received a knighthood for services to architecture and was awarded the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architecture, yet he has never designed a building in Britain - until now. He shows us around the drawing studio he's created for the Arts University Bournemouth.In 1962, Francois Truffaut persuaded fellow film director Alfred Hitchcock to sit with him for a week-long interview in which they discussed the secrets of cinema. Hannah McGill reviews a new documentary about this meeting, which resulted in Truffaut's seminal book "Hitchcock/Truffaut".The Barbican is staging Shakespeare as we've never seen it before; each of his 36 plays have been condensed and are presented on a table top using a cast of everyday objects. Macbeth is a cheese grater, Pericles a light bulb and Hamlet's a bottle of ink. Tim Etchells from Forced Entertainment explains why.The Hepworth Wakefield gallery has announced details of one of the UK's largest bequests. It's one of the most signific

Samira Ahmed takes a tour of the Haworth Parsonage to consider the closed world of the Brontë siblings, and the how their imaginative childhood games fed into their writing. Novelists AS Byatt and Sophia McDougall, and actor Tom Burke who plays Mr Rochester in the new Radio 4 adaptation of Jane Eyre, discuss the enduring appeal of the Brontës' characters.Michael Carlson reviews Truth, starring Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett, in which an investigative team at CBS News comes under fire for possible inaccuracies. The film is based on television news producer Mary Mapes' memoir Truth and Duty: The Press, the President and the Privilege of Power.Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko and French cellist Vincent Ségal recorded their album Musique de Nuit last year. Before they begin their tour of the UK, they discuss how they shunned the music studio, choosing instead to record on a Bamako rooftop.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Dixi Stewart.

When most people think of Woodstock their mind immediately turns to the 1969 festival - but Woodstock is 60 miles away from the site of the festival. Small Town Talk by Barney Hoskyns provides an insight into the lives of the stars who lived there including Bob Dylan, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Van Morrison.The Killing director Birger Larsen discusses his latest film, The Third Voice. This is the first episode of Murder, a three-part BBC Two drama, in which the characters speak exclusively to the camera.Spotlight is rare among recent films, in that it treats reporters as other than corrupt and venal. Adam Smith considers cinema's changing portrayal of newspaper journalists, from bold crusaders for truth to greedy slime-balls, and everything in between.And, on the day the chorus voted to go on strike...what exactly is going on at the English National Opera.Presenter John Wilson Producer Julian May.

Kirsty Lang talks to actresses Uzo Aduba, Laura Carmichael and Zawe Ashton, who are starring in Jean Genet's play The Maids. Tim Parks discusses his new novel Thomas and Mary - A Love Story, about a middle aged couple going through a difficult time in their relationship. Lois Walpole is an artist who has gathered nets and ropes washed up onto the shores of Shetland and woven them into baskets and sculptures for her new exhibition at Shetland Museum in Lerwick.

Sacha Baron Cohen plays a football hooligan and Mark Strong his brother, a top spy, in the new action comedy film Grimsby. Quentin Cooper reviews.Shakespeare's Globe's outgoing artistic director Dominic Dromgoole looks back over his tenure and discusses his final production, The Tempest.After Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, Anthony Holden has now collected Poems That Make Grown Women Cry. In it, women from various walks of life select poems that move them to tears, and explain why. Holden discusses the similarities and differences between the two volumes, and is joined by Joan Bakewell and Elif Shafak who reveal their choices.Mick Herron discusses his new novel Real Tigers, a thriller which takes place behind the scenes at Britain's Security Service.Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Churchill's Secret is a feature-length ITV drama that examines a period of illness in Winston Churchill's life as prime minister in the 1950s. Political Biographer Sonia Purnell reviews it for us.British artist Jonathan Yeo discusses his new portrait of Kevin Spacey as President Francis Underwood in the TV drama series House of Cards, as he unveils the painting at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DCSet in small town America, new film King Jack, follows a fifteen year old boy, troubled by bullies, and forced to look after his young cousin over a seemingly endless summer weekend. Tim Robey reviews this coming-of-age tale.Clare Morrall talks about her latest novel When the Floods Came. The book is a departure for the previously Man Booker shortlisted writer, as it's a set in a dystopian Britain ravaged by disease and flooding. Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe has died age 103. Matthew Sweet tells us how he made films like Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Italian Job and Rai

Novelist Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, is remembered by Elaine Showalter and Christopher Bigsby.John le Carré's novel The Night Manager has been adapted for television by Danish director Susanne Bier and writer David Farr. A spy thriller set in the shadowy world of the arms trade they describe how they changed the sex of the main character, and brought a Scandinavian flavour to this very British writer.Poet Simon Armitage and director Paul Hunter discuss collaborating on I Am Thomas, a piece of music theatre about the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy.Nintendo's Zelda franchise, one of the most successful video game series of all time, celebrates its 30th anniversary this Sunday. Naomi Alderman tells us what she admires most about the game.

As he publishes his first novel at the age of 82, David McCallum looks back at his career, from starring in cult TV series The Man From Uncle and Sapphire and Steel to his current role in crime drama NCIS.Samira Ahmed talks to the American soprano Marjorie Owens, as she makes her English National Opera debut in Norma by Bellini, one of the most challenging roles in opera.Oscar nominated Indian director Ashvin Kumar on why he is casting his new film about the conflict in Kashmir in the UK.