Front Row

In their new film, The Good Liar, Ian McKellen plays Roy Courtnay, a con artist who when he meets Betty McLeish, a well-to-widow played by Helen Mirren, can't believe his luck. Sir Ian talks to John Wilson about this role, which involves playing someone who is himself acting. Guilt, a new 4-part BBC Two drama set in Edinburgh, stars Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives as two very different brothers who find themselves having to join forces when they run over and kill a man. As they cover their tracks they begin to discover they can trust no-one, including each other. Critic Hannah McGill reviews the contemporary black comedy drama.The Observer’s theatre critic Susannah Clapp said of Sarah Frankcom, artistic director of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, that she was 'creating England’s first mainstream feminist theatre'. Now Frankcom is directing her final production there, Light Falls by Simon Stephens. She talks about this drama of a northern family, her collaborations with Stephens, who has written several plays for the Exchange and, especially, Maxine Peake, whom she cast as Hamlet. Frankcom's next job will be running the drama school LAMDA and she tells John Wilson of her concern about the training of actors because of the expense and the decline of drama teaching in schools. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Julian May

Recorded in front of an audience at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth, Sarah Gosling introduces and showcases the artists and performers making a name for themselves in Devon, in collaboration with BBC Music Introducing. Grace Lightman is an electropop singer whose debut album Silver Eater is about an alien stranded on earth. BBC Music Introducing artist Grace performs her lead track Repair Repair with her band. 17 year old writer Jonny Hibbs has created a comic audio drama about young farmers and a rural dating app called CattleGrid! He was commissioned by the New Creatives talent scheme run by BBC Introducing Arts and Arts Council England, which gives emerging artists aged 16-30 the chance to have their works broadcast. Kimwei McCarthy is a poet and musician who has recently been appointed the Grand Bard of Exeter. He talks about how climate activism and trans activism influences his work, and performs a poem about Devon, Because You Invited Me. Scratchworks Theatre Company are an all-female ensemble who are creating original comic plays retelling history from a woman's perspective. Laura Doble, Alice Higginson Clarke and Sian Keen perform a song from their new plays Hags, about the witch trials of Bideford. Presenter Sarah Gosling is the BBC Music Introducing Presenter for Devon and Cornwall and hosts evening shows on BBC Radio Devon. Producer: Timothy Prosser

David Baddiel has had a varied career. He's been a (Wembley Arena-filling) stand-up comedian, a chart-topping performer (3 times with the same song Three Lions), a TV chat show presenter, a prize-winning children's author, creator of highly-acclaimed shows about his family, prolific twitter presence and now he's a playwright with his first production God's Dice opening at London's Soho Theatre.Apple TV+ which launches this week is the latest arrival on the UK’s streaming landscape. What will they be offering us and how will it affect the future of TV in the UK with the likes of Disney, Britbox, HBO Max and NBCUniversal waiting in the wings with their new services. Heat Magazine’s Boyd Hilton joins Kirsty to discuss what's coming our way.The Wellcome Collection and Audible are launching a new original fiction podcast with short stories from award-winning writers, each short story inspired by a curiosity, oddity or artefact on display in the Wellcome Collection’s permanent exhibit. Novelist Laura Purcell and Wellcome Collection curator Julia Nurse join Kirsty to explain further.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Oliver Jones

Harry Hill's Clubnite is a new cabaret TV show from the comedian featuring his choice of comic entertainers. Harry talks to Stig about what he looks for in comedians, what makes him laugh and the nature of surrealism. The greatly renowned theatre director Peter Brook is 94 and has just written a book, Playing by Ear, reflecting on sound and music. He talks to Front Row about the flow of a Shakespeare play, the power of an empty space and the significance of silence.Podcaster Caroline Crampton gives her pick of the film podcasts you should be listening to, featuring a deep dive into the craft of acting, stories from Hollywood outsiders who made it big and insights into the art of writing music for film.

Multi BAFTA-winning writer Jack Thorne returns to our TV screens tonight with the latest in his trilogy exploring life in modern Britain. "The Accident" on Channel 4, starring Sarah Lancashire, is set in a small Welsh town in the aftermath of a industrial disaster. We talk to the writer about anger, blame and justice as the community faces up to some difficult truths.2020 looks to be a vintage year for child performances at The Oscars. Leslie Felperin joins us to discuss whether The Academy ought to reintroduce the Juvenile Academy Award, last given to Hayley Mills, one day shy of her 15th birthday for her performance in the 1960 film Pollyanna.Comedian and actor Jillian Bell stars in Brittany Runs a Marathon, a film about a lost young woman who takes back control of her messy, unfulfilling life by entering the New York City Marathon. The film is based on a true story and Jillian goes through a complete physical transformation as the story unfolds on screen. Kirsty talks to Jillian about body shaming and why it’s a good time to be a funny woman in Hollywood.Before he became an artist James Dodds was an apprentice shipwright, and boats remain the focus of his attention. For his new exhibition, Wood to Water, at the National Maritime Museum, Cornwall, Dodds has painted a series of large – some very large – pictures of the traditional boats of the region, but these are not the usual views of the vessels at sea, with wind, waves and weather. Dodds is concerned with boats as sculptural shapes and with the details of their construction. The Cornish maritime historian, John McWilliams, reviews.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Simon Richardson

Bruce Springsteen is about to release a film of his latest album, Western Stars. In the hayloft of his 100-year-old barn in New Jersey, he performs the album alongside a full orchestra, featuring brass, banjo, accordion and steel guitar. Kate Mossman, features editor of The New Statesman, reviews the film which coincides with the singer's 70th birthday.The death was announced last week of the American literary critic Harold Bloom. The author of more than 40 books, which reframed the work of the romantic poets and William Shakespeare, Bloom was a controversial figure, a defender of the idea of the 'Western Canon' and an avowed literary elitist. Literary critic and cultural historian Lara Feigel, and James Marriott, Assistant Literary Editor at The Times - and a Bloom fan from a young age - explore Harold Bloom’s complicated legacy.Illuminated pages taken from a 15th century Islamic manuscript come up for sale at Christie's in London tomorrow. They come from a Persian manuscript The Paths of Paradise that depicts the Prophet’s ascent to heaven and are so rare it’s estimated they could sell for £1m each. Only one complete copy of the manuscript now exists and an American art historian has described the auction as 'immoral'. Professor Christiane Gruber from the University of Michigan explains why she is calling on the art world to boycott it. Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival, By the Grace of God is Francois Ozon's new feature film about sexual abuse hidden by the Catholic Church in France. Briony Hanson reviews. The young artist Joy Labinjo discusses her new exhibition Our Histories Cling to Us at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. Her large oil paintings draw on Labinjo's personal experience of growing up in the UK with British-Nigerian heritage, using photos to explore memory and ideas of belonging, focusing on intimate scenes of contemporary family life.Art Critic Alistair Sooke talks about The Way I See It - his new landmark series for BBC Radio 3 in which 30 leading cultural figures choose their favourite work from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and explain what it means to them. The former EastEnders actress Katie Jarvis has been in the tabloid press this week after it revealed she was working as a shop security guard. But with most actors out of performing work most of the time is it such a shock? Chris Rankin - Percy Weasley in the Harry Potter films - talks about his personal experience of working in a pub after the franchise ended and Matt Hood of Equity explains why actors' "day jobs" are not only a necessity but an advantage. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah Robins

David Attenborough's new documentary series Seven Worlds, One Planet has been four years in the making, we speak to Bertie Gregory, a wildlife cameraman who was at the heart of the show.The new retrospective of the work of the pioneering artist Bridget Riley at the Hayward Gallery in London features over 200 works spanning her 70-year career. Louisa Buck reviews the exhibition that features Riley’s famous black-and-white works of the 1960s to her more recent works as she continues to play with abstraction and perception.The Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection 2019 has been awarded to Fiona Benson for her collection Vertigo & Ghost. She explains why Zeus and his relations with mortals and nymphs is at the heart of the poems.Drill artist Rico Racks has been banned from using drug slang in his music after being convicted for supplying class A drugs. The list of words include “trapping” meaning “dealing” and “connect” - a drugs contact. Journalist and youth worker Ciaran Thapar reports.Presenter : Samira Ahmed Producer : Dymphna Flynn

There is much concern about the loss of biodiversity. But what of the linguistic and cultural ecosystem? It is thought that half of the world's 7,000 languages might not survive into the next century. Stig Abell talks to Chris McCabe, editor of Poems from the Edge of Extinction, an anthology of poems from around the world in languages under threat , and to Laura Tohe, poet laureate of the Navajo Nation. What might be lost? What can be done?Scooby Doo turned 50 this autumn. To mark the half century of a show which continues to follow the mysterious adventures of the eponymous Great Dane and his teenage friends - Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy – Stig is joined for a discussion on the cartoon’s longstanding appeal by Professor Kevin Sandler, who is currently writing a book on Scooby Doo, and cultural critic Gavia Baker Whitelaw.The composer Judith Weir is just coming to the end of her time as Associate Composer for the BBC Singers. Her new piece for them is blue hills beyond blue hills, a setting of poems by Alan Spence marking the cycle of the year. She talks to Front Row about the piece, the vocal flexibility of the singers and her role as Master of the Queen’s Music.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Julian May

Gavin Hood, director of Tsotsi and Eye in the Sky, discusses his new film Official Secrets, which stars Keira Knightley as the GCHQ whistleblower who was taken to court by the British government for leaking a top secret email to the press in the lead-up to the Iraq war in 2003.Next week The Louvre Museum in Paris opens a major exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his death. Nearly 120 works will be displayed, with many on loan from collections around the world. However, there is much speculation over whether the world’s most expensive painting, Salvator Mundi, sold for $450m in 2017, will be on show. The painting of Christ, attributed to da Vinci in the last decade, hasn’t been on public display since its sale. Ben Lewis, author of The Last Leonardo, joins John Wilson to discuss.Moving to Mars, the latest exhibition at the Design Museum in London, explores how sending humans to the planet is not just a new frontier for science but also for design. Architect Tara Gbolade reviews the variety of exhibits which include a multisensory experience of the Red Planet and a full-scale prototype habitat.For their latest touring production, Graeae Theatre - the company that puts D/deaf and disabled actors centre stage - has asked Winsome Pinnock to reimagine her play One Under, first staged in 2005. It explores the aftermath of a young man dying under a tube train. Cyrus, the driver, becomes convinced he is his son. John Wilson talks to Winsome Pinnock and the director, Amit Sharma, about the drama.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson