Front Row

We look at the career of Kirk Douglas who has died at the age of 103. Not only was he a fine actor - and one of the last of the Hollywood Golden Age - he was also a fearless campaigner for social causes who tried to break through the restrictions imposed by the Hollywood system. American Dirt, a novel about a mother and son attempting to cross the Mexico/US border, has been the subject of fierce debate over the last fortnight. One of the 2020s' most hotly-anticipated releases, its white author Jeanine Cummins has been accused of exploitation, pedalling clichés and being culturally ‘tone deaf’ to the plight of the lives of Mexican migrants which the book attempts to explore. Ignacio Sanchez Prado, Professor of Latin American Culture, and Telegraph book critic Jake Kerridge, explore the issues.Daniel Kehlmann, author of the global bestseller Measuring the World, speaks to Samira about his new historical epic Tyll, about a wandering performer and court jester who lives through the Thirty Years War.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Oliver JonesMain image: Kirk Douglas Photo credit: Silver Screen/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In the finale of Front Row’s Risk season we’ll be debating the biggest creative risk takers as we reveal the Front Row Risk List – the 10 riskiest artworks of the 21st century. From putting your reputation on the line to putting yourself in physical danger - we look at the ways artists have used risk in their work., and ask is it always a good thing to risk offending people, and how does gender play a role in what's risky? To discuss and reveal the list our panel are: artist and activist, Scottee, film and TV critic and columnist Ellen E. Jones, founder of Wakey and author of Outspoken Deborah Coughlin, author and cultural commentator Will Self and presenter of Saturday Review Tom Sutcliffe. They'll join Stig in the Radio Theatre for a live show in front of an audience in a special extended programme.Presenter Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins

The Korean film Parasite is in the running for Best Picture, Director, and International Feature at the Oscars on Sunday. Critic Mark Eccleston reviews the tragicomedy, directed by Bong Joon Ho. It follows the collision of two Korean families from very different socio-economic backgrounds, and the unstoppable string of mishaps that lie in wait.As part of our Risk season, Front Row is asking artists working in different forms about their greatest career risks. Tonight we speak to Jasmine Lee-Jones, the 20-year-old playwright of Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner which was produced at the Royal Court last year. She considers the risk of discussing divisive topics such as cultural appropriation and colourism - prejudice against people of darker skin tone by those of the same ethnicity - in her play.Eimear McBride, whose experimental debut A Girl is a Half-formed Thing was a literary sensation, she tells Samira Ahmed about her new novel Strange Hotel, about a woman reflecting on her life whilst moving from one hotel room to another.Art critic Richard Cork reports on the restoration of two paintings known as the Petworth Beauties. The portraits of two ladies from Queen Anne’s court were shortened 200 years ago by folding back part of the paintings showing their lower legs to make more space on the wall at Petworth House in Sussex. The paintings are now on show, at full length, as part of British Baroque at Tate Britain.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian MayMain image: Parasite Photo credit: Curzon

Tom Hanks talks about his new film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, which is based on the true story of the popular American children's TV presenter Fred Rogers. For more than three decades Fred Rogers presented Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood , imparting words of wisdom tenderly, without condescension or skirting around difficult subjects, to very young viewers. This film charts the relationship between Rogers and Lloyd Vogel, a cynical investigative journliast looking to dig up and dish the dirt where there is none. Prescriptive funders, cautious gatekeepers, social media scrutiny, cancel culture – are we living in an especially risky moment for artists? As part of Front Row’s Risk Season John is joined by playwright Roy Williams, critic Louis Wise and editor of Arts Professional Magazine Amanda Parker to consider how attitudes towards creative risk have changed over the past 20 years. How have the arrival of the internet, more than a decade of austerity and the increasing imperative to represent marginalised voices impacted the choices artists can make? The Brexit negotiations may have inspired endless newspaper articles and documentaries but in Northern Ireland, choreographer Eileen McClory decided that she wanted to reflect on the negotiations with a new contemporary dance. The result – Brink – features two dancers on a small 1.5 metres high table. Eileen discusses why this non-verbal artform was the perfect medium for that most verbose of subjects – Brexit.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Simon Richardson

Polish director Agnieszka Holland, best-known for her Oscar nominated feature films about the Holocaust, discusses her new film Mr Jones, starring James Norton as the Welsh journalist Gareth Jones. Jones exposed the truth about Stalin’s genocidal famine which killed millions in Ukraine in the early 1930s and his reporting of the story inspired George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Continuing Front Row’s risk season, theatre critic Michael Billington talks about when risks fail to pay off. Failure in the arts can be a taboo subject and Doctor Leila Jancovich from Leeds University has been exploring histories of failure and why it seems the arts find it difficult to learn from their mistakes. Timur Vermes' first novel Look Who's Back was a satire imagining the return of Hitler in the present day and sold over 3 million copies. The German novelist's new book, The Hungry and the Fat, translated by Jamie Bulloch, considers what would happen if thousands of refugees walked to the German border.Presenter: Tom Shakespeare Producer: Sarah JohnsonMain image: James Norton in Mr Jones Photo credit: Signature Entertainment

Robert Pattinson talks to Samira about his new Oscar nominated film The Lighthouse, a gothic thriller in black and white from Robert Eggers (The Witch), in which Robert and Willem Dafoe play two lighthouse keepers who start to lose their sanity when a storm strands them on a remote island. Continuing Front Row's Risk season, two film-makers who have exposed themselves to personal danger. Oscar winning director Orlando von Einsiedel (The White Helmets, Virunga) discusses filming in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in DR Congo as civil war broke out. Hassan Akkad discusses filming his journey from Damascus to the UK via the Calais ‘Jungle’, including a dangerous boat crossing from Turkey to Greece as the boat began to sink, footage which featured in the BBC series Exodus.In the run up to this year's BAFTAs and Academy Awards, the all-male Best Director shortlists have attracted criticism, with many lamenting the omission of Greta Gerwig, whose Little Women has been a critical and commercial success and picked up other nominations including Best Film, Actress and Screenplay. Greta gives her take on all this and discusses her reworking of Louisa May Alcott's novel. Main image: Robert Pattinson in The Lighthouse Image credit: © Universal Pictures InternationalPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser

Director Melina Matsoukas talks about her first feature film Queen and Slim, which follows a black couple on a lackluster date pulled over for a minor traffic infraction. The situation escalates, with sudden and tragic results and the erstwhile couple decide to go on the run. Known primarily as a director of music videos for megastars like Beyoncé, Matsoukas discusses her transition between mediums and the film’s political message. Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years is the first exhibition to survey the artist’s earliest works - pots, plates and sculptures - which he made between 1982 and 1994. Critic Jacky Klein reviews the exhibition at the Holburne Museum in Bath which includes pottery that addresses his regular themes of gender, identity and social class.The life of Faust, an itinerant alchemist and astrologer in 15th century Germany, has inspired great writers through the centuries, most notably Christopher Marlowe. Now Chris Bush reinvents the story again; Faustus is a woman and, instead of using the powers of Mephistopheles for self-gratificiation she seeks the kinds of knowledge denied women through the ages, traveling through time to attain it. Stig talks to Chris Bush about her ambitious, ideas-laden new play, Faustus: That Damned Woman. As we continue to explore risk in the arts, actor Richard Armitage speaks to us about the physical and reputational risk of being waterboarded for the filming of Spooks. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins

Samira talks to Sir Patrick Stewart about what tempted him back to Star Trek to play Jean-Luc Picard for the first time in 18 years. Star Trek: Picard finds the legendary Starfleet officer in retirement but still deeply affected by the loss of Lieutenant Commander Data and the destruction of Romulus that ended his career. Stewart also discusses the parallels between the world of Star Trek: Picard and politics today. The overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year is announced on Front Row, live from the ceremony. Contenders this year include debut novelist Sara Collins, novelist Jonathan Coe, biographer Jack Fairweather, poet Mary Jean Chan and children’s novelist Jasbinder Bilan.Continuing our Risk Season, Sharmaine Lovegrove tells us about the risks involved in setting up Dialogue Books, an imprint that publishes authors from under-represented communities, including writers from BAME, LGBTQI+ and working class backgrounds.Arts Council England’s Chief Executive Darren Henley and Amanda Parker, Editor of arts industry journal, Arts Professional, discuss “Let’s Create” - the Arts Council’s new 10-year Strategy which seeks to expand our nation’s creative opportunities.Image: Sir Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Picard Image credit: Amazon Prime VideoPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Simon Richardson

Martin Scorsese has the most Oscar nominations of any living director though he has only won once, for his 2006 film The Departed. Nominated again this year for The Irishman, he talks about the film’s themes of ageing, guilt and redemption – and about how it would feel to win. As part of our season looking at risk in the arts, we consider when risk is disproportionately apportioned to working with diverse talent like women or black artists. The result is that white male practitioners are seen as a safe pair of hands and women and BAME talent are ignored even if they have proven their success in the past. We investigate the scale of the problem and what can be done to change it with Dawn Walton, Head of Revolution Mix theatre group and Clare Binns Joint Managing Director, Picturehouse. Artist, engineer, architect and poet, Naum Gabo was a leading spirit in the radical arts flourishing after the Russian Revolution. When the Soviet authorities cracked down on avant-garde art, Gabo worked at the Bauhaus in Germany, collaborated with Diaghilev in Paris, and energised London's art scene. During the war Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson persuaded him to come to St Ives. His work was startlingly spare and made beautiful use of industrial materials. Tate St Ives presents the first major exhibition of Gabo’s work for more than 30 years. Michael Bird, who lives in St Ives and has written about Gabo, reviews the show.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Oliver JonesMain image: Martin Scorsese

In a career spanning half a century, Martin Scorsese has told stories about masculinity, music, violence, guilt and redemption – in films including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and many more. Despite nine best director Oscar nominations in that time, Scorsese only has one win to his name, for The Departed. But that tally could rise if his latest movie The Irishman wins him another Oscar. For Front Row, he talks to John Wilson from New York about his hopes of winning, representation on screen, and the themes that have permeated all his work.