Front Row

To mark Armistice Day, Marin Alsop will be conducting Brahms's A German Requiem this weekend, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and in a break from tradition, she will be introducing the work from the podium. Marin discusses the reasons behind this move, and also reveals the various ways in which this requiem also broke from tradition.Russell Howard makes comedy out of political issues such as the tampon tax, junior doctors and the housing crisis, and is hugely successful with younger audiences who watch him on TV, social media and in his sell-out stand-up world tours. The comedian discusses his show, The Russell Howard Hour, how much he wants to politically engage his audience, and finding the funny in what can be bleak political times. A whinge – that’s the collective noun for a group of cartoonists, and this evening a whinge of some of the best-known, including Steve Bell of the Guardian, Matt of the Daily Telegraph and Banx of the FT, will gather to judge the Young Cartoonist of the Year Competition. But with newspaper circulation in decline and, conversely, the appetite of the internet for images, what is the outlook for those young winners? Tim Benson, editor of Britain’s Best Political Cartoons, 2018, and the cartoonist Andy Davey discuss the future of the political cartoon in the digital age.Presenter Nikki Bedi Producer Rebecca Armstrong

On Folkestone beach, film-maker Danny Boyle discusses Pages of the Sea, his Armistice Day tribute to the servicemen and women who left these shores in the First World War, many never to return. Members of the public will be invited to visit a number of beaches around the country to pay their respects, and will be given a specially-commissioned poem The Wound in Time, by Carol Ann Duffy.Zadie Smith’s White Teeth gets a musical makeover, we review the new theatrical production put on in the same district of north London where the novel is set.Continuing Front Row's Arts and Mental Health series, John Wilson meets singer-songwriter, composer and poet Emily Maguire who discusses how music making and writing have helped her deal with bipolar disorder. She is about to embark on a nationwide tour playing music and reading from her new collection of poetry, Meditation Mind, which was inspired by her latest battle with bipolar, and is a testimony to how her Buddhist practice of meditation has helped her recovery.Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu's famous painting, Tutu, has gone on public display in Lagos, prompting a search for the subject, an Ife princess called Adetutu Ademiluyi. The novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks about the power and significance of the painting known as 'the African Mona Lisa'.Presenter John Wilson Producer Julian May

Steve McQueen discusses his return to the big screen with Widows, an adaptation of the Lynda La Plante thriller. Set this time in Chicago, the widows must learn to survive after their husbands die in a botched heist leaving debts that need to be repaid in a city rife with professional crime and political corruption.Romeo and Juliet is more relevant to our young people than ever according to the RSC deputy director Erica Whyman. She's directed a new production which involves local young people throughout the tour and swaps the gender of some key roles including Mercutio and Prince Escalus. She explains her approach to the text.Many theatre productions in recent months have featured roles reimagined for a different gender, including Marianne Elliott's revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company at the Donmar Warehouse, Troilus and Cressida at the RSC and Theatr Clwyd's Lord of the Flies. Theatre critics Dominic Cavendish and Lyn Gardner discuss the merits and pitfalls of gender-swapping on stage.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah Robins

As Boy George releases his first new album with Culture Club in almost 20 years – simply called Life - he talks about being a changed man and contrasts making music today with the band’s heyday in the 80s.Academy award winning director Peter Jackson has added colour to archival footage from WWI for the first time in his new film They Shall Not Grow Old. But how is this colourisation achieved and how does changing its colour affect the way we experience the film? BFI National Archive Curator Bryony Dixon and film historian Ian Christie discuss.John Cooper Clarke, the razor-sharp poet with the rapid-fire delivery, is one of the defining figures of the late 70s. Over the years he’s been variously referred to as The Bard of Salford, The Godfather of Punk Poetry and more recently, perhaps to his own surprise, as a National Treasure. Now 69, he joins Front Row to perform and talk about his first new collection for decades, The Luckiest Guy Alive.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson

Best-selling Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern discusses her new short story collection, Roar, which features 30 stories about 30 different women.India has unveiled the world's tallest statue, which cost £330 million to build. The 182m high structure in the western state of Gujarat is a bronze-clad tribute to independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Pratiksha Ghildial in the BBC’s Delhi bureau reports on reactions within India. Lecturer in Korean Studies, Dr Anna Yates-Lu, explains the origins of pansori, a traditional form of Korean opera, and why legendary pansori singer Ahn Sook-Sun, currently in the UK, is its leading exponent.Julia Roberts stars in the television adaptation of the hit drama podcast series, Homecoming. The series looks back at her work as a counsellor at a mysterious company assessing the mental health of returning soldiers as they rehabilitate into society. TV critic Sophie Wilkinson reviews.Presenter: Janina Ramirez Producer: Edwina Pitman

Published in 2005, The Book Thief was an international bestseller that went on to become a successful Hollywood film. Now more than a decade later its author, Markus Zusak, is back with a new story, Bridge of Clay, about how five brothers deal with the disappearance of their father.American playwright Sarah DeLappe discusses her award-winning debut play, The Wolves, as it transfers to the UK. Played out through conversations that happen between the players of an American high school girls' soccer team, it paints a portrait of young womanhood today.As the centenary approaches of the death of the poet Wilfred Owen on the Western Front, just a week before the end of hostilities in WW1, writers Philip Hoare and David Charters discuss two projects they’ve been working on that focus on his life and work. David’s play A Dream of Wilfred Owen forms part of the Wilfred Owen Commemoration on the Wirral, while Philip’s short film I Was a Dark Star Always pays tribute to the poet, part of which was shot at the French canal where Owen died.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ben Mitchell

Actor, comedian and opera fan Chris Addison discusses his role in La Traviata: Behind the Curtain, a new series of talks exploring the historical and social context of Verdi’s opera La Traviata for this year’s Glyndebourne Tour. He’s joined by musicologist Flora Willson, who explains why this 19th century work is the most-performed opera in the world.Dark Heart is the new ITV police procedural by Unforgotten writer Chris Lang, in which troubled detective DI Wagstaff takes on a case involving a series of gruesome vigilante murders. TV critic David Butcher considers if the series brings anything fresh to the genre.Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome Weatherald

A six part adaptation of John le Carré’s 1983 spy thriller The Little Drummer Girl has begun BBC One. Florence Pugh and Alexander Skarsgård discuss their roles playing young actress Charlie who is sucked into the shadowy world of espionage amid rising tensions in the Middle East, and Becker, the Israeli intelligence officer who recruits her.As the clocks go back we investigate the affect the darkening days has on writers, particularly those with mental health issues. Poet Helen Mort and novelist Matt Haig examine how the character of their work, their productivity and their routine changes during the winter months. Back with his third studio album, Jubilee Road, BRIT award and Ivor Novello winner Tom Odell talks about his inspiration, shying away from fame and performs his latest single, Half as Good as You.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah Robins

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke explains how he composed his first feature film soundtrack for Suspiria, Luca Guadagnino’s remake of the 1977 Dario Argento horror film.If you've listened to an audiobook, can you say you've read the book? According to the Publishers Association UK, spending on audiobooks has more than doubled in the past five years, to £31m in 2017. We ask literary journalists Sarah Ditum and Sarah Shaffi whether listening to an audiobook counts the same as reading one. Tim Burton’s debut feature, Beetlejuice, turns 30 this year and is being re-released in cinemas. Now considered a cult classic, it follows a newly-deceased couple, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, as they commission Michael Keaton’s demon Beetlejuice to drive away the ghastly family who have moved into their former home. Horror podcaster Mike Muncer looks back at the film’s success.Presenter Janina Ramirez Producer Edwina Pitman

Bohemian Rhapsody, the new biopic of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, is finally in cinemas after eight years in the making. During production, two leading actors quit the project before Rami Malek took on the role of Freddie Mercury, Kate Mossman considers if film is worth the wait.As he approaches his 80th birthday this week, the conductor and composer Howard Blake looks back over his career which has included more than 700 compositions, including the music for 65 films – most famously for The Snowman - and his Piano Concerto to mark Princess Diana’s 30th birthday.The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture is worth £30,000 to the winning artist recognised for their contribution to contemporary sculpture. This week an exhibition opens at Hepworth Wakefield showing the shortlisted artists Michael Dean, Mona Hatoum, Magali Reus, Phillip Lai and Cerith Wyn Evans. Art critic Adrian Searle considers their work and what they tell us about sculpture in the UK today. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Kate Bullivant