Front Row

Idris Elba is a man of many parts - actor, DJ, kick-boxer and now film director. He discusses his first feature, Yardie, based on the hit novel of the same name, by Victor Headley which, in 1992, told the tales of "D", a Jamaican in London engaged in the super-violent drugs trade of the 1970s. The former Raleigh Cycle Company headquarters in Nottingham recently became the 400,000th listed building in England. Deborah Mays, Head of Listing Advice at Historic England, writer and architect Douglas Murphy, and Dr Anton Lang, Chartered Town Planner, discuss whether we have too many listed buildings in the UK.For the Front Row Inspire season, each of the presenters has taken on a creative challenge to try something new, and Stig elected to write a sonnet for his new-born daughter Phoebe. He visits the Walthamstow Forest Poets, one of over 85 'Stanza' poetry meetups around the UK run by volunteers from The Poetry Society. Stig reads his sonnet, gets some advice on it and finds out where the poets in the group get their inspiration. Presnter: Stig Abell Producer: Julian May.

Andrew Miller, who won the Costa Book of the Year Award for his novel Pure, discusses his new book Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, an adventure story set during the Napoleonic wars.We consider how the idea of the artist's muse has changed over time, and ask what makes a modern muse? With art critic Louisa Buck, novelist and critic Matt Thorne and Andrew Miller.As the latest TV adaptation of William Thackeray's Vanity Fair hits our screens this weekend, Emma Bullimore reports from the set, where she speaks to Olivia Cooke, who stars as Becky Sharp, the consummate and shameless social climber, as well as screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes and Michael Palin, who plays the narrator Thackeray.Neil Simon, the pioneering playwright who set a new tone in theatrical comedy with such shows as The Odd Couple and captured the spirit of the middle-class American family with plays like Lost in Yonkers, has died. Critic Michael Carlson pays tribute. Presenter : Samira Ahmed Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

Poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan takes us on a guided tour of Darfield churchyard near Barnsley, as part of Front Row's Inspire season.Patrick Gale, who wrote last year's TV drama Man In An Orange Shirt, discusses his new novel Take Nothing With You, a coming-of-age story as a young boy obsessed with the cello realises how messy adult life can be.Are internet horror movies becoming a new genre? In the wake of the recent release of several films using it as inspiration and a plot device, including Slender Man and the forthcoming Searching, horror podcaster Mike Muncer and technology lecturer Dr Kate Devlin discuss. TV reviewer Caroline Preece reacts to the announcement that US comedy series The Big Bang Theory will be coming to an end next year after nearly 300 episodes, and the differing responses the news has received from both critics and the public.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Jerome Weatherald.

Monday sees the performance of a ‘Relaxed Prom’ at the Royal Albert Hall, offering an informal environment for children, young people and adults with autism, sensory and communication impairments, learning disabilities and other challenges. The Prom will feature the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and its ensemble BSO Resound, comprising six disabled musicians led by conductor James Rose who has cerebral palsy. James Rose and violin and viola player Siobhan Clough discuss the practicalities of conducting and performing ahead of their first major UK performance. The shortlist for this year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards has been announced. Journalist Stephen Armstrong is the chair of the judging panel and joins Kirsty to discuss the selection and the main themes explored by comedians at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. The winner will be announced on Saturday 25 August.What happens in the brain when we are inspired? Professor of Neuroscience Paul Howard–Jones explains, as part of our Inspire season.Novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison talks about her latest book, All Among the Barley, a story of an adolescent farmer’s daughter in 1930s Britain. In the course of a long hot summer a sophisticated stranger arrives in the village but she is not what she seems and her presence has a shattering effect on the lives of the girl and her family.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Rebecca Armstrong

Jed Mercurio's new drama Bodyguard follows Richard Madden as a troubled war veteran assigned as protection officer to the Home Secretary played by Keeley Hawes. TV critic Alison Graham reviews this latest offering from the writer of police thriller Line of Duty.As a One Direction themed fanfiction is now being turned into a feature film; we ask if fanfiction has finally gone mainstream with books journalist Sarah Shaffi and fanfiction writer and novelist RJ Anderson. The Lovely Bones is a bestselling novel by Alice Sebold about a young girl who is brutally murdered and looks down on her grieving family from heaven. Playwright Bryony Lavery discusses turning this well loved book into a theatre piece.For our Inspire season we commissioned three artists to make a piece of work. Tonight we catch up with crime novelist Vaseem Khan to see how he's getting on. Presenter: Sharmaine Lovegrove Producer: Hannah Robins.

Spike Lee's new film BlacKkKlansman is based on a true story from the 1970s. John David Washington plays Ron Stallworth the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a name for himself he sets out on a dangerous mission to infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. Natty Kasambala reviews.Canadian author Esi Edugyan on her Man Booker Prize long-listed novel, Washington Black. A historical adventure, set in the early 19th century, it's the story of a young slave who flees Barbados with an abolitionist inventor.Poet Alison Brackenbury tells us how she is getting on with her commission to write a poem for our Inspire season. Comedian Helen Lederer returns to stand-up comedy and launches Comedy Women in Print, a competition to encourage funny female fiction.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Harry Parker.

This year Sir Lenny Henry marks his 60th birthday with a special television programme with Sir Trevor McDonald. As well as performing some new sketches, he talks about bunking off school to appear in the TV talent show New Faces and how he fell in love with Shakespeare. He joins Stig to discuss a career that has spanned over four decades. In the US TV drama series Instinct, Alan Cumming stars as Dr Dylan Reinhart, writer, academic and former CIA operative, drawn into a murder investigation when a serial killer copies one of his books. We review the show, which is based on the novel Murder Games by James Patterson, claiming the first gay male lead in a police procedural television show.For centuries in the western world, religion was the great driving force for artists, musicians and writers. Janina Ramirez, Laura-Jane Foley and A N Wilson discuss the nature of divine inspiration and whether it still holds sway in an increasingly secular society.Presenter Stig Abell Producer Harry Parker.

How people with dwarfism have been represented in art and culture, from Ancient Egypt to Velasquez to Game of Thrones. Kirsty is joined by Tom Shakespeare, Professor of Disability Research at East Anglia University and Richard Butchins, who has made the BBC Four film Dwarfs in Art: A New Perspective. Scottish artist Barbara Rae has travelled to the Arctic in the footsteps of the Victorian explorer John Rae. She discusses the resulting artworks currently on show in Edinburgh and the challenges of working in the extreme cold.As another film about Winnie-the-Pooh is released, this time starring Ewan McGregor as Christopher Robin, film critic Kate Muir and children's author Meg Rosoff discuss our fascination with the world of A.A Milne.Producer: Timothy Prosser Presenter: Kirsty Lang.

Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul" known for hits like Respect, Natural Woman and Say a Little Prayer, has died in Detroit at the age of 76. Broadcaster Paul Gambaccini and music critic Kevin Le Gendre assess her life and work. Actor David Suchet, discusses taking on the role of a 90 year-old furniture dealer in a revival of Arthur Miller's The Price at the Theatre Royal, Bath. It's 50 years since Miller's play was first staged in Broadway, but it also almost 50 years since David Suchet began his career on the British stage. The actor, who became a household name for his role as Hercule Poirot, explains why he starts with his character's voice and why he often plays outsiders. Singer and composer Laura Mvula talks about her new choral work, Love Like a Lion, commissioned for the BBC proms and performed by the BBC Singers, on which she has collaborated with the novelist and poet Ben Okri. Laura and Ben talk about their working relationship and Laura explains what it is like straddling the worlds of soul, pop, and classical music.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hilary Dunn.

Queen guitarist Brian May fell in love with 3D photography as a child and has since gone on to establish his own publishing company devoted to sharing stereoscopic work from the Victorian era to the present day. May's latest publication is a book by Professor Roger Taylor about the Scottish photography pioneer George Washington Wilson. May and Taylor discuss why Wilson's 3D photographs of Scottish landscapes and street scenes remain as captivating today as they were during the 3D boom of the 1850s and 60s.As the NHS celebrates its 70th anniversary, three doctors are performing their own stand up shows on the Festival fringe. Adam Kay, Dr Kevin Jones and Kwame Asante talk to Kirsty about using their working lives as material.Star of The Mash Report and Austentatious, Rachel Parris tells us what makes a winning comedy song.And Scottish musician Mairi Campbell shares a lesser-known version of Auld Lang Syne.Presenter : Kirsty Lang Producer : Simon Richardson.