Front Row

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

Mike Leigh discusses his latest film Peterloo, an historical epic that depicts the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter's Field in Manchester turned into one of the most notorious episodes in British history. The massacre saw British government forces charge into a crowd of over 60,000 that had gathered to demand political reform.Novelist CJ Sansom discusses Tombland, his latest in his Tudor mystery series. The Lady Elizabeth sends lawyer Matthew Shardlake to Norwich to investigate the murder of a distant Boleyn relative during a time of agrarian unrest. Once the domain of children, playing with friends is increasingly seen as an entertainment option for adults and not just the computer game or sporting variety. We talk to two real life gamers: cosplayer Holly Rose Swinyard who attends conventions where players dress as favourite characters from comics and TV, and Ken Ferguson who blogs about escape rooms, physical puzzle games the like of which are popping up across the UK, to explore the changing role of play in our lives.Presenter : Kirsty Lang Producer : Dymphna Flynn

Author Luke Jennings on his Killing Eve novels, which inspired the recent television series. Jennings reveals what motivated him to create the ruthless assassin, Villanelle, and Eve, the agent hunting her, and the somewhat bizarre relationship the two of them seem to have. Revulsion is one of the strongest human reactions and if art is designed to instil an emotional response in the viewer, what is the role of disgust in art? As Halloween approaches we explore what makes us disgusted and how artists have used disgust to enthral or repel audiences. We speak to artist Andrea Hasler, whose wax-based sculptures re-imagine luxury goods like handbags with raw fleshy innards, along with art critic Estelle Lovatt and horror fan Kim Newman to explore the role of disgust in visual art and film. Maggie Gyllenhaal is currently starring in second series The Deuce, a television drama which charts the rise of the porn industry in 1970s New York. We speak to the actress about why she fought to be a producer on the show and what difference that has made both on screen and on set.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins

Eric Idle is of course a member of the comedy phenomenon Monty Python. His autobiography, or as he fashions it sortabiography, is called Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, after the song he wrote for the end of the troupe’s controversial 1979 film, Life of Brian. He’ll be talking about his role in Python, his career, his friendships with the likes of George Harrison and David Bowie, and the creation of Spamalot.The latest Halloween film is the 11th in the long-running Halloween franchise. Ignoring all but the original 1978 film to which it is a direct sequel, the 2018 movie is set 40 years later with with Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprising their roles as final girl Laurie Strode and masked murderer Michael Myers. Critic Hannah Woodhead reviews.With the announcement of the death of Cicely Berry, the legendary voice coach whose seminal work at the RSC revolutionised how actors thought of their voices, we hear from her in her own words.The House of Commons library has opened its doors to Front Row for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour in honour of its 200th anniversary. It has survived air raids, fires and changes of government, but still little is known about this political institution, with access to the general public seldom granted. It not only houses Greek classics, biographies and historical treasures, but also acts as a vital source for MPs, researching and fact-checking policies and questions for the House.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Edwina Pitman

Gerard Butler talks to John Wilson about starring alongside Gary Oldman in his latest action film, Hunter Killer. Set deep under the Arctic Ocean, Butler plays an American submarine captain on the hunt for another US vessel in distress when he discovers a secret Russian coup that could lead to another world war. Bigger budgets, bigger explosions and bigger torsos seem to be dominating our movie screens, with actors such as Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg known for their intense workout regimes. But how damaging is this trend for audiences and is bigger always better? Film critic Adam Smith and Mark Twight, the Hollywood personal trainer responsible for getting Superman, Wonder Woman and the cast of 300 into shape, discuss.Leading Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk on her International Man Booker prize-winning novel Flights, her new novel in translation, Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of the Dead, and how the history and politics of her home country informs her literary lifeAnd, a classic song is 55 today...Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Julian May

Willy Loman is very much the heart and soul of Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer-prizewinning play, Death of a Salesman. However as a new production opens at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, two actors Maureen Beattie and Marion Bailey - who have played the role of Linda Loman- join Stig to discuss what they found when they played the salesman’s wife.Crime novelist AA Dhand reviews ‘Informer’ a new criminal intelligence thriller set in East London about a police informant programme targeting radicalised youth. ‘Informer’ stars Paddy Considine and newcomer Nabhaan Rizwan.Geology and technology come together in two new exhibitions. The work of artist Dan Holdsworth is the focus of Continuous Topography at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art in Sunderland, while at York Art Gallery, there’s a group show, Strata-Rock-Dust-Stars. Cherie Frederico, editor of Aesthetica magazine and Dan Holdsworth join Stig to discuss why the planet has become a new frontier for artists working with digital technology.Liverpool-based Irish poet Ciarán Hodgers is about to take part in the annual Liverpool Irish Festival, which coincides with the publication of Cosmocartography, his first full collection of poetry. The poet discusses his personal experience of migration, which features in his collection, and which is also a theme in this year’s festival. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Ekene Akalawu

#MeToo one year on – what impact has the hashtag popularised by Hollywood actresses had on the arts and on women around the world? We speak to Jude Kelly, Founder & Director of the Women Of the World Foundation, film critic Larushka Ivan Zadeh, Helen Lewis, Associate Editor Of The New Statesman, and to Naomi Pohl, Assistant General Secretary Of The Musicians Union.Forgotten is a new play about the Chinese Labour Corps, the 140,000 Chinese men who at the height of the First World War travelled half way round the world to work for Britain and the Allies behind the front lines, and whose story is hardly known. Playwright Daniel York Loh talks to Kirsty Lang about his play whose title, written in Chinese characters, can also mean for Left Behind or maybe Erased.

The 2011 Norwegian terrorist attack at Utøya island summer camp has been made into a film by Paul Greengrass. The director, whose previous work includes the Jason Bourne thrillers, Bloody Sunday and Captain Phillips, explains his approach to making such an emotional and politically charged picture, which shows both the attack itself and the perpetrator Anders Breivik’s justifying his actions in court.Best mates and actors Lisa Hammond (formerly of EastEnders) and Rachael Spence wanted to make their own show but had no idea where to start. So in 2010 they asked members of the public to come up with stories for them. When they saw Lisa in a wheelchair and Rachael not, what the public suggested was funny, staggering and sad. They made a show about it and called it No Idea. Fast forward to 2018 and Lisa and Rachael felt that by now attitudes had surely changed. Their new show Still No Idea reflects what they found. A new report commissioned by Arts Council England, ‘What is Resilience Anyway?’, offers advice for tackling challenges faced by arts organisations from funding shortages to the increasing dominance of screens in audiences’ lives. It includes some challenging findings. Kirsty is joined by former Culture Minister Ed Vaizey and one of the main authors of the report Patrick Towell, Executive Director of Golant Media Ventures, the enterprise arm of The Audience Agency.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson