Front Row

Liam Neeson stars in action thriller The Commuter in which an insurance salesman is caught up in danger and conspiracy on his way home from work. He talks about the appeal of the ordinary man as hero.Jamie Hewlett is best known for his artwork for the comic strip Tank Girls, the group Gorillaz, and Damon Albarn's Chinese opera Monkey: Journey to the West. With the publication of a new monograph which features more than 400 of his artworks, Hewlett discusses his approach to graphic art and how tastes have changed over the last 20 years.This evening the winner of The T.S. Eliot Prize, is announced. To mark the 25th anniversary of Britain's most prestigious award for poetry the prize money has been increased to £25,000. Front Row will have the first interview with the winner, live from the award ceremony, and comment from one of the judges about this year's shortlist and how they made their choice.Following the news that Italian police are investigating three organisers of a Modigliani exhibition in Genoa after all but one of the paintings were shown to be fake, Anna Somers Cocks looks at forgery and 20th Century art.

Tom Hanks discusses his new film The Post, co-starring Meryl Streep and directed by Steven Spielberg, which tells the story of the part The Washington Post played in publishing the top secret Pentagon Papers that changed American public opinion about the Vietnam War. Sir Simon Rattle is conducting the European concert premiere of The Genesis Suite, a work with narration based on stories from the first book of the Bible, such as Adam and Eve, the Flood and the Tower of Babel. The conductor discusses the little-known piece from 1945 which was written by seven different European composers, émigrés to America, including Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Milhaud, who each composed a movement. The French culture minister Françoise Nyssen has unveiled plans to launch a heritage lottery. The money will go towards restoring ancient monuments. It follows reports of a fall in lottery receipts in the UK. French journalist Agnes Poirier and cultural historian Robert Hewison discuss the proposal, and consider how far arts and heritage funding should be lottery-dependent. Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome Weatherald.

In December the Royal Court withdrew and then reinstated its invitation to stage a new touring production of Andrea Dunbar's semi-autobiographical 1982 play Rita Sue and Bob Too as a result of sexual harassment allegations made against its co-director Max Stafford Clark - himself a former Artistic Director of the Royal Court and one of the most influential theatre directors of his generation. The Royal Court's current Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone and theatre critic Lyn Gardner discuss the way in which the play continues to speak to young women today and the impact of the recent controversy on this particular production in the context of the continuing revelations about sexual harassment in the arts industries. Kirsty Lang speaks to Jonathan Ruffer, the city financier who has donated almost £200 million to fund arts and restoration projects in the town of Bishop Auckland. For the past two summers the town has hosted the open-air drama Kynren, with the participation of 100 volunteers. In October Front Row covered the opening of a new mining art museum in the town, this year sees the re-opening of Auckland castle, a new Auckland Tower visitor attraction and, in 2019, a Spanish Art Gallery and Faith Museum.Sasha Dugdale reads from her new collection, Joy. The title poem, which won the Forward Prize for the best poem published in 2016, is a monologue in the voice of Catherine Blake, as she grieves for her husband William and in doing so celebrates their close and creative life together. Dugdale is also a playwright and translator and was until last month editor of the international magazine Modern Poets in Translation. She reflects on the impact this has on her own writing.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Julian May.

As The Southbank Show marks its 40th anniversary we discuss the legacy of this historic arts programme with host Melvyn Bragg. As ITV makes a return to arts programing with Great Art, and the BBC prepares to revive its landmark series Civilisations, we discuss the state of arts on TV today. With Phil Grabsky, the award-winning executive producer of Great Art and the founder of Seventh Art Production, and the TV writer Julia Raeside. 50 years ago this week saw the release the song Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay, performed and co-written by Otis Redding, considered to be one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music. The song, which was recorded just days before Redding died in a plane crash at the age of 26, became one of his best-known and loved. Music journalist Kevin le Gendre considers why.As Michael Wolff's expose of the US president's administration sells out, we ask if you can ever predict what will be publishing hit or a miss. Cathy Rentzenbrink, author and former contributing editor of The Bookseller and bookseller joins Front Row.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

The 1996 radical feminist theatre piece, The Vagina Monologues, made a huge impact in America and around the world as well as inspiring V-Day, an organisation working to stop violence against girls and women. As the writer Eve Ensler updates it with some contemporary voices, we ask about the original production and why now is the right time to revisit it.We also look at feminist theatre in Britain today. In an age where so many people describe themselves as feminist, what defines a play as such? Which issues are being explored, and are dramatic techniques, such as shocking language and violence, employed in the same way as in the past? Theatre critic Sam Marlowe and playwright Phoebe Éclair-Powell discuss. With the return of French tv crime drama Spiral to BBC Four, critic Adrian Wootton gives us a guide to this cult series, and explains why it's worthy of a bigger audience in the UK. Presenter : Samira Ahmed Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

A special episode featuring all five winners of the Costa Book Awards 2017. The winner of the novel category Jon McGregor talks about how he wrote his stunning portrait of an English country village, Reservoir 13. Katherine Rundell, winner of the children’s book category, reveals how she ate tinned tarantula for her adventure story The Explorer. The biography winner Rebecca Stott discusses In the Days of Rain which tells the story of her family’s life in a cult and how they escaped. The novelist Louise Doughty discusses the late Helen Dunmore and her last collection of poems, Inside the Wave, which was awarded the poetry prize. And debut novelist Gail Honeyman discusses how she wrote Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine which won the Costa First Book Award.

Kiri, Channel 4's new drama series, is about the disappearance of a young girl, written by Jack Thorne. It stars Sarah Lancashire as the girl's social worker and Lucian Msamati as her grandfather. Dreda Say Mitchell reviews.The winner of the Costa First Novel prize is Gail Honeyman for Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. It tells the story of a 29-year-old woman who lives alone, surviving, but not really living. Gail discusses how she was inspired to write the book after reading an article about loneliness.The Golden Globe Awards last night were dominated by speeches about Hollywood's sexual abuse scandal. Anna Smith runs us through the events of the night and Best Actor winner Gary Oldman talks about finally being recognized by the Golden Globes after 30 years. Why does the public appetite for portraiture and self-portraiture prevail in the age of the selfie? We discuss with Art Critic Jonathan Jones and Art Historian Frances Borzello, author of Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self Portraits. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah Robins.

Christopher Plummer discusses replacing Kevin Spacey as John Paul Getty in the Ridley Scott-directed All the Money in the World after Spacey was dropped from the film due to allegations of sexual misconduct. Film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh considers whether this bold move by the director pays off.As Saudi Arabia announces that it will reopen its cinema doors, we look at the arts scene in the country and ask if this reflects a more liberal attitude towards culture. BBC Arabic Correspondent Hanan Razek reports.The writer Helen Dunmore is the posthumous winner of the 2017 Costa Poetry Award for her collection Inside the Wave. Many of the poems are concerned with her illness and the knowledge of her approaching death but as her fellow writer and friend Louise Doughty explains they are uplifting, often joyous works.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Michelle Terry takes over as Artistic Director at Shakespeare's Globe in London in April, and today she announced details of her first season. She discusses her plans, as well as the drama off-stage that led to her predecessor Emma Rice's controversial early departure.Rebecca Stott, winner of the Biography category in this year's Costa Book Awards announced on Front Row this week, discusses In the Days of Rain, her part-memoir, part-biography, about her family's historical involvement with - and escape from - the fundamentalist Christian sect, the Exclusive Brethren.Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike and Wes Studi star in the new big-screen western, Hostiles. Tim Robey reviews the film and considers the portrayal of the Native American characters, so often side-lined in this genre. Jez Butterworth, who wrote the West End hits Mojo, Jerusalem and The Ferryman, discusses his latest project, the Sky TV drama Britannia. The Celts try to resist the Roman invasion amidst myth and mystery, but it's not Game of Thrones, the writer insists.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Neil Cross, the creator of Luther talks about his new BBC One series Hard Sun. The pre-apocalyptic crime drama follows two detectives who stumble upon proof that the world faces certain destruction, a fact the British Government is trying to suppressKatherine Rundell is the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2017 for The Explorer, a classic adventure story of four children whose plane crashes in the Amazon. Scholar, tightrope walker and amateur pilot Katherine Rundell explains the importance of the novel's environmental themes and why eating tinned tarantulas was an essential part of her research.And this week on Front Row we are interviewing the category winners from the Costa Book Awards, but how do literary prizes juries make their decision and who picks the judges? To get an insight we speak to two former book prize judges Professor John Mullan and journalist Viv Groskop. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hilary Dunn.