Front Row

Mavis Staples, formerly of the gospel group The Staple Singers, discusses her new album If All I Was Was Black, ten songs which address the continuing racial issues in America today. The singer, who first performed in 1948, also reflects on her association with Martin Luther King and her close friendship with Prince. Her Body and Other Parties is the acclaimed debut short story collection from American writer Carmen Maria Machado. The book sits between magic realism, science-fiction and horror and Carmen reveals what she drew on to create the stories. With Christmas fast approaching - along with stage, film and TV versions à go-go of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - writer, comedian, and self-professed fan of the Christmas ghost story, Danny Robins, explores our endless fascination for them.

As The League of Gentlemen returns to BBC Two for three new episodes we speak to Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson about revisiting the bizarre characters of Royston Vasey. Gina Yashere and Jenny Eclair discuss how the climate for comedy has changed and whether comedians still have a duty to shock.How Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World changed television, with producer John Fairley and Professor Roger Luckhurst from Birkbeck, University of London.Image: Mickey (MARK GATISS), Pauline (STEVE PEMBERTON), Ross (REECE SHEARSMITH) Credit: BBC/James Stack.

Emily Wilson, the first woman to translate The Odyssey, explains why the issues running through the epic - gender, geo-politics, migration - make Homer, writing 3,000 years ago, an author for our times.Emily Wilson is joined by Daniel Hahn who, as well as writing books, translates them from Portuguese, Spanish and French. Comparing their approaches they discuss the art of translating, how it reflects the age in which it is undertaken, its challenges and its importance to our culture today.Michael Cooper, journalist at the New York Times, tells Stig about the latest developments in the drama unfolding around the Metropolitan Opera House's new production of Tosca.As the Hayward Gallery in London prepares to re-open its doors next month after a two-year closure, its director Ralph Rugoff and the architect Richard Battye discuss the renovations and restoration of the brutalist contemporary art gallery.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Theatre director Emma Rice talks about her final production as Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe, The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales. She discusses the inspiration for the show as well as her reasons for leaving her post after only two seasons in the job. Children's writer Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie novels have been much loved since they were first published in America during the Great Depression. Caroline Fraser, the author of a new biography Prairie Fires, and Eddie Higgins, a British member of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, examine Wilder's life and popularity, 150 years since her birth. South London-born actor John Boyega discusses improvising on the set of his latest film, the sci-fi behemoth Star Wars: The Last Jedi and why he likes to mix Hollywood blockbusters with theatre. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald.

Kazuo Ishiguro is the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. To mark the occasion, he talks to John Wilson from Stockholm about his reaction to the award. He highlights issues such as artificial intelligence and genetic research that are firing his imagination. Front Row also hears from his first editor Robert McCrum, Booker-nominated fellow author Mohsin Hamid, and singer Stacey Kent about the powerful, moving, strange and sometimes funny work of the author, whose work ranges from A Pale View of Hills to The Remains of the Day and most recently The Buried Giant.

As the Christmas TV schedules are finalised we round up the best festive telly. With Caroline Frost. Do live music venues need protecting from inner-city property development? We debate a proposed "Agent of Change" law to do just that. With the Rt Hon John Spellar MP and Andrew Whitaker, Planning Director of the Home Builders Federation. The young directors who brought theatre to the Jungle camp in Calais, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, have now written a play about the experience. They discuss staging The Jungle at the Young Vic in London. With news that sales of vinyl records have hit a new 25-year high, music writer Ben Wardle - a self-confessed middle-aged vinyl bore - expresses his concerns over his patch being a little threatened by a new breed of collector, the vinyl hipster.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Helen Fitzhenry.

An eight-part series about the legendary rivalry between Hollywood icons Bette Davis and Joan Crawford comes to BBC2 this Christmas. Matthew Sweet reviews.What makes going to the theatre or cinema a pleasurable experience and what -such as long loo queues, smelly snacks and mobile phones - can ruin a night out. Matthew Sweet stays on to discuss this with journalist Rosamund Urwin.'Snow was general all over Ireland' wrote James Joyce, memorably, in Dubliners. Snow has been a great inspiration to writers and poets. In America Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens and Robert Frost have all written beautiful snow poems. But snow is nothing unusual there. Poets here are inspired by snow partly because it comes unexpectedly. There is always an element of surprise and wonder. Gillian Clarke reads her poem Snow, from her collection, Ice. Anne Washburn thinks that almost every American aged over 30 has seen the sci-fi series The Twilight Zone. The playwright tells Kirsty Lang about bringing this television classic to the English stage.The television presenter Keith Chegwin's death was announced today. There will be many tributes to Cheggers, Front Row celebrates his foray into high culture, linking his name forever with Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Roman Polanski and an obscure ensemble called The Third Ear Band. In 1971 Chegwin played Fleance in Polanski's wonderful film of Macbeth and he sang part of the Rondel of Merciless Beauty by Chaucer - an unexpected contrast to Cheggers Plays Pop. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Julian May.

Vanessa Redgrave has just been awarded the Richard Harris Award which is given to an actor for their outstanding contribution to British film. She talks to Stig about her long career in cinema and theatre. Imperium is the Royal Shakespeare Company's new six-hour production which looks at power politics in ancient Rome, which is based on Robert Harris's bestselling Cicero trilogy. The writer and classical historian Natalie Haynes has seen the production and gives her verdict. French president Emmanuel Macron has called for African artefacts currently held in French museums to be returned to their countries of origin. Cultural historian Andrew Hussey discusses the reaction in France, the practicalities of such a pledge, and what pressure it might put on museums in Britain. The Irish writer Sally Rooney has just been awarded The 2017 Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award for Conversations With Friends. The 26-year-old's debut novel has become a critical and word-of-mouth hit this year, acclaimed as fresh and clever. She talks to Stig about the book and what the win means to her. Presenter Stig Abell Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Christopher Nolan, writer and director of Memento, Inception, Interstellar and the Batman trilogy including The Dark Knight, looks back over his career as the DVD of his most recent film Dunkirk is about to be released.Theatre critic and broadcaster Nick Ahad reviews the new all-black cast production of Guys and Dolls at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. John Lahr, writer and theatre critic, and Dr Lynette Goddard, author of Modern and Contemporary Black British Drama, discuss the issues raised by all-black cast theatre productions.Tonight the UK's City of Culture 2021 will be announced. The contenders are Coventry, Paisley, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Swansea. Arts Minister John Glen and a spokesperson from the winning city tell us what to expect from the new City of Culture.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Kate Bullivant.

Portrait painter Jonathan Yeo discusses his ambitious new cutting-edge sculpture, which features in a new exhibition From Life at the Royal Academy, alongside works by Jeremy Deller, Jenny Saville and Gillian Wearing. Yeo's sculpture of his own head was created on a virtual reality headset, challenging the foundry tasked with making it to find a way of 3-D printing the digital work in bronze, never done before. Artist Anish Kapoor has created a new trophy for next year's Brit Awards. Design journalist Max Fraser assesses the new design and discusses what makes the best award statuette.On the 100th Anniversary of Finnish Independence, the conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, whose career is being celebrated by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a Total Immersion Day at the Barbican, talks about the influence of Finland on his life and music. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Edwina Pitman.