Front Row

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.

Novelist Wendy Holden announces the category winners of the Costa Book Awards 2017 exclusively on Front Row and Stig talks to the winner of the Novel Category. Artist Elizabeth Friedlander is the subject of a new exhibition at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. The work of Friedlander is instantly recognisable as mid-20th century design at its best including her Penguin book covers and Bauer Type Foundry typeface named for her - Elizabeth. Curator Katharine Meynell talks about her life and work. Taylor Swift's new album Reputation features the single Look What You Made Me Do, whose chorus bears more than a passing resemblance to Right Said Fred's 1991 single I'm Too Sexy. Mixing new lyrics and additions to an original piece of music has the name 'interpolation'. Music writer Ben Wardle ponders this now-widespread phenomenon, and looks back to when it all started.Presenter : Stig Abell Producer : Kate Bullivant.

The opening of V&A Dundee will be one of the big arts stories in 2018 and it's in Dundee that Samira Ahmed begins today's programme which looks at how arts organisations nationwide are seeking to make themselves open and relevant to their local communities. In Dundee, Samira visits the new V&A Dundee community garden in the company of volunteers Denis Harkins and Derek Cassie and Communities Producer Peter Nurick; she talks to Sarah Saunders, Director of Learning and Engagement at V&A Dundee, and Cameron Price about the museum's first public engagement project - Living Room For The City; and she joins young engineers Emma Evans and Ross Tolland on the deck of Captain's Scott's RRS Discovery to hear about their contribution to V&A Dundee's most recent public engagement project - the Scottish Design Challenge.Natalie Walton, former Head of Learning at the Hepworth Wakefield, winner of the Museum of the Year 2017 award, explains the steps The Hepworth took in the year before it opened to ensure it would be a welcome addition to the lives of local people.Alex Clifton, the artistic director of Storyhouse - the new and long desired arts centre in Chester - and Michael Green, the executive editor of local newspaper, The Chester Chronicle, discuss why the new £37 million pounds venue has received such strong local support.Emma Horsman, Project Director of The Cultural Spring in Sunderland and South Tyneside, reveals the work and thinking behind Creative People and Places - Arts Council England's latest approach to arts funding which puts local people first.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ekene AkalawuImage: V&A Dundee, Construction - September 2017 Image Credit: Ross Fraser McLean.

Kay Mellor discusses her new ITV drama, Girlfriends, about three women in their late 50s, early 60s, and reveals how closely she's drawn on her own life and friends to write it.Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published on New Year's Day 1818. Christopher Frayling, author of Frankenstein The First Two Hundred Years, joins Janet Todd, the biographer of Mary Shelley's mother Mary Wollstonecraft, to discuss how we read Frankenstein in our era of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence and how we view Mary Shelley herself.Upcoming film Swimming With Men, starring Rob Brydon and Daniel Mays, tells the true story of a group of middle-aged men who make it to the World Synchronised Swimming championships. It was shot earlier this year in Basildon swimming pool masquerading as Milan, Stig visited the set to meet Rob Brydon and the synchronised swimming trainer, Adele Carlsen.

Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are back on TV with Vic and Bob's Big Night Out. Three decades after starting out they discuss their surreal and anarchic style of comedy. The legendary Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu returns with a new album Eternamente - her first studio album in six years. She discusses her affinity with the role of Tosca, and why she feels like the "black sheep" of the opera world. Bristol Old Vic is the longest continuously running theatre in the UK, and celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2016, which means it might just be old enough to house a ghost or two. Game of Thrones star Patrick Malahide and members of the theatre staff tell us of their spooky encounters there.

The surprise success of this year's Wonder Woman film emphasized the current dominance of superhero movies at the box office. Stig Abell investigates the comic book origins of these characters and explores why they have become such a presence in our culture. Dave Gibbons, the comic book writer and artist most famous for his collaboration with Alan Moore on The Watchman, shows Stig around his studio. Gibbons, who has also worked on Superman, Green Lantern, and Frank Miller's Give Me Liberty, talks about his 40 year career in comics and whether today is truly a 'Golden Age' for the form. Stig visits Orbital comics shop and is guided around the superhero universes by comic critic Adam Karenina Sherif and journalist Louise Blain. Plus he gets a lowdown on the changing film industry from Den of Geek editor Simon Brew.Author Nikesh Shukla and critic Gavia Baker-Whitelaw join comic book writer Kieron Gillen to examine what is it about superhero characters and their stories that is so appealing. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Kate BullivantImage: Gal Gadot as Diana in Warner Bros film Wonder Woman Image credit: 2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment and Ratpac Entertainment LLC.

Gary Oldman on his 30 year career in film, from playing punk rebel Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy to a barnstorming performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. He tells Kirsty why he was reluctant at first to take on the role. How he transformed himself into Britain's wartime Prime Minister and the challenge of recreating Churchill's distinctive voice. How when he was young his drama teachers told him that he wouldn't amount to anything. And as he approaches his 60th birthday, why he would like to return to British theatre.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser.

Join John Wilson for a Christmas party including games and performances from all our guests.Impressionist Jon Culshaw delivers ten Christmas messages, but can you guess all the voices?Poet Patience Agbabi performs her Christmas poem, I Go To the Supervillains Christmas Ball As The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, written especially for Front Row. Cariad Lloyd and Charlotte Gittins from comedy improv group Austentatious perform an excerpt from a previously unknown Jane Austen work suggested by our party guests.Playwright Inua Ellams reads his poem, Swallow Twice, about family and feasting.Actress Josie Lawrence improvises a Christmas song based on a random object, with Steve Edis on piano providing musical accompaniment throughout.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah Robins.

Emily Watson discusses her role as Marmee March, the mother of four daughters, in the new BBC TV adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women, set in 1860s Massachusetts against the background of the American Civil War.As the landmark film The Graduate turns 50 today, actress Tracy Ann Oberman and film critic MaryAnn Johanson discuss how the character of the seductress Mrs Robinson shaped the role of the older woman on screen.Ahead of this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special which features the regeneration of the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi, we ask Doctor Who: The Fan Show's Christel Dee exactly what regeneration is, how it works, and what we can expect from the Christmas Special.With only a couple of days left before Christmas, music writer Ben Wardle breathes a sigh of relief that he won't be bombarded for much longer by those perennial Christmas songs, from Wham to Wizzard. He discusses what makes an enduring Christmas pop tune and how having one in your back catalogue can be a nice little earner.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald Image: Marmee March (EMILY WATSON), Meg March (WILLA FITZGERALD) Credit: BBC/Playground/Patrick Redmond.