Front Row

Kate Mossman reviews George Michael: Freedom, the film George Michael was working when he died, in which he and a host of A-List names talk about his songs, his career, his relationships and his battles with the music industry. The Irish writer John Banville is the highly acclaimed winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize, The Sea. His novels include The Book of Evidence, Ghosts and now, Mrs Osmond. It's a sequel to Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady. That novel famously ends inconclusively: having travelled to England against her husband Gilbert Osmond's wishes to witness the death of her beloved cousin Ralph, we don't know if she'll return to her husband in Rome or shape some other future for herself. Banville talks about continuing her story and his debt to James.When Tate Modern opened its new extension last year, for the first time the gallery had purpose built spaces for performance art, and as Fierce, the live art festival in Birmingham prepares to open, Front Row invited Aaron Wright, the festival's artistic director and Dr Claire MacDonald, co-founder of the arts journal Performance Research to discuss the current state of the performance art landscape.Michael Fassbender, whose previous films include Hunger, 12 Years a Slave and Steve Jobs, discusses his role as Harry Hole in the film adaptation of Jo Nesbo's thriller The Snowman, in which he plays a detective on the hunt for a serial killer in Norway whose killing spree starts with the first snowfall.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

In his latest film, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Dustin Hoffman plays an old, bitter, self obsessed sculptor, whose children from several marriages nonetheless crave his approval. He and the director, Noah Baumbach, discuss grumpiness, fatherhood and the nature of success with Kirsty Lang.In St Ives the Tate is about to reopen with refurbished rooms rehung with wonderful work, by international artists - Rothko, Gabo, deKooning - and those working there who achieved such status - Hepworth, Lanyon, Wallis. The writer on art, Michael Bird, who lives in St Ives, follows the conversation between these works with the artistic director, Anne Barlow and curator Sara Matson. He has a preview, too, of Tate St Ives' beautiful new gallery, a feat of engineering years in the making. It is cut into the hill, yet still illuminated with the natural light of St Ives that drew artists there to begin with.Singer and multi-instrumentalist Jon Boden caused some consternation when he decided to leave Bellowhead, the 11 piece folk big-band that brought traditional music and sea shanties to Glastonbury, Later with Jools Holland and the London Palladium, and the group dissolved. He has just released a solo album, Afterglow. He performs live with a string trio and talks about this work which is very different from Bellowhead, a cycle of his own songs charting a fleeting romance in a ruined city. And Annette Bening has her say about Harvey Weinstein. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Julian May.

In Sally Potter's latest film, The Party, a group of friends meet to celebrate a promotion but their lives begin to unravel as shocking secrets are exposed. The writer-director speaks to John about the film which stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall and Emily Mortimer.Writer and critic Hadley Freeman and the playwright and TV writer and actor Eva O'Connor discuss the challenges of depicting anorexia on screen. Eva's drama Overshadowed on BBC 3 has been widely praised for its portrayal of the illness, but why is it that programme makers so often get it wrong? Jimmy Webb, the songwriter, composer and arranger, has written for some of the biggest names in the business, and wrote over 100 songs for Glen Campbell. The multi-Grammy-award-winning writer looks back over his own life and work - including his hit songs Galveston and Wichita Lineman - which feature in his new memoir The Cake and The Rain.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Audre Lorde described herself as "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet". A writer of the 70s and 80s, this month her poetry and prose is published in the UK for the first time in a new anthology: Your Silence Will Not Protect You. Akwugo Emejulu, Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick discusses the resurgent interest in Lorde's work and her importance to contemporary activistsDan Brown came to the fame in 2003 with his novel The Da Vinci Code which became a worldwide bestseller and a Hollywood movie. As his latest book, Origin, is published, Brown discusses his new novel's exploration of the tension between science and religion, and the appeal of his protagonist, Professor Robert Langdon, who seems never happier than when he's fleeing for his life in search of esoteric clues to labyrinthine mysteries.Dr Bendor Grosvenor, art dealer and presenter of Britain's Lost Masterpieces, argues that we are at risk of losing the skill of connoisseurship - being able to determine the painter simply by looking at the painting, which is key when attributing a work to a particular artist. Professor Alison Wright, head of the History of Art Department at UCL, joins him to discuss if this skill really is dying out and how important it is.We discuss the breaking news that Harvey Weinstein, the Oscar-winning film producer, has been fired by the board of his company after being accused of sexually harassing female employees and actresses over nearly three decades. Mia Galuppo of the Hollywood Reporter and Anne Helen Petersen, senior culture writer at Buzzfeed, who has written a Phd on The History of Celebrity Gossip, join Stig to unpack the story.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins.

As Blade runner 2049 hits cinemas around the country, John Wilson speaks to Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling about what the film offers to fans of the original.On the day that Liam Gallagher releases his debut studio solo album As You Were, the former Oasis frontman discusses his music and looks back over the years since the breakup of the band and his feud with his brother Noel. James Franco becomes the latest actor to play two roles at the same time on screen in David Simon's HBO drama The Deuce. So we've asked film critic Hannah McGill to talk us through the rich history of the 'dual roles' device, from Keaton to Dead Ringers to The Social Network. We also shed some light on how it's done.

Kazuo Ishiguro wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. The literary critic, Alex Clark, assesses his contribution to the literary canon.Latonia Moore has just made her debut at the English National Opera in a visually spectacular new production of Aida. The soprano, from Houston, Texas, hit the headlines in 2012 when she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, stepping into the title role of Aida at 36 hours' notice, a performance broadcast around the world.Loving Vincent is the first fully painted feature film. 94 of Van Gogh's originals were re-created by 125 professional oil painters for the 65,000 frames. Set in Arles, it focuses on the mystery surrounding the death of the artist. Kirsty speaks to the couple who are the film's co-directors and writers, Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman.Presented by Kirsty Lang Produced by Sarah Johnson.

Kate Winslet's latest film, The Mountain Between Us, is an epic romance shot at 10,000 feet above sea level and at -38 degrees Celsius. The actress talks to Samira about working with co-star Idris Elba, the legacy of Titanic, and looks forward to making her next film, when she will be working with Woody Allen.Californian brothers Ron and Russell Mael formed the band Sparks in the early '70s, and their first hit This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us made them household names in the UK. 23 albums and more than four decades later, the brothers discuss their new album, Hippopotamus, and look back at their early days living in London at the time of power cuts and the three-day week. Edward Lear is the writer of some of our most loved poetry. The Owl and the Pussycat has been voted the UK's favourite poem many times. Jenny Uglow's new biography, Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense, explores the life behind the rhymes and reveals a natural history painter, a landscape artist, and only later a somewhat reluctant nonsense poet. A contemporary of Lewis Carroll and a friend to Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, should we see him as a product of his time or a romantic rebel? Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May.

Join John Wilson for a celebration of the power and possibilities of the short story as Chair of Judges Joanna Trollope announces the winner of the 2017 BBC National Short Story Award live from the Radio Theatre. The judging panel Eimear McBride, Jon McGregor and Sunjeev Sahota discuss the merits of the entries from the shortlisted authors. In contention for the £15,000 prize are Helen Oyeyemi, Benjamin Markovits, Cynan Jones, Jenni Fagan and Will Eaves.Radio 1 presenter Alice Levine will also announce the winner of the BBC Young Writers' Award and consider the strengths and emerging themes of the stories with fellow judge, the best-selling author Holly Bourne. The BBC National Short Story Award is presented in conjunction with BookTrust.Presenter : John Wilson Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

Matt Lucas talks to Stig Abell about his autobiography 'Little Me: My life from A-Z', in which he writes about the challenges of his childhood, his start on the comedy circuit 25 years ago, and the phenomenal success of TV show Little Britain. Tamsin Greig and Martin Freeman discuss James Graham's new play Labour of Love, about the three decade battle between old and new Labour in a North Nottinghamshire constituency, in which they play a labour party agent and an MP. Jacky Klein on the surprising relationship between the father of conceptual art Marcel Duchamp, and the surrealist Salvador Dali, the subject of a new exhibition at the Royal Academy.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Timothy Prosser.

A Front Row special from Hull which is hosting the BBC's new poetry and spoken word festival - Contains Strong Language. John Wilson talks to James Phillips, the playwright behind Flood, the epic year-long, four part multi-media theatrical event that has been one of the big commissions in Hull's year as City of Culture. Poet Louise Wallwein on Glue - the story of her search for her birth mother, and the impact of meeting her, which she has turned into a one-woman show, a debut collection of poetry, and Radio 4 drama.Filmmaker and writer Dave Lee and artist Sharon Darley debate the lessons that future cities of culture could learn from Hull's experience.Poets Dean Wilson and Vicky Foster read a selection of poems written by the people from the Humberside region about the places where they live. Dean and Vicky spent months travelling around the region doing workshops to inspire local people to put their thoughts about their neighbourhoods into poetry.Imtiaz Dharker, winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, reads from her new BBC commission, This Tide of Humber and discusses finding poetic inspiration in her trips to Hull and seeing her poetry set to dance.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Ekene Akalawu.