Front Row

Hidden Figures tells the story of three brilliant African-American women mathematicians working at NASA during the early years of the Space programme. Science expert Sue Nelson reviews the film which stars Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe and Octavia Spencer. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Dirty Dancing, the coming-of-age film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, set in the 1960s, about a wide-eyed teen on a family holiday who discovers a forbidden underworld of sexy dancing. The film's writer Eleanor Bergstein explains how she drew on her own experiences as a teen, but also reflected the politics of the time.To celebrate the bicentenary of Branwell Brontë, the brother overshadowed by his more talented sisters - Charlotte, Emily, and Anne - the poet Simon Armitage discusses a new exhibition he has curated at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, and a new series of poems he has written inspired by some of Branwell's possessions.A new production of Othello at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol aims to emphasise Othello as an Islamic convert to Christianity rather than focusing solely on the race dimension to the play. Writer and journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and historian Jerry Brotton discuss the impact this has on how we understand the text.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Keanu Reeves talks to John Wilson about his three decade career, from Hamlet and My Own Private Idaho to action hero John Wick. Chad Stahelski, who was Keanu Reeves' stunt double in the Matrix films, on moving to behind the camera, as director of both John Wick films. Rag'n'Bone Man, the unorthodox-looking pop star from Brighton who recently won the Brits' Critics' Choice 2017, discusses his debut album, Human.As part of Front Row's series on artworks about the Russian Revolution, Natalia Murray champions a painting by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin called the Petrograd Madonna, on show at the Royal Academy.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Timothy Prosser.

In Prevenge, writer and director Alice Lowe stars as an expectant mother whose unborn child convinces her to commit murder. Meryl O'Rourke reviews this dark comedy which was filmed whilst Lowe was actually pregnant.John Boyne is one of Ireland's bestselling novelists. His book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has sold six million copies worldwide. He talks to Samira about his latest novel, The Heart's Invisible Furies, the story of social developments in post-war Ireland told through the life of his main character, Cyril Avery.The Turner-prize winning artist Keith Tyson talks about his latest exhibition at the Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, in which he explores the universe and our place in it. Featuring more than 360 studio wall drawings created over the last 20 years of his career, it aims to form a visual diary of Tyson's practice.To mark centenary of the Russian Revolution - which saw the collapse of the Russian Empire and the rise of the Soviet Union - Front Row has asked figures from the Arts world to select the work inspired by the events of 1917 that they admire most. Tonight, conductor Vasily Petrenko selects Symphony No. 12, composed by Dmitri Shostakovich.Plus, in the podcast edition of this programme, illustrator and storyteller Raymond Briggs who has been recognised with this year's BookTrust lifetime achievement award, speaking to John Wilson.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jack Soper.

Ang Lee's latest film, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, stars British actor Joe Alwyn as 19-year-old private Billy Lynn, who is caught on camera saving a comrade and, after the video goes viral on YouTube, becomes a pin-up for the war in Iraq. Through a sequence of flashbacks the realities of the war are revealed in contrast with the public's distorted perceptions of heroism. Kirsty talks to Ben Fountain, the novelist on whose book the film is based, and Joe Alwyn who was offered the part whilst still in drama school.Widely acclaimed as a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group, the modernist painter, Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) was a pivotal player in 20th century British art, but her reputation as an artist has long been overshadowed by her family life and romantic entanglements. Dulwich Picture Gallery in London seeks to rectify that with the first major solo exhibition of her work. Its curator, Sarah Milroy, shows Kirsty around.To mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Front Row has asked figures from the arts world to select the art work, inspired by the events of 1917, they most admire. Tonight writer, comedian and lifelong Russophile, Viv Groskop selects a poem by Anna Akhmatova.We remember sitcom writer Alan Simpson who has died at the age of 87. As one half of writing duo Galton and Simpson, the pair created sitcoms including Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Edwina Pitman.

The Moorside, which airs on BBC1 at 9pm tonight, is a drama about events surrounding the disappearance of nine year old Shannon Matthews in 2008. Starring Sheridan Smith as Julie Bushby, the woman who orchestrated the hunt for Shannon and Gemma Whelan as Shannon's mother Karen, who was eventually found guilty of the kidnap and false imprisonment of her daughter, the programme has been criticised by some as inappropriate subject matter for a TV show. Executive producer Jeff Pope defends the making of The Moorside and discusses the ethics and challenges of turning real-life events into drama.In 20th Century Women, Annette Bening stars as a freethinking Santa Barbara mother who enlists the help of two young women in raising her adolescent son during a period of cultural and social turmoil. Film critic Jenny McCartney reviews.To mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Front Row has asked figures from the arts world to champion their favourite work, inspired by events in 1917. Today, film director Peter Greenaway makes the case for Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin.As a new contemporary staging of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion opens at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Samira met the team behind the production - director Sam Pritchard, sound designer Max Ringham, lead actors Alex Beckett and Natalie Gavin- to discover why they think Shaw's ideas about language and accent as a repository of class and power remain just as relevant in 2017 as they were when the play premiered just over a century ago.Presenter : Samira Ahmed Producer : Ella-mai Robey.

From his paintings of Californian swimming pools, to his Polaroid collages; his iPad drawings, to videos of his favourite country lane - as he approaches his 80th birthday, David Hockney continues to change his style and embrace new technologies. In a major retrospective of his work, Tate Britain in London is showing many of his most famous works from the 1960's to the present day. Charlotte Mullins reviews.Elbow front man Guy Garvey and bassist Pete Turner discuss the band's new album Little Fictions, and the new approach they've taken following the departure of the drummer Richard Jupp after 25 years.Max Richter on composing a ballet about Virginia Woolf, Woolf Works, writing the music for BBC1's Taboo, and why his piece On the Nature of Daylight has been used in so many films, including Arrival. Presenter : John Wilson Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

Viola Davis on her Oscar-nominated performance in August Wilson's Fences, co-starring and directed by Denzel Washington.With a father and two brothers in the acting profession, it's not surprising that Rory Gleeson's first passion was for the stage. However writing proved to have a stronger appeal. He discusses his debut novel, Rockadoon Shore, a story of six young friends with a plan for a wild weekend in rural Ireland that goes awry.The Waterstones book chain has reported a profit for the first time in five years. Waterstone's buying director, Kate Skipper, and editor of The Bookseller, Philip James, discuss how, under the leadership of James Daunt, the chain has turned around its fortunes and how it's affected the kind of books we buy and the bookshops we visit. Speaking at this year's Hay Festival in Cartagena, Roxy Music guitarist and record producer Phil Manzanera, discusses his Columbian roots and his new concept album Corroncho 2. The album tells the story of two hapless compadres from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, "Corronchos", who go on a road trip to the promised land, specifically Queens, in New York.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Rachel Simpson.

Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Half a Sixpence has been criticised for casting all-white actors. Julian Fellowes wrote the book and addresses this on tonight's Front Row. Then to discuss the issue of diverse casting in historical drama, Samira is joined by Talawa Theatre Company producer, Gail Babb, and writer and critic Ekow Eshun.It's nearly 40 years since the TV mini-series Roots shook America with its portrayal of slavery and the brutal civil war. Now a new series has been made. Writer and critic Ekow Eshun explores whether this version can have the same impact on audiences today.The picture that Beyoncé released announcing that she's pregnant with twins has become an internet sensation. As the numbers of views and likes continues to rise, art critic Laura Freeman discusses the long history of images that Beyoncé's photograph draws upon.John Burnside is a prolific award-winning poet and novelist. As his new novel, Ashland & Vine, and new collection of poems, Still Life with Feeding Snake, are published, he talks to Samira Ahmed about these stories, and his different approaches to telling them.

Hayley Squires, the young actor who played Katie, the struggling single mother in Ken Loach's film I, Daniel Blake, discusses her first stage role since the film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes - in Philip Ridley's dystopian play The Pitchfork Disney.Loving is the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple in 1960's Virginia who had to fight the American legal system to stay together, starring Oscar-nominated Ruth Negga. Gaylene Gould reviews.Author Nathan Hill talks about his debut novel The Nix, which has won rave reviews in the US. Ten years in the writing, it's an ambitious book covering 50 years of American history and radical protest, as well as the story of a son and the mother who left him as a child. They next meet in adulthood, after a video of her throwing stones at a Trump-like candidate goes viral. The novel is out in the UK now. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Edwina Pitman.

As an actress, Deborah McAndrew is probably best remembered as Angie in Coronation Street. As a playwright, she's written a new adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac to mark the 25th anniversary of the theatre company, Northern Broadsides. She describes how she's added a dash of 21st century reasoning to this classic 19th century play set in 17th century France.The German comedy film Toni Erdmann won rave reviews at Cannes 2016 and is tipped to win best Foreign Film at the Oscars. Briony Hanson reviews Maren Ade's film about a father attempting to reconnect with his high powered daughter. It's the first German comedy released in the UK for over a decade.New research from the University of York shows that audiences to European cinema almost halved between 2007 & 2013. Clare Binns, Director of Programming at Picturehouse Cinemas, and Briony Hanson discuss why audiences are declining, and recommend their best European films.Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has won all the major prizes in his native country, and is the Artistic Director of two music festivals. He's just made a new recording of Philip Glass' Études on Deutsche Grammophon, a label that has been important to him since he was a child looking through his parents' record library.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Angie Nehring.