Front Row

Writer and essayist Olivia Laing reflects on the work of the American journalist and essayist Joan Didion, who has died at the age of 87.With the Christmas Special of Call the Midwife taking its usual slot on BBC One on Christmas Day – for the tenth consecutive time - the show’s creator and writer Heidi Thomas discusses how she tries to keep the stories fresh, year on year. She’s also joined by ‘super-fan’, the historian Tom Holland, to consider its lasting appeal. The British Council's Director of Film Briony Hanson and writer and broadcaster Ekow Eshun review Joel Coen's film The Tragedy of Macbeth and share their cultural highlights of the year.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Simon RichardsonPhoto: Call the Midwife Christmas special 2021 Photo credit: BBC

Paul Thomas Anderson discusses directing and writing his new romantic comedy, Licorice Pizza, starring Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper and Tom Waits. The film is a coming-of-age story, complicated by the fact that the protagonist is 15 and his love interest, 25.In our Christmas card from Doncaster, the host of the BBC’s Yorkshire-cast and local boy, James Vincent, meets Deborah Rees, Director of CAST Theatre and Connor Bryson, an actor appearing in the BSL integrated pantomime, Aladdin. Street art duo Nomad Clan reflect on the making of the UK’s longest mural, and local musician Skinny Pelembe shares his lockdown Song for South Yorkshire.Last night, the longest of the year, musicians Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden intended to bring good cheer, light and joyful music with a wassail concert, but the omicron variant put paid to that. Instead Eliza and Jon will be bringing some of what was planned to Front Row, explaining the ancient tradition of wassailing – the word comes from the Anglo Saxon for good health - and singing and playing.Presenter Tom Sutcliffe Producer Julian May

Broadway star Sutton Foster and director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall talk to Samira Ahmed about staging the musical Anything Goes, one of the hottest tickets of the year at The Barbican, ahead of a Boxing Day screening on BBC 2.In light of the increasing uncertainty facing the performance sector because of the Omicron variant, we talk to Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Powell. We also hear the experiences of Dominique Fraser, the director and founder of the Boiler Room - a live music venue in Guildford and the views of Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venues Trust and Philippa Childs, the head of the entertainment workers’ union, BECTU.And Stephen Keyworth has adapted cult classic novel and film The Princess Bride for BBC Radio 4, beginning on Christmas Day. He joins Samira to discuss the challenges of creating satisfying swordfights for radio. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Tim ProsserPhoto: Sutton foster and the cast of Anything Goes, performing at The Barbican, London Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

Maggie Gyllenhaal discusses her new film The Lost Daughter, an adaptation of the novel by Elena Ferrante. Gyllenhaal has written the film and it is her directorial debut, which stars Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Ed Harris.Samira talks to American artist Kehinde Wiley, best known for his portraits that render people of colour in the traditional settings of Old Master paintings, about his new exhibition at the National Gallery in London. The show, titled The Prelude, sees Wiley shifting his focus from Grand Manner portraiture to landscape painting. And with Christmas approaching fast, writers Kit de Waal and Michael Rosen are on hand to suggest some last-minute book ideas:Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne The Correct Order of Biscuits: And Other Meticulously Assembled Lists of Extremely Valuable Nonsense by Adam Sharp When Shadows Fall by Sita Brahmachari The Island Of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence by Dr Gavin Francis Everything, All the Time, Everywhere by Stuart Jeffries Fallen Idols by Alex von TunzelmannPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald

Jonathan Freedland, Sarah Churchwell and Leila Latif review Adam McKay's satire Don't Look Up, with a stellar cast including Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, and Around the World in 80 Days starring David Tennant, one of the BBC's Christmas TV offerings.Cutting it Fine is a new exhibition in Salisbury, showcasing the art of British wood engraving - those small, black-and-white prints we see in books as well as in picture frames. Great artists including Eric Ravilious, Paul Nash and Gertrude Hermes have been attracted to the medium. Tom visits the exhibition as well as the studio of the wood engraver Howard Phipps, who shows him how the details and textures are achieved. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah Johnson

A major retrospective of Derek Jarman’s work, Protest!, opens at the Manchester Art Gallery this week. One of the most influential figures in 20th century British culture the exhibition focuses on the diverse strands of Jarman’s practise as a painter, film maker, writer, set designer and political activist. Novelist Okechukwu Nzelu reviews.Benjamin Cleary talks about his new science fiction film Swan Song starring Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Awkwafina and Glen CloseAnd Nick Ahad visits Scarborough to discover an impressive arts scene in the latest in our postcard series, with Sally Gorham, Adam Cooper, Emily Kaan and Sefton Freeman-Bahn.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Colm Tóibín on winning the David Cohen prize, the sudden rise in Covid-19 related theatre closures and a seasonal dance round-up with Sarah Crompton.

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, which transforms a West End theatre into a Berlin night club in the late 1920s, stars Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee and Jessie Buckley as chanteuse Sally Bowles. Alice Saville reviews the show. Screenwriter Sarah Phelps discusses her new BBC TV series A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy and Paul Bettany, which tells the true story of the divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in 1963, one of the most notorious, extraordinary, and brutal legal cases of the 20th century. We remember the author Anne Rice who has died aged 80. Rice is best known for her gothic novels, including Interview with the Vampire, which was made into a film starring Tom Cruise. From the Front Row archives from 2012, Anne Rice discusses the sensuality of the vampires in her novels, her parallel career writing erotic fiction and her relationship with Christianity. Elephants, a lion, a tiger...animals are stampeding across our stages...in the form of puppets, large and small. Samira Ahmed discusses the reasons for the arrival of this menagerie and the role of puppets in contemporary theatre, with three leading puppetry specialists whose shows include The Magician’s Elephant, Life of Pi, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Olivia Skinner

What makes a good cover version? And is it an underrated musical genre? American singer-songwriter and queen of the cover-version Cat Power AKA Chan Marshall joins Samira live in the studio to discuss and perform from her forthcoming album, Covers.Critics Hadley Freeman, Jade Cuttle and Tim Robey join our review panel to discuss Call Us What We Carry, a new volume of poetry by Amanda Gorman, the film C’mon C’mon and the latest instalment from Sex and the City, And Just Like That….Photo credit: Mario SorrentiPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Laura Northedge

Front Row comes from Cardiff this evening. Joining presenter Huw Stephens to play live in the studio is Welsh musician Carwyn Ellis, who has been collaborating with Brazilian musicians and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Huw also looks closely at The Rules of Art?, an exhibition at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, which sets out the classical hierarchy of art, then challenges this by juxtaposing works spanning 500 years, from a Botticelli Virgin and Child, to a recent photograph by Helen Muspratt of a mother and child in Merthyr Tydfil.Rosemary Baker talks about her powerful film, Lesbian, that focuses on that word. It has been shortlisted for The Iris Prize for short films made by LGBT+ artists, awarded every year in Cardiff.And Huw sends an audio postcard from Port Talbot, the town which produced Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen, and boasts a Banksy, too. Presenter: Huw Stephens Producer: Julian MayPhoto: Carwyn Ellis Photo credit: Paul Kelly