Podcast appearances and mentions of Antonia Quirke

Labour MPs are having a moment on the stage with Jennie Lee, the UK's first Arts Minister, the subject of Lindsay Rodden's eponymous new play for Mikron Theatre, and Education Minister Ellen Wilkinson the focus of Paul Unwin's new play, The Promise, about the 1945 Labour Government. Lindsay and Paul join Front Row to discuss dramatizing parliamentary politics.Acclaimed music journalist writer Jon Savage joins to discuss his new book The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Resistance Shaped Popular Culture (1955–1979), which explores how queer artists from the earliest days of rock 'n' roll to the heights of disco shaped the sound, look and attitude of popular music. From Little Richard to David Bowie and from Dusty Springfield to Village People, the book is rich in detail and explores how often closeted artists had a profound impact of modern culture.Architecture writer Paul Dobraszczyk on this year's Stirling Prize shortlist and how the six projects that have made this final category measure up to the the prize's aim to celebrate the "building considered to have made the most significant contribution to the evolution of UK architecture".With voice actors and motion capture performers in the US currently on strike over AI protections, the place of AI in the culture industries remains highly contested. The Writers Guild of America may have settled their strike but film critic Antonia Quirke explores whether screenwriters still have something to fear from the algorithm.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Andy Riley is an Emmy-winning scriptwriter and a million-selling author and cartoonist published in more than 20 countries, notably with the Bunny Suicides book series. Antonia Quirke follows him as he begins to write and draw the third book in his graphic novel series for children. The series is called Action Dude.  That's the name of the main character, too; he lives for danger, he lives for excitement, he lives with his Mum because he's eight years old. Antonia also follows Andy as he performs a semi-improvised, hour-long stand up show with live drawing.

In her acclaimed films Joanna Hogg blurs the lines between her art and her life. As she releases her first ghost story film, The Eternal Daughter - an exploration of a mother and daughter relationship with Tilda Swinton playing both roles, she talks to Antonia Quirke about the craft involved in making art inspired by her life. Satellite imagery might make maps today more accurate, but we haven't stopped wanting to see creative, imaginative maps that are also about story telling, from illustrations in books to mapping out fantasy worlds. Antonia meets two contemporary map makers: Jamie Whyte who creates illustrative maps and Luke Casper Pearson who maps the virtual worlds in computer games. Artist Ghislaine Leung who's been shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize uses a “score” – similar to musical scores – to create a relationship with those who help to construct her work in galleries. Re-using discarded objects and highlighting her conflicting demands as both artist and mother are central to her work. Her work can be seen at the Towner Eastbourne, and the winner of the prize will be announced in December.

Stay Online is the first film about the full-scale war in Ukraine. Young producer Anton Skrypets tells Antonia Quirke about the dangers and challenges of this groundbreaking production, through a series of interviews and diary entries interspersed by the sound of air raid sirens and drone attacks. Directed by his sister Yeva Strielnikova, Stay Online is a rare thing: a war movie made entirely in a war zone.

"They rise up suddenly out of fields, they're next to roads and they're even in the middle of the town golf course." Oban resident Antonia Quirke is intrigued by the strange cliffs that can be found everywhere along this stretch of Scottish coast, and she becomes more obsessed when she finds out that someone has been banging in titanium bolts to create new climbing routes up to their peaks. Joining her at the Dog Stone is the geologist James Westland who begins to unpick the history of these cliffs, plus two climbers she meets en route south, a volunteer with the Woodland Trust, Laura Corbe; and an Australian climber called Andy who has been helping to bang in the new routes. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

It's a land of standing stones, burial cairns and circles in the fields - Glen Lonan beside Loch Nell. Lupi Moll and Ivan Nicholson, who've known the area all their lives, take Oban resident Antonia Quirke on a short trek through the glen to see if they can work out why there are so monuments here. It was once part of the road of the kings, an ancient coffin route. It also includes a more recent memorial, a stone eye that marks the resting place of Lupi's wife, who died twelve years ago. The presenter is Antonia Quirke, and the producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One - the long awaited seventh film in the series - and the Royal Academy's new exhibition about architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron. Ryan Gilbey and Oliver Wainwright review. Plus Walter Murch. The renowned film editor and sound designer has won Oscars for his work with directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Anthony Minghella. On the occasion of his 80th birthday he leads Antonia Quirke through several key scenes from his films, including the Godfather and Apocalypse Now, and explains his use of sound. He also talks about his own films, Return to Oz and the documentary Coup 53. Presenter: Antonia Quirke Producer: Harry Parker

The Booker Prize-winning author Sir Ben Okri joins Antonia Quirke to reflect on his new collection Tiger Work, intended as a wake up call for a warming world. It blends fiction, essays and poetry inspired by environmental activism in the face of climate crisis. Film director Shamira Raphaela discusses her documentary Shabu, which follows an aspiring teenage musician from Rotterdam during a single summer. Antonia visits Leighton House in London, one of five finalists for this year's Art Fund Museum of the Year award. The Victorian 'studio house' was once the home of Fredric Leighton, artist, collector and former president of the Royal Academy. Presenter: Antonia Quirke Producer: Olivia Skinner

Alberta is an award-winning Barbadian-Scottish multi-disciplinary artist whose work encompasses drawing, digital collage, film and video installation, sculpture, performance and writing. In this edition of In The Studio, Antonia Quirke follows the progress of a new painting, commissioned specifically for the exhibition. All is going well with the painting, until Alberta realises that it might be upside down.

Errollyn Wallen, the Belize born British composer, tells Antonia Quirke about the inspiration behind Lady Super Spy Adventurer, which is receiving its world premiere at the proms this year. And she invites her to the place where the piece was composed, a remote lighthouse on the Scottish coast. Errollyn made history when she became the first Black woman to have a work performed at the Proms. She tells Antonia about breaking down barriers, and how living in a lighthouse has influenced her music, and who exactly is Lady Super Spy Adventurer.

The news of Ukraine's stunning counter-offensive in the country's north-east has raised hopes of a possible turning point in the war with Russia. But tentative celebrations about Ukraine's advances were quickly tempered after the gruesome discovery of a mass grave in Izyum. Hugo Bachega reports. As Pakistan confronts the damage wrought by catastrophic floods in recent weeks, Secunder Kermani reflects on this and other major events he has covered as he leaves the region: the US invasion and withdrawal from Afghanistan, local politics and the Taliban's resurgence. In the US, the use of the death penalty has gradually declined over recent decades. Several states have abolished it altogether but 11 states continue to perform executions including Texas. Maria Margaronis travelled to Livingston, where she met one prisoner with just weeks left before his execution date. Greece has finally emerged from a strict monitoring programme imposed by the EU. This marks the end of a chapter in a debt crisis which was first triggered by the 2008 financial turmoil. Antonia Quirke has been to the Peloponnese region where she met a tourist guide harking back to an era long before the European project. Australia's PM, Anthony Albanese is going to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, despite being an avowed Republican. For many Australians, she become a beloved friend. But, beyond this period of mourning, questions remain about the British Monarch's role as the country's head of state. Nick Bryant explores a rather paradoxical relationship. Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Serena Tarling Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Researcher: Ellie House Production Coordinator: Iona Hammond

It's so close to the mainland that most people don't even realise it is there, but Kerrera in early summer is a jewel, and Antonia Quirke - who lives a couple of miles away - is curious about the impact of a new road. Early one summer morning she and producer Miles Warde take the ferry from Oban to find out what has changed. Antonia Quirke is a broadcaster and author. She moved to the west coast of Scotland at the start of lockdown for love. Produced for BBC audio in Bristol by Miles Warde

The horses are learning their dance routines, the acrobats are perfecting their tumbles and sequins are being sewn onto leotards and leggings - in 2017, In the Studio had ringside seats to the circus. Antonia Quirke met the inner circle of Giffords Circus as they conceived and crafted the show where the theme was the 17th Century Spanish court. The team were led by circus creator Nell Gifford, who left home aged 18 to join her first circus. She then set up her own travelling troupe based in the West of England featuring performers from all over the world. As the circus rides again this summer, Antonia reveals the tragedy that befell the troupe a couple of years after the programme was broadcast.

Stories from Russia, Ukraine, Lebanon and South Africa Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is now entering its six-month and there's still no signs of any possible resolution or ceasefire. Russian citizens continue to be fed a daily diet of propaganda on State TV, with fewer and fewer sources of independent news. But the conflict is nevertheless taking its toll on Russian citizens as soldiers go out to the frontline, never to return, which has left families questioning the government line that the Ukraine invasion is necessary. To keep abreast of the Russian point of view, Steve Rosenburg has a daily ritual: buying his newspapers each day from his local newspaper kiosk, run by a woman called Valentina. He tells her story. In Ukraine, a recent missile attack in the city of Vinnytsia, in central-west Ukraine has served as a stark reminder of the indiscriminate nature of Russia's military onslaught. Everyday routines have become fraught with hazard, from a trip to the shops to a walk to school, even in those cities considered to be safe. Sarah Rainsford has been in Vinnytsia and Mykolaiv. The Lebanese economy is in a state of collapse, but the government hopes that the summer tourist season, when many Lebanese living abroad return for a holiday, will provide a much-needed boost. But any visitor must navigate a tangled web of erratic exchange rates, as Angelica Jopson has found. And finally, to South Africa's West Coast, the site of a large saltwater lagoon situated in a National Park, around 55 miles north of Cape Town. The area, which is also a marine reserve, attracts numerous water birds and sea life, as the Atlantic waves pound its edge. Antonia Quirke went to explore the lagoon. Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Serena Tarling Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Marie Harrower's mother taught her not to let her blindness hold her back. This helped Marie become a physiotherapist and win a place at the 1976 Paralympics. She tells Outlook's Antonia Quirke her story. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Deiniol Buxton Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com (Photo: Marie Harrower. Credit: Paul Fegan)

Marie Harrower's mother taught her not to let her blindness hold her back. This helped Marie become a physiotherapist and win a place at the 1976 Paralympics. She tells Outlook's Antonia Quirke her story. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Deiniol Buxton Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com (Photo: Marie Harrower. Credit: Paul Fegan)

In the Scottish Highlands at this time of the year you'll find 150 reindeer roaming the Cairngorms National Park, and rather a lot of visitors coming to see them. These beautiful creatures are the only free-ranging herd of reindeer in the UK and they are looked after by Tilly Smith who went to spend the summer working there back in 1981... and she never left! Antonia Quirke went to meet Tilly, her daughter Fiona and some of the reindeer they look after. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Reporter: Antonia Quirke Producer: June Christie (Photo: Tilly Smith with reindeer. Credit: Cairngorm Reindeer Herd and photographer John Paul)

In the Scottish Highlands at this time of the year you'll find 150 reindeer roaming the Cairngorms National Park, and rather a lot of visitors coming to see them. These beautiful creatures are the only free-ranging herd of reindeer in the UK and they are looked after by Tilly Smith who went to spend the summer working there back in 1981... and she never left! Antonia Quirke went to meet Tilly, her daughter Fiona and some of the reindeer they look after. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Reporter: Antonia Quirke Producer: June Christie (Photo: Tilly Smith with reindeer. Credit: Cairngorm Reindeer Herd and photographer John Paul)

The news from Afghanistan is ever more dire. Twenty three million people are at risk of starvation, according to the World Food Programme, a fate which gets ever nearer as winter approaches. For international donors and aid agencies, this presents an acute dilemma: whether or not to work with the Afghan authorities to try to solve this crisis. To do so might require handing over food and other supplies to the Taliban government, a regime which no country even recognises. That is because nobody is quite sure just what kind of rulers the Taliban will be. Since they took over in August, there have been reports of brutality, which in some cases meant the cold-blooded murder of people who were seen as Taliban opponents. Yet there have not been the kind of mass atrocities which many feared. Visiting Kabul, Andrew North has found a variety of attitudes among the Taliban members he's come across, and they include his next door neighbours. They held a mass funeral in Sierra Leone, after a hundred and fifteen people were killed in a fuel tanker explosion. It happened in the West African country's capital, Freetown, some of the victims dying because they had rushed towards the site of the accident, hoping to gather up some of the petrol which had spilled out. This latest disaster comes just months after a fire destroyed thousands of homes in one of the city's slums. And many of this week's victims were buried in the same cemetery as those who died in a mudslide; that disaster killed around a thousand people. But then Sierra Leone is a country which in recent times has also experienced an Ebola outbreak, and before that, civil war. Walking round Freetown this week, Lucinda Rouse found people shocked and upset, but also sometimes resigned to the misfortune so frequently visited upon them. We were hoping to bring you a report from Nicaragua, where they have been holding an election. However, our Correspondent, Will Grant was not allowed into the country, turned back at the border. But that in itself tells you plenty about the way politics works in Nicaragua these days he says. It is a country where journalists and other commentators are routinely locked up for what they write, and where people protesting against the government have been shot in the streets. Still, Will Grant did at least try to get in, knowing the chances were slim. People often have a love-hate relationship with tourists. They may well bring plenty of money into an economy, and jobs for those who need them. And yet the disruption caused by a mass of visitors is not always welcome. Of course, many tourist spots have had a terrible time under Covid, with lockdown preventing anyone from coming to visit. Some resorts have been positively praying for a return to the days when they could play host to hordes of holiday-makers. Others though have been surprised to find a surge in new arrivals, like residents on the Greek island of Tinos, where Antonia Quirke was among those paying a visit.

Francine Stock and Antonia Quirke co-present the final edition of The Film Programme. They discuss the future of cinema in the age of streaming, and hear from David Oyelowo, Matt Damon, Rebecca O'Brien and Sally Potter. They also reveal their favourite last scenes in the history of the movies.

Mark Gatiss tells Antonia Quirke what it was like to work with his hero Anthony Hopkins on The Father, and how he persuaded him to reprise a famous scene from one of his classic films as a birthday present for fellow League Of Gentleman member Reece Shearsmith. Sean Barton reveals some secrets from the editing suite and how he made the audience gasp in a famous scene from Jagged Edge. Annette director Leos Carax explains why the star of his film about a two year old singing sensation is played by a puppet.

With Antonia Quirke. As cinemas are set to re-open on May 17th, Antonia Quirke visits The Uckfield Picture House that has been run by the same family for over six decades. She talks to its owner Kevin Markwick about a year that has seen his business shut for 70% of the time, and discovers why he is optimistic about the future. Sound Of Metal director Darius Marder reveals the reasons why he distorted the hearing of his star Riz Ahmed with the help of a ear piece and an app. Director Chloe Zhao discusses the influence of John Wayne on her Oscar winner Nomadland. If you are going to your local cinema on May 17th, we'd like to hear about your experience. You can write or record your thoughts and email them to thefilmprogramme@bbc.co.uk

Antonia Quirke considers the phenomenon and future of the so called film junket, the movie publicity process whereby film stars are serially interviewed in expensive hotels by a succession of film journalists and presenters. She looks back at the promotional encounters she's had with a cast of big Hollywood names including (in order of appearance) Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Annette Benning, Willem Dafoe, Glen Close, Timothee Chalamet, Jeff Bridges and Greta Gerwig. Producer: Harry Parker

Antonia Quirke talks to Francis Lee, director of Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet, about the palaeontologist Mary Anning. They discuss his controversial imagining of a lesbian relationship for Anning, the importance of sound in cinema and why he has never seen his own film on the big screen. Antonia also looks at the work of MIMC, a film makers' collective in the Scottish borders and discovers the part it plays in its members' lives both socially and cinematographically. And director Mark Jenkin continues his audio diary and reveals why going on holiday just before shooting commences might not be a bad thing. Producer: Harry Parker

With Antonia Quirke Persepolis director Marjane Satrapi talks about Radioactive, her biopic of Marie Curie, and explains why she also wanted to recognise the work of Marie's husband Pierre. The sun never sets in the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland, but like many festivals, this year it had to go online. Caitlin Benedict and Antonia Quirke revisit last year's festival and talk to programme manager Milja Mikkola about the painful decision not to hold the festival in the small town of Sodankyla for the first time in over 30 years. The Film Club choice of a movie to stream this week is the Ealing comedy Kind Hearts And Coronets, in which Denis Price tries to kill 8 members of an aristocratic family, all played by Alec Guinness. Legendary cinematographer Douglas Slocombe explains how he managed to film six Alec Guinesses in one shot.

Antonia Quirke plunders the Film Programme archive and hears from the makers of Women In Love: Glenda Jackson, Ken Russell and cinematographer Billy Williams And there's another round of Pitch Battle, as Lizze Francke, Rowan Woods and Clare Binns give their verdict on Gavia Baker Whitelaw's pitch to remake Avatar.

Antonia Quirke and Caitlin Benedict go behind the scenes of this year's London Film Festival, and discover how an award at a festival can change a director's life, and why the festival team had to e-mail critics asking them to refrain from posting their reviews before the films had even finished.

Antonia Quirke and Caitlin Benedict visit the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland, where the sun shines for 24 hours in summer and films are shown every hour of the day. There they speak to Iranian exiles Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Marzieh Meshkini, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, French auteur Arnaud Desplechin and Mark Jenkin from Cornwall. Along the way, they meet the people who make the festival possible, the volunteers, and find out why all the directors are expected to get into a sauna and go skinny dipping.

Antonia Quirke reunites three cast members of Barbra Streisand's cult classic Yentl - Kerry Shale, Danny Brainin and Gary Brown. And in a radio exclusive, they sing the song that was cut from the final version. Super-fan Liza Ward explains why she has seen Yentl between 50 to 100 times and how she can remember every line of dialogue. Styx is an ethical thriller, in which a single-handed yachtswoman come across a sinking ship full of refugees, but is told by the coastguard not to intervene. Director Wolfgang Fischer reveals the moral dimensions of his drama and discusses the difficulties of filming on the high seas. Acting coach Martin Ledwith reveals the secrets of his job and why it doesn't involve telling actors how to act.

Jessie Buckley talks about Wild Rose, the story of a Country And Western singer from Glasgow, in which she stars and sings and writes her own songs. She tells Antonia Quirke what was it was like to reach the final of talent show I'd Do Anything in 2008, and why she gave up a career on the West End stage to go back to drama school. Author and screenwriter Ronan Bennett reveals the moment he saw himself reflected on screen, in the prison drama The Jericho Mile. Writer Iain Sinclair pitches a 1960's London novel as a suitable case for the movie treatment. Industry insiders Clare Binns, Rowan Woods and Lizzie Francke pass judgement on the pitch. Antonia reflects on her recent encounter with the legendary director Agnes Varda, whose death was announced last week

Antonia Quirke and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh embark on a pilgrimage to Dungeness to pay their respects to film-maker Derek Jarman on the 25th anniversary of his death. Along the way, they hear from colleagues of the artist and activist, like actor and director Dexter Fletcher, costume designer Sandy Powell and composer Simon Fisher Turner.

With Antonia Quirke Richard E. Grant talks to Antonia Quirke about his Oscar nominated role in Can You Ever Forgive Me ? and how his life has changed since he got the nomination. Joel Edgerton discusses his drama about gay conversion therapy, Boy Erased, which he wrote, directed and acted in. He reveals why he was nervous about asking Russell Crowe to star in it. Zing Tsjeng talks about the first time she saw herself reflected on the big screen and how Velvet Goldmine changed her life.

Antonia Quirke talks to Bradley Cooper about his re-make of A Star Is Born, which he co-wrote, directed and starred in. He reveals how the first ten minutes of the film came to him in a dream Susie Boyt, author of My Judy Garland Life, and Professor Richard Dyer take us through the other three versions of A Star Is Born, and reveal the title of the movie that started it all. Comedian Rosemary Fletcher takes a critical look at the phenomena known as "women in refrigerators".

Antonia Quirke visits Redcar, where they are re-creating the famous five minute, one-shot scene from Atonement of British soldiers evacuating Dunkirk , but without the budget of a blockbuster movie. There she talks to extras who were in the original and to to director Richard DeDomenici who specialises in thrifty versions of famous movies and scenes. Seamus McGarvey, the cinematographer of the 2007 drama, explains how they got that famous shot. Antonia talks to real life cowboy and rodeo champion Brady Jandreau about The Rider, a fictionalised account of his return to the sport after a serious head injury.

Antonia Quirke presents a special edition of The Film Programme with Spike Lee. They discuss his latest award-winning film, BlacKkKlansman, based on the improbably true story of an African-American cop who infiltrated the Klu Klux Klan. They talk about racism, the power of the moving image and the gift left for him by his late friend Prince. Gaylene Gould gives us a beginner's guide to Spike Lee.

Hedy Lamarr was described by her studio as the most beautiful woman in the world. A recent film, called Bombshell, argued that she was a brilliant inventor as well. But what was going on behind that wonderful face? Suzy Klein, host of the BBC Proms, tells Matthew Parris that this was an intriguing woman who continually reinvented herself. She left her native Austria before the Second World War but, despite a successful Hollywood career, what she really wanted was to be known for being clever. Recent newspaper headlines - including 'Sex Symbol by Day, Scientific Trailblazer by Night' - suggest her wishes may have finally come true. But Professor Hans-Joachim Braun isn't so sure. Film critic Antonia Quirke joins Matthew Parris in the studio to discuss a truly extraordinary life. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.

A digital edition of Saturday Review presented by Antonia Quirke. Crown Heights is a new on-demand film based on an episode of NPR's This American Life, telling the true story of Trinidadian teenager Colin Warner's twenty year wrongful incarceration. The Miniaturists takes a long-running short play night and turns it into a podcast with five new short plays from up and coming British playwrights. The reviewers explore the world's greatest and strangest museums, galleries and monuments with Google Cultural Institute. The story of a refugee's journey across the sea is rendered in an interactive graphic novel format in Nam Le & Matt Huynh's The Boat. Antonia's guests are Inua Ellams, Andy Riley and Errollyn Wallen. The producer is Caitlin Benedict.

Antonia Quirke presents a special edition on the thriller. She hears some tricks of the trade from Ronan Bennett, writer of Face, Public Enemies and Gunpowder, who reveals why he thinks thrillers should really be called "tensers". Award-winning editor Walter Murch takes us through a key scene in the classic conspiracy thriller The Conversation and explains how to build paranoia in the audience by embedding subsonic frequencies in the soundtrack. Composer Rachel Portman explains how music can achieve the same effect with the application of low strings and alto saxophone. Alexandre O. Philippe reveals the secrets of the shower scene in Psycho in his new documentary 78/52, including the identity of the painting that covers Norman Bates' peep-hole. Woman In Black director James Watkins reveals how he took screen grabs of fifty of the greatest supernatural thrillers in movie history and dissected their key moments shot by shot in order to learn how to chill the audience to the marrow.

Francine Stock talks to director Jennifer Brea, who turned the camera on herself as she began to fight a disease that the medical profession does not always recognise - ME. Actress Edina Ronay kicks off a new series I Was In The Worst Movie Ever Made, making the case for Prehistoric Women, in which she starred in a fur bikini as a member of a lost tribe who sacrifice men to their white rhino god. Antonia Quirke finds out what happened when Vivien Leigh's wig from A Streetcar Named Desire went under the hammer this week. Critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and writer Rosemary Fletcher slug it out to get their chosen director into The A to Z of film-makers.

Antonia Quirke talks to Mark Gill, the director of a new bio-pic about Morrissey, England Is Mine, and considers the singer's influence on the movie tastes of a generation, introducing thousands of fans to A Taste Of Honey and many other British realist classics. Andrew Collins turns sleuth and picks out the film quotes in The Smiths' lyrics. Comedian Rosemary Fletcher considers the ways that innocuous-seeming romantic comedies can endorse behaviour that borders on the criminal, in her series Rosemary Versus Rom-Com Director Luc Besson tells Antonia about Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets, his adaptation of a graphic novel he read when he was ten years old and explains why he believes that American science fiction is imperialist.

Antonia Quirke talks to director James Ivory about Howard's End, as it's about to be re-released in cinemas, and his working relationship with producer Ismail Merchant that spawned dozens of movies including A Room With A View, The Remains Of The Day and Maurice. Antonia learns the secret art and craft of ADR (or Automated Dialogue Replacement), as she joins a group of actors as they overdub crowd scenes in a costume drama. Pasquale Iannone discusses the extraordinary personal and professional relationship between Sophia Loren and producer Carlo Ponti that lasted four decades.

Antonia Quirke visits the house that Richard Burton bought for Elizabeth Taylor in a fishing village in Mexico, that's now a deluxe hotel. When the lovers conducted their affair out in the open in Puerto Vallarta, the paparazzi soon followed, and eventually the the small town was transformed into a tourist mecca. Director Ceyda Torun explains how she invented new technology to follow a herd of cats through the streets of Istanbul for her documentary Kedi. Antonia visits St Leonards, where King Harold's consort Edith Swan Neck is memorialised with a delapidated public sculpture. There she meets film-maker Andrew Kotting, who is trying to restore Edith's memory with a new documentary Edith Walks, in which he and five friends hike 108 miles from Waltham Abbey to the South East coast as an act of pilgrimage.

Antonia Quirke talks to director Patty Jenkins about warrior princess Wonder Woman and why it took her so long to arrive on the big screen. Clive James confesses to his fifty year love affair with actor Steve McQueen. Director John Landis waxes lyrical about Elmer Bernstein, composer of classic themes The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven.

Pastry police, pardoned bulls and pricey pigeons. Correspondents’ stories with Kate Adie. Stephen Sackur's visit to Venezuela ends rather more abruptly than he'd intended, foreign journalists are rarely welcome he discovers. In Spain the debate about the ethics of bullfighting has started its annual dance and Antonia Quirke finds both excitement and disgust. One hundred years after the Russian Revolution, a President Lenin will soon take office in Ecuador. Joe Gerlach watches election day unfold from an airport lounge in the capital. Flora Bradley-Watson is among the pigeon fanciers of Istanbul talking politics and feathered friends. And Owen Bennett-Jones finds himself answering, rather than asking, questions as he gets to know the Somali Americans living in Minneapolis.

The duffel-coated outcast; from bomb factory to museum; icy cooperation; singing for home; greening sands. Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories: Hugh Schofield meets a defiant - and chipper - Jean-Marie Le Pen, the outcast founder of the France's Front National; in north-west Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, Colin Freeman is shown a bomb-making factory - just the latest evidence of the violence that has dominated the region for more than a century; in the icy seas off Finland, fears of Russian 'little green men' are put aside as a Finnish icebreaker - with Horatio Clare on board - introduces a moment of peace and cooperation. Singing for home and a lost culture - Nicola Kelly hears how Nubians in Egypt are trying to reconnect with their lost homeland. And, in Oman, it's not golden sands that Antonia Quirke sees in the desert but a carpet of green.

Tom Hiddleston stars in the latest outing for Kong. We speak to the actor about the giant ape, mega fans and his media intrusion into his private life. We remember artist Gustav Metzger, the hugely influential pioneer of "auto-destructive art" who has died aged 90. Critics Richard Cork and Hans Ulrich Obrist discuss his work, activism and continued influence on art.BBC Three's mockumentary This Country explores the lives of young people in modern rural Britain, focusing on cousins Kerry and Lee 'Kurtan' Mucklowe, written and performed by real-life siblings Daisy May and Charlie Cooper. They discuss the origins of this word-of-mouth hit comedy. Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart star in Kelly Reichardt's study in northerly melancholy Certain Women. Antonia Quirke reviews.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Today, twenty years after the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, Kate Clark, who was the only Western reporter in the country during their final years in power, reflects on what has changed there during the last twenty years. In Ethiopia, the government has this week declared a six-months-long state of emergency after violent protests in one of the nine ethnically-based states. James Jeffrey in Addis Ababa has been looking at the ethnic tensions which beset the country. The US presidential election campaign has been full of melodrama and incident more befitting a reality television show than a political debate. Gabriel Gatehouse passed through Washington en route to the rustbelt to gauge how far reality and the peculiar 2016 campaign are in alignment. Albania wants to be on everyone's tourist destination list after ending its long period of reclusive communist dictatorship. But Rob Stepney has found some national habits are so ingrained that making such a radical change isn't straightforward. The tentacles of corruption have inveigled their way deep into Mexican life, in part thanks to the drug trade. Antonia Quirke has been to the Caribbean coast to discover just how far they now reach and what effect they have on daily life.

Supersonic is a new documentary charting the success of Oasis, the Manchester band with 8 number one albums and estimated sales of over 70 million. John talks to director Mat Whitecross - who also directed Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, the biopic of Ian Dury - about charting brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher's rapid rise to stardom.In Mel Gibson's new film Blood Father, the actor is cast as a recovering alcoholic with anger issues, capitalising on the actor's off-screen controversies over the past decade. Antonia Quirke reviews.Beyond Caravaggio at the National Gallery, which focuses on the work of the Italian painter and his influence on the art of his contemporaries and followers, is reviewed by Waldemar Januszczak.Sir Karl Jenkins discusses his new choral work Cantata Memoria - For the Children, in commemoration of those killed in the Aberfan disaster 50 years ago, which has its world premiere in Cardiff tomorrow.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Bourne is back. But 14 years since Matt Damon starred in The Bourne Identity, does the franchise still thrill in a world of super-hackers and government surveillance? Antonia Quirke joins John Wilson to review Jason Bourne.The Man Booker prize long list was announced today. Critics Alex Clarke and Toby Lichtig consider this year's runners and riders.The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is celebrating its bicentenary with an exhibition displaying 150 illuminated manuscripts from its collection, ranging from prayer books of European royalty to alchemical scrolls. John travels to Cambridge to find out more. Presidential hopefuls have long known of the power of a good pop tune when it comes to firing up a crowd. So what's scoring the Trump and Clinton rallies, and what does it say about their respective campaigns? American columnist, Katie Puckrik dons her headphones.

Son of Saul is an award-laden Hungarian film dealing with the sonderkommandos at Auschwitz, Jewish inmates who were forced to prepare and mislead new arrivals. Mark Haddon's latest book is a collection of rather dark short stories which he hopes can "create empathy for unloveable people in difficult circumstances". Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove has condensed several Shakespeare royal plays into Kings of War; four and a half hours in Dutch, telling English history. Nick Hornby has adapted Nina Stibbe's Love Nina for BBC TV Pablo Bronstein brings dance to Tate Britain Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ekow Eshun, Antonia Quirke and Kate Bassett. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Former Children's Laureate, Malorie Blackman takes a twist on Othello into the future and outer space in her new book for young adults, Chasing the Stars. She tells Kirsty why she chose sci-fi to explore contemporary issues such as immigration and prejudice.Idris Elba plays a lone wolf CIA operative in the new Paris-based thriller Bastille Day, who enlists the assistance of a reluctant American played by Richard Madden from Game of Thrones. Antonia Quirke reviews the film whose release was postponed after the Paris attacks.The Flick is a Pulitzer Prize winning play about the staff at a run-down cinema in Massachusetts. Kirsty talks to its director Sam Gold as it starts its run at the National Theatre this week.As part of our Shakespeare's People series, Simon Russell Beale chooses Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing.Presenter : Kirsty Lang Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

The Coen Brothers talk to Antonia Quirke about Hail Caesar, a parody of Hollywood in the early 50s and explain why they believe there were Reds under the beds in the film industry at the time.

Vinyl is an upcoming HBO tv drama created by Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese, starring Bobby Cannavale as a music executive in late 1970s New York who hustles to make a career out of the city's diverse music scene.Staying with the world of record production, Tilda Swinton plays a rock star recovering from surgery on an Italian island in the new film A Bigger Splash from director Luca Guadagnino. The film is a remake of La Piscine (1969) and also stars Ralph Fiennes. Antonia Quirke and Boyd Hilton review the two productions.Melvyn Bragg remembers his fellow Cumbrian writer Margaret Forster, who died today. Theatre designers Tom Piper and Bob Crowley take us around the Curtain Up! exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and offer some insight into what happens behind the scenes - from designing costumes, manufacturing props and building stage sets.Louis Andriessen is one of the world's leading composers and this week the Barbican is holding a series of concerts and events to celebrate six decades of his music. He discusses his life in music with John.Presenter John Wilson Producer Dymphna Flynn.

Marlon Brando - greatest actor of the twentieth century ? Film critic Antonia Quirke definitely thinks he is. But the star of the Godfather, On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire divides opinion in this lively assessment of his life. With contributions from writer Robyn Karney and Joe Queenan in the United States. Matthew Parris presents. The producer is Miles Warde.

This week, various authors remember a significant swimming experience:2. Antonia Quirke enjoys a gentle dip in the South Pacific, but alludes to some darker waters of her childhood and also some swims in England's gravel pits. Plus, the ocean with Spielberg's Jaws in it is 40 years old this year...Producer Duncan Minshull.

Peter Carey's latest novel, Amnesia follows a disgraced Australian journalist hired to write the life story of a hacker activist who has raised the hackles of international governments because she wrote the code that unlocks prisons around the world. Carey is has twice won The Booker Prize, is this another winning work? DV8 Physical Theatre Company's new show "John" tells the tale of a man who grows up in an extremely abusive family and who- as an adult - finds comfort and company in gay saunas. There's a lot of vivid descriptions of what goes on - how will the audience at London's Lyttleton respond to such explicit depiction of gay sex? Christopher Nolan's new film Interstellar stars Matthew McConaughey as a former NASA astronaut whose job is to save the human race from extinction...not an simple subject, even for such an accomplished director. The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace has an exhibition called Gold, which displays some of Her Majesty's astonishing artefacts around that theme. Is it a dazzling success? Puppy Love is the latest project from Joanna Scanlan and Vicky Pepperdine (who made the award- winning Getting On comedy series set in a hospital geriatric ward). This deals with the world of canine training; is it a bit of dog's breakfast? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Giles Fraser, Susie Boyt and Antonia Quirke. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Few French restaurants offer a menu without meat, so John Laurenson's been finding out why one of the country's top chefs has decided to do just that. Paul Adams explains why the government in the Ukrainian capital Kiev might have given up trying to seize back control of rebel-held eastern parts of the country. Misha Glenny talks of plans to establish a global parliament of city mayors taking powers away from 'tired old nation states'. One of Europe's most wanted men is thought to be hiding out in the mountains of central Greece - Jeff Maysh has been talking to people about this fugitive with a Robin Hood reputation and Antonia Quirke talks of Sicily where there's widespread exasperation about the corruption still pervasive in Italian society and where the Mafia continues to wield influence.

Film screenings are becoming ever more inventive, with fine dining, unusual venues and even hot tubs thrown in to lure audiences. But for Antonia Quirke, nothing can match the downbeat charm of a black-box cinema on a weekday afternoon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Richard Linklater's latest film, Boyhood, was filmed over 39 days over a period of 12 years, so the actors and characters on the screen age in real time. When production began, the lead actor was 6 and it follows him dealing with life's ups and downs as he progresses towards adulthood. Linda Grant's new novel Upstairs At The Party is the tale of a group of friends at a northern university in the 1970s and how their lives are changed by a personal catastrophe Intimate Apparel is a play by African American playwright Lynn Nottage at London's Park Theatre. Set in 1905, it tells the story of Esther, a 35-year old African American seamstress who moved from North Carolina to New York City to seek her fortune and her relationships with the city's upper crust and lowlife alike. BBC 3's People Just Do Nothing is a comedy set in a London pirate radio station and its cheerfully deluded team of enthusiastic idiots. A new exhibition at SOAS in London chronicles the role of Sikh soldiers in The First World War. Indian soldiers made up one-in-six of the ranks of the British Empire forces, but their role has now been largely forgotten. Sarfraz Manzoor is joined by Cahal Dallat, Louise Doughty and Antonia Quirke. The producer is Oliver Jones.

With John Wilson. Godzilla's back in cinemas this Thursday in a new film by British director Gareth Edwards, who earned worldwide acclaim for his debut Monsters in 2010. This time the world's most famous monster is pitted against a humanity arrogant enough to think it can control nature. Antonia Quirke reviews. John meets Ailyn Perez and Stephen Costello, two young American singers dubbed "America's fastest-rising husband-and-wife opera stars" who are starring in La Traviata at London's Royal Opera House. From There To Here is the latest TV series from writer Peter Bowker. The drama follows two families from different backgrounds in the aftermath of the 1996 bomb explosion in central Manchester. Peter tells John about his desire to write a love-letter to Manchester. Six British feature films including A Matter of Life and Death and Bend It Like Beckham are being celebrated today with a new issue of stamps. Philip Parker, Head of Stamps Strategy at the Royal Mail explains the choices.

Nymphomaniac is the latest film from acclaimed Danish director Lars Von Trier. It stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as Joe, a woman who describes herself as "nymphomaniac", telling her story to a man who has found her in the street after a beating. In the flashbacks to her past, the young Joe is played by Stacey Martin alongside a cast that includes Shia LaBeouf and Christian Slater. Antonia Quirke reviews. Joanne M. Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat, has written her first epic fantasy novel for adults, The Gospel of Loki. Based on ancient mythology, the book follows the rise and fall of the Norse gods from the perspective of the trickster Loki, popularised in Marvel's Thor comics which have recently been adapted into blockbuster films. Robert Cohan is widely described as the founding father of Britain's contemporary dance movement. His career, spanning over 6 decades, has included dancing with Ginger Rogers and the legendary Martha Graham. Cohan, who was born in America, discusses how he came to revolutionise British dance whilst rehearsing a reimagining of his only female solo Canciones Del Alma. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson star in True Detective, a new HBO detective series. The show follows two contrasting detectives as they investigate a ritual killing in Louisiana. Producer: Claire Bartleet.

With John Wilson. Last Vegas stars Hollywood heavyweights Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Kevin Kilne as a group of sixty and seventy somethings throwing a stag do for their old friend Billy, played by Michael Douglas. The film, which has been described as The Hangover for the older generation, explores issues of retirement and bereavement against the backdrop of the excesses of Las Vegas. Antonia Quirke reviews. The novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, known for her best-selling series about the lives of the Cazalet family, has died at the age of 90. In interviews previously recorded for Radio 4, we hear from Elizabeth Jane Howard and her step-son, Martin Amis. Sculptor Tom Price talks about a new exhibition of his work at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. His bronze sculptures of contemporary figures were initially inspired by the expressions on people's faces as they watched a performance piece by Price in which he spent a week licking a gallery wall. Tom Price discusses the legacy of the YBAs and using dentists' tools to create the fine detail on his sculptures. Jarvis Cocker and Martin Wallace talk about their film The Big Melt which was commissioned to celebrate the centenary of stainless steel production in Sheffield. Created from archive from the British Film Institute and set to a score composed by Cocker and performed by Sheffield musicians, the film tells the story of steel and of Sheffield's past. Front Row looks ahead to what 2014 may have in store in the world of pop music. Music journalist Kitty Empire discusses the musicians that are likely to dominate the next twelve months and which artists are likely to release new albums. Producer: Olivia Skinner.

With John Wilson. David Beckham talks about being a photographic muse - and of what's it's been like, living his life in front of a camera-lens. Singer-songwriter Graham Nash found fame with The Hollies and then with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. He's just published his memoirs and reflects on his upbringing in Salford and how his childhood was affected by his father's prison sentence. He also describes the unique harmonies created through his friendship with David Crosby and Stephen Stills - and his thorny relationship with Neil Young. Guitarist Brian May, founder member of Queen, also has a life-long passion for Diableries, 19th century French cards with 3D views of the underworld printed on them. He and fellow-enthusiast Denis Pellerin explain how these gothic images became hugely popular, and how Brian developed a modern day stereoscope in order to view them. A new dramatisation of Dracula arrives on TV for Halloween, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers. This version sees the count posing as an American industrialist who arrives in England claiming he wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. In reality, he hopes to wreak revenge on the people who ruined his life, centuries earlier. Antonia Quirke reviews. Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson. Christopher Guest, the writer best known for This Is Spinal Tap, makes his BBC debut with Family Tree, a TV comedy series about an ancestral quest starring Chris O'Dowd from Bridesmaids and The IT Crowd. Antonia Quirke discusses whether Guest has turned the laughs all the way up to 11. Josephine and I, written by and starring Cush Jumbo, is a one-woman show about the life of dancer, singer and actress Josephine Baker. Jumbo reflects on why she wanted to bring Baker's story to the stage. Easy Money is the latest slab of Nordic Noir to hit the big screen. It's an adaptation of Jens Lapidus' debut novel about a student who gets caught up in a drug heist. Jeff Park decides whether this noir should have seen the light of day. Artist Conrad Shawcross offers his choice for Cultural Exchange, in which leading creative minds nominate a favourite work. His selection is Monet's painting Water-Lilies, currently on show at Tate Modern. Producer Stephen Hughes.

Film critic Antonia Quirke and actor Kerry Shale talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Kerry Shale talks about Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson. Antonia's choice is A Reed Shaken by the Wind: Travels among the Marsh Arabs of Iraq by Gavin Maxwell. Harriett Gilbert's recommendation is Short and Sweet: 101 Very Short Poems, edited by Simon Armitage. Produced by Beth O'Dea

With Mark Lawson Before Midnight is the last instalment in the acclaimed film trilogy that began with Before Sunset and continued with Before Sunrise. Jesse and Celine, who enjoyed brief encounters in Vienna and Paris, are now married with children, but as their summer holiday in Greece comes to an end, the light seems to be going out of their relationship. Antonia Quirke delivers her verdict on one of modern cinema's most famous and enduring couples, played by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. Neil Hannon (frontman and founder of The Divine Comedy) and musician Thomas Walsh discuss their second cricket-inspired album Sticky Wickets, and the formation of their band The Duckworth Lewis Method. They also reveal how they arranged special guests including Daniel Radcliffe, Stephen Fry and Henry Blofeld. The Weir, a series of ghost stories told in an Irish pub, was a huge hit for playwright Conor McPherson over a decade ago. His latest play The Night Alive returns to the theme of how the past can haunt the present in unexpected ways. Conor McPherson talks to Mark about the experiences that have informed his writing. Artist Rachel Whiteread makes her selection for the Cultural Exchange - a painting by Bridget Riley, which she kept as a postcard.

With John Wilson. Tamara Rojo is the artistic director of the English National Ballet. This is her first season in charge of a company, after years as principal ballerina at the Royal Ballet, where she danced all the major roles. She talks to John about her vision for the ENB. The film The Place Beyond The Pines, an epic story of fathers and sons, crime and punishment, stars Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle rider and bank robber whose sins are visited upon his only child. Antonia Quirke delivers her verdict. James Blake was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2011 for his self-titled debut album of melancholy electronica, largely made in his bedroom while still at university. His second album Overgrown is released today. He explains how the success of his first release has informed the new record. On the first day of the MIP TV programmes sales conference at Cannes, TV buyers from around the world are out in force looking for the next drama, format or documentary most likely to prove a global hit. Peter White from Broadcast magazine reports live on the trends coming through so far. Producer Ellie Bury.

With John Wilson. Side Effects is a new psychological thriller from director Steven Soderbergh. He claims that it is his final film for cinema, in a career which began with Sex, Lies and Videotape in 1989. Rooney Mara stars as a woman who suffers unexpected side effects from medication prescribed by her psychiatrist, played by Jude Law. Antonia Quirke reviews. The American artist Chuck Close discusses his highly-detailed portraits, created from hundreds of smaller images. He explains why his inability to recognise faces, a consequence of a disability, has led to his focus on portraiture. A new TV series, Bluestone 42, covers unusual ground for a comedy as it follows the fortunes of a bomb disposal squad in Afghanistan. Writers James Cary and Richard Hurst discuss how they researched the storylines with the help of army advisors, and consider the moral dilemmas involved in getting laughs from a war in which soldiers are still serving. The video game icon Lara Croft is making a comeback, five years after the last Tomb Raider game was released. Written by Rhianna Pratchett, the new game explores Lara Croft's origins as a young archaeologist. Helen Lewis reflects on the significance of Lara Croft for a generation of female gamers. Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With John Wilson. Front Row reveals the shortlists for this year's Costa Book Awards. Gaby Wood of the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian's Alex Clark join John to discuss the nominations for the best first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book. The morning after appearing on The Royal Variety Performance, American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond talks to John about his five decades in music. Relationships, mental illness and a dance competition all come together in the film Silver Linings Playbook - starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro. After losing everything, and spending 8 months institutionalised, Pat Solitano (Cooper) returns to his family home with the goal of remaining positive and being reunited with his wife. Antonia Quirke reviews. Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With John Wilson. Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette reflects on her career so far, and her latest album, Havoc And Bright Lights. Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman star in the film Take This Waltz, a story of eroticism and infidelity that plays out through a sweltering Toronto summer. The film is directed by Sarah Polley. Antonia Quirke reviews. The author of the music business satire Kill Your Friends, novelist John J Niven, reveals why he's written his first crime thriller, Cold Hands American composer John Cage is celebrated for the way he challenges assumptions about what constitutes music. His work Branches uses cactuses as instruments. Ahead of a performance at the BBC Proms, cactus-player Robyn Schulkowsky brings cactuses to the studio, to demonstrate what Cage had in mind - and why. Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson. Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum star in Magic Mike, the latest film from Traffic and Ocean's Eleven director Steven Soderbergh. The film explores the world of all-male dance shows with Channing Tatum as the young stripper who dreams of something more. Antonia Quirke reviews. As John Morton's mockumentary Twenty Twelve - about the challenges facing the team charged with staging the 2012 Olympics - reaches its climax in three final episodes, he discusses the difficulty of making comedy just to the side of reality, and why he had no time to buy tickets to the real Olympic Games. Italian writer Andrea Camilleri, winner of this year's Crime Writers' Association International Dagger Award for the best crime novel translated into English, reflects on his famous creation - the food-loving Sicilian detective, Inspector Montalbano. Niall Leonard - the husband of E.L.James, creator of the best-selling 50 Shades of Grey series - also has a book deal. Professor John Sutherland joins Mark to discuss husband-and-wife writing careers. Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

With Mark Lawson, Woody Allen has allowed his life and creative process to be documented on-camera. With unprecedented access, filmmaker Robert Weide followed the notoriously private film legend over a year and a half; discussing topics including his creative choices and response to his critics, the split with Mia Farrow and reveals that when he finished Manhattan he didn't like the film and didn't want it to be shown. Antonia Quirke assesses what we learn about the prolific film maker. American writer Richard Ford's new novel Canada opens in the vast landscape of Great Falls, Montana, in the 1950s, where a young solitary child Dell Parsons' world is turned upside-down when his parents commit a bank robbery. Richard Ford discusses the background to the book, and why readers usually have a five-year wait for his next novel. Two comedies with women in the starring roles are coming to our television screens. Dead Boss was co-written by and stars Sharon Horgan as a woman who has been falsely imprisoned for murdering her boss. Sally Phillips takes the lead in Parents, a sit-com about returning back to the family home, with her own teenage children. Rebecca Nicholson reviews. And, the novelist Joanne Harris and Professor Roger Luckhurst pay tribute to the author of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, whose death has been announced. Producer Claire Bartleet.

With Mark Lawson. Glenn Close takes the title role in the film Albert Nobbs, the tale of a woman pretending to be man in order to work as a butler in 19th century Dublin. Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville wrote the screenplay. Antonia Quirke reviews. Actor Harry Shearer is known for providing the voices for a number of characters in The Simpsons, including Mr Burns, as well as starring in the 1984 spoof rockumentary This is Spinal Tap. This week he steps into the shoes of Richard Nixon in a new TV comedy-drama Nixon's the One, which reveals what went on behind the scenes, based on an archive of more than 198 hours of recordings made between February 1971 and 1973. Dramatist Robert Holman's triptych of plays Making Noise Quietly has just received a new London production. The Yorkshire-born playwright looks back at a career which goes back to the 1970s, and includes work at the RSC, the National Theatre and in the West End. The BAFTA Television Awards nominations are announced today. Last year's drama series winner Sherlock has received three acting nominations, but is not in contention for a drama award. Gabriel Tate, TV editor of Time Out, discusses the categorisation and selections for the drama prizes. Producer Claire Bartleet.

With John Wilson. Dara O Briain's School of Hard Sums is a new TV series in which the comedian uses numbers and equations to tackle life problems, such as trying to predict football scores and how many people to date before choosing a partner. Dara discusses why maths brings out his competitive side, and how it influences his comedy. The new film Blackthorn imagines the ageing outlaw Butch Cassidy living in exile in a secluded village in Bolivia. Sam Shepard plays Cassidy, now using the name James Blackthorn, who decides to return to the USA. Antonia Quirke reviews. 'I waited so patiently for God to bring someone...and then he blessed my soul': so runs the lyric on I Found You, just one of the songs which invokes God on the much-anticipated album by the US band Alabama Shakes. Kitty Empire considers why American musicians draw on religious faith more readily than their British counterparts. Director and writer Whit Stillman won an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of his first film Metropolitan. His new film Damsels in Distress focuses on three beautiful girls who want to change life at an American university, and comes 13 years after his last release. He reflects on his career, and the long gap between films. Producer Nicki Paxman.

What does a chaotic pet market have to tell us about Libya's transition from dictatorship to democracy? Kevin Connolly's been finding out. Refineries. Miles and miles of pipeline. Hundreds of workers from overseas. Antonia Quirke's learned they are all coming to a remote corner of Mozambique now there's been a huge gas find there. Drug-related violence is a major issue in the Mexican presidential election campaign, which has just got underway. Will Grant's in the capital city where even news of the most gruesome happenings now seems to cause little surprise or horror. Jonathan Fryer's been meeting a family hugely respected in Togo. Over the generations they've become known for producing twins -- regarded as particularly special in this part of west Africa. And how on earth did a man from the high Himalayas come to be serving Jewish culinary specialities in a store in Manhattan? The answer to that one comes from Reggie Nadelson.

With John Wilson. The film The Hunger Games, based on the best-selling book by Suzanne Collins, is set in a future dystopia in which young people are forced to kill each other as entertainment. Antonia Quirke gives her verdict. Kensington Palace is about to re-open to the public after a multi-million pound transformation, including an exhibition about Queen Victoria in the apartments in which she grew up. Writer and biographer A N Wilson reviews. The BBC's new talent show The Voice begins this weekend, in which the judging panel cannot see the contestants when they first appear, relying only on what they hear. Pop critic Kitty Empire and James Inverne, former editor of Gramophone magazine, consider whether image plays too great a role in musical success. Poet Michael Horovitz, who is now in his late 70s, has written a new long poem, commissioned by Paul Weller for the cover of his new album Sonik Kicks. They discuss the energy of beat poetry, and the relationship between poems and song lyrics. Producer Timothy Prosser.

With Mark Lawson, John Adams' controversial opera The Death of Klinghoffer, based on the true story of a hijacked cruise liner in 1985, has just had its first performance at English National Opera in a new production directed by Tom Morris, co-creator of the National Theatre's adaptation of War Horse. Sarah Crompton gives her response to the first night. Award-winning comedian Sarah Millican discusses moving her comedy from the stage to the TV screen, and also reflects on her row with a fan who recorded one of her shows on a mobile phone. In the new comedy film Wanderlust, Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd play an over-stressed couple who leave the pressures of Manhattan to join a freewheeling community where the only rule is 'to be yourself'. Antonia Quirke reviews. Radio 4 is inviting you to nominate New Elizabethans - people who have made an impact on the UK from 1952 to today. This week Front Row is asking writers and artists for their suggestions, and tonight playwright Mark Ravenhill nominates a pioneering theatre director. Producer Claire Bartleet.

With Mark Lawson. Suzanne Moore reviews the Oscar-tipped George Clooney in The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne, who made the Academy Award winning comedy Sideways. In a candid interview, author Edmund White discusses his life and work as his new novel is published. This week sees the start of three new series following members of the medical profession. Mark meets Dr Ben Allin from BBC Three's Junior Doctors and Mr Mark George, veteran of the original 1980s Horizon series Doctors to Be, to find out how the filming process has changed. As Jean Vigo's barge-set classic film L'Atalante is re-released, critic and houseboat dweller Antonia Quirke reveals why it still makes waves almost 80 years after it was made. Producer Stephen Hughes.

With Mark Lawson. Two new TV comedies, both with a central female role, begin tomorrow. Stella is a comedy drama written by and starring Ruth Jones as a single mother living in the Welsh valleys. New Girl stars Zooey Deschanel as a teacher who moves into an apartment with three single men, after breaking up with her boyfriend. Rachel Cooke reviews. In the third of three reports on the art of following up a great success, film director Tom Hooper, who won an Oscar for The King's Speech, discusses his next project - a big-screen version of the musical Les Miserables. Annette Bening and Naomi Watts star in the film Mother and Child, which focuses on women whose lives are profoundly affected by adoption. Antonia Quirke reviews. American writer Padgett Powell is not afraid of experimentation. Every single sentence in his novel The Interrogative Mood is a question, and he followed this with You & I, a book written entirely in dialogue between two unnamed people. He discusses his move away from what he describes as 'comfy realism'. Producer Claire Bartleet.

With John Wilson. Kate Bush talks about 50 Words for Snow, her first album of brand new material for six years. She discusses her fears about the demise of the album as a format, and reveals that she is already working on new songs. The film My Week With Marilyn stars Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier. It tells the story of Colin Clark's experiences working in a lowly position on the set of The Prince And The Showgirl, which disastrously paired Monroe and Olivier. Antonia Quirke gives her verdict. This week sees the publication of what's billed as Jack Kerouac's 'lost' novel, The Sea Is My Brother. 2011 has also seen 'lost' works by C S Forester, Daphne du Maurier and Arthur Conan Doyle arrive in our bookshops. Benedicte Page, associate editor of The Bookseller, explains why publishers are so keen on tracking down missing texts. Producer Georgia Mann.

With John Wilson. Peter Gabriel's latest project was inspired by his 2010 CD Scratch My Back, in which he gave an orchestral treatment to some of his favourite artists' songs. The former Genesis frontman discusses his new album New Blood, in which he gives highlights from his own solo back-catalogue a similar makeover, including Don't Give Up and Solsbury Hill. Doctor Who's Karen Gillan makes her professional stage debut in a new production of John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence, which stars the Olivier and Tony award-winning actor Douglas Hodge in the massive central role of a disintegrating middle-aged lawyer, clinging to the human wreckage he's left in his wake. Sarah Churchwell reviews. The first major show for over 25 years of the work of surrealist painter Edward Burra opens this weekend. Despite suffering with acute arthritis so that his hands could hardly hold the brush, Burra is one of the most original 20th century British artists, fascinated by the seedy side of life, and inspired by a mixture of old masters and the pop culture of jazz and Hollywood films. John reports from Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. Gus Van Sant, whose films include Good Will Hunting and Milk, has now directed Restless, the tale of a terminally-ill girl who befriends a funeral gate-crashing drop-out. Starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper, the film has divided critics in America. Antonia Quirke gives her verdict. Producer Nicki Paxman.

With John Wilson. Ryan Gosling stars in two contrasting films in cinemas from Friday. In Drive, a thriller based on the cult novel by James Sallis, he plays a Hollywood stunt driver moonlighting as a getaway driver in the criminal underworld of Los Angeles. In the rom-com Crazy, Stupid, Love, he plays a handsome lothario acting as wingman for an older guy returning to the singles scene. Antonia Quirke reviews and discusses Ryan Gosling's career. Mike Scott of the band The Waterboys explains how the Nobel-winning Irish poet W B Yeats has become co-writer on his new album. A selection of Yeats' poems - including September 1913 and An Irish Airman Forsees His Death - have been set to music by Scott on the Waterboys' record An Appointment With Mr Yeats. John Wilson takes a tour of 'Firstsite', the new £28m art gallery in Colchester, Essex, designed by Uruguayan-born Rafael Vinoly. The architect explains how Roman archeaological remains beneath Colchester dictated the form of the single-storey, crescent-shaped building - dubbed the 'golden banana'. Architect Rafael Viñoly shows John around the Firstsite art centre in Colchester. Andrew O'Hagan's debut book, The Missing, was a meditation on people who disappear from their lives- and the families they leave behind. Inspired by his own experience as a reporter camped outside Fred and Rosemary West's home while the bodies of their victims were being discovered, and acclaimed as a portrait of mid-1990s Britain, it was shortlisted for three major literary awards. Now O'Hagan, together with director John Tiffany (Black Watch), has adapted his book into a new production for Glasgow's Tramway theatre. Critic Mark Brown reviews.

Will economics force the French to rethink their lifestyles? It's a question Christian Fraser in Paris answers in the week a million French people took to the streets to protest at the government's plans to raise the retirement age. On the anniversary of 9/11 Laura Trevelyan in New York's been talking to the Manhattan Muslims about the furore surrounding plans to build an Islamic cultural centre and mosque close to Ground Zero. Mark Tully visits a hill station -- it's the sort of place the British, back in colonial days, would go to escape the heat of summer. Today, it seems, they have a rather different character. Jane Beresford's in the fields of Sierra Leone finding out why women there welcome the sight of new tractors at their farms and Ella Fitzgerald sang of eating baloney at Coney. Today, as Antonia Quirke has discovered, the city has plans for the amusement district of Coney Island ... and not everyone's happy.

Xandra Bingley, Antonia Quirke & Salena Godden. What drives a writer to write an autobiography? What makes a memoir unique? And what is it about them that so appeals to publishers and readers? Three outstanding memoirists talk about their very different experiences of writing about their own lives. They are joined by Arabella Pike, Publishing Director of Harper Press and the event is chaired by Observer interviewer and writer Rachel Cooke.