Front Row

An eight-part series about the legendary rivalry between Hollywood icons Bette Davis and Joan Crawford comes to BBC2 this Christmas. Matthew Sweet reviews.What makes going to the theatre or cinema a pleasurable experience and what -such as long loo queues, smelly snacks and mobile phones - can ruin a night out. Matthew Sweet stays on to discuss this with journalist Rosamund Urwin.'Snow was general all over Ireland' wrote James Joyce, memorably, in Dubliners. Snow has been a great inspiration to writers and poets. In America Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens and Robert Frost have all written beautiful snow poems. But snow is nothing unusual there. Poets here are inspired by snow partly because it comes unexpectedly. There is always an element of surprise and wonder. Gillian Clarke reads her poem Snow, from her collection, Ice. Anne Washburn thinks that almost every American aged over 30 has seen the sci-fi series The Twilight Zone. The playwright tells Kirsty Lang about bringing this television classic to the English stage.The television presenter Keith Chegwin's death was announced today. There will be many tributes to Cheggers, Front Row celebrates his foray into high culture, linking his name forever with Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Roman Polanski and an obscure ensemble called The Third Ear Band. In 1971 Chegwin played Fleance in Polanski's wonderful film of Macbeth and he sang part of the Rondel of Merciless Beauty by Chaucer - an unexpected contrast to Cheggers Plays Pop. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Julian May.

Vanessa Redgrave has just been awarded the Richard Harris Award which is given to an actor for their outstanding contribution to British film. She talks to Stig about her long career in cinema and theatre. Imperium is the Royal Shakespeare Company's new six-hour production which looks at power politics in ancient Rome, which is based on Robert Harris's bestselling Cicero trilogy. The writer and classical historian Natalie Haynes has seen the production and gives her verdict. French president Emmanuel Macron has called for African artefacts currently held in French museums to be returned to their countries of origin. Cultural historian Andrew Hussey discusses the reaction in France, the practicalities of such a pledge, and what pressure it might put on museums in Britain. The Irish writer Sally Rooney has just been awarded The 2017 Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award for Conversations With Friends. The 26-year-old's debut novel has become a critical and word-of-mouth hit this year, acclaimed as fresh and clever. She talks to Stig about the book and what the win means to her. Presenter Stig Abell Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Christopher Nolan, writer and director of Memento, Inception, Interstellar and the Batman trilogy including The Dark Knight, looks back over his career as the DVD of his most recent film Dunkirk is about to be released.Theatre critic and broadcaster Nick Ahad reviews the new all-black cast production of Guys and Dolls at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. John Lahr, writer and theatre critic, and Dr Lynette Goddard, author of Modern and Contemporary Black British Drama, discuss the issues raised by all-black cast theatre productions.Tonight the UK's City of Culture 2021 will be announced. The contenders are Coventry, Paisley, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Swansea. Arts Minister John Glen and a spokesperson from the winning city tell us what to expect from the new City of Culture.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Kate Bullivant.

Portrait painter Jonathan Yeo discusses his ambitious new cutting-edge sculpture, which features in a new exhibition From Life at the Royal Academy, alongside works by Jeremy Deller, Jenny Saville and Gillian Wearing. Yeo's sculpture of his own head was created on a virtual reality headset, challenging the foundry tasked with making it to find a way of 3-D printing the digital work in bronze, never done before. Artist Anish Kapoor has created a new trophy for next year's Brit Awards. Design journalist Max Fraser assesses the new design and discusses what makes the best award statuette.On the 100th Anniversary of Finnish Independence, the conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, whose career is being celebrated by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a Total Immersion Day at the Barbican, talks about the influence of Finland on his life and music. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Actress Claire Foy talks about returning to play Queen Elizabeth II in series two of Netflix's hugely successful TV series The Crown. Tenor Bryan Hymel, famous for his high Cs, is in performing in both Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in the same evening at the Royal Opera House, Covemnt Gardens. He talks about the challenges of this, and he sings live in the Front Row studio.As Powell and Pressburger's 1946 masterpiece film A Matter of Life and Death returns to the big screen round the UK, we ask film writers Ian Christie and Rosemary Fletcher : How do we pass on our film heritage to a new generation ?

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Stronger, a true story of Jeff Bauman who lost both of his legs when a bomb exploded at the Boston Marathon in 2013. Ellen E Jones reviews the film that charts his recovery.Douglas Henshall discusses his role as journalist and TV news director Max Schumacher in the stage version of the 1976 Oscar-winning film Network at the National Theatre, alongside Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston who plays the troubled news anchor Howard Beale who is famously 'mad as hell' and 'not going to take this anymore!'Performing live Tokio Myers, the pianist who fuses classical piano pieces with pop tracks. Myers came to prominence earlier this year when he won Britain's Got Talent and has just released his debut album. He discusses studying at the Royal College of Music and supporting Amy Winehouse and Kanye West on tour.Shashi Kapoor has died today. We look at the life and work of the Bollywood star with Asian Network's Ashanti Omkar.

Italian Soprano Cecilia Bartoli and Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta come together for an album of baroque arias, in which the voice and cello intertwine in a way they describe as Dolce Duello, a sweet duel. Founding editor Nick Logan, writer and editor Sheryl Garratt, and Paul Gorman, author of The Story of The Face, look back at the era-defining youth music and culture magazine.I Love You, Daddy is a new film by US comedian Louis CK. Due to go on general release in the US today, the film was dropped after allegations of sexual misconduct by the comedian were reported and admitted. Alexandra Schwartz of the New Yorker reviews the controversial film we might never see.And we open the first window of the Front Row advent calendar with a festive celebration of the year's special moments on the programme. Today, Stormzy.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Sir Michael Parkinson discusses his love of jazz and big-band music, and the choices he made for a collection of his favourite songs: Our Kind of Music: The Great American Songbook. He also reflects on his years spent interviewing the showbiz A list. Hull is rounding off its year as UK City of Culture with a new adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol' by Deborah McAndrew who sets it in the port. The Royal Shakespeare Company has a new version by David Edgar, who adapted their world-famous 'Nicholas Nickelby', and The Old Vic has one, too, by Jack Thorne, famous for writing the stage version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Front Row gathers all three to discuss the enduring appeal of Dickens's story, and how to make it new.R J Palacio's award-winning book, Wonder, about a young boy with facial differences, has just been made into a film starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay. Lisa Hammond reviews.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

Amy Sherman-Palladino, the screenwriter and director who found fame with hit show Gilmore Girls, discusses her latest TV comedy drama The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Set in 1950s New York, it's about an Upper West Side housewife who becomes a stand-up comic when her life takes an unexpected turn.As the Film Awards Season gets into full swing with Spielberg's drama The Post winning at the National Board of Review, how will the sex scandals engulfing Hollywood impact on the films lauded this year, and the awards ceremonies themselves? Are costume workers undervalued and underpaid? Gaylene Gould is joined by Catherine Kodicek, Head of Costume at the Young Vic, and Nicole Young from BECTU, to discuss the pay and conditions of costume and wardrobe professionals in theatre, film and television.

We discuss the portrayal of Chinese characters on TV with Shin-Fei Chen, co-creator of BBC Three's Chinese Burn, and writer and theatre director David Tse Ka-Shing. The William Hill Sports Book of the Year, the world's richest and longest-running prize for sports writing, was awarded earlier today to Andy McGrath for Tom Simpson: Bird on the Wire. Kirsty reports from the ceremony where she talked to the authors of the seven books on the shortlist - whose subjects include 'swimming suffragettes', Muhammad Ali and the cyclist Tom Simpson - and speaks to the winner of the £29,000 prize. James Franco on why he stayed in character throughout directing and starring in The Disaster Artist, which tells the story of 2003 cult film The Room - often described as "the Citizen Kane of bad films" - and its enigmatic filmmaker Tommy Wiseau.