Front Row pays tribute the writer PD James who has died aged 94. Fellow crime writer and friend Ruth Rendell reflects on James's life and work and, in a clip from our archive, James describes the four key motives for murder in a good crime story. Rugby player Gareth Thomas, footballer Bobby Moore and ice skater John Curry are among the subjects of the books shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, the longest-running prize for sports writing. At the awards ceremony,...

With John Wilson. Actor Idris Elba discusses his album, mi Mandela, inspired by the experience of portraying Nelson Mandela in The Long Walk to Freedom. He also explains why he won't be reprising his role as John Luther in a forthcoming US remake of the BBC drama Luther. Painter Howard Hodgkin talks to John in his studio about 30 gouaches inspired by India which he painted between 1990-91, and are on show for the first time in London. As the V&A Museum prepare to open the newly...

Barry Manilow talks to Samira Ahmed about his new album, 'My Dream Duets'. It's a collection of duets with artists beyond the grave such as John Denver, Judy Garland and Whitney Houston. Diana Souhami, whose novel Gwendolen imagines life from the point of view of Daniel Deronda's heroine, and Viv Groskop, Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival, discuss the trend for novels from the perspective of peripheral characters. David Baddiel and David Schneider unpick the changing nature...

Samira Ahmed with Jude Law, who discusses how playing Henry V on stage inspired his role as a desperate, out of work submarine captain searching for Nazi gold in his new film Black Sea. The French DJ and record producer David Guetta discusses his latest album Listen, featuring the vocal talents of Emeli Sandé, Sam Martin, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Nicki Minaj, and explains why he has never felt inspired by French Music. A new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London, Post Pop: East...

Kirsty Lang talks to artist and puppet-maker Peter Firmin, whose iconic children's tv characters include Bagpuss, Basil Brush and The Clangers. Robert Edric on his novel Sanctuary, which explores the final months in the turbulent life of Branwell Brontë - brother to the more famous Brontë sisters. Kate Muir reviews the new film from Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Winter Sleep, which won the Palme D'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. And a new exhibition at the Scottish National...

Blues legend Dr John talks to John Wilson about his tribute album to fellow New Orleans musician Louis Armstrong, and how the project was the result of a visit from Armstrong in a dream. The American composer John Adams talks about the world stage premiere of his opera The Gospel According to the Other Mary at English National Opera, which tells the Passion story from the perspective of Mary Magdalene. Following the news of the death of director Mike Nichols, best known for his film The...

Hugh Bonneville discusses his role as Mr Brown in the new Paddington film; Mary J Blige on self doubt, soul music and making an album inspired by London; Michael Palin stars in BBC drama, Remember Me - a contemporary ghost story set in Yorkshire. Chris Dunkley joins John to review it. And two of the biggest comedy hit films of the year have been Bad Neighbours and 22 Jump St, but Adam Smith warns the films' stars not to take too much for granted, because as history shows, comedy can be cruel...

The shortlisted authors for the 2014 Costa Book Awards are announced. Critic Stephanie Merritt comments on the authors chosen in five categories: novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children's fiction. Meera Syal discusses her latest stage role in Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Katherine Boo, about life in the shadow of Mumbai's luxury hotels. The final part of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, has been split in...

Tonight's Front Row reviews The Homesman - a western directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones - and Dave Grohl talks about Foo Fighters' new album, Sonic Highways. Also in the programme: director Blanche McIntyre on her revival of Emlyn Williams' 1950 play about sex, scandal and blackmail, Accolade - and Cecil Beaton's biographer Hugo Vickers considers a new exhibition of his photography.

Tom Hardy and the late James Gandolfini star in the thriller The Drop, reviewed by Jenny McCartney. Saxophonist Jan Garbarek and David James discuss the Hilliard Ensemble. Quentin Blake on Paula Rego and Honoré Daumier: Scandal, Gossip and Other Stories at the House of Illustration. And Assaf Gavron on the reality of life in Israel in the 21st century in his new novel, The Hilltop. Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Celebrated American writer Richard Ford discusses his new novel Let Me Be Frank With You - which continues the story of his much loved character Frank Bascombe. A notebook of Dylan Thomas's poetry has been rediscovered after 70 years. It offers a unique insight into the creative workings of Dylan during one of his most creative periods. Sotheby's manuscript expert Gabriel Heaton brings the book into the Front Row studio and discusses its importance. Queen Forever is a new album out this...

The Oscar-winning writer and producer Aaron Sorkin, acclaimed for The Social Network and The West Wing, talks to Kirsty Lang as the final season of The Newsroom airs. Kirsty visits Leighton House in London as paintings from The Pérez Simón Collection, the largest private collection of Victorian art outside the UK, go on display there, including some significant works by Lord Frederick Leighton now returning to the house where they were painted. We speak to Ali Smith, author of How to be...

John Wilson talks to Chadwick Boseman, who plays soul singer James Brown in the Hollywood biopic Get on Up. Sculptor Allen Jones on his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Artist Jonathan Yeo on portraits in the age of the selfie. And Hannah Price from Theatre Uncut on generating dozens of productions of the same 5 new plays in different places around the world this month.

Bryan Ferry talks to Kirsty Lang about his 14th solo album, Avonmore. Professor Chris Rapley, one of the UK's leading climate scientists, has written his first play, 2071, which focuses on climate change, and Molly Davies has drawn on her years working as a teaching assistant to write God Bless the Child in which a group of eight-year-olds rebel against the school system. They discuss how they turned their professional experiences into theatre. Crime writer Stella Duffy reviews BBC crime...

Benedict Cumberbatch talks to John Wilson about his role in The Imitation Game. He plays pioneering computer scientist and Bletchley code breaker Alan Turing. 22-year-old Sumia Sukkar discusses her debut novel The Boy from Aleppo who Painted the War, the story of a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome, growing up in Syria which has now been dramatised for Radio 4. As concerns over the raiding of Syrian artefacts grow, Front Row hears from academics, investigators and Unesco about how...

Tonight's Front Row reviews the stage-musical version of the film, Made In Dagenham, starring Gemma Arterton, and Samira Ahmed is given a guided tour around Gold - a new exhibition at Buckingham Palace. Also in the programme: Elif Shafak talks about her latest novel, The Architect's Apprentice, set in 16th century Istanbul - and whether the increasingly popularity of comic books is making them less subversive.

Successful novelist, playwright and stand-up comic, Ben Elton, a central figure in the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s, joins Kirsty Lang to discuss his new novel, Time And Time Again. His book follows ex-soldier Hugh Stanton who is transported back to 1914 from 2025, in order to prevent the Great War and re-write history. Andy Warhol is the subject of a new show at Tate Liverpool which looks at how this quintessential 20th century artist sought to master the mass media of his day to...

Babylon, a new series from the creators of Peep Show, returns for a series after appearing on Channel 4 as a pilot. Brit Marling and James Nesbitt star in this fly on the wall satire about the police. Documentary film maker Roger Graef reviews. Poet Wendy Cope discusses her new book, Life, Love and the Archers, a collection of her prose which includes reviews, essays and recollections from her childhood. We get a rare glimpse of artistic life in North Korea at an exhibition inside the...

Novelist Lionel Shriver reviews Christopher Nolan's three-hour film Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey. Nick Hornby talks to John Wilson about his new novel Funny Girl, set around a fictional 1960's sitcom. Saxophonist John Harle assesses the musical instrument designed by Adolphe Sax who was born 200 years ago. And Michael Carlson discusses Bob Dylan The Basement Tapes Raw: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11, containing 138 tracks, released today. Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Michael Bond, the creator of the much-loved Paddington Bear, joins Kirsty Lang. He'll be talking about writing in Paddington's voice for the first time in a new collection of letters to the bear's Aunt Lucy, Love From Paddington. And he reveals his role in the new Paddington film. Documentary film maker Laura Poitras discusses Citizenfour, her film about being contacted by the mystery whistle blower who eventually revealed himself as Edward Snowden. The dance theatre company DV8 premieres a...

Elijah Wood talks to Kirsty Lang about his role in Set Fire to the Stars, a biopic about Dylan Thomas's turbulent time in 1950s New York. Pianist Angela Hewitt discusses her new recording of Bach's The Art of Fugue. Writers Paul Kingsnorth and Julian Gough explain how important crowd-funding was to help them write their novels. And film-maker Molly Dineen reviews The Overnighters, a documentary about a pastor in North Dakota who came to the aid of the flood of men who travelled from all over...

John Wilson talks to Keira Knightley about new film Say When and her preparations for her Broadway debut in Therese Raquin. Gabrielle Drake and Joe Boyd discuss Nick Drake as they publish a book about his life and work. We hear from Emma and Roma Jones as Gillian Wearing prepares to reveal her statue, A Real Birmingham Family, tomorrow in Birmingham. Music journalist Ruth Barnes discusses the runners and riders for tonight's Mercury Music Prize. Producer: Ellie Bury Presenter: John Wilson.

Samira Ahmed discusses the film Nightcrawler, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an ambulance chasing cameraman. Laura Mvula and Bastille on composing a new score for the film Drive, commissioned by Radio 1's Zane Lowe. Historian Juliet Gardiner reviews BBC1's new First World War drama series, The Passing Bells. And Paul Ewen on his humorous novel, Francis Plug: How to be Public Author, about a wannabe writer who shows up at literary events starring Man Booker winners in the hope of learning...

Tonight's Front Row reviews Daniel Radcliffe's latest film, Horns, and talks to singer Edwyn Collins about the documentary that's been made about his recovery after two strokes. Also in the programme: Stephen Daldry explains why his film, Trash - set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro - has won top prize at the Rome Film Festival, and composer Thomas Adès on seeing choreographers' response to his music. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Rebecca Nicholson.

Timothy Spall has brought JMW Turner to life in Mike Leigh's new film, Mr Turner - he tells Damian Barr how he did so, learning to paint like the master and using his own love of the sea. The Picasso museum in Paris closed for renovation in 2009, and was scheduled to re-open two years later. But the work took four years longer than that, went over budget and culminated in the sacking of the museum's president. Waldemar Januszczak reviews the refurbishment. Damian talks to the legendary...