Cultural Exchange

Riz Ahmed chooses the video game Street Fighter II, which was released in arcades in 1991. Plus related clips from the BBC archive, including rapper Bashy joins 1Xtra's J.M.E for a Street Fighter II battle, interviews with games writers Naomi Alderman and Rhianna Pratchett, games designer Paul Bennun and composer Joris De Man. Also Riz Ahmed himself talks Trevor Nelson about his starring role in The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

C J Sansom - author of the historical crime series Shardlake – picks the first incarnation of the Doctor in the Doctor Who, William Hartnell. Plus archive interviews with Verity Lambert, Tom Baker and William Hartnell's granddaughter Jessica Carney.

Michael Grandage chooses a poem by WS Graham called Dear Bryan Wynter. Plus BBC archive featuring WS Graham, Peter Lanyon and Mark Rothko.

Josie Rourke chooses the 1987 film Broadcast News. Plus BBC archive interviews with actress Holly Hunter and director James L Brooks.

Gemma Chan chooses the film The Princess Bride. Plus archive BBC interviews with William Goldman, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Cornelia Parker choose a photograph by Man Ray called Dust Breeding. Plus archive BBC interviews with Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp.

Cerys Matthews chooses Fanfare Ciocărlia and their album Queens and Kings. Plus BBC archive interviews about gypsy music including an interview with the band.

Jeffrey Archer chooses the painting Ecce Homo by the 19th Century Italian artist Antonio Ciseri. Plus BBC archive about Pontius Pilate. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Philip Pullman chooses a song by Georges Brassens, called Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète. Plus BBC archive clips about Brassens featuring Quentin Blake, Posy Simmonds and Julian Barnes.

Nicola Benedetti chooses Korngold’s Violin Concerto, played by Jascha Heifetz. Plus archive BBC interviews with Itzhak Perlman and Leonard Slatkin.

Richard Rogers chooses the Piazza del Campo, a medieval square in Siena. Plus archive bbc interviews about the Palio horse race. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Kamila Shamsie chooses the film All About Eve (1950), starring Bette Davis. Plus archive BBC interviews with Bette Davis, Joseph Mankiewicz, and Honor Blackman.

Terry Jones chooses Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. Plus BBC archive of Dylan Thomas and Richard Burton. Full details at Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website.

Ruth Rendell chooses the oratorio Solomon by Handel. Plus archive interviews about Handel with conductors Christopher Hogwood John Eliot Gardiner.

James Blake chooses the film Stalker by Tarkovsky. Plus archive interviews about the Russian film-maker featuring Will Self, Geoff Dyer, Mike Hodges and Werner Herzog.

Mark Ravenhill chooses Casanova, Dennis Potter's first TV serial. Plus archive BBC interviews with and about Dennis Potter. Go to Front Row's Cultural Exchange website for full details.

The Oscar-winning Visual Effects Designer, Paul Franklin chooses The Thief of Bagdad (1940). Plus archive interviews with Alexander Korda, Powell and Pressburger, Andy Serkis and Paul Franklin himself.

Laura Mvula chooses the song Four Women by Nina Simone. Plus archive BBC interviews with Nina Simone, Joan Armatrading and Billy Bragg.

Paula Milne chooses the film Five Easy Pieces, directed by Bob Rafelson and starring Jack Nicholson. Plus archive interviews with Nicholson and Rafelson.

Artist Conrad Shawcross chooses one of the 250 pictures in the waterlilies series dated after 1916, by Claude Monet. Plus an archive interview with Sir Gerald Kelly who met Monet in 1902 and the English Head Gardener at Monet's house at Giverny.

American writer and humorist David Sedaris chooses the TV reality series RuPaul's Drag Race, which aims to find America's next drag superstar. Plus archive interviews Ru Paul, Paul O'Grady and Rex Jameson.

Ian Rankin chooses the album Solid Air by John Martyn. Plus archive bbc interviews with John Martyn, Phil Collins, Ralph McTell and Danny Thompson. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

The photographer Rankin chooses the poem Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy. Plus an archive interview with Hardy biographer Claire Tomalin and a visit to Hardy’s house in Dorset.

Author Pat Barker chooses Benjamin Britten's song cycle Who Are These Children? Plus archive interviews with Britten and Gladys Parr, a masterclass in performing the piece by Peter Pears - and a recent Front Row discussion with the singer Ian Bostridge and the Guardian columnist Martin Kettle on dealing with the composer’s dramatisation of and fascination with children in a culture of heightened sensitivities about the young. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Artist Maggi Hambling chooses Cy Twombly's Bacchus paintings. Plus archive interviews with Tactita Dean, Louisa Buck, Paul Allen and Maggi Hambling herself. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Penelope Curtis, Director at Tate Britain, chooses the buildings designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon at the University of Leeds. Plus archive interviews with Dame Judi Dench and architects Peter and Alison Smithson. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Brian Sewell chooses the painting Christ contemplated by the Christian Soul by Velazquez. Plus archive interviews with Richard Griffiths and Carlos Fuentes. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Actor and musician Clarke Peters – best-known for his TV roles in the Wire and Treme – chooses They Came Before Columbus, the bestselling 1970s book by Dr Ivan Van Sertima, that porposed a new interpretation of African American ancestry.

The former Children’s Laureate and author of The Gruffalo chooses American children’s writer Arnold Lobel whose books include the Frog and Toad series and Grasshopper on the Road. Plus Sam West reads Lobel’s story ‘A List’ and there’s archive from Michael Rosen, Anthony Browne and Anne Fine.

The architect Amanda Levete chooses Casa Malaparte, a house on the Italian island of Capri. Plus archive interviews with Jean-Luc Godard, Charlie Luxton, Prof Richard Burdett and Amanda Levete herself.

Actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste chooses Miles Davis' 1959 album Kind of Blue. Plus archive interviews with drummer Jimmy Cobb and trumpeter Henry Lowther and archive features about the Miles Davis' early life and relationship with bebop pioneer Charlie Parker.

Playwright and screenwriter Lee Hall chooses Briggflatts, a poem by Basil Bunting. Plus archive interviews with Elton John, Tom Pickard and Basil Bunting himself.

The pianist Mitsuko Uchida chooses The Resurrection by Piero della Francesca. Plus archive interviews with Martin Kemp, Lang Lang and a report into how The Resurrection was saved from destruction.

The author chooses The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff. Plus archive interviews with Doris Lessing, Tanith Lee and Dr Rowan Williams.

Broadcaster Francine Stock chooses the Iranian film The Apple. Plus archive interviews with Samira Makhmalbaf and Ali Samadi Ahadi and a clip of John's report from Iran about The Cyrus Cylinder.

Novelist Glenn Patterson chooses the film Yankee Doodle Dandy.Plus archive interviews with James Cagney and Hal B. Wallis and archive features about the film and its director Michael Curtiz.

Broadcaster and writer Dame Joan Bakewell chooses the 1963 film The Leopard, directed by Luchino Visconti. Plus archive interviews with Burt Lancaster, Francis Ford Coppola, Claudia Cardinale and Joan Bakewell herself.

Turner Prize winning artist, Rachel Whiteread chooses a postcard of Fall by Bridget Riley.Plus archive interviews with Bridget Riley, Sir Anthony Caro and Michael Craig Martin.

Neil Gaiman chooses a painting by Richard Dadd – The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke. Plus archive interviews with Freddie Mercury and an extract from Angela Carter’s play based on the painting. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

For the Cultural Exchange, Paul Weller nominates The Zombies' Odessey And Oracle, an album which was indifferently received when it was released in 1968. Plus archive including with The Zombies, Paul Weller and Mark Radcliffe . Full details on Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website.

Poet Gwyneth Lewis chooses the dance routine from Laurel and Hardy’s 1937 film Way Out West. Plus archive from about Laurel and Hardy’s 1932 and 1953 visits to Britain, and Roy Castle on their origins. Plus Gwyneth Lewis reads a poem. Full details on Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website.

Stephen Hough chooses Schubert’s song The Hurdy Gurdy Man, from Winterreise. Plus archive interviews with singers Thomas Hampson and Mark Padmore, and Donald Macleod on Schubert. Full details at Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website.

Author AL Kennedy chooses the 1985 TV drama Hitler’s SS: A Portrait of Evil. Plus archive interviews with Bill Nighy, Oliver Hirschbiegel and publishers and agents discussing the commercial success of books about Nazi Germany. Full details on Front Row's Cultural Exchange website.

Mark Haddon, whose books include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, chooses The Uffington White Horse. Plus archive reports on the myths and legends surrounding the horse. Full details available at Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website.

Colm Tóibín chooses a poem by Elizabeth Bishop called Poem. Plus archive interviews with Elizabeth Bishop, Lavinia Greenlaw and William Boyd. Full details and images at Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website.

Kwame Kwei-Armah chooses Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1984), a play by August Wilson (1945 - 2005) and the second installment of his decade-by-decade chronicle of the African-American experience, The Pittsburgh Cycle. Presented by Mark Lawson. The interview is followed by selected clips from the BBC archive: August Wilson reflecting on his career; James Earl Jones on race in Wilson's plays; director Paulette Randall on Wilson's female characters and Kwame Kwei-Armah on being interviewed 18 times for his role as artistic director at Centerstage Baltimore. full details available from the Front Row website

Novelist Sarah Hall chooses the film Blade Runner. Plus archive BBC interviews with director Ridley Scott, producer Michael Deeley, composer Vangelis, and author Philip K Dick. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

P. D. James chooses Philip Larkin's poem The Explosion, published in his final collection of poetry, High Windows. Presented by Mark Lawson. The interview is followed by selected clips from the BBC archive: Philip Larkin reading his poem The Explosion; Mark Lawson reports from Hull as the city prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of Larkin's death; recordings of Larkin hidden on a garage shelf and discovered in 2006. With poets Paul Farley and Andrew Motion; Hugh Bonneville reads from Larkin's letters to his partner Monica Jones. Larkin arrives in Belfast as the new University librarian; P. D. James talks to Mark Lawson about love and religion in her novels. Full details are available from the Front Row website.

Mark Lawson offers a selection of highlights from the Cultural Exchange project so far. The compilation includes the choices of Tracey Emin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Bernardo Bertolucci. Go to Front Row's Cultural Exchange website for more details.

Lady Antonia Fraser chooses an oil painting by J.M.W. Turner, full title The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up (1839), depicting a ship that played a crucial part in the Battle of Trafalgar. Presented by Mark Lawson. The interview is followed by selected clips from the BBC archive: Charles Saumarez Smith and Louise Govier on Turner’s masterpiece;Historian Adam Lambert and Graeme Fife uncover HMS Temeraire’s role in the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805; Lady Antonia Fraser and fellow historian Margaret MacMillan discuss the intricacies of writing history; A reading of Sir Henry Newbolt's rousing poem The Fighting Temeraire. Full details available on the Front Row website.

Nicholas Hytner – Director of the National Theatre – chooses the Finale from Act II of The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. Plus archive interviews with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Elvis Costello and Sir Georg Solti. Go to Front Row's Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Angela Gheorghiu chooses a diva from a previous generation, Virginia Zeani (pictured below), and in particular her recording of Qui la Voce from Bellini's opera I Puritani. Presented by John Wilson. Archive clips include Alice Coote on the sacrifices needed to maintain an operatic career, Angela Gheorghiu on emotional turmoil; Cecilia Bartoli and the legendary diva Maria Callas. For full archive information, visit the Front Row website

Violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy chooses the song Black and Blue, composed by Fats Waller and performed by Louis Armstrong. Plus archive from Louis Armstrong himself, Ken Clarke on Fats Waller, and Michael Parkinson. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Classicist Mary Beard chooses the sculpture Laocoon and His Sons. Plus archive interviews including Seamus Heaney on Virgil, Ralph Fiennes as Aeneas, and the story of the Trojan Horse. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full information.

A.S. Byatt chooses The Red Studio (1911) by the French artist Henri Matisse. Presented by Mark Lawson. Plus archives interviews with Matisse himself from 1951, Matisse’s biographer Hilary Spurling, artist Patrick Herron and A.S. Byatt on literature. Go to Front Row’s Cultural Exchange website for full details.

Actor and writer David Walliams chooses Harold Pinter's play No Man's Land. Presented by Mark Lawson. The interview is followed by selected clips from the BBC archive: Pinter himself on his relationship with the audience and his famous pauses; an extract from his 1978 play Betrayal; Pinter's widow Lady Antonia Fraser on writer about her husband; Rob Brydon on meeting Pinter and Diane Abbott and Michael Billington on Pinter's pacifism.

Alison Balsom chooses the St Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach. She tells John Wilson why the recording by Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent (Harmonia Mundi) is particularly special to her. The interview is followed by selected highlights from the BBC archives: John Eliot Gardiner on a life spent with JS Bach; the story of the man whose life was saved by the St Matthew Passion; Vaughan Williams on performing baroque music; Alison Balsom on the physical challenges of playing the trumpet and James Naughtie on the score of the St Matthew Passion

Terence Stamp chooses The Razor's Edge as his favourite work. Based on Somerset Maugham's novel, the Oscar nominated film stars Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power as an American World War One pilot searching for meaning in life. Presented by John Wilson. The interview is followed by selected highlights from the BBC archive: Somerset Maugham reflecting on his success; Kingsley Amis on Maugham and Selina Hastings on the secret life of Somerset Maugham. Full archive details are available on the Front Row website

Will Self chooses GK Chesterton's detective story The Man Who Was Thursday, published in 1908. Presented by Mark Lawson. The interview is followed by selected clips from the BBC Archive: GK Chesteron on eating beef with mustard; Richard Ingrams and Denis Conlon on The Man Who Was Thursday and Father Brown and a report on the campaign to have GK Chesterton canonised. Futher information is available on the Front Row website

Novelist Anne Tyler chooses a self portrait by the pioneering photographer Charles R Savage. Presented by Mark Lawson. The interview is accompanied by selected clips from the BBC archive: Brian May on TR Williams; Joanna Pitman on Eadweard Muybridge; Will Gompertz on a family photograph of The Queen, aged 2; Don McCullin on photographing war zones and Harry Benson on photographing the moment that Bobby Kennedy was shot. For full archive details go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/anne-tyler

The Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby chooses the War Requiem (Op.66) by Benjamin Britten, written for the 1962 consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, the original having been destroyed in the blitz of 1940. Presented by Mark Lawson The interview is followed by selected clips from the BBC archive: The first performance in 1962; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau on the singing in the premiere; Ben Wishaw reads Wilfred Owen; Michael Berkeley on the music and legacy of the War Requiem; The Archbishop of Canterbury reads Owen; Paul Kildea on Britten's legacy; The bells of Coventry Cathedral. Full archive details are available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/archbishop-of-canterbury

Jodi Picoult, the American author whose books, including My Sister's Keeper have sold 14 million copies worldwide, chooses an American classic from 1936: Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gone with the Wind. Presented by John Wilson Includes selected clips from the BBC archive: The story of the publication of Gone with the Wind; memos from producer David O Selznick on the production and casting of the movie adaptation; Vivien Leigh and Sir Lawrence Olivier starring in Caesar and Cleoptra and Antony and Cleopatra and Leigh's biographer Hugo Vickers on the breakdown of her marriage. Full details of the archive can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/jodi-picoult

The TV producer and chair of the Arts Council England talks to John Wilson about Wyndham Lewis's portrait of Edith Sitwell. Includes selected BBC archive: AS Byatt on the difficulty of painting hands; Edith Sitwell on writing poetry; Edith Sitwell profiled on Woman's Hour and Dylan Thomas reading an extract from An Old Woman by Edith Sitwell. Full Archive details at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/peter-bazalgette

Howard Jacobson chooses the 1971 film Carnal Knowledge, directed by Mike Nichols. Plus related bbc archive interviews including Jack Nicholson on Carnal Knowledge; Francine Stock talking to Jack on The Film Programme and Mark Lawson talking to Art Garfunkel on Front Row. Full details at Front Row's Cultural Exchange website.

Germaine Greer chooses The Getting of Wisdom by the Australian novelist Henry Handel Richardson. Published in 1910 it's a story of friendship and betrayal set in a girls boarding school in Melbourne. Presented by Mark Lawson. The interview is followed by selected clips from the BBC archive: Carmen Callil on Henry Handel Richardson; Henry Handel Richardson reading her work in 1944; Germaine Greer, Thomas Kineally and David Williamson on Australia's Cultural Cringe and Germaine Greer on why feminists should not aim for equality with men. Full archive details are available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/germaine-greer

Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie chooses a portrait by the 20th Century Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu, called Tutu. Plus additional archive including Ben Enwonwu talking to the BBC in 1958, poet Jackie Kay on African art, the artist Edosa Oguigo, and more from Chimamanda. Go to Front Row's Cultural Exchange website for more details and images.

Suggs chooses Sir John Betjeman's poem On a Portrait of a Deaf Man from the Album Banana Blush, set to music by Jim Parker. Plus clips from the bbc archive including Betjeman and Parker in the recording studio; a Radio 4 Quiz on Betjeman; the poet's daughter on his teddy Archie; and Betjeman's famous answer about regrets. Full details at Front Row's Cultural Exchange website.

Melvyn Bragg chooses Rembrandt's Self-Portrait (1658) for his Cultural Exchange. Plus additional archive including Neil McGregor on Rembrandt's complicated love life; a look at the mysterious Self-Portrait with Circles at Kenwood House, and artist Maggi Hambling on the Dutch master. Go to Front Row's Cultural Exchange website for more details and images.

Meera Syal talks to Mark Lawson about her favourite book, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Includes archive selections: The Reverend Thomas Lane Butts profiles Harper Lee's hometown, Moroeville, Alabama; Gregory Peck on playing Atticus Finch; Lee Child on the darker side of To Kill a Mockingbird; a reading from the book; Meera Syal on growing up as an outsider. Full archive details available at Front Row's Cultural Exchange website.

Bernardo Bertolucci talks to John Wilson about his favourite film, La Dolce Vita. Includes selected clips from the BBC archive: Daniel Day Lewis on playing an Italian director, Fellini defining neorealism in 1957, Anthony Minghella's thoughts on Fellini, Ken Russell's thoughts on Fellini, Michael Tolkin on the relevant subject matter of La Dolce Vita, Bernardo Bertolucci on Last Tango in Paris. Full archive details are available at Front Row's Cultural Exchange website.

95 year old literary editor and author Diana Athill selects the Letters of Lord Byron for Front Row's Cultural Exchange. Plus archive clips including Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen on Byron's fashion and a reading from the letters.

Actor Adrian Lester chooses Bob Marley’s Redemption Song for Front Row’s Cultural Exchange. Plus archive interviews with Bob Marley, his producer Chris Blackwell, and other friends and relations.

Author Mohsin Hamid talks to Mark Lawson about a seminal work in the history of science fiction, Olaf Stapledon's epic Star Maker (1937), a book loved by Winston Churchill, Arthur C Clarke, and Virginia Woolf. Moshin's interview is accompanied by selected clips from the archive;Chris Lintott and music critic Neil McCormick discuss Stapledon's first novel, A reading from Star Maker. Plus Brian Stableford on the theme of evolution in British science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke on why Olaf Stapledon is his biggest literary influence, H. G. Wells and Orson Welles on the infamous 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast, Mohsin Hamid talks to James Naughtie about his bestselling novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Spanish ballerina Tamara Rojo is Artistic Director and Principal Dancer at English National Ballet. She talks to John Wilson about her favourite ballet The House of Bernarda by Mats Ek. The interview is accompanied by selected clips from the BBC archive: Sylvie Guillem on Mat Ek's Carmen; Deborah Bull and Fiona Shaw on Pina Bausch; Darcey Bussell on the physical strain of being a ballerina; Darcey Bussell on life at the Royal Ballet School; Deborah Bull on Mats Ek's Sleeping Beauty Full details of each clip is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/tamara-rojo

To launch Cultural Exchange, artist Tracey Emin talks to Mark Lawson about Vermeer's painting Lady Writing a Letter, with her Maid. The interview is accompanied by selected highlights from the BBC Archive: Tracy Chevalier on Vermeer's The Lacemaker; Art critic Waldemar Janusczak on Vermeer's unconventional career; John Wilson reports on the world's biggest art theft; Tracey Emin visits her hometown Margate; Tracey Emin on the importance of drawing Full details of the archive clips are available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/tracey-emin