Front Row - 05/12/2008

Presented by Kirsty Lang. Stand-up comedian, Celebrity Big Brother winner, actor and sitcom star Jack Dee talks to Kirsty about the inspiration behind the deadpan sitcom Lead Balloon. Writer, broadcaster and critic Norman Lebrecht debates the new trends in choral performance with Suzi Digby, a choral director and judge on the BBC's Last Choir Standing and Choir of the Year competitions. The new German film North Face tells the remarkable story of a 1936 expedition to scale the notorious face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps. We speak to the German director Philipp Stoelzl and to Louise Osmond, who told the same story of the assault on the Eiger in the Emmy Award-winning documentary The Beckoning Silence. When Genesis drummer and singer Phil Collins suggested that he might retire from performing earlier this year, some online music message-boards greeted the news with delight. But as classic Genesis albums from the early 1970s are re-released on vinyl, Ben Wardle argues that it's time to show Phil some respect.