Front Row - 07/10/2008

Presented by Mark Lawson. Sir Tom Jones talks about his new studio album, why he is now discouraging knickers being thrown on to the stage and how he nearly became an opera singer. Roberto Saviano's controversial book Gomorrah, about modern-day warring crime families in a poor district outside Naples, has been turned into a film which won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year. Novelist David Hewson, whose own books deal with Italian crime, gives his verdict on the film. Kenneth Grahame wrote his children's classic The Wind in the Willows while working at the Bank of England and a new permanent exhibition at the Bank of England Museum sheds light on the author's non-literary career. AN Wilson visits the museum to search for clues to the identity of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad. Since the original five proposals for a two million-pound sculpture to mark the new Ebbsfleet International Station in Kent were reduced to three, Kent County Council has been supporting Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger's plans for a massive white horse. They would, however, prefer it to prance rather than stand. Mark discusses this with the deputy leader of the council, Alex King.