Front Row - 16/02/2009

Presented by Mark Lawson. Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood discusses his fifty years in the movie business, his latest film (the tense racial drama Gran Torino) and reveals why he is no longer a Republican. Mark talks to the director of the National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner, about how best to teach the art of acting at drama schools. Edward Kemp, artistic director of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, joins them to debate the subject. Van Dyck was the principal painter at the court of King Charles I. He was hugely productive, and his portraits included many of the leading figures of the turbulent years before the British Civil War. As a new exhibition of his work opens, Mark is joined by Renaissance expert Jerry Brotton to assess his impact upon British cultural life.