Front Row - 20/02/2009

Presented by John Wilson. Novelist William Boyd gives his verdict on Picasso: Challenging The Past, a new exhibition at the National Gallery which aims to bring to light, for the first time, Picasso's relationship with the grand tradition of European painting. Writer and broadcaster Andrew Collins gives his verdict on FM, a TV comedy set in a hip indie radio station, and the latest series of Tina Fey's sitcom 30 Rock. British jazz musician Courtney Pine joins John to discuss his album Transition in Tradition. His first studio album in four years, it reflects the influence of the New Orleans saxophonist Sidney Bechet on Pine's twenty-five year career as a composer, saxophonist and jazz pioneer. John visits Portsmouth to see the treasures salvaged from the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's flagship. John discusses the relevance of the collection with Tudor historian David Starkey.