Front Row - 20/05/2009

Arts news and reviews. With a tour around artist Sir Howard Hodgkin's studio to see his pair of new monumental works called As Time Goes By, the largest pictures he has ever made. The poet Simon Armitage reviews the film adaptation of Kevin Sampson's 1998 novel Awaydays about a group of Merseyside lads who embrace football hooliganism, drink, sex, rock'n'roll and drugs to escape from the tedium of their lives in the early days of Margaret Thatcher's government. Eg White, the writer behind hits by Duffy, Adele and Will Young, talks about the art and craft of songwriting. Plus, the latest from the Cannes Film Festival including a review of Quentin Tarantino's World War II film Inglourious Basterds.