Front Row - 21/07/2009

Arts news and reviews. Tony Scott's first action movie was Top Gun in 1986 with Tom Cruise. His latest is a new version of the 1974 New York subway heist film The Taking of Pelham 123, featuring John Travolta as a disgruntled hijacker who takes a subway train full of hostages and Denzel Washington as the transport operator who gets dragged into a game of cat-and-mouse. Northumberland-born director Tony Scott discusses his approach to dynamic film-making. Chair of judges Simon Frith discusses the shortlist for this year's Mercury Prize for Best Album. Florence and the Machine, Kasabian and Bat for Lashes are the favourites to win the 20,000 pound prize, voted for by industry experts and critics. Actor Peter Bowles discusses theatrical competitiveness, mumbling on stage and balancing a career which has spanned television comedies such as To The Manor Born and The Irish RM, to the stage with Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth, Simon Gray's The Old Masters and Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends.