Front Row - 24/11/2009

Arts news and reviews with Mark Lawson. Actor James Earl Jones discusses his role in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - opening in London following a sell-out run on Broadway - and his legacy as the voice of Darth Vadar in Stars Wars. In a Front Row exclusive, the shortlist for the Costa Book Awards 2009 is announced live on the programme. Michael Prodger, literary editor of the Daily Telegraph and Alex Clark, critic and former Man Booker Prize judge, discuss which books are in the running for each of the awards and who has been nominated for the coveted Novel and Biography awards. 2009 Costa Novel Award shortlist: Penelope Lively, Family Album Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall Christopher Nicholson, The Elephant Keeper Colm Tóibίn, Brooklyn 2009 Costa Poetry Award shortlist: Clive James, Angels Over Elsinore Katharine Kilalea, One Eye'd Leigh Ruth Padel, Darwin: A Life in Poems Christopher Reid, A Scattering 2009 Costa Biography Award shortlist: Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius William Fiennes, The Music Room Simon Gray, Coda Caroline Moorehead, Dancing to the Precipice 2009 Costa First Novel Award shortlist: Rachel Heath, The Finest Type of English Womanhood Peter Murphy, John the Revelator Raphael Selbourne, Beauty Ali Shaw, The Girl with Glass Feet 2009 Costa Children's Book Award shortlist: Siobhan Dowd, Solace of the Road Mary Hoffman, Troubadour Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer Chaos Walking: Book Two Anna Perera, Guantanamo Boy Debbie Isitt and Tim Firth discuss the appeal of the nativity play to writers. Martin Freeman and Ashley Jensen star in Isitt's Nativity!, while a new theatre production of Tim Firth's Flint Street Nativity is to open in Edinburgh.