Front Row - 26/01/2009

Presented by Kirsty Lang. Professor Hermione Lee discusses the film version of Richard Yates's classic novel, Revolutionary Road, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. The acclaimed biographer and novelist Edmund White has published Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel, in which he explores the rebellious nature of the young man and his destructive relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine. Edmund White discusses the two controversial figures and their colourful life. In his biography of Buddy Holly, writer John Gribbin argues that it wasn't just the musician's songwriting and performing skills which were lost on 'the day the music died', but also Holly's pioneering studio recording techniques, as heard in a 'lost' single of Buddy Holly's which Gribbin uncovered. Actor Ian McDiarmid plays a gay Catholic priest in a stage version of Andrew O'Hagan's novel Be Near Me. Ian explains to Kirsty Lang why he was drawn to the story and to the character of Father Anderton, and also about the vastly different role as Denis Thatcher in the forthcoming TV drama, Margaret.