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Front Row

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, David Morrissey, Cities of Culture that weren't, Text on screen

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

With John Wilson.

Ben Stiller directs and stars in the second screen adaptation of the 1939 short story by James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Stiller plays a timid magazine photo manager who lives life vicariously through his daydreams, but when a negative goes missing, his real life takes an adventurous turn. Film critic Gaylene Gould reviews.

Actor David Morrissey talks to John about filming on a train with Sheridan Smith for new two-part drama The 7.39, why The Walking Dead decides how long his beard should be, and narrating the audiobook of his namesake's autobiography.

As Derry-Londonderry's year as City of Culture comes to an end, Front Row revisits the other cities that were shortlisted for the award. Chris Gribble who runs the Writers' Centre Norwich, Stuart Griffiths, Chief Executive of the Birmingham Hippodrome and Paul Billington, director of Culture and Environment for Sheffield, discuss the experience of being shortlisted, how their city's culture has fared this year, and how their cultural institutions are surviving the arts cuts that have made the headlines in 2013.

Adam Smith reflects on the proliferation of text on the small and big screen - from text messages to 3D subtitles.

Producer: Rebecca Armstrong. Show less

Contributors

Presenter:
John Wilson
Interviewed Guest:
David Morrissey
Interviewed Guest:
Chris Gribble
Interviewed Guest:
Stuart Griffiths
Interviewed Guest:
Paul Billington
Interviewed Guest:
Adam Smith

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