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Kirsty Lang

Martin Bailey

Hal Cruttenden

Chris Riddell

Viv Groskop

Max Stafford-Clark

Rebecca Nicholson

Front Row: Sunflowers; Chris Riddell

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24/01/2014

Sunflowers; Chris Riddell

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Sunflowers; Chris Riddell

Martin Bailey and Kirsty Lang visit the National Gallery to see Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Martin Bailey and Kirsty Lang visit the National Gallery to see two of Van Gogh's Sunflowers; Chris Riddell on gothic fiction for children; Justin Bieber and the celebrity mugshot.

With Kirsty Lang.

Two versions of Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers have been reunited for the first time in more than sixty years. Sunflowers is one of The National Gallery's best-loved paintings and it will be shown alongside another version from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Art critic Martin Bailey discusses what seeing the paintings side-by-side tells us about Van Gogh's methods, and why the paintings are so captivating.

In the film, Grudge Match, Hollywood heavyweights Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone star as old boxing rivals who come out of retirement for one final match. Hal Cruttenden, comedian and recent winner of Celebrity Mastermind - with, as his specialist subject, The Rocky Films - reviews.

Author and political cartoonist, Chris Riddell, discusses his gothic novel for eight year olds, Goth Girl: And The Ghost Of A Mouse, which has won the children's category for the Costa Book Awards. Chris Riddell talks about the overlap between the world of Westminster and children's books, and his love of puns and literary references - including the ghost of a mouse who says "call me Ishmael".

Following the publication of Justin Bieber's surprisingly cheerful police mug-shot, Daily Mail columnist Viv Groskop joins Kirsty to assess the art of the celebrity mug-shot.

Theatre director, Max Stafford-Clark, former Artistic Director of The Royal Court, talks about his new book, Journal Of The Plague Year. Described as a 'howl of rage' against the drastic funding cuts to his renowned theatre company, Out Of Joint, the book details Max's correspondence with the Arts Council, and he makes his case to Kirsty for public funding of the arts.

Producer: Rebecca Nicholson.

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