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Front Row: Viggo Mortensen, Alex Wheatle, William Hill Sports Book of the Year

04/12/2020

Viggo Mortensen, Alex Wheatle, William Hill Sports Book of the Year

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Viggo Mortensen, Alex Wheatle, William Hill Sports Book of the Year

Viggo Mortensen's new film, Sports Book of the Year winner, Alex Wheatle's lockdown hobby

Viggo Mortensen in new film Falling, A Christmas Carol reviewed, William Hill Sports Book of the Year winner and Alex Wheatle's lockdown discovery - dancing

Viggo Mortensen joins us live to talk about his new film, Falling, his debut as a director, which he also wrote. It's the story of a conservative father moving from his rural farm to live with his gay son's family in Los Angeles.  

We’ve been hearing from figures from the creative industries about their Lockdown Discovery, something that has given them great pleasure or solace during the two lockdowns. Today, the novelist Alex Wheatle, aka the Brixton Bard, who has been working with Steve McQueen on his Small Axe series of dramas and who is the subject of this week’s film, reveals his Lockdown Discovery.

Would it be Christmas without A Christmas Carol? Even in 2020, there are still many live productions going on.  A new film version by siblings Jacqui and David Morris combines voices of Simon Russell Beale, Daniel Kaluuya and Carey Mulligan with dance performances of Russell Maliphant and others.  Sarah Crompton and Tobi Kyeremateng review the film and the phenomenon of Dickens’ story – is it particularly resonant this year? And they’ll consider the new National Theatre at Home subscription service as well as making their own cultural picks of the week.

The winner of this year’s William Hill Sports Book of the Year is The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Putin’s Secret Doping Empire. Grigory Rodchenkov was the head of Russian sport’s doping programme, and this is his detailed account of how he blew the whistle on what's been described by the World Anti-Doping Agency as the biggest sporting scandal in world history. Rodchenkov had to flee Russia and is still in hiding in the US. His editor Drummond Moir discusses the story and the challenges this presented.

Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Timothy Prosser
Studio Manager: Emma Harth

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