Front Row - podcast cover

Front Row

BBC Radio 4www.bbc.co.uk

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

Episodes

Jack Thorne and Philip Barantini on Adolescence, Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi

Adolescence – the new Netflix series starring Stephen Graham – explores every parent’s worst nightmare: a teenage son accused of a knife-crime. Co-writers and directors Jack Thorne and Philip Barantini join us to explain how the “single-shot” filming technique sheds light on the way toxic masculinity spreads online among young people. Fantasy fiction generated almost £25 million more in 2024 than the previous year - and, a big part of that is the surge in Romantasy, the literary genre fuelled by...

Mar 10, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Review: film Mickey 17, David Szalay’s novel Flesh, Get Millie Black TV series

In Front Row's Thursday review, Ellah Wakatama and Rhianna Dhillon give their take on Bong Joon Ho's new film Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattison, David Szalay's new novel Flesh, and Get Millie Black, Channel 4's Jamaica-set crime drama from Marlon James. Plus we hear from Sophie Elmhirst, whose Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck Survival and Love has just been awarded the Nero Gold Prize for Book Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Mar 06, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Jessica Lange, Welsh National Opera's new joint leaders, artist Alison Watt

Actor Jessica Lange discusses her latest film, an adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize winning play Long Day's Journey Into Night, in which she plays Mary Tyrone, a woman with a morphine addiction at the centre of a dysfunctional family, and a role for which she previously won a Tony Award on Broadway. Welsh National Opera's new joint CEOs Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree talk about their plans for the organisation. And acclaimed artist Alison Watt talks about her latest exhibition, From...

Mar 05, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Raoul Peck on photographer Ernest Cole, the death of Bill Dare, 14th-century art in Siena, Colum McCann's novel Twist

A new exhibition at London's National Gallery hopes to shed light on artists in 14th Century Siena, who have often been overshadowed by their Tuscan neighbours in Florence. Samira is joined in the studio by one of the curators, Imogen Tedbury, and by Maya Corry, a Renaissance expert from Oxford Brookes University to discuss the astonishing colours and use of gold by artists like Duccio, the Lorenzetti brothers and Simone Martini. The death has been announced of Bill Dare, the creator of Radio 4'...

Mar 04, 202543 minTranscript available on Metacast

Daniel Evans as Edward II, Laura Carreira's film On Falling, last night's Oscar winners

Sean Baker made Oscar history, becoming the first person to win four Academy Awards for directing, editing, writing and producing a single film, Anora. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh joins Samira to look at this year's Oscar winners and what they say about cinema today. The RSC's co-artistic director Daniel Evans discusses playing Christopher Marlowe's Edward II. Filmmaker Laura Carreira talks about her award-winning debut feature On Falling, about the social isolation and the injustices faced by a Portugu...

Mar 03, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Review: Leigh Bowery exhibition, The Summer with Carmen film, Michael Amherst's novel The Boyhood of Cain

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the film critic Ryan Gilbey and art critic and author Charlotte Mullins review the week's latest cultural releases including Tate Modern’s exhibition on the unconventional artist and performer Leigh Bowery, the Greek film featuring gay romance, The Summer With Carmen and Michael Amherst’s first novel, The Boyhood of Cain. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Corinna Jones

Feb 27, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Anjelica Huston, Tim Roth and British Museum Director Nicholas Cullinan

Kirsty Wark talks to Anjelica Huston about playing a magnificent matriarch in the adaptation of Agatha Christie's Towards Zero, which begins on BBC One this weekend. The director of the British Museum, Nicholas Cullinan, talks about the appointment of an architectural firm who will be redeveloping the Museum's galleries, about the pressures of running a national cultural institution and about recent controversies. And actors Tim Roth and Koki discuss their roles in the opening film at the Glasgo...

Feb 26, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

New medical drama Berlin ER, Stacy L Smith, German Elections, Santanu Bhattacharya

As the Oscars hove into view this weekend, the news is the women are coming - Stacey L Smith from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative on their research showing more women leading Hollywood box office hits. Berlin ER is the new medical drama from Apple set in a run down A&E department in the German capital. Creator and former doctor Samuel Jefferson on swapping his medical scrubs for television scripts. Berlin-based arts and culture journalist Catherine Hickley on the impact of the German fede...

Feb 25, 202543 minTranscript available on Metacast

25 Years of 21st Century: Theatre

We look back at the quarter century in performing arts, exploring the changes in live stage performance and asking how the theatrical landscape has changed over those years. Samira Ahmed hears about some of the big trends that have changed the experience - such as immersive theatre and discusses the challenges the sector has faced. She is joined by playwrights Mark Ravenhill and Lolita Chakrabarti, who is also an actor, by the producer and CEO of Nimax Theatres, Nica Burns and by the critic Sara...

Feb 24, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Review: A Thousand Blows, Richard II, Perspectives by Laurent Binet

John Mullan and Caroline Frost join Tom to review Steven Knight's new historical drama A Thousand Blows, Nicolas Hytner's production of Richard II staring Jonathan Bailey and novel Perspectives by Laurent Binet Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Feb 20, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

25 Years of 21st Century: Art and Architecture

Kirsty Wark and guests discuss how visual art and architecture have evolved over the last 25 years. In the latest of our special series reflecting the changing cultural landscape since the start of the millennium, Kirsty Wark discusses the significant shifts in visual art and architecture in the 21st century with Director of Exhibitions and Programmes at Tate Modern Catherine Wood; Sunday Times art critic Waldemar Januszczak; Katrina Brown of The Common Guild in Glasgow; and founder of architect...

Feb 19, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Muhammad Ali in South Shields, Sheila Fell exhibition in Cumbria, Dame Myra Hess

Playwright Ishy Din on his new play, Champion inspired by the 1977 visit of celebrated boxer, Muhammed Ali, to South Shields. Art historian Frances Spalding and curator Eleanor Bradley on artist Sheila Fell - the subject of a major exhibition at Tullie Museum and Art Gallery. As a new biography of concert pianist Dame Myra Hess is published, its author Jessica Duchen, and Adam Gatehouse, artistic director of the Leeds International Piano Competition, discuss Dame Myra's distinctive playing style...

Feb 18, 202543 minTranscript available on Metacast

Walter Salles on I'm Still Here, Matt Goss performs live, The Face magazine exhibition at National Portrait Gallery

Samira Ahmed talks to Brazilian director Walter Salles about his film I'm Still Here - which has already won multiple awards including the Golden Globe for Best Actress for its star Fernanda Torres. it's based on a true story about a family Salles knew when he was growing up in Rio de Janeiro - whose father was detained and disappeared during the military dictatorship which lasted for more than 20 years. The Face magazine was launched in 1980, offering a stylish approach to music, fashion and cu...

Feb 17, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Review: Bridget Jones; Linder Stirling exhibition; Memoir of a Snall animation

Robbie Collin and Louisa Buck join Tom Sutcliffe to review the fourth Bridget Jones film Mad About the Boy staring Renée Zellweger, the Oscar nominated animation Memoir of a Snail and pioneering artist Linder's Danger Came Smiling retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Feb 13, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Future of TV soaps, Joseph O'Connor's new book, stage version of Murakami short stories

As scheduling changes are made to ITV soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and as the 40th anniversary of EastEnders is celebrated with a live special on BBC One, how is the future looking for continuing drama on TV? Former Executive Producer of EastEnders John Yorke and Entertainment Journalist Emma Bullimore discuss the impact of the audience's viewing habits on commissioning. Renowned Irish novelist Joseph O'Connor talks about his latest historical book, The Ghosts of Rome, a story of heroi...

Feb 12, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

25 Years of 21st Century: Books

Front Row continues to look at how culture has changed in the first 25 years of this century with an edition focusing on books. Tom Sutcliffe is in the Front Row studio with two writers who've helped to shape the literary landscape over those years – the novelists Zadie Smith and Andrew O'Hagan. They are joined by the presenter of Radio 4's A Good Read and World Book Club, Harriett Gilbert, who's chosen Smith's White Teeth as one of her key books so far this century. Plus Editor of The Bookselle...

Feb 11, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Robert de Niro, Gladiators exhibition, Festen: Mark Anthony Turnage and Lee Hall's new opera

Hollywood legend Robert De Niro explains why he's starring in his first ever TV series Zero Day, where he plays a former US President out to find the culprits behind a deadly cyber-attack on America. He's joined by the show's screenwriter Eric Newman. With the British Council facing financial pressures it is considering the sale of its art collection, we hear from Jenny Waldman, Director of the Art Fund about what this might mean. Mark Anthony Turnage and Lee Hall talk about their new opera Fest...

Feb 10, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Review: The Last Showgirl, Oedipus, Nobel author Han Kang's novel We Do Not Part

Tom is joined by the writer and broadcaster Octavia Bright and the Observer's theatre critic Susannah Clapp to review another version of the Greek classic Oedipus, this time at the Old Vic in London and starring Rami Malek. Also reviewed: The Last Showgirl, which has Pamela Anderson starring as Shelley with Jamie Lee Curtis as her good friend. Shelley's Vegas cabaret show is closing and the imminent change forces her to confront her life choices. And: We Do Not Part, the new novel by Nobel Prize...

Feb 06, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

September 5 director Tim Fehlbaum, new Motherland spin-off TV series Amandaland, the history of Slapstick

Writer Holly Walsh and actor Lucy Punch on the Motherland spin-off series, Amandaland which also stars Joanna Lumley Director, screenwriter and producer of September 5, Tim Fehlbaum about his new film that explores what happened at the 1972 Munich Olympics from the perspective of the sports journalists who found themselves broadcasting the story As the Slapstick Festival returns to Bristol for its 20th anniversary, we look at the history of this enduring form of comedy Presenter: Kirsty Wark Pro...

Feb 05, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

25 Years of 21st Century: Film and Television

Front Row continues to look at how culture has changed in the first 25 years of the century with an edition focusing on film and TV. Samira is joined by Radio 4's Screenshot presenters Mark Kermode and Ellen E. Jones, Jane Tranter, who relaunched Doctor Who in 2005 and co-founded Bad Wolf productions and Boyd Hilton, the Entertainment Director of Heat magazine. From reality TV to superhero franchises and the rise of binge-watching, the panel discuss how transformations have changed what we watch...

Feb 04, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Director Coralie Fargeat on The Substance, Josephine Baker's autobiography, poet Anne Carson on Elektra on stage

Coralie Fargeat has been nominated as best director for her film The Substance which stars Demi Moore. She tells Samira about her inspiration for the satirical horror about a Hollywood star who takes a dangerous drug to create a younger version of herself. Josephine Baker’s memoir has been translated into English for the first time, fifty years after the death of the iconic performer. Cultural historian Dr Adjoa Osei and translator Anam Zafar discuss Baker's incredible life and legacy. The story...

Feb 04, 202543 minTranscript available on Metacast

Review: Mike Leigh's Hard Truths, Inside No. 9 on stage, film Saturday Night

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer Dreda Say Mitchell and critic Scott Bryan to assess the week's cultural releases, including a new stage version of the hit TV series Inside Number 9. They've also been watching Mike Leigh's first film in 6 years, Hard Truths, which has reunited him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste who was nominated for an Oscar in his hit film Secrets and Lies. Finally they review Saturday Night, the new film about the beginnings of the cult TV series Saturday Night Live which launch...

Jan 31, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Jane Austen's sister, artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman, football in fiction

As new BBC One drama adaptation, Miss Austen, shines fresh light on Jane Austen's sister Cassandra, Gill Hornby, who wrote the eponymous novel on which Miss Austen is based, and Claire Harman, author of Jane's Fame, How Jane Austen Conquered The World, discuss how perceptions of Cassandra's burning of her sister's letters have been changing. Paris-based journalist and cultural critic Agnès Poirier reports on President Macron's announcement at the Louvre. Artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman reflects...

Jan 28, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

25 Years of 21st Century: Music

Front Row looks at how culture has changed in the first 25 years of this century, starting with Music. Samira is joined by Radio 4's Add to Playlist hosts Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe, music journalist Kitty Empire and former Spotify exec Will Page. They discuss how transformations in technology have impacted what we listen to and what music is being written, and what genres of music have come to the forefront in the last 25 years. Pete Waterman, one of the judges on the original Pop Idol, tal...

Jan 27, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Review: supernatural thriller film Presence, Edmund White's sex memoir and Brazil! Brazil! at the Royal Academy

Rowan Pelling, journalist and founding editor of the Erotic Review, and the film critic Tim Robey join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the Oscar nominations and review Edmund White's The Loves of My Life, Steven Soderbergh's supernatural horror thriller Presence and Brazil! Brazil! a major exhibition featuring 20th century artists at the Royal Academy in London. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Jan 23, 202543 minTranscript available on Metacast

James Graham on Brian & Maggie, The Merchant of Venice, Live music from Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart

Writer James Graham on his Channel 4 drama Brian & Maggie, which stars Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter, and which tells the story of a hard-hitting interview between broadcaster Brian Walden and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which helped precipitate Thatcher's downfall in the early 1990s, John Douglas Thompson talks about playing Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice as a black actor, in a production by Theatre for a New Audience which is at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre, And li...

Jan 22, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Anora director Sean Baker, Caryl Phillips's new novel, Somerset House exhibition on Soil

Anora is one of the leading contenders in the current film awards season - and its star Mikey Madison looks likely to get an Oscar nomination too. Its director Sean Baker explains how he uses both violence and comedy to explore the story of a son of a Russian oligarch who becomes entangled in the world of a sex worker in New York. Caryl Phillips talks about his new novel, Another Man in the Street about a young Caribbean man's search for a new home in 1960s London and the other people, all migra...

Jan 21, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

The Brutalist director Brady Corbet and star Adrien Brody, Sidney Poitier season at BFI

The Brutalist's director Brady Corbet and star Adrien Brody talk about making the hotly anticipated film. With a season of Sidney Poitier's films underway at the British Film Institute and a play about a key moment in his early, Retrograde, transferring to London's West End in March we discuss the legacy of the great actor with - writer, Ryan Calais Cameron and programmer, Jonathan Ali. Natalie Andrews of the Wall Street Journal discusses the cultural elements of the 47th President's inauguratio...

Jan 20, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Review: Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, TS Eliot prize poetry, Italian wartime film Vermiglio

Lemn Sissay and Rhianna Dhillon review the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalamet, the TS Eliot Prize-winning poetry collection Fierce Elegy by Peter Gizzi and the Italian language film, Vermiglio set in a remote Alpine village during World War Two. We pay homage to David Lynch, director of Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. Plus Mark Savage gives the latest on the feud between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Ciaran Bermingham...

Jan 16, 202542 minTranscript available on Metacast

Franz Ferdinand play in the studio, Richard Price on his new novel Lazarus Man, verdict on BAFTA nominations

Franz Ferdinand play live from their new album The Human Fear, eleven songs which explore deep-set human anxieties and how overcoming and accepting them drives and defines our lives. Richard Price - the author of Clockers, and a writer on The Wire, talks about his latest novel, Lazarus Man, a chronicle of New York life set in the aftermath of a destructive explosion. Plus a response to this year's BAFTA nominations, which were announced today, from film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. Presenter: Kir...

Jan 15, 202543 minTranscript available on Metacast