Samira Ahmed presents Front Row's contribution to Radio 4's New Year's Day celebration of the Shipping Forecast, marking a century since the BBC began broadcasting it. This edition of the arts programme explores how the Shipping Forecast inspires musicians, writers, artists of all kinds, and how it has become a powerful presence in the psyche of the nation, even among people with no connection to the sea. There is an irony here: the forecast is factual, devoid of metaphor, yet it moves millions ...
Jan 01, 2025•42 min
Kirsty Wark hosts a Hogmanay edition live from Glasgow. Featuring performances by The Bluebells and piper Malin Lewis. Plus Alan Cumming; Scotland's new Makar, Peter Mackay; and an exploration of representations of New Year in cinema, literature and poetry.
Dec 31, 2024•42 min
As Bradford limbers up for its year as UK City of Culture, in a special edition of Front Row, Nick Ahad meets: Steven Frayne, the award-winning Bradford-born magician formerly known as Dynamo. Frayne's magic skills have brought him success in arenas and television studios worldwide and his biography Nothing is Impossible: My Story became a bestseller. He returns to Bradford in the ultimate homecoming gig as co-creator of RISE - the opening show for Bradford's year as UK City of Culture. The 2022...
Dec 30, 2024•43 min
Boyd Hilton and Arifa Akbar join Tom to review: Better Man, the Robbie Williams biopic with a twist – he’s depicted as a Monkey. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the Almeida theatre’s new production of Tennesee Williams' play with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Kingsley Ben-Adir. And How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies, a new film from Thai director Pat Boonnitipat about family relationships, memories, death and inheritance. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Corinna Jones
Dec 19, 2024•43 min
Fresh from his success as the winner of Strictly Come Dancing, comedian and actor Chris McCausland joins us to talk about his new TV film Bad Tidings, his forthcoming solo tour and of course triumphing in TV's biggest dance contest. Singer Lauren Mayberry, best known as the frontwoman of Scottish synth pop band Chvrches, talks about her debut solo album, on which her songs examine themes societal pressures, the mother-daughter relationship and her experiences as a female musician in a band along...
Dec 18, 2024•42 min
The actor Simon Russell Beale speaks about playing the poet and scholar A. E. Housman in Tom Stoppard's play 'The Invention of Love', as well as discussing his memoir. The singer, songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright was inspired to write a Requiem by his love of the composer Giuseppe Verdi and the loss of his dog, named Puccini. He speaks about the project and the involvement of Meryl Streep. And Kate Garner performs songs from the music halls, alongside the historian and writer Oskar Jense...
Dec 17, 2024•42 min
Call The Midwife creator Heidi Thomas talks to Front Row about writing the drama's Christmas special, Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham discuss co-directing the new Wallace & Gromit film, Vengeance Most Fowl, and ahead of the Royal College of Organists' new initiative - Play The Organ 2025 - organists David Pipe and Claire M Singer join Nick to discuss updating perceptions of the "king of instruments". Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Dec 16, 2024•43 min
Samira is joined by novelist Linda Grant and critic Jason Solomons to review the musical version of The Devil Wears Prada with music by Elton John. We also review the new TV dramatisation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s classic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is released today – how did they manage the magic realism? And The Universal Theory, a German mystery thriller film about parallel universes. And we take a look at the use of Rudyard Kipling's 1903 poem Boots, in a new trailer for a ...
Dec 12, 2024•42 min
Brothers William and Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain talk to Kirsty Wark about the ups and downs of their career in music. Plus a discussion on the politics of pantomime, And the video games of the year. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
Dec 11, 2024•42 min
Daniel Craig and Luca Guadagnino talk about their new film Queer, which is based on the William S. Burroughs novella about a love affair between an aging alcoholic and a young discharged serviceman in post-war 1950s Mexico City. Public Service Broadcasting perform The South Atlantic from their latest album The Last Flight, which is themed around the pioneering American pilot Amelia Earhart who disappeared in 1937 whilst attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. Cou...
Dec 10, 2024•42 min
Disney's hit Inside Out 2 film explored youthful emotions to incredible success as the film is not only the highest grossing film of 2024 but it's also the most successful animated film of all time. Director Kelsey Mann explains how they made it. Humphrey Bogart remains one of Hollywood's most iconic screen stars and new the new documentary Bogart: Life Comes In Flashes looks at his life and career through the five women who had the greatest impact on him, including the equally iconic Lauren Bac...
Dec 09, 2024•42 min
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Naomi Alderman and Mark Ravenhill to review a new production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre, starring the current Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa, W1A’s Hugh Skinner and Sharon D Clarke. Plus comedy horror Rumours starring Cate Blanchett, and Grand Theft Hamlet – a documentary film which was shot inside the GTA game during the 2021 lockdown. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet
Dec 05, 2024•42 min
Scotland's new Makar (National Poet) Peter Mackay, whose appointment was announced this week, talks about how he intends to shape the role over the next three years. Elizabeth Newman of Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Jon Gilchrist of Birmingham Hippodrome discuss new initiatives to boost the production of musical theatre around the UK. Plus Jacob Rees-Mogg on his reality TV series Meet the Rees-Moggs. And as the Scottish Budget is delivered, will arts organisations finally get some clarity on th...
Dec 04, 2024•42 min
Tom Sutcliffe hears from the Love Actually writer and director Richard Curtis about how much he's obsessed by Christmas - and how he's now moved into animation for his latest film That Christmas, based on his trilogy of children’s books. There's advice on the best books to buy this Christmas from the literary critic Alex Clarke and Toby Lichtig, Fiction and Politics editor at the Times Literary Supplement. Tom also talks to the Oscar-nominated screenwriter Iris Yamashita about her new audio dram...
Dec 03, 2024•42 min
In 2019 fire destroyed the much of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. As the restoration is completed, Agnes Poirier describes the work of skilled artisans that she has watched over the past five years. Her documentary series for the World Service In the Studio programmes can be heard on BBC Sounds. Jacob Collier discusses and plays from his new Grammy nominated album, Djesse, Volume 4. The novelist Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz was interned as an "enemy alien" on the Isle of Man during World Wa...
Dec 02, 2024•42 min
Samira Ahmed's joined by this week's critics - Louisa Buck and Matt Everitt - to review Beatles '64, documenting the fab four's first trip to America with previously unseen footage shot by pioneering brothers Albert and David Maysles. They've also been to see Tate Modern's new exhibition Electric Dreams, exploring how artists were inspired to use machines and algorithms to create mind-binding art before the internet. Plus the star-studded new TV spy drama The Agency - starring Michael Fassbender...
Nov 29, 2024•42 min
Nobel Prize winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk talks about the publication of his illustrated journals, Memories of Distant Mountains. As he takes on the role of Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh, Donny Osmond talks about his career in music. And in the week that marks the centenary of his death, artistic director of English National Opera Annilese Miskimmon and music critic and broadcaster Flora Willson discuss the perennially popular ...
Nov 27, 2024•42 min
Director Edward Berger joins Tom Sutcliffe to talk about his thriller Conclave, staring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, which focuses on the election of a new pope. Berger's previous film All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars - this success contrasts with a century of film flops which critic Tim Robey wrote about in his book Box Office Poison and discusses with Signature Entertainment's Ben Jacques. We also have New York born and Tamil Nadu raised singer and musician Ganavya who perfor...
Nov 26, 2024•42 min
Friends for fifty years, Sigourney Weaver and Selina Cadell discuss acting together in the Jamie Lloyd Company's new production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. As part of the BBC's Scam Safe week, we examine whether art fraud is on the rise with Georgina Adam from the Art Newspaper and and the lawyer Amanda Gray, a specialist from the firm Mishcon De Reya. And, musician Nitin Sawhney talks about his two new works Heart Suite, about by his recent heart attack, and Orbital, which is inspired by this...
Nov 25, 2024•42 min
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Natalie Jamieson and Matt Cain to review: Cher, The Memoir, Part one - the pop icon and Oscar winning actor tells the story of her childhood and early success. The film version of Wicked is the long awaited film adaptation which is also the first of two parts, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and telling the story of the Witches of Oz. Maddaddam: renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor has brought Margaret Atwood’s trilogy of sci fi novels to the stage with a bal...
Nov 21, 2024•42 min
Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream speaks about Come Ahead, the band's first new album in eight years. We discuss how the publication of books for children by celebrities affects the wider industry and reading trends. And as an exhibition of work by Maud Sulter opens in Glasgow, the curators talk about the widespread influence of this artist, poet, photographer and gallerist, who died in 2008. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
Nov 20, 2024•42 min
Kathryn Tickell talks about her new album Return to Kielderside, which reinterprets and updates the tunes and themes of her debut album, On Kielderside, which she released 40 years ago at the age of sixteen. Nihal is joined by Amrou Al-Kadhi, whose directorial debut feature film Layla tells the story of a British-Palestinian drag queen navigating life and love in London. As Massive Attack prepares to headline in Liverpool this month, Robert Del Naja, aka 3D, discusses the band's attempts to beco...
Nov 19, 2024•43 min
Malala Yousafzai talks to Front Row about her new film Bread & Roses, which documents the fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, alongside the director Sahra Mani. We hear from actress Rebecca Hall about haunting new BBC drama The Listeners. And what are the ingredients for writing about food? Is it an exact science or a literary art form? Food writer Bee Wilson and head chef of Quo Vadis Jeremy Lee chew over writers’ recipes. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Sa...
Nov 18, 2024•42 min
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Paul Mescal about slipping into Russell Crowe’s sandals in Gladiator 2 – as well as reviewing the film itself with classically-trained Guardian journalist Charlotte Higgins and film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. They also talk about Haruki Murakami's first new book for six years, The City and Its Uncertain Walls and the Netflix drama Joy, about how beginnings of IVF. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Paula McGrath
Nov 14, 2024•43 min
American guitarist Pat Metheny on how the discovery of a particular Argentinian guitar string took his latest album Moondial in a new direction. As a school by the renowned Victorian architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh comes to the open market, we discuss whether Glasgow does enough to look after its built heritage. Plus actor Dame Janet Suzman and directors Tom Morris and Mike Taylor remember actor Timothy West, whose death was announced earlier today. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Cros...
Nov 13, 2024•42 min
Samira Ahmed is live from the Booker Prize 2024 ceremony. As well as hearing from the six shortlisted authors, Samira speaks to judges novelist Sara Collins and musician Nitin Sawhney. Campaigner for social justice Baroness Lola Young talks about the transformative power of literature. Chair of judges, artist and writer Edmund de Waal announces the winner of this prestigious award for fiction. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Claire Bartleet
Nov 12, 2024•28 min
Ahead of tonight's Booker Prize ceremony, Front Row hears from all of the shortlisted authors: Percival Everett, Samantha Harvey, Rachel Kushner, Anne Michaels, Yael van der Wouden and Charlotte Wood. Then at 9.30pm, in a special extra edition of Front Row, Samira Ahmed hosts the ceremony. Find out who will win the prestigious literary prize. Producer: Claire Bartleet Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Nov 12, 2024•41 min
Rolling Stones guitarist, Ronnie Wood discusses his parallel career as an artist. As a new exhibition of his work opens at the Andrew Martin showroom in London, Ronnie talks about how he has drawn inspiration from Delacroix, Caravaggio and Picasso. As a new three part series Boybands Forever starts on BBC2 and the iplayer, we explore what was behind the rise and fall of the boybands of the nineties and noughties with Richie Neville of Five and Hannah Verdier from Smash Hits. And, keyboard music ...
Nov 11, 2024•42 min
Nancy Durrant and Nii Ayikwei Parkes join Tom Sutcliffe to review The Piano Lesson, the latest August Wilson play to be adapted for the screen by the family of Denzel Washington. Directed by Malcolm Washington and starring John David Washington, Samuel L Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler, a brother and sister argue over the future of an heirloom piano. We discuss Jonathan Coe's return with new novel The Proof of My Innocence, a satirical murder mystery. Florence in 1504 is the backdrop for the Roya...
Nov 07, 2024•42 min
As a documentary about her life reaches cinemas, musician and activist Pauline Black, the lead singer in 2-tone hit band The Selecter, talks about her career. We hear from the curators of the Waters Rising exhibition at Perth Museum, which features representations of flooding in literature and art over many centuries. And as an unfinished play by award-winning writer Oliver Emanuel comes to Radio 4, and an unstaged play by writer, poet and musician Beldina Odenyo is produced in Glasgow, we discu...
Nov 06, 2024•42 min
