Actor Joel Edgerton on his role as an itinerant lumberjack in 1900s Idaho, in Clint Bentley's Train Dreams, an adaptation of a novel by Denis Johnson which is being tipped for Oscar success. The Harris in Preston and Poole Museum in Dorset recently threw their doors open after multi million pound refurbishment projects. We hear how these museums have been transformed and how local communities are responding to their reopening. Photographer Craig Easton tells us about his project An Extremely Un-...
Nov 19, 2025•43 min
Screenwriter Vince Gilligan is the creative mind behind the multi-awardwinning television dramas Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. His latest offering is Pluribus - a post-apocalyptic science fiction tale where it's up to the only miserable human being on earth to save the world. The news that Durham's Lumiere festival is coming to an end has led to a political row in the North East. Helen Marriage, Artistic Director of Artichoke, the arts organisation behind the event, on creating Lumiere and ...
Nov 18, 2025•43 min
Actors Bryan Cranston and Marianne Jean-Baptiste discuss their production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. Director Jon M Chu reveals the influence of watching The Wizard of Oz , as a boy growing up. And how he cast his very own Wicked: For Good. Samira is joined by food writers Diana Henry and Nikkitha Bakshani - who also happens to be an award winning novelist - to talk about the art of great food writing. And dynamic pricing in theatre - is it more (or less) fair for market forces to decide ho...
Nov 17, 2025•42 min
Tom and guests review The Hunger Games... now a stage play at a brand new theatre in London's Canary Wharf. The new film Nuremberg, starring Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring, tells the story of the psychiatrist who was recruited to analyse Hitler's second-in-command at the 1946 war crimes trial. The new BBC TV series Wild Cherry, about a scandal in a private girls' school and the relationships between mothers and daughters as well as toxic secrets and lies that ripple throughout their community. ...
Nov 13, 2025•42 min
Actor Fiona Shaw discusses her latest film Park Avenue, director Gaby Dellal's 'tense and witty drama about mother-daughter relationships set in New York. Filmmaker Lynne Ramsay talks to us about her new film Die My Love, a portrait of postpartum psychosis starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. 50 years on from the band's first gig, music writer Jon Savage and photographer Dennis Morris discuss the impact and influence of punk pioneers Sex Pistols. We also hear about the transformation...
Nov 12, 2025•43 min
Do Vermeer's paintings contain hidden religious symbolism? Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon argues that the enigmatic painter's membership of a radical Christian group has been long overlooked. Writer John Updike became a sensation when is candid and controversial novel Rabbit, Run was published in 1960. Now his posthumously published letters shine a new light on his work and relationships with the women in his life - from his mother and mother-in-law to lovers and wives. We discuss this legacy...
Nov 11, 2025•42 min
Samira Ahmed presents live from Old Billingsgate in London, where the announcement of the winner of the 2025 Booker Prize is taking place. The novels on the shortlist: Flesh by David Szalay, The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, Audition by Katie Kitamura, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, and Flashlight by Susan Choi. As well as speaking to the winner, Samira talks to some of the judges including actor Sarah Jessica Parker and Chair of judg...
Nov 10, 2025•29 min
The six authors shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize discuss their novels ahead of tonight's ceremony, which is broadcast live on Radio 4 at 9.30pm in a special extra edition of Front Row. Andrew Miller on The Land in Winter Kiran Desai on The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny David Szalay on Flesh Katie Kitamura on Audition Susan Choi on Flashlight Ben Markovits on The Rest of Our Lives Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser
Nov 10, 2025•42 min
On this week's Front Row review, we discuss a new production of Othello with David Harewood as the Moor and Toby Jones as Iago. Tom speaks with Daniel Day Lewis about his return to the big screen in a film directed by his son Ronan: Anemone. And The Choral; a new film written by Alan Bennett, directed by Nicholas Hytner and with a stellar cast, how good is it? Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Nov 07, 2025•42 min
Benedict Cumberbatch speaks to Kate Molleson about the new film adaptation of Max Porter's Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, an exploration of loss and berievement. On Tuesday night, the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 was announced. They join Kate to dicuss their work, and the significance of taking home the prize. 100 years ago, one of the best viola players of her generation – Rebecca Clarke – gave a sold-out concert at London’s Wigmore Hall. All of the music on the p...
Nov 05, 2025•42 min
Riz Ahmed is one of his generation’s great British actors. He starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, before landing roles in big budget films from Jason Bourne to Rogue One. For his latest role, Ahmed has teamed up with director David McKenzie to play a man who works as a broker between whistleblowers and the companies who want their secrets returned. As Shiv in Succession, the scheming daughter of the Logan Roy dynasty, Sarah Snook was an integral part of one of the most critically ...
Nov 04, 2025•42 min
Zadie Smith talks about the art of the essay, as she publishes a non-fiction collection, Dead and Alive. Brenda Blethyn discusses her new film Dragonfly, for which she's just been nominated for Best Joint Performance at the British Independent Film Awards along with her co-star Andrea Riseborough. In the last of Front Row's interviews with the authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Samira talks to Andrew Miller about his novel The Land in Winter, set in the Big Freeze of I962-3. Film scholar ...
Nov 03, 2025•42 min
Tahmima Anam and Tristram Fane Saunders join Tom Sutcliffe to review The Eleventh Hour, a collection of five short stories from Salman Rushdie in his first return to fiction since he was attacked in 2022. Director of Poor Things and The Favourite Yorgos Lanthimos brings more strangeness to cinema screens with Bugonia, a thriller with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. And Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize-winning novel The Line of Beauty is adapted for the stage by Jack Holden. Plus they discuss censo...
Oct 30, 2025•42 min
Live from Derry. As the climax of the current series approaches, actors Dearbháile McKinney and Martin McCann, two of the cast of hit police series Blue Lights, talk about their roles. Writer John Morton talks to us about his play Denouement, a darkly comic tale set in the run-up to apocalyptic events in 2048 and which is receiving its world premiere at the Belfast International Arts Festival. And as Europe's largest Halloween Festival opens in Derry, writer Jan Carson and Kate Byrne, who teache...
Oct 29, 2025•42 min
In tribute to Prunella Scales, whose death was announced today, Front Row rebroadcasts an interview with the Fawlty Towers star from 2012, recorded on the eve of her 80th birthday. Samira talks to two documentary makers who gained extraordinary access to world leaders for their films. Tommy Gulliksen followed Nato Chief Jens Stoltenberg for his film Facing War, and Petra Costa followed several Brazilian Presidents for her films Apocalypse in the Tropics and The Edge of Democracy. Annemarie Jacir...
Oct 28, 2025•42 min
Actor Reese Witherspoon on why she's teamed up with thriller writer Harlan Coben to write a novel called Gone Before Goodbye, about a struck-off army surgeon who uncovers a global conspiracy. Colin Farrell discusses his new film Ballad of a Small Player, about a gambler on the verge of losing everything, which is directed by Oscar winner Edward Berger. What is the best amount of time to look at a work of art? Professor Jennifer Roberts from Harvard University has the answer. Today University Aca...
Oct 27, 2025•42 min
Tom Sutcliffe and guests review the Bruce Springsteen film, Deliver Me From Nowhere, which tells the story of his recording of the album Nebraska Also there's a new book from the late Harper Lee: The Land of Sweet Forever, comprising newly discovered short stories and previously-published essays and magazine pieces. Is it a posthumous intellectual property trawl or does it offer an insight that can increase our appreciation of her undisputed masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. And Nick Payne's n...
Oct 23, 2025•42 min
Bestselling thriller writer John Grisham on his latest book, The Widow, in which a smalltown lawyer from Virginia finds himself accused of a serious crime after he develops a professional relationship with a wealthy woman who may not be all that she seems. We hear from writer-director Kelly Reichardt and from actor Josh O'Connor who plays an art thief in her latest film The Mastermind. Dutch art historian and detective Arthur Brand gives an update on the real-life robbery of France's crown jewel...
Oct 22, 2025•42 min
Comedy giant Steve Martin on making new bluegrass music with pioneering banjo player Alison Brown with their new album, Safe, Sensible, and Sane. Filmmaker Nia DaCosta on her cinematic retelling of Ibsen's classic play, Hedda Gabbler. Sharon Heal, Director of the Museums Association on British industrial heritage emerging from the cultural shadows. Senior curator at the Horniman Museum, Heba Abd el Gawad, and Egyptologist Dr Campbell Price on the enduring influence of Egyptology on culture. Pres...
Oct 21, 2025•42 min
Cathy Tyson stars in the Leicester Curve Theatre production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. She talks about the demanding, drunken role of Martha. Jewellery expert Joanna Hardy discusses the robbery of France's Crown Jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris. As AI becomes an increasingly powerful tool, we speak to two artists who are experimenting with technology in music production, Todd Rundgren and Holly Herndon. And Samira talks to the Booker shortisted author David Szalay ...
Oct 20, 2025•42 min
Guillermo Del Toro talks about his new Frankenstein film and our critics deliver their verdict. Julia Roberts plays a college professor whose career becomes entangled in campus sexual politics, in Luca Guadanino's After The Hunt. Hollie McNish's poetry collection "Virgin" unpicks the meaning of the word and the man-made concept beneath it. Presenter Samira Ahmed Reviewers: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Lindsay Johns
Oct 16, 2025•42 min
Singer songwriter Richard Ashcroft - former frontman of The Verve - talks about the material on his new album Lovin You, and about supporting Oasis on their reunion tour this summer. A play without a script which questions the impact of AI on our lives and celebrates the ingenuity of human actors: Writer Nathan Ellis and actor Roisin Gallagher join us live to talk about Instructions, which is being performed next week at the Belfast International Arts Festival. As an exhibition of work by the da...
Oct 15, 2025•42 min
Sam Ryder talks to Samira about his career, gaining Eurovision success with Space Man and he performs the song Armour live, a track from his forthcoming album Heartland. With chart topping songs and a global smash hit animated film, directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans talk about creating the phenomenon that is KPop Demon Hunters. The Pulitzer prize winning African American writer Hilton Als and biographer Miranda Seymour discuss author Jean Rhys. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Claire Ba...
Oct 14, 2025•42 min
Pianist Lang Lang's 2019 album Piano Book was one of the best selling classical albums that year, with over a billion streams and counting. He’s now followed it up with Piano Book 2, an eclectic selection of 32 short works from both classical and contemporary composers. He came into the studio to talk to us about the album and to play for us. Diane Keaton passed away on Saturday, at the age of 79. She spoke to Front Row in 2017, where she discussed her philosophy around style and fashion. The Bo...
Oct 13, 2025•42 min
Alexander Larman and Susannah Clapp join Tom to discuss I Swear, a film which tells the life story of John Davidson MBE who was diagnosed with Tourette's age 15. They also talk about Thomas Pynchon's new novel Shadow Ticket. Booker shortlisted novelist Tibor Fischer assesses the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai who has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. As the complete works of Seamus Heaney is published, Owen McDonnell reads the previously unpublished poem Swallow. Plus, Tom and guests dis...
Oct 09, 2025•42 min
Actor Tamsin Greig discusses her role in Sally Wainwright's latest drama series, Riot Women, in which a group of middle-aged women in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, form a band of anarchist rock musicians. Booker Prize-shortlisted author Susan Choi tells us about her sprawling historical epic, Flashlight, set against the backdrop of the shared history of America, Japan and Korea. Conservation specialist Will Palin on the historic refurbishment of a series of magnificent murals by the great artis...
Oct 08, 2025•43 min
Artist Marina Abramović on the world premiere of her largest-scale performance artwork - Balkan Erotic Epic - at Aviva Studios in Manchester. BBC Culture reporter Noor Nanji on the Riyadh Comedy Festival which has divided the comedy world. Poets Max Wallis and Dr Anna Percy on poetry and mental health as their new poetry magazine, The Aftershock Review, makes an impressive debut. Clare Wood, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the British Ceramics Biennial on the festival's new internationa...
Oct 07, 2025•42 min
Film director Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker. She discusses her new film A House of Dynamite, which also looks at war, with Samira Booker-winner Kiran Desai has been nominated for her new novel - 2 decades in the writing; The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Islam Issa and Ben Luke join Samira to discuss 'what are the humanities for and where are they headed'? And we pay tribute to Dame Jilly Cooper who has died at the age of 88. We speak ...
Oct 06, 2025•42 min
The Smashing Machine director Benny Safdie talks to Tom Sutcliffe about making his biographical drama about the life of mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr. Tom is also joined by critics Boyd Hilton and Natalie Jamieson to review Safdie’s film – which stars wrestler turned actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Emily Blunt. They also discuss a major retrospective of photographer Lee Miller at Tate Britain. Plus they talk about Ben Elton’s autobiography What Have I Done? Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Pr...
Oct 02, 2025•42 min
Steve Coogan on his new spoof documentary series. in which his alter ego Alan Partridge returns from some time in Saudia Arabia to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time: mental health. In the first of our interviews with writers shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize, American novelist Katie Kitamura discusses her book Audition, a story told through the first person voice of an unnamed actor, which explores the roles we play in public and private. As Black History Month begins, an...
Oct 01, 2025•43 min
