The National Covid Memorial Wall on the bank of the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament is an unofficial site of remembrance and reflection for the 150,000 or so individuals who've died from Covid. Artists and writers consider the role and design of memorials in the 21st century, from the poppies at The Tower of London in 2014 which toured the UK, to the recent controversy of the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol, and the proposed memorial to enslaved Africans and their desce...
May 03, 2021•28 min
Adapted from Paul Theroux’s bestselling book, The Mosquito Coast follows a family on the run from the US government and seeking escape in Mexico, where they hope to build a simpler life away from American consumerist culture. Critics Tanya Motie and Kohinoor Sahota join Tom to discuss the new TV series and to share their cultural picks of the week. Royal Blood is a 2 piece rock band from Brighton whose new album - Typhoons - looks set to top the UK charts like their previous two. They’ve toured ...
Apr 30, 2021•41 min
Raoul Peck is a Haitian filmmaker whose documentary I Am Not Your Negro, based on the words of James Baldwin, was Oscar-nominated and won a Bafta in 2018. Now he has made a new documentary series in 4 parts, Exterminate All the Brutes, looking at the impact of colonialism and the development of racist ideas using a mixture of voice-over, dramatisation, animation and Hollywood movies. He talks about the making of it and why he wanted to tell both a personal and a global history. While rug-making ...
Apr 29, 2021•29 min
Today the shortlist for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction is revealed. Chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo joins Front Row to talk through the chosen books and explain why they’re worth their place on the list and literary critic Alex Clark gives her reactions. Citizen Kane has been knocked off the top spot on Rotten Tomatoes as a unfavourable review from 1941 has been found ruining its 100% critics rating. Taking its place is Paddington 2. Critic Jason Solomons digests the news. Jamie MacDonal...
Apr 28, 2021•28 min
We review new Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone. It's being touted as the new Game of Thrones but is it worth the hype? Children's and YA author Katherine Webber Tsang gives her verdict. This weekend the Brighton Festival opens and will be the first UK city festival since lockdown. Last year the guest director Lemn Sissay was ready to launch the festival when Lockdown restrictions meant the whole thing had to be cancelled. This year, he’s back as guest director again with a festival themed ...
Apr 27, 2021•29 min
Violinist Nicola Benedetti is performing a new concerto by Mark Simpson, who was winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year (as clarinettist) and the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year. Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Mark wrote it specifically with Nicola in mind. We speak with both of them ahead of this Thursday's premiere. Adrian Lukis discusses his one man show, Being Mr Wickham, which imagines Mr Wickham from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice at the age of s...
Apr 26, 2021•28 min
In a wide ranging extended interview, Sir Tom Jones looks back at his life and career, from his coal-mining upbringing in South Wales to global superstardom. He talks about the therapy he underwent to restore his ability to sing after the death of his wife and the two year quarantine he endured as a child because of tuberculosis. He recalls the time he lost his temper with John Lennon, and the singing teacher who urged him to become on operatic tenor. At the age of 80, Tom has recorded a new alb...
Apr 23, 2021•41 min
Rose Matafeo discusses her new BBC3 comedy Starstruck. It follows Jessie, a millennial living in East London juggling two dead end jobs and navigating the awkward morning-after-the-night-before, when she discovers the complications of accidentally sleeping with a famous film star. She talks about creating a rom-com, diversity and why her comedy hero is the Dude in the Big Lebowski. The composer Isobel Waller-Bridge is known for her eclectic influences and celebrated scores for stage and screen, ...
Apr 22, 2021•28 min
Actor, writer and director Noel Clarke discusses his latest role in the new five-part ITV drama series Viewpoint, in which he plays a surveillance detective tracking the movements of the prime suspect in the disappearance of a young woman. In the interview he looks back over a career which started with his breakthrough role in Kidulthood in 2006, which he wrote and starred in, and his further success in its sequels Adulthood and Brotherhood. His acting roles have included Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, a...
Apr 21, 2021•28 min
Kayo Chingonyi is an award-winning poet, producer, DJ and lyricist. Kayo joins Tom to talk about his much anticipated new collection A Blood Condition, exploring family, identity and his Zambian heritage. Plus his new music podcast series Decode, which takes a deep dive into Dave’s Mercury Prize-winning debut album Psychodrama, revealing its musicality and lyricism over 11 episodes. Schubert’s song cycle, Winterreise, is regarded as the pinnacle of German Lied. This musical story of a young man ...
Apr 20, 2021•28 min
London Grammar's debut album in 2013 won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song. Their follow up four years later topped the album charts. Singer and songwriter Hannah Reid talks about their latest album Californian Soil, about sexism in the music industry, and using lockdown as a chance to learn to read music. Craig Easton was last week announced as Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards. He discusses his project Bank Top, a photographic celebration of the residents of a mix...
Apr 19, 2021•28 min
Director Deborah Warner discusses her new production of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, which opens at the Teatro Real in Madrid on Monday. The staging of this multinational co-production has become significantly more difficult in the wake of Brexit and more recently she has had to adapt to the numerous challenges posed by Covid. The death was announced today at the age of 52 of Helen McCrory, whose credits included Peaky Blinders, The Queen, Harry Potter and many highly-praised stage rol...
Apr 16, 2021•42 min
Paul Theroux talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his latest novel “Under The Wave At Waimea” set in Hawaii where he now lives. Published just as he’s celebrated his 80th birthday - it uses surfing as an allegory for consideration of ageing, contemplation, writing, reading and reflecting on his professional and personal life. The conversation ranges across Theroux's long and successful career as a writer of fiction and of travel books. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Oliver Jones
Apr 15, 2021•28 min
Rapper and writer Testament discusses his new work Orpheus in the Record Shop which fuses spoken word and beatboxing with players from the Orchestra of Opera North in an new collaboration that gives the Greek myth of Orpheus a contemporary Yorkshire twist. Festivals this summer are still in doubt as organisers can't secure insurance commercially. Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, CEO of UK Music, discusses how likely it will be that the government will step in to provide an indemnity. British nature writing ...
Apr 14, 2021•29 min
Ammonite tells the story of fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea who develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever. Set in 1840’s England and starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. The British Council's Director of Film, Briony Hanson reviews. In his early 20s, the actor and producer Jack Holden volunteered for the LGBT+ helpline, Switchboard. A decade on, his experiences there form the foundation of his new play, Cruise, which explo...
Apr 13, 2021•28 min
Leila Latif reviews Too Close, ITV’s new psychological thriller starring Emily Watson and Denise Gough, which will be broadcast on consecutive nights this week. On the day that commercial art galleries are allowed to re-open in England, Rachel Whiteread discusses her new exhibition Internal Objects at the Gagosian gallery in London. The exhibition features new resin sculptures, and the gallery's two main rooms are occupied by two new works - large sheds made of found materials and painted in whi...
Apr 12, 2021•29 min
Taylor Swift, who recently won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards, has today released a new album called Fearless (Taylor's Version), which is an exact remake of her 2008 breakthrough album, Fearless. Music critic Sophie Harris explains why Taylor is repeating herself and reviews the new record. Tom Sutcliffe discusses HRH the Duke of Edinburgh's interest in art and literature with Jonathan Yeo, who painted his portrait, and Ian Lloyd, author of The Duke: 100 Chapters in the life of Prince P...
Apr 10, 2021•42 min
Peggy Seeger has just released her latest album, The First Farewell, at the age of 85. She tells us about the pleasures of working on it with her family, her worries about the post-Covid music scene, getting older - and getting younger. Liverpool is about to take part in a pilot scheme testing live events. There will be an open-air film screening, a comedy gig and a club night. We talk to Liverpool's director of culture, Claire McColgan, about how it will work and the scientific questions behind...
Apr 08, 2021•28 min
Katherine Parkinson is best known as an actress – she won a BAFTA playing Jen in The IT Crowd and warm praise for her performance on stage in Laura Wade’s play Home, I’m Darling. But she has also written a play, Sitting, an interwoven set of three monologues first performed at the Edinburgh Festival and now on BBC4 as part of BBC Lights Up. It is inspired by her own experience sitting for a portrait painter when she was a student and like the work of the actress herself spans from sharp comedy t...
Apr 07, 2021•28 min
Riz Ahmed stars in Sound of Metal as a rock drummer who loses his hearing. The actor and rapper discusses learning American sign language, working with culturally Deaf actors as well as learning about addiction for his Oscar nominated performance. So far, 2021 has seen a large number of novels with a climate change theme being published. Toby Lichtig, Fiction Editor at the Times Literary Supplement, reports on some of the new releases and shifting attitudes in publishing towards avowedly-politic...
Apr 06, 2021•29 min
A year ago, the writer, poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen was rushed to hospital with Covid. Put into an induced coma in intensive care for 48 days, he underwent weeks of convalescence as he learned to walk again. Following his recovery he wrote a new book, Many Different Kinds of Love: A Story of Life, Death and the NHS, featuring letters written to him by the medical staff who cared for him, as well as a series of poems about his months in hospital. Michael Rosen discusses his near-death expe...
Apr 05, 2021•29 min
Tonight's Font Row is a blue odyssey led by John Wilson as he talks to: Dr Narayan Khandekar, Director of the Forbes Pigment Collection and one of the first people in the world to recognise the significance of the accidental creation of new pigment, YInMn Blue; Artist Idris Khan is known for the use of blue in his work. He accepted Front Row's invitation to play with the newest blue pigment on the block. Idris Khan's work can be seen online as part of a group show at Victoria Miro, themed around...
Apr 02, 2021•41 min
Minari tells the story of a Korean family who move to a farm in Arkansas in pursuit of the American Dream. The film’s director, Lee Isaac Chung, explains how his own family story inspired events in the film, and the impact Awards nominations have on his career as a director. Pianist and musicologist Samantha Ege has launched an album of piano music from the often overlooked African-American composer, Florence Price. She discusses the revival of Price's music, and why it is important her work is ...
Apr 01, 2021•29 min
Andrew Miller, the Government’s first Disability Champion for Arts and Culture, is stepping down after three years in the post. He discusses the challenges facing disabled people in the creative industries and his hopes for the future. Jenny Sealey is Artistic Director of deaf and disabled theatre company Graeae and Robert Softley Gale is Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise, Scotland’s first touring theatre company employing disabled and non-disabled actors. They discuss the impact of the pan...
Mar 31, 2021•28 min
Novelist Nadifa Mohamed and translator Maureen Freely review the just-announced longlist for the International Booker Prize 2021. Author Joanne Harris talks to her Italian translator Laura Grandi, her collaborator of 22 years, about their special partnership. Plus writer and artist Khairani Barokka and Maureen Freely explore the question of how to choose who is the best person to translate each text, in light of the recent departure of several translators from the project of translating the work...
Mar 30, 2021•29 min
Kevin Macdonald’s new film The Mauritanian is based on the true story of a prisoner held in Guantánamo Bay for 14 years but never charged. The French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim, recently seen in the TV drama series The Serpent, discusses the challenges of playing Mohamedou Slahi, who was shackled, beaten and waterboarded by the US authorities. The Lip depicts a hidden Cornwall, the one we rarely see. Its author, Charlie Carroll discusses writing about the second poorest region in all of Europe a...
Mar 29, 2021•28 min
For our Friday Review, critics Jacqueline Springer and Sophie Harris give their verdict on two new documentaries, Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil and Tina. Both detail each of the star’s respective troubles with abuse and drug addiction while in the limelight, and our reviewers discuss their candid telling of trauma. The Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition winner was announced this Thursday in a virtual ceremony. The first prize, and the £5000 that came with it, was awarded to Marvi...
Mar 26, 2021•41 min
Emerald Fennell is the director and writer of Promising Young Woman, a darkly comic revenge thriller starring Carey Mulligan. The film is nominated for five Academy Awards and six BAFTAs. Emerald is also a successful actress, most recently starring as the then-Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown as well as a cameo in the movie. We hear about what sparked the film, reactions to it and what it’s like to combine direction, writing and acting. The Humboldt Forum in Berlin is currently planning to ret...
Mar 25, 2021•28 min
The playwright Mark Ravenhill joins us to talk about his new play Angela. It is a tender portrait of his parents; his mother, Angela, who died in 2019, and of his father, Ted. Angela had dementia and the play is about the memories that make us, and how time is more fluid than we might think. Ravenhill began Angela as a play for the stage that he was going to act - and even dance - himself. But Covid restirctions made that impossible so it became an audio play, starring Pam Ferris (Harry Potter, ...
Mar 24, 2021•28 min
Orlando Bloom talks to Samira Ahmed about taking on a very different kind of role in his intense and visceral film Retaliation, and the new career challenges he’s excited about. As the delayed Liverpool Biennial gets underway – showing only online and outdoor work for the moment because of the restrictions on galleries opening – art critic and editor of The Double Negative cultural website Mike Pinnington considers how the commissioned artists have responded to the theme of ‘the body’, and how t...
Mar 23, 2021•28 min
