Suzan-Lori Parks, the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama on her play White Noise, which has its the UK premier tonight. Life is not so bad for four liberal friends, two couples, black with a white partner, until Leo has a run in with the cops and it all begins to unravel. The poet, playwright, and novelist, Owen Sheers, has written a new BBC One drama, The Trick. He talks to Samira about exploring what became known in 2009 as Climategate, when the emails of Professo...
Oct 12, 2021•42 min
Joan Collins discusses her memoir My Unapologetic Diaries. Tales of the City author and activist Armistead Maupin on his national tour and why he has moved from his beloved San Francisco to live in the UK. Engineering Value - Scenes from the Grenfell Inquiry is a new play every word of which has been taken from what was said at that public inquiry. Directors Nick Kent and Nadia Fall consider the ethics of verbatim theatre and the different ways of creating it. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: ...
Oct 11, 2021•42 min
Cush Jumbo’s long-awaited performance as Hamlet and debbie tucker green’s film ear for eye come under the critical gaze of Ekow Eshun, Vanessa Kisuule and Sarah Crompton. Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has won this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. He joins Front Row to discuss his work and how he feels about winning. The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage on his fresh and contemporary new translation of the classic poem The Owl and the Nightingale. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah John...
Oct 07, 2021•42 min
Broadcaster Huw Stephens sends an audio postcard from Aberystwyth, the small seaside town with the big arts centre mounting exhibitions and concerts, the National Library of Wales, the country's oldest University, a thriving bilingual music scene, one of the UK's leading comedy festivals and now - a film industry. The true story of one family’s journey from Afghanistan to Wales twenty one years ago is told on stage at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre this month. Tom hears from the writer of The Boy W...
Oct 06, 2021•42 min
Wole Soyinka, the first African writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells Samira Ahmed about what impelled him to write his first new novel in five decades, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. As theatres re-open across the UK and audiences return, are some theatre fans being left behind? We hear from Jamie Hale, an award-winning theatre director and playwright with a disability, and Richard Misek from the University of Kent, who is investigating the impact of digi...
Oct 05, 2021•42 min
In tonight's new look, 45 minute long Front Row... Hilary Mantel talks about turning her 874 page novel, The Mirror and the Light, the third volume in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, into a play of just a couple of hours. Kieran Hurley on The Enemy, his adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People for the National Theatre of Scotland. Lianne La Havas joins us live in the studio to perform a track from her self-titled Ivor Novello winning album. And Candice Carty Williams, author of the besteller, Q...
Oct 04, 2021•42 min
The new 007 film No Time To Die has had its release pushed back and back and back due to Covid. But now it’s finally here with Daniel Craig playing James Bond for the final time. Critical responses have been mixed, what will our reviewers, Charlie Higson -writer of the Young Bond novels – and Naima Khan – who’s never seen a Bond film before – make of it? We’ll also preview Ridley Road a BBC historical drama series written by Sarah Solemani, about a young Jewish woman who fights against an emergi...
Oct 01, 2021•41 min
Widely known as the nicest guy in rock, Dave Grohl has written a memoir ‘The Storyteller’ documenting his life in the rock and roll business, from early days sleeping in the tour van with Scream, to the moment that inspired him to return to music post-Nirvana, to performing at the White House. It is family and music that has kept him grounded, as well as seeing the toll the dark glamour of a rock and roll life can take on a person. Now he is unashamedly earnest about his love of music and love o...
Sep 30, 2021•28 min
American screenwriter, show-runner, director, and producer David Chase is best known for writing and producing the HBO drama The Sopranos which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2007. He talks to Tom about why he's bringing back Michael Imperioli for The Many Saints Of Newark. Gary Raymond, editor of Wales Art Review, joins us to discuss the unveiling of the statue of the Welsh, black head teacher and heroine, Betty Campbell. Many great playwrights - including William Shakespeare - have wri...
Sep 29, 2021•29 min
Kenyan British Comedian Njambi McGrath’s work focuses on identity politics, Brexit, colonialism, and race. She joins Kirsty to discuss her 2019 show, Accidental Coconut which opens at the Soho Theatre next week, and her new Radio 4 podcast series Njambi McGrath: Becoming Njambi. Controversy always rages over The Turner Prize. This year not a single artist has been shortlisted. Not one! Instead there are five art collectives, from all over the UK, showing work at the Turner Prize Exhibition which...
Sep 28, 2021•29 min
Front Row announces this year’s winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction and Samira Ahmed interviews the winner. They are joined by Clarke Award judge Stewart Hotston to discuss the problem of diversity in the science fiction genre. K-pop group BTS opened the UN general debate last week with a speech and performance, which was streamed live by over a million people around the world. What’s the impact of a the biggest band in the world taking this political stage, and what does it...
Sep 27, 2021•29 min
Megan Swann is the first ever female President of The Magic Circle, and the youngest ever President at just 28 years old. She tells Tom how she got into magic, and how she uses magic to share an environmental message. Richard Smyth is one of the five authors shortlisted for the £15,000, 16th BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University. He tells us what his short story, ‘Maykopsky District, Adyghe Oblast’ and his 2008 appearance on Mastermind have in common. On what would have been h...
Sep 24, 2021•42 min
On 6 October 1941 “The Coventry Telegraph” reported that women of Coventry had sent a message of support to the women of Stalingrad. And so began a relationship that became formalised by twin city status in 1844. Coventry now has 26 twin cities and those connections are celebrated in a new project, Twin Cities: Postcard Poems which paired ten poets from Coventry with poets from across the world. The resulting correspondence led to new poems being written and we hear from two of the poets involve...
Sep 23, 2021•29 min
There's some excitement in the world of English traditional music: Spiers and Boden have reunited, recorded a new album and are embarking on a month long tour. Squeezebox player John Spiers met fiddle player Jon Boden in a pub session twenty years ago and quickly established themselves as a duo playing English music, winning a devoted following and several awards. They formed the hugely successful 11-piece folk big band Bellowhead, but separated in 2014 and didn't play together again until this ...
Sep 22, 2021•28 min
We announce the winner of the 2021 Art Fund Museum of the Year, the world’s largest museum prize. Front Row broadcasts a special programme from London's Science Museum, reflecting on the resilience and imagination of museums throughout the pandemic. John Wilson will be joined by judges Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate; artist Thomas J Price, Lead of Strategic Projects at Google Suhair Khan and broadcaster Edith Bowman. As well as Director of Art Fund Jenny Waldman. We'll also be exploring the fut...
Sep 21, 2021•42 min
Everybody’s Talking about Jamie is a feature film based on the stage musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16. It centres on Jamie, a gay teenager from Sheffield who wants to attend his prom in drag. Ellen E Jones reviews. We talk to another of the authors shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2021. Rory Gleeson’s story is called The Body Audit and in it a group of teenagers carry out a revealing ritual, with surprisin...
Sep 20, 2021•29 min
Visible Skin: Rediscovering the Renaissance through Black Portraiture is a new outdoor exhibition across King’s College London’s Strand Campus, showcasing artworks by opera singer Peter Brathwaite. He talks to Tom Sutcliffe about creating the portraits and images, as well as his role in the new opera The Time of Our Singing. Indecent, a play which has just opened at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, explores the origins of the highly controversial 1906 play The God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, ...
Sep 17, 2021•41 min
If you go down to the Oastler Centre carpark in Bradford over the next few days, you’re sure of a big surprise because this derelict multi-storey is the venue for a new theatrical production - Peaceophobia - exploring the passions and the lives of three young Pakistani-heritage Muslim men from Bradford as they attend a car meet. Evie Manning is co-director of the show and joins Front Row to explain how Peaceophobia came about. Sam Delaney reviews Jack Thorne's new Channel 4 drama, Help, which is...
Sep 16, 2021•29 min
Award-winning author Anuradha Roy crafts pots as well as prose. She joins us live from India to discuss the fusion of ceramics and storytelling, pottery and politics in her new novel, The Earthspinner, a coming of age story set between two continents. At a recent auction some 19th century pottery jugs, expected to fetch £100 or so, sold for £3,000 - £4,000. They were bought by major museums vying to add them to their collections. The jugs' selling point was that they were decorated with anti-sla...
Sep 15, 2021•28 min
The role of Norman, the longsuffering, waspish eponymous dresser in Ronald Harwood's 1980 play, might have been written for Julian Clary. It's about a touring theatre company bringing Shakespeare to the provinces during the Blitz. As all the young actors are away fighting it's a motley crew, led by Sir, a monstrous yet pathetic veteran actor. Sir's mind and his world are crumbling. Only Norman can cajole him onto the stage. Now Julian Clary is playing Norman, in a touring theatre company, during...
Sep 14, 2021•28 min
Liane Moriarty is the best-selling author of nine novels including, Big Little Lies, and Nine Perfect Strangers, both of which have been adapted for television. Her latest novel, Apples Never Fall, is a mystery wrapped up in a domestic drama which focuses on an Australian family shaped by their passion for tennis. Described as a pianist like no other, Igor Levit describes himself as a citizen and a European before a pianist. He has performed around the world, but when lockdown put a stop to that...
Sep 13, 2021•29 min
Front Row announces the shortlist for the £15,000, 16th BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University. Judge Fiona Mozley, author of Booker-shortlisted novel Elmet, joins us live to discuss the stories Australian tenor Stuart Skelton is a fan of a party. And what bigger party in classical music than the Last Night of the Proms?! Stuart will be taking centre stage and singing the traditional ‘Rule Britannia’ as well as a selection of opera arias. He tells John why he’s looking forward ...
Sep 10, 2021•41 min
Elijah Wood tells Tom Sutcliffe about his new film No Man of God. Elijah Wood plays criminal profiler Bill Hagmaier in a story based on interview transcripts. Hagmaier is sent by the FBI to visit the serial killer Ted Bundy on death row. A fascinating, troubling relationship develops which becomes all the more intense when the date of Bundy's execution is announced. It's just a week away; Bundy agrees to talk, and he has much to confess. As lockdown and the pandemic brought concerts to a standst...
Sep 09, 2021•28 min
The recent Netflix comedy drama, The Chair, centres on an English professor, played by Sandra Oh who has just been appointed the first female chair of the department and has big dreams about modernising it. Hanna Flint joins us to review We hear live from the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021, announced this evening: Susanna Clarke for her novel Piranesi. This year’s chair of judges is Bernardine Evaristo Immersive theatre group Punchdrunk are well known for their imaginative use of u...
Sep 08, 2021•28 min
Iranian-born artist, photographer and filmmaker Shirin Neshat talk to us about her latest work - a feature film entitled Land of Dreams which premiered at The Venice Film Festival last week -and her exhibition at Photo London of still images connected to New Mexico. The last of our Women’s Prize for Fiction-shortlisted authors, Yaa Gyasi, talks to Front Row ahead of the winner’s announcement tomorrow. Her novel Transcendent Kingdom considers big questions of science, belief and addiction in the ...
Sep 07, 2021•28 min
Guitarist Peter Green last performed with Fleetwood Mac, the band he help found, in 1970. Fellow founding-member Mick Fleetwood has honoured Green's legacy in an all-star concert that will be shown in cinemas, celebrating the band's early music. Mick Fleetwood talks to Samira about the early days of Fleetwood Mac, working with Peter, and dreams of a Fleetwood Mac reunion. Filmmaker Cathy Brady has already won international prizes for her short films. Now she’s made her debut feature film, Wildfi...
Sep 06, 2021•28 min
Irish author Sally Rooney’s third novel 'Beautiful World, Where Are You' has just been released amid a fanfare of publicity and speculation. It follows the runaway success of the TV adaptation of her Booker longlisted second novel, Normal People, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. Essayist and critic Sinéad Gleeson and writer Zing Tsjeng, Executive Editor of Vice UK, join us to review. Film Critic Jason Solomons is Front Row’s correspondent at this year’s Venice International Film Fe...
Sep 03, 2021•41 min
When Quentin Tarantino’s debut novel, was published earlier this summer, he gave his only UK broadcast interview to Front Row. Now in a special edition of the programme, Kirsty Lang presents an extended version of that interview. For the subject of his new book, Tarantino turned to his last film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which looked at the Hollywood of the late 1960s, through the relationship between an actor, who fears his career is in decline, and his best friend, his stunt double. The ...
Sep 02, 2021•28 min
Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus crime novels, has recently completed a book left unfinished by the father of the ‘tartan noir’ genre William McIlvanney who died in 2015. Ian explains how he pieced together the fragments and notes left by McIlvanney and wrote his own sections of The Dark Remains, a prequel to McIlvanney’s Laidlaw series. He also reveals that the experience of working on the novel may mean a new lease of life for Rebus. With summer music festivals linked to spikes in Cov...
Sep 01, 2021•29 min
The murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the subsequent police investigations threw up a lot of questions about institutional racism and corruption within the force. Another enquiry which began in 2006 was led by DCI Clive Driscoll, who decided to go right back to basics and investigate the crime anew. In a new three-part drama on ITV, Steve Coogan plays Driscoll and Hugh Quarshie plays Stephen’s father, Neville. We speak with them both about the murder, the trial, the enquiry and what a drama...
Aug 31, 2021•28 min
