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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•43 min
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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•43 min
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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•42 min
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, 2025•43 min
Sir Michael Morpurgo and violinist Daniel Pioro discusss reimagining Vivaldi's Four Seasons for a recording with the Manchester Camerata featuring new poetry by Sir Michael and improvisations by Daniel. Pat Saperstein, Deputy Editor of Variety, and Peter Bowes, BBC Correspondent in Los Angeles reflect on the impact of the L. A fires on the film, television, music and visual arts worlds. Leigh Whannell, the co-creator of the blockbuster Saw horror film franchise, talks about his new film Wolf Man...
Jan 14, 2025•43 min
Actor Michael Sheen explains how he was rehearsing his role as the creator of the NHS, Nye Bevan when he heard about the demise of National Theatre Wales and decided to make plans for a new organisation, using some of his own money. Matthew Bourne talks about his new stage production of the musical Oliver! and the 30th anniversary tour of his groundbreaking version of the ballet Swan Lake. The society of authors has asked for Ghostwriters to be recognised, particularly when celebrities are invol...
Jan 13, 2025•42 min
Viv Groskop and David Benedict join Tom Sutcliffe to talk about Maria, the Maria Callas biopic staring Angelina Jolie. They also review Alive in the Merciful Country by A.L. Kennedy and Architecton, a study of concrete and stone from the Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky. Plus Jeremy Treglown, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, who talks about the changes that are happening within the organisation. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet
Jan 09, 2025•43 min
Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Fiona MacLellan
Jan 08, 2025•42 min
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin about their new film A Real Pain - in which they play mis-matched cousins touring Poland to honour their grandmother. Can you teach someone to look at art intelligently? Oxford University is about to start a 3 year study on visual literacy – assessing how much looking at art can impact young people’s social and academic outcomes. Art historian Alison Cole, specialist primary school art teacher Mandy Barret and Professor Robert Klassen who’...
Jan 07, 2025•43 min
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson talk about their award-winning new film Babygirl, where she plays a married mum and high powered tech CEO who begins an affair with a young intern at her company after he realises she has sexual desires that she's not been able to embrace before. Novelist Tayari Jones and literary scholar Dr Deborah G. Plant discuss The Life of Herod the Great by Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston. Published for the first time, the manuscript was saved from being burn...
Jan 06, 2025•42 min
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by the critics Bidisha and Peter Bradshaw to review the highlights of the week: Nosferatu - Robert Eggers' remake of F.W Murnau's 1922 silent vampire classic, which was itself based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. Nickel Boys - the Golden Globe nominated adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel about two African American boys sent to reform school. Lockerbie - Sky's miniseries about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the subsequent search for truth, starring Colin Firth. ...
Jan 02, 2025•42 min
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
