Director Joachim Trier on his latest film Sentimental Value, which is nominated for eight Golden Globes, including Best Picture and Best Director. We take a look at the late Brigitte Bardot's three most important films, with critic Muriel Zhaga Writer John Lloyd on the 42nd anniversary release of The Meaning of Liff, the book he co-wrote with Douglas Adams. Ahead of a memorial concert for the late great pianist Alfred Brendel, Samira is joined by his son, the cellist Adrian Brendel, and the pian...
Dec 30, 2025•42 min
In 1776, the Founding Fathers of America signed the Declaration of Independence, embarking on a new experiment in how to build a nation. On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore the founding fathers – and mothers – of American culture: the key figures who shaped American literature, music, visual art, and theatre and created a distinctively American voice. With the literary historian Sarah Churchwell, the art historian Erin...
Dec 29, 2025•42 min
Scott Bryan and Rhianna Dhillon join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss sports drama Marty Supreme which stars Timothée Chalamet as a table tennis hustler who dreams of becoming a world champion in 1950s New York. They also discuss Stephen Sondheim’s fairytale production Into the Woods which is at London’s Bridge Theatre. Plus they review Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier’s film which stars Stellan Skarsgård as a film director trying to mend his family through the camera. Finally, classicist and writer Na...
Dec 18, 2025•42 min
As a new adaptation of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus begins on Sky, actor Will Sharpe speaks to Front Row about he researched the role of Mozart, and music historian Flora Willson and Music Director of the Dunedin Consort John Butt discuss how recent research helps us better understand the man and his music. Baroness Margaret Hodge - whose review into Arts Council England was published this week - tells us about her findings and recommendations. And with just a week to go until Christmas, broadcaster ...
Dec 17, 2025•42 min
Jane Austen is often seen as an isolated genius who appeared from nowhere, or she is treated with a simplistic cult-like reverance which overlooks the complexities of her work. In this special edition of Front Row, exactly 250 years after Austen's birth, we take a close critical eye to a writer who innovated the novel as a form and revolutionised a literary style rarely seen before. Fellow novelists Tessa Hadley and Kamila Shamsie join Samira, alongside academics Professor John Mullan and Dr. So...
Dec 16, 2025•42 min
Hollywood giant Rob Reiner was found dead alongside his wife Michele at their Los Angeles Home this morning. Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin joins to discuss the life and career of the famed director of such classics as This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride. Roland Gift, the lead singer of the hit 80s band Fine Young Cannibals, is live in session, playing one of the group's biggest hits and talking about the 40th anniversary of the release of their self-titled debut...
Dec 15, 2025•42 min
Film producer Jason Solomons and literary journalist Suzi Feay join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the contemporary thriller Lurker which shows what happens when the line between popstar and fan gets blurred. They also talk about The Pelican Child a short story collection by Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Joy Williams. And the film Ella McCay is reviewed; a political comedy-drama that follows an idealistic woman juggling being state governor with a complicated family life. Tom also speaks to the film...
Dec 11, 2025•42 min
Actress June Squibb on her lead role in Scarlett Johansson's debut feature Eleanor the Great, in which a woman in her 90s moves back from Florida to Manhattan and forms a friendship with a young journalism student - the film explores themes of grief, the Holocaust, truth and lies. Jenny Colgan pays tribute to her fellow bestselling novelist Sophie Kinsella, whose death was announced today. From the daring heist on the Louvre in Paris in October to the theft of Matisse artworks from Brazil's seco...
Dec 10, 2025•42 min
Tonight, the winner of the 2025 Turner Prize will be announced in Bradford, this year’s City of Culture. Joining Nick to discuss the runners and riders is arts journalist at the Yorkshire Post, Yvette Huddleston. The death of the photographer Martin Parr was announced over the weekend. His reputation was established with his colourful1980s seaside holiday pictures. To remember his life and legacy, we hear from photographer Stephen McCoy who currently has a show at the Martin Parr Foundation in B...
Dec 09, 2025•43 min
Kate Winslet speaks to Samira Ahmed about her directorial debut, Goodbye June. With a screenplay written by her son Joe Anders, the film portrays complex family dynamics colliding with the surreal realities of palliative care. With talks around a possible peace deal in Ukraine ongoing, we discuss whether the country has effectively used arts and culture to further the national cause. We hear from conductor and founder of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra Keri-Lynn Wilson, and visual artist Pavlo M...
Dec 08, 2025•42 min
Tom and guests Arifa Akbar and Nick Hilton consider Paddington The Musical. It's the latest step for a beloved British institution... How does he work on stage? Is the bear believable? Are the songs memorable? Iranian director Jafar Panahi's latest film has won the Palme d'Or. It Was Just An Accident, straddles a difficult gap between political commentary and a lightly comic look at revenge. He had to make this film in secret and has just been sentenced - in absentia - to a prison sentence by th...
Dec 05, 2025•41 min
John Rutter on his first purely orchestral album in almost 60 years, which also marks the composer and conductor's 80th birthday. Novelist Sean Lusk on the extraordinary - and scandalous - life of 18th-century aristocrat Mary Wortley Montagu, which is told in A Woman of Opinion, which won Fiction of the Year at last month's Saltire Awards. Recently, a number of actors have said they would prefer not to have to work with intimacy coordinators on set. We raise their concerns with Ita O'Brien, an i...
Dec 03, 2025•43 min
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has been transformed into a piece of hip hop dance at London’s Sadler's Wells East, and a Bollywood infused song and dance extravaganza for the big screen. We hear from the creatives behind the new versions, Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha and choreographer Dannielle Rhimes Lecointe. Beyond the Visual is the first of its kind in the UK - an exhibition co-curated by visually impaired artists. Held at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, the exhibi...
Dec 02, 2025•42 min
A celebration of the life and work of one of Britain’s greatest modern playwrights, Sir Tom Stoppard, who died at the weekend. He was 88. We hear from theatre critic Michael Billington, actress Emma Fielding, director Patrick Marber, biographer Hermione Lee, and literary critic Tristram Fane Saunders.
Dec 01, 2025•42 min
Nancy Durrant and Michael Donkor join Tom Sutcliffe to review Richard Linklater’s Broadway break up film Blue Moon, starring Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, whose former writing partner Richard Rodgers had just made Oklahoma with Oscar Hammerstein. They also discuss Tate Britain’s exhibition about how the lives of Turner and Constable were entwined. And they talk about Pillion, a surprising award-winning romantic drama starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård, adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’ nov...
Nov 27, 2025•42 min
Dan Houser, lead writer of Grand Theft Auto, on his debut dystopian novel A Better Paradise, about a video game which goes wrong. Renowned director Katie Mitchell on why she is stepping back from opera due to a culture of misogyny. And we hear how Native American artists and musicians are responding to environmental concerns, with artist Neal Ambrose-Smith and Pulitzer Prize winning composer Raven Chacon. Presenter: Kate Molleson Producer: Mark Crossan
Nov 26, 2025•42 min
Actor Sydney Sweeney on her role in the boxing biopic Christie. Olivia Laing, author of The Silver Book, and Adrian Wootton discuss Italian film director and writer Pier Paulo Pasolini exactly fifty years after his controversial film Salò and horrific murder. Rising countertenor star Hugh Cutting performs live. The Scottish Government's review of Creative Scotland. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Nov 25, 2025•43 min
Show creators Matt and Ross Duffer talk to Samira Ahmed about the final season of Stranger Things. So how much of the success of a Booker winner comes from the editing? We hear from Hannah Westland and Juliet Mabey, two publishers who have been particularly successful in producing Booker winning books. It's BBC Scam Safe week – a week of special programming to help keep you aware in the rapidly changing world of hustles and grifts. We focus on a very modern scam, AI generated biographies sold on...
Nov 24, 2025•42 min
Louisa Buck and Robbie Collin join Tom Sutcliffe to review the TV adaptation of Nick Cave’s novel The Death of Bunny Munro with Matt Smith playing a chaotic door to door beauty salesman They've visited artist Bridget Riley’s Learning to See exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate. And they discuss Marion Cotillard in the fairytale, fantasy drama The Ice Tower. Plus, Tom talks to the winner of this year's BBC New Comedy Award, Eli Hart. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, previous winners incl...
Nov 20, 2025•43 min
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
