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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Fiona MacLellan
Jan 08, 2025•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Naomi Alderman and Mark Ravenhill to review a new production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre, starring the current Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa, W1A’s Hugh Skinner and Sharon D Clarke. Plus comedy horror Rumours starring Cate Blanchett, and Grand Theft Hamlet – a documentary film which was shot inside the GTA game during the 2021 lockdown. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet
Dec 05, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scotland's new Makar (National Poet) Peter Mackay, whose appointment was announced this week, talks about how he intends to shape the role over the next three years. Elizabeth Newman of Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Jon Gilchrist of Birmingham Hippodrome discuss new initiatives to boost the production of musical theatre around the UK. Plus Jacob Rees-Mogg on his reality TV series Meet the Rees-Moggs. And as the Scottish Budget is delivered, will arts organisations finally get some clarity on th...
Dec 04, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tom Sutcliffe hears from the Love Actually writer and director Richard Curtis about how much he's obsessed by Christmas - and how he's now moved into animation for his latest film That Christmas, based on his trilogy of children’s books. There's advice on the best books to buy this Christmas from the literary critic Alex Clarke and Toby Lichtig, Fiction and Politics editor at the Times Literary Supplement. Tom also talks to the Oscar-nominated screenwriter Iris Yamashita about her new audio dram...
Dec 03, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2019 fire destroyed the much of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. As the restoration is completed, Agnes Poirier describes the work of skilled artisans that she has watched over the past five years. Her documentary series for the World Service In the Studio programmes can be heard on BBC Sounds. Jacob Collier discusses and plays from his new Grammy nominated album, Djesse, Volume 4. The novelist Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz was interned as an "enemy alien" on the Isle of Man during World Wa...
Dec 02, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Samira Ahmed's joined by this week's critics - Louisa Buck and Matt Everitt - to review Beatles '64, documenting the fab four's first trip to America with previously unseen footage shot by pioneering brothers Albert and David Maysles. They've also been to see Tate Modern's new exhibition Electric Dreams, exploring how artists were inspired to use machines and algorithms to create mind-binding art before the internet. Plus the star-studded new TV spy drama The Agency - starring Michael Fassbender...
Nov 29, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nobel Prize winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk talks about the publication of his illustrated journals, Memories of Distant Mountains. As he takes on the role of Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh, Donny Osmond talks about his career in music. And in the week that marks the centenary of his death, artistic director of English National Opera Annilese Miskimmon and music critic and broadcaster Flora Willson discuss the perennially popular ...
Nov 27, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Director Edward Berger joins Tom Sutcliffe to talk about his thriller Conclave, staring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, which focuses on the election of a new pope. Berger's previous film All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars - this success contrasts with a century of film flops which critic Tim Robey wrote about in his book Box Office Poison and discusses with Signature Entertainment's Ben Jacques. We also have New York born and Tamil Nadu raised singer and musician Ganavya who perfor...
Nov 26, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friends for fifty years, Sigourney Weaver and Selina Cadell discuss acting together in the Jamie Lloyd Company's new production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. As part of the BBC's Scam Safe week, we examine whether art fraud is on the rise with Georgina Adam from the Art Newspaper and and the lawyer Amanda Gray, a specialist from the firm Mishcon De Reya. And, musician Nitin Sawhney talks about his two new works Heart Suite, about by his recent heart attack, and Orbital, which is inspired by this...
Nov 25, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
