Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Scottish-Iranian film Winners, playwright Calum L MacLeòid, neurodiversity and creativity
Filmmaker Hassan Nazar talks to Kate Molleson about his new film Winners, a love letter to the art of cinema. Set in Iran, it follows two children who find an…
- Front Row
Diversity at the Oscars and Baftas; plays and the cost of living; children's books; Phyllida Barlow
The conclusion of the Oscars marks the end of the film awards season, so Front Row took the opportunity to look at the progress made on representation in film…
- Front Row
Author Percival Everett, director Pravesh Kumar on Little English
Author Percival Everett on his novel Dr No; Director Pravesh Kumar on his film Little English; the new Yeats Smartphones poetry trail in BedfordAward-winning…
- Front Row
Film My Sailor, My Love; Atwood’s Old Babes In The Wood; Baillie Gifford prize; Nicole Flattery
New Irish film, My Sailor, My Love, by Finnish director, Klaus Härö, and a new collection of short stories, Old Babes in the Wood, by Margaret Atwood. To…
- Front Row
Pioneering play Top Girls turns 40, do publishers owe a duty of care to memoirists? and the benefits of stopping the show
A reimagining of Caryl Churchill’s ground-breaking and celebrated play, Top Girls, opens this week at the Liverpool Everyman which sets the play – about female…
- Front Row
Daniel Mays on a new production of Guys and Dolls, and how accessible are venues and film sets for performers?
Daniel Mays talks to Samira Ahmed about starring as Nathan Detroit in a new immersive production of the musical Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre in south…
- Front Row
Steven Moffat and Lucy Caldwell on writing about the Hadron Collider
Sherlock and Dr Who writer Steven Moffat, and Lucy Caldwell, winner of the BBC National Short Story Award, discuss writing short stories inspired by the…
- Front Row
Daisy Jones & The Six on TV. Lukas Dhont’s film Close. Edmund De Waal on potter Lucie Rie
Riley Keough and Sam Claflin star in the 10-part adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel Daisy Jones And The Six, the story of a fictional 70s band loosely…
- Front Row
Barry Male Voice Choir, new play Romeo and Julie, WNO’s Blaze of Glory and Welsh culture minister Dawn Boden
On St David's Day Front Row is coming from Cardiff with Huw Stephens bringing the latest arts and culture stories of Wales. Welsh National Opera’s latest…
- Front Row
Tracy-Ann Oberman, Director Michael B Jordan, Oldham Coliseum
Tracy-Ann Oberman on playing a female Shylock in the RSC's new 1936 version of The Merchant Of Venice at Watford Palace Theatre.As the Oldham Coliseum is…
- Front Row
Conductor Antonio Pappano on Puccini’s Turandot and the Ukrainian cabaret artists performing in exile
Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano tells us about his two new versions of Puccini’s opera, Turandot – a revival on stage at the Royal Opera House, and a new…
- Front Row
Immersive David Hockney art and Korean film Broker reviewed; artist Mike Nelson; AI-generated writing
Reviews of the new immersive show David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) at Lightroom in London and Korean film Broker, with Larushka Ivan…
- Front Row
New film The Strays, artists Chila Kumari Singh Burman and Dawinder Bansal, Janet Malcolm’s photography memoir
Nathaniel Martello-White on making his directorial debut with the psychological thriller The Strays, set between a south London estate and an affluent English…
- Front Row
Michael Douglas, culture in Ukraine a year after invasion, visual effects and animation in the UK
Hollywood star Michael Douglas talks about his double-Oscar winning movie career, how he’s still learning the craft of acting and about his new film, Ant-Man…
- Front Row
Hugh Jackman, Kevin Jared Hosein, the future of opera
Hugh Jackman talks to Samira Ahmed about his role in Florian Zeller's new film The Son, in which he plays a father struggling with his child’s mental health…
- Front Row
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, Alice Neel, Spitting Image
On today's Front Row, Samira Ahmed talks to stand-up comedian Al Murray about putting the puppets of the political satire TV show Spitting Image on stage for…
- Front Row
Asif Kapadia's dance film Creature; the Barbellion Book Prize winner; South Asian and South East Asian galleries in Manchester
The Oscar-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia tells Tom Sutcliffe about collaborating with the Olivier-winning choreographer Akram Khan on the dance film Creature…
- Front Row
Tracy Chevalier on Vermeer exhibition; live v streaming theatre audiences; American poet A. E. Stallings; The King's Singers
Tracy Chevalier discusses a historic Vermeer exhibition at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, the largest collection of his paintings ever assembled including Girl with…
- Front Row
Kate Prince on her suffragette musical, the art of casting, set design at the Brits.
Sylvia is a new hip hop, funk and soul musical telling the story the fight for women’s – and universal – suffrage, through the life of Sylvia Pankhurst. It…
- Front Row
Georgia Oakley director of Blue Jean, Burt Bacharach obituary, Salman Rushdie's Victory City and Peter Doig exhibition reviewed
Director and screenwriter Georgia Oakley talks about her BAFTA nominated debut feature film Blue Jean, which tells the story of a female closeted PE teacher in…
- Front Row
The Reytons, film-maker Saim Sadiq, The Beekeeper of Aleppo
From a pop-up shop in Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield to the top spot in the album charts - The Reytons join Front Row to discuss their breakthrough…
- Front Row
Les Dennis and Mina Anwar, writer Tania Branigan, Kerry Shale on Yentl
Mina Anwar and Les Dennis discuss their new production of Spring and Port Wine at the Bolton Octagon. They explain why the 1960s classic play about a family in…
- Front Row
Costume designer Sandy Powell, playwright Chris Bush, Donatello sculptures at the V&A
Sandy Powell is the first costume designer to receive a BAFTA Fellowship. She talks to Tom Sutcliffe about collaborating with directors Martin Scorsese and…
- Front Row
TV drama Nolly and film The Whale reviewed, director M Night Shyamalan
Noele Gordon was the star of Crossroads, the soap that ran on ITV from 1964 to 1988, attracting audiences of 15 million in its heyday. She was sacked from the…
- Front Row
Sonia Boyce, The Quiet Girl, Theatre Freelance Pay, Oldham Coliseum
Sonia Boyce’s exhibition, Feeling Her Way, won the top prize at the Venice Biennale international art fair. As the sound, video and wallpaper installation…
- Front Row
Beethoven's Für Elise, playwright Garry Lyons, film director Rajkumar Santoshi
Beethoven’s love life has long fascinated music scholars primarily because so little is known about it despite some tantalising clues. In his new book, Why…
- Front Row
Film director Sarah Polley, novelist Ann-Helen Laestadius and deep fakes on TV
Director Sarah Polley discusses her latest film, Women Talking, nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Based on the true story of the women in a remote…
- Front Row
The Fabelmans and Noises Off reviewed, Joe Cornish on new TV drama Lockwood and Co.
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by critics Karen Krizanovich and Michael Billington to review The Fabelmans and the 40th anniversary production of Noises Off. Steven…
- Front Row
Mel C on dancing with Jules Cunningham, film-maker Laura Poitras, musician Rasha Nahas
Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice, is best known for being in one of the most successful girl groups of all time. But this week she’s swapping the pop world for the…
- Front Row
Artist John Akomfrah, Oscar Nominations, Arts Council England responds
John Akomfrah was announced today as the artist chosen to represent the UK at the next Venice Biennale - the world's biggest contemporary art exhibition. Known…
- Front Row
The play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons; conductor Alice Farnham; the short film An Irish Goodbye.
Jenna Coleman (Clara in Dr Who) and Aidan Turner (Poldark) are appearing in a new production of Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons at The Harold Pinter Theatre…
- Front Row
Spain and the Hispanic World exhibition, new film Holy Spider, artist Clarke Reynolds
Samira Ahmed and guests Maria Delgado and Isabel Stevens review two of the week’s top cultural picks. They discuss a new exhibition of Spanish art, Spain and…
- Front Row
Hepworth, Moore, landscape and cows' backs; fiddle player John McCusker; novelist Victoria MacKenzie
A new exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield celebrates the relationship that two of the UK’s greatest sculptors, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, had with the…
- Front Row
Poet Anthony Joseph, new novels about witches and the fall in female film-makers
Over the last three weeks Front Row has broadcast a poem by each of the 10 writers shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry. The winner was announced last…
- Front Row
Rebecca Frecknall on A Streetcar Named Desire, Rick Rubin, Clarinetist Kinan Azmeh
Nine-time Grammy winning record producer and Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin has produced hits for artists including Run DMC, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johnny…
- Front Row
The Last of Us & Enys Men reviewed
The film critic Clarisse Loughrey and literary editor Sam Leith join Tom Sutcliffe live in the studio to review the new HBO series The Last of Us, based on the…
- Front Row
Filmmaker Todd Field on Tár, Glyndebourne tour cancellation, Debut novelist Jyoti Patel
Tár is a psychological drama about an imaginary conductor, Lydia Tár, which has already made waves both for its central performance by Cate Blanchett and for…
- Front Row
How AI is changing art, the TS Eliot Prize for poetry and the folk music of wassailing
Designer Steven Zapata and artist Anna Ridler discuss whether AI art poses a threat to artists and designers. Imagine reading more than 200 new books of…
- Front Row
The Light in the Hall, The Shipping Forecast photographs, Nell Zink
The Light in the Hall, a crime drama starring Joanna Scanlan, has launched on Channel 4 following its previous incarnation in Welsh on S4C, as Y Golau…
- Front Row
Two of the year's major films, Till and Empire of Light, reviewed and John Preston on his TV drama Stonehouse.
John Preston, the Costa Award-winning biographer of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, makes his screenwriting debut with a drama about another infamous figure of…
- Front Row
Vocal ensemble Stile Antico, Fay Weldon obituary, director John Strickland
The English composer William Byrd died 400 years ago. To mark this the acclaimed vocal ensemble Stile Antico is about to release an album of his music. Five of…
- Front Row
Tom Hanks On A Man Called Otto, Author Deepti Kapoor, The London Ticket Bank
Tom Hanks talks about playing a curmudgeonly older man whose life changes when a young family moves in next door in his latest film, A Man Called Otto. Author…
- Front Row
Leeds 2023 Year of Culture
Front Row visits Leeds as the city prepares to celebrate culture throughout 2023.Following Brexit, Leeds’ bid for European Capital of Culture was ruled…
- Front Row
The Pale Blue Eye and Happy Valley reviewed, Artist Alexander Creswell
Critics Tim Robey and Rhianna Dhillon join Front Row to watch the murder-mystery gothic horror film The Pale Blue Eye, starring Christian Bale, Gillian…
- Front Row
Marie Kreutzer on the film Corsage, Film director Mike Hodges remembered, Artistic buzzwords, The T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
Film director Marie Kreutzer on her new period drama film, Corsage, about the rebellious Elisabeth, 19th-century empress of Austria and queen of Hungary…
- Front Row
Terry Hall remembered, state of UK theatre, board games of the last 40 years
Terry Hall of The Specials remembered after his sad passing. We hear him talking to John Wilson in 2019, and Pete Paphides looks back on his life and…
- Front Row
Lucy Prebble, immersive experiences, what next for ENO
Lucy Prebble, acclaimed playwright and Succession screenwriter, talks to Tom about the return of I Hate Suzie Too, her TV collaboration with Billie Piper about…
- Front Row
Quentin Blake discussion, reviews of Avatar and Magdalena Abakanowicz
For our Thursday review, film critic Leila Latif and art critic Ben Luke join Samira to discuss the much anticipated release of the Avatar sequel, The Way of…
- Front Row
Neil Gaiman, China's art censorship in Europe, Decline of the working class in the creative industries
Neil Gaiman reflects on The Ocean at the End of the Lane as the stage adaption of his award-winning novel begins a nationwide tour.A new report investigating…
- Front Row
Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody; Qatar art, architecture & the World Cup; Hannah Khalil
Director Kasi Lemmons discusses her new film, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, a biopic of the performer Whitney Houston, whose unmatched vocal power saw her…
- Front Row
Zadie Smith on The Wife of Willesden, David Tennant on Litvinenko and Rick Wakeman's stolen gear
Zadie Smith talks about her play The Wife of Willesden, a modern re-telling of Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath starring Clare Perkins in the title role at Kiln…
- Front Row
Orlando starring Emma Corrin & Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio reviewed, Damian Lewis on A Spy Among Friends
Orlando starring Emma Corrin at the Garrick Theatre in London and Guillermo del Toro’s animated film Pinocchio are reviewed by Shon Faye, author of The…
- Front Row
The Turner Prize winner, poet Kim Moore, Razorlight's Johnny Borrell
The winner of this year's Turner Prize will be announced at St George’s Hall in Liverpool. Art critic Louisa Buck reflects on this year’s Turner Prize and…
- Front Row
Antoine Fuqua on Emancipation, NDAs in film and TV casting, playwright April De Angelis
Film director Antoine Fuqua discusses his new film, Emancipation, which stars Will Smith. He discusses basing his film on the true story of an enslaved man in…
- Front Row
Fergus McCreadie, Leyla Josephine, Scottish National Gallery
Jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie performs live from his latest album Forest Floor, which recently won the Scottish Album of the Year award and a Mercury Prize…
- Front Row
Veronica Ryan - shortlisted for the Turner Prize, reviews of new Stormzy album and film White Noise
Veronica Ryan OBE is shortlisted for the Turner Prize. She talks to Front Row about her Windrush Commission sculptures in Hackney that have won the hearts of…
- Front Row
Maxine Peake on Betty! A Sort of Musical, Turner Prize nominee Heather Phillipson, Signal Film and Media in Barrow-in-Furness
Maxine Peake discusses playing Betty Boothroyd, former Speaker of the House of Commons in Betty! A Sort of Musical, which is about to open at Manchester’s…
- Front Row
Clint Dyer on Othello, Turner Prize nominee Ingrid Pollard, should museums close controversial galleries?
Clint Dyer discusses directing Othello starring Giles Terera at the National Theatre, the first Black director to do so. He talks about how he is approaching…
- Front Row
Turner Prize nominee Sin Wai Kin, Katherine Rundell on John Donne, Ballet Black
Author Katherine Rundell talks to Tom Sutcliffe about her book Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, which has won this year’s The Baillie…
- Front Row
Joan Armatrading, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye exhibition and film She Said reviewed
The much-celebrated singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading on her 50-year career, her book of lyrics, The Weakness in Me, and new album Live at Asylum Chapel.Arts…