Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Lady Chatterley's Lover reviewed, Jake Heggie on It's A Wonderful Life, casting Ukrainian actors, Wilko Johnson
Lara Feigel and Tom Shakespeare review Netflix’s new adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, starring Emma Corrin.The English National Opera stages an operatic…
- Front Row
Matthew Warchus on Matilda, Kapil Seshasayee performs, climate protests in galleries
Director Matthew Warchus discusses his new film Matilda the Musical. Based on the Tony and Olivier award winning stage play, it brings Roald Dahl’s much loved…
- Front Row
Director Luca Guadagnino on Bones and All, Gainsborough’s House, writer Ronald Blythe at 100
Luca Guadagnino won the Silver Lion for Best Director at this year's Venice Film Festival for his latest film, Bones and All, starring Timothée Chalamet and…
- Front Row
The Wonder, Making Modernism, Frantic Assembly, Opera and elitism
With Samira Ahmed.Guests Katy Hessel and Lillian Crawford review Florence Pugh's drama The Wonder, based on an Emma Donoghue novel, and the Royal Academy's…
- Front Row
Football Inspired Art, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Bruntwood Playwriting Prize winner, Chornobyldorf opera
Julie Hesmondhalgh, who played Hayley Cropper on Coronation Street, on writing a survival guide for new actors- An Actor’s Alphabet.What happens when football…
- Front Row
BBC Centenary, The Art of Radio, Joy Whitby, Climate Fiction
With Samira Ahmed.To mark the centenary of the first BBC radio broadcast, Samira Ahmed discusses the art of radio and radio’s influence on art with the…
- Front Row
The Crown, Jafar Panahi's No Bears, Jez Butterworth, Goldsmiths Prize
The Crown: as series five is with us, we review the next ten part instalment of Netflix's royal drama as it slips into more recent territory - the turmoil of…
- Front Row
Black Panther Director Ryan Coogler, Photographer Craig Easton
Filmmaker Ryan Coogler discusses returning to Black Panther after the death of Chadwick Boseman and how that experience has inspired the making of the sequel…
- Front Row
Jennifer Lawrence, mandolin player Chris Thile, Chokepoint Capitalism
Jennifer Lawrence and director Lila Neugebauer discuss their new film Causeway.Grammy award-winning mandolin player Chris Thile plays live in the studio from…
- Front Row
Arts Council Funding, the art of the infographic, film director Tas Brooker
Arts Council England have announced the most dramatic shift in funding for decades, diverting investment from London towards other parts of the country. The…
- Front Row
The English and Living reviewed, Royal Opera's Director of Opera Oliver Mears
Joan Bakewell and Hanna Flint give their verdicts on Hugo Blick's new TV Western on BBC2 starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, 'The English'. They've also…
- Front Row
Live from Cardiff with Connor Allen, Zoë Skoulding and music from Catrin Finch and Aoife Ni Bhriain
Playwright, poet and Children’s Laureate for Wales Connor Allen talks about his grime-theatre mash-up The Making of a Monster, a semi-autobiographical…
- Front Row
Nick Hornby, dancer Cecilia Iliesiu, Derek Owusu and Anthony Anaxagorou
Author Nick Hornby on the similarities of Dickens and Prince, as he publishes his new book on the “genius” of the Victorian novelist and the sex-funk pop…
- Front Row
Alison Lapper on Sarah Biffin, Ric Renton, Plastics at the V&A Dundee
Artist Alison Lapper and co-curator Emma Rutherford discuss a new exhibition Without Hands: The Art of Sarah Biffin, which takes a fresh look at the work of…
- Front Row
Tammy Faye musical, Paul Newman's memoir, Daniel Arsham, Simon Armitage
Reviewers Karen Krizanovich and David Benedict give their verdicts on Tammy Faye, A New Musical at the Almeida Theatre in London, starring Katie Brayben, and…
- Front Row
Turn It Up: The Power of Music exhibition; The Turner Prize at Tate Liverpool; Linton Kwesi Johnson
Art critic Laura Robertson reviews this year's Turner Prize show at Tate Liverpool. Presenter Nick Ahad pays a visit to the immersive exhibition, Turn It Up…
- Front Row
Eliza Carthy, Ruben Östlund, Brutalist Architecture
Eliza Carthy is celebrating 30 years as a professional musician with a new album, Queen of the Whirl. She talks about this, the legacy of her musical family –…
- Front Row
Taylor Swift and Arctic Monkeys
Taylor Swift and the Arctic Monkeys both released their debut albums in 2006. Their latest studio albums, Swift’s tenth, Midnights, and Arctic Monkeys seventh…
- Front Row
Front Row reviews popular culture of 1922
For the poet Ezra Pound it was ‘year zero for Modernism’ but what were people in Britain really reading, watching, listening to and looking at in 1922?To mark…
- Front Row
Martin McDonagh on The Banshees of Inisherin and The Royal National Mòd
Director Martin McDonagh talks about his new film The Banshees of Inisherin.The former Young People's Laureate for London, Selina Nwulu, discusses her latest…
- Front Row
New theatre @sohoplace, director Edward Berger, Jenny Beavan on fair pay for costume designers
Theatre producer Nica Burns talks about her brand new theatre building @sohoplace which is about to open in London’s West End.Film director Edward Berger…
- Front Row
The Booker Prize for Fiction 2022
The live ceremony for the 2022 Booker Prize for Fiction, hosted by Samira Ahmed. The winner of the £50,000 prize will be announced by the chair of judges Neil…
- Front Row
Hieroglyphs at the British Museum, Emily Brontë biopic, Shehan Karunatilaka
Emily is a new film starring Emma Mackey (of Sex Education fame) as the author of Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë. Emily is as wild as the windswept moorland…
- Front Row
Live from Belfast with Ruth McGinley, Conor Mitchell, Claire Keegan
Front Row comes from Belfast where Steven Rainey hears about some of the highlights of this year’s Belfast International Festival.Pianist Ruth McGinley talks…
- Front Row
Camilla George, Elizabeth Strout and Iranian artist Soheila Sokhanvari
Jazz saxophonist Camilla George plays live in the studio and talks about her new album Ibio-Ibio - a tribute to her Ibibio roots in Nigerian.Iranian artist…
- Front Row
Alan Garner Booker Shortlisted, Orfeo Reimagined, Baz Luhrmann on Peter Brook
Alan Garner’s 10th novel, Treacle Walker, may be one of the shortest books to make the Booker Prize shortlist but once read the slim volume which explores the…
- Front Row
Booker-nominated author Percival Everett, The Lost King reviewed
Author Percival Everett talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his Booker Prize nominated novel, The Trees, which uses dark humour to explore gruesome events in…
- Front Row
Björk, NoViolet Bulawayo, James Bond at 60
Mercurial musician Björk has just released her tenth album Fossora. She discusses the experience of making the album and her interest in mushrooms.Zimbabwean…
- Front Row
BBC National Short Story Award and BBC Young Writers' Award winners
The announcement of the winners of the BBC National Short Story Award and Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University live from the Radio Theatre at…
- Front Row
Viola Davis in The Woman King, playwright Rona Munro and artist Amy Sherald
American actress Viola Davis, who has won an Oscar, Emmy and a Tony for her outstanding performances, plays a female warrior in the historical epic The Woman…
- Front Row
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare North Playhouse and artist Samson Kambalu
Artist Samson Kambalu talks to Shahidha Bari about his sculpture Antelope, a thought provoking commentary on colonialism which has just been unveiled on…
- Front Row
The Blackwater Lightship, Filmmaker Kirsty Bell, Black Art
The Blackwater Lightship is a novel by Colm Tóibín, published in 1999 and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later made into a film and has now been…
- Front Row
Anthony Roth Costanzo, Unboxed's See Monster, and the cost of living crisis
Luke Jones meets the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, whose show Only An Octave Apart is about to begin a month long run at Wilton’s Music Hall in London…
- Front Row
Michael Winterbottom, Welsh arts project GALWAD, Hilary Mantel remembered
Michael Winterbottom discusses writing and directing a SKY TV drama, This England, starring Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson during his tumultuous first months…
- Front Row
Blonde and Inside Man reviewed, Anna Bailey interview
Critics Boyd Hilton and Sarah Crompton review Blonde, Andrew Dominik’s film adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ novel about Marilyn Monroe. They also discuss…
- Front Row
Beth Orton, Jodi Picoult, South Korean Art
Beth Orton performs two songs from her new album, Weather Alive, and discusses creative partnerships as well as life after being dropped by her record…
- Front Row
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of our country's greatest ever composers. Born 150 years ago in 1872, he is known for creating a sense of Englishness in…
- Front Row
Louise Doughty on her BBC drama Crossfire, singer-songwriter Miki Berenyi from Lush, author Jenn Ashworth
Bestselling author Louise Doughty discusses her new BBC One drama Crossfire, a thriller about a terrorist attack in a luxury holiday resort, starring Keeley…
- Front Row
Ticket to Paradise film, Winslow Homer exhibition, National Short Story Award shortlist announcement
Journalist and author Hadley Freeman, and Art UK editor and art historian Lydia Figes, review Ticket to Paradise starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and…
- Front Row
Cellist Abel Selaocoe, Art & History, Curlews In Music
Genre-defying South African cellist Abel Selaocoe speaks to Samira and performs a piece from his new album Where Is Home (Hae Ke Kae), which will be launched…
- Front Row
Richard Eyre's The Snail House; Sylvia Anderson and women in TV; the late Jean-Luc Godard
Sir Richard Eyre is one of the UK’s most distinguished and celebrated directors - equally at home in theatre, film, and television. At the age of 79, he has…
- Front Row
Eileen Cooper, Northern Ireland Opera, Basic Income For The Arts In Ireland, Roger McGough
Eileen Cooper is a painter and printmaker who’s been quietly creating boldly coloured figurative images and ceramics since the 1970s. This year finally sees…
- Front Row
Trumpet player Alison Balsom and the campaign to revive the works of author Jack Hilton
The trumpeter and musician Alison Balsom has performed with some of the world’s greatest orchestras. She talks about her latest album, Quiet City.Jack Hilton…
- Front Row
Loudon Wainwright III performs live, the Booker Prize shortlist, studying English Literature
American singer songwriter Loudon Wainwright III performs live in the studio and talks about his decades-long career, his current UK tour and his latest album…
- Front Row
David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, Venice Film Festival, Booker Longlisted Shehan Karunatilaka, Tom Chaplin
David Cronenberg’s new film Crimes of the Future is a science fiction body parts horror movie starring Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Stewart and Léa Seydoux. In a…
- Front Row
Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power; Three Thousand Years of Longing; Nick Drnaso; the Edinburgh Festivals
Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power is a prequel and in keeping with the epic scale of Tolkein’s books and their film versions it doesn’t begin a two years…
- Front Row
Joyce Carol Oates, The comeback of Jungle, RIOPY
Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel, Babysitter, is the story of a woman caught in an abusive relationship with her lover, set against the background of the hunt…
- Front Row
Best-selling book charts, author Ann Cleeves and Composer James B.Wilson on the last night of the Proms
Bestselling crime novelist Ann Cleeves joins Samira Ahmed to discuss the return of her no-nonsense Northumberland crime-fighter, Detective Inspector Vera…
- Front Row
Shelea, Reviewing Official Competition and Red Rose, Gus Casely-Hayford
The BBC Proms is celebrating what would’ve been Aretha Franklin’s 80th birthday, and leading the tribute is American singer-songwriter Sheléa. She's a protegee…
- Front Row
Gregory Doran and the RSC, WASWASA – Whispers in Prayer performance, Taiwan's new cultural landmark
When Gregory Doran was appointed Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2012, his stated ambition was for the company to stage the entire canon…
- Front Row
Anne-Marie Duff on Bad Sisters, Returning the Benin Bronzes, Public Service Broadcasting's Prom
Anne-Marie Duff talks to Samira about her new Apple TV+ series Bad Sisters, where she plays one of five sisters who is trapped in a coercive marriage, from…
- Front Row
Jacob Collier and Lizzy McAlpine, Abdul Shayek and Ishy Din, Threats to writers
Jacob Collier has won a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums. In fact, he has five Grammys altogether. He’s back home in London after his recent UK…
- Front Row
Edinburgh Festival: Burn, Counting & Cracking, Aftersun, Festival picks
Live from Edinburgh, with a review of Alan Cumming's one man show, Burn, which sets out to update the biscuit-tin image of Robert Burns. Plus Counting &…
- Front Row
Immy Humes and Aindrea Emelife, Charlotte Higgins and David Greig, Stefan Golaszewski
Both journalist Charlotte Higgins and playwright David Greig are fascinated by the Roman occupation of Britain. Higgins’s book Under Another Sky: Journeys in…
- Front Row
Live from the Edinburgh Festival: Matt Forde, Anne Sofie von Otter, Exodus
Kate Molleson and guests live from Edinburgh Festival. Comedian and impressionist Matt Forde talks about capturing the essence of political figures in his show…
- Front Row
Jordan Peele on Nope, trombonist Peter Moore, Where Is Anne Frank film review, Edinburgh Art Festival
Nope is the latest film from Oscar-winning writer-director Jordan Peele, whose breakthrough was the critically acclaimed 2017 horror Get Out. Tom Sutcliffe…
- Front Row
Bullet Train & Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man reviewed, conductor Semyon Bychkov
Tom Sutcliffe and guest reviewers Bidisha and Amon Warmann discuss Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt. It's a vivid mixture of comedy and violence from director…
- Front Row
The National Eisteddfod of Wales, Ted Gioia on Duke Ellington, musician Carolina Eyck performs
Huw Stephens reports from the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Tregaron, Ceredigion, talking to Archdruid Myrddin ap Dafydd, winner of this year’s Novel Prize…
- Front Row
Disabled-access ticket booking, Writer Will Ashon, Artists Jane Darke and Andrew Tebbs
Disabled-access ticket booking – for concerts, comedy clubs, theatre, festivals, and more. Carolyn Atkinson reports on problems with new initiatives to make…
- Front Row
Beyoncé's album Renaissance, poet Don Paterson, the New Diorama Theatre, Free-for-All exhibition, Nichelle Nichols remembered
Beyoncé's Renaissance: we discuss Beyoncé's house and disco inspired new album – her first solo material in six years - and her huge significance as an…