Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Hit the Road & Mercury Pictures Presents reviewed, Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, Bernard Cribbins remembered
Panah Panahi is the son of acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Panah's film Hit the Road is a road movie with a difference as a family travel through…
- Front Row
Sister Act, Dramatising the Ugandan Asian exodus, David Olusoga
Sister Act the Musical is returning to the London stage, after two years of Covid delays and thirty years after the much loved Whoopi Goldberg film. Tom…
- Front Row
Mercury Music and Booker Prize longlists; museums’ funding; new LGBTQ+ museum
The Mercury Music and Booker Prize lists - we discuss the albums and books nominated this year for these two major prizes. We're joined by writer and critic…
- Front Row
Singer Bella Hardy, Poet Thomas Lynch, Birmingham 2022 Festival
Singer and fiddle player Bella Hardy talks about her new album – her tenth – Love Songs, which sees this adventurous musician return to where she began, with…
- Front Row
Notre-Dame On Fire and novel Milk Teeth reviewed; Jennifer Walshe performs live; writer Alan Grant remembered
Notre-Dame On Fire, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, is a film dramatising the events of the horrifying night on April 15, 2019 when the cathedral that…
- Front Row
Where The Crawdads Sing; On Sonorous Seas; Maison Margiela's Cinema Inferno
Where The Crawdads Sing: director Olivia Newman on bringing the multi-million copy best-selling novel to the big screen. Cinema Inferno: the new catwalk…
- Front Row
Jean Paul Gaultier, Much Ado About Nothing, Music Tours
Reflecting on his 50 years in fashion, designer Jean Paul Gaultier sits down with Samira Ahmed to talk about his life, Madonna, London and how it has inspired…
- Front Row
Kraftwerk's Karl Bartos, the Spooky Men’s Chorale, playwright Lucy Kirkwood
Karl Bartos, musician and composer, on his life in the German band Kraftwerk - as told in his new memoir The Sound of the Machine.Playwright and screenwriter…
- Front Row
Persuasion & Patriots reviewed, Durham Brass Festival, Museum of the Year winner
The new film Persuasion based on Jane Austen’s novel starring Dakota Johnson and directed by Carrie Cracknell has already attracted a lot of attention for its…
- Front Row
Shakespeare North Playhouse, Tŷ Pawb in Wrexham, The Railway Children Return
In the late 16th century, the Merseyside town of Prescot had the only purpose-built, indoor theatre outside London. Now the Shakespeare North Playhouse, a £38…
- Front Row
Hildur Guðnadóttir, National Plan for Music Education, Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
Oscar winning Joker composer Hildur Guðnadóttir talks about her new commission for the BBC Proms, inspired by political division, and the difference between…
- Front Row
Jack Absolute Flies Again, Joe Stilgoe, Cattelan / Druet
Jack Absolute Flies Again, at the National Theatre, is an adaptation of Sheridan’s comedy of manners The Rivals. Writers Richard Bean (who wrote One Man, Two…
- Front Row
The Story Museum, The Waste Land and Brian and Charles reviewed, Grand Theft Hamlet
This week’s cultural critics, music journalist Jude Rogers and film critic Rhianna Dhillon, join Tom Sutcliffe to review a new Radio 3 drama, He Do The Waste…
- Front Row
New national poet of Wales, Lucian Freud show, The Royal Cornwall Museum, The Blue Woman opera
The role of National Poet of Wales is demanding: ‘to represent the diverse cultures and languages of Wales at home and abroad, take poetry to new audiences…
- Front Row
Claudia Rankine, Derby's Museum of Making, Streamer Fatigue
The American writer Claudia Rankine is best known for her poetry, which has won critical acclaim and international fans. She discusses her play The White Card…
- Front Row
Peter Brook; Gone With The Wind; new children’s laureate Joseph Coelho
Peter Brook: we look back on the life and career of the great theatre and film director, with critic Michael Billington.Gone With the Wind was an instant…
- Front Row
All Our Yesterdays, Sun & Sea, Laura Veirs
Best-selling novelist Lawrence Norfolk and award-winning writer Joanna Walsh review a new edition of All Our Yesterdays, a novel by the acclaimed post-war…
- Front Row
In the Black Fantastic exhibition; Maya Youssef performs live; visual artist Colin Davidson's exhibition
Curator Ekow Eshun on creating In The Black Fantastic: the UK’s first major exhibition dedicated to the work of Black artists who use fantastical elements to…
- Front Row
Arthur Hughes as Richard III, Literary Prizes, Dadaist Interventions
Arthur Hughes, known for his roles in The Archers, in which he plays Ruairi, and the BBC2 drama Then Barbara Met Alan, details the significance of his…
- Front Row
Stephen Beresford, A harp concerto about bees, James Graham, Peter Kosminsky
Playwright and BAFTA winning screenwriter Stephen Beresford has returned to writing for the stage with The Southbury Child, a co-production between The…
- Front Row
Reviews of the plays Rock, Paper, Scissors and documentary Studio Electrophonique, The People's History Museum, Michael Rosen
Critic Ben East and academic Catherine Love review Rock, Paper, Scissors, a trilogy of plays written by Chris Bush to mark the 50th anniversary of Sheffield…
- Front Row
Rowan Atkinson, Windrush Sculptures, Susanne Bier
Rowan Atkinson is associated with a lot of ‘B’s – Blackadder, Bean, bumbling British spies... and now bees. He plays an inept house-sitter in a luxury mansion…
- Front Row
Live music festivals; Roy Williams' play The Fellowship; The Horniman Museum
As Glastonbury returns this week after a two year pandemic hiatus, a summer of festivals gets under way while some festivals are forced to cancel due to…
- Front Row
Baz Lurhmann on Elvis, new productions of Carmen and Tom, Dick and Harry
Director Baz Luhrmann on the making of Elvis, his new biopic of Elvis Presley, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks. Director Mathilde Lopez talks about…
- Front Row
Circle of Fifths, reviews of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and The Lazarus Project
National Theatre Wales is about to open a new production described as a live documentary performance, Circle of Fifths. With cast and stories drawn from the…
- Front Row
Freddie De Tommaso, Women’s Prize For Fiction Winner, John Byrne, Ukrainian Antiquities
Operatic tenor Freddie De Tommaso on his overnight breakthrough to stardom and performing at the First Night Of The Proms.We announce and speak to the winner…
- Front Row
Theaster Gates, Lightyear, Dean Atta, Music Back Catalogues
Chicago based artist Theaster Gates on The Black Chapel - his design for this year’s Serpentine Gallery pavilion, which is created each year by world class…
- Front Row
George Ezra performs, TV drama Sherwood reviewed, Norway's National Museum opens
Fresh from performing at the Queen's platinum jubilee concert, singer-songwriter George Ezra plays in the Front Row studio from his new album, Gold Rush…
- Front Row
Reviews of the film All My Friends Hate Me and the play Cancelling Socrates; the Women's Prize for Fiction nominee Ruth Ozeki
On our Thursday review panel this week: the film critic Leila Latif and Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek Literature and Culture at the University of…
- Front Row
Paula Rego Remembered, Cressida Cowell, Elif Shafak, Stones In His Pockets
Artist Paula Rego remembered. Following the sad news today of the death of one of the most important figurative painters of our times, we look back on her life…
- Front Row
Ayanna Witter Johnson performs, Clement Ishmael, digital theatre
Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a singer-songwriter, cellist and composer blurring the boundaries of classical, jazz, reggae and R&B. Performing live in the Front Row…
- Front Row
Africa Oyé, Queer Poetry, Maggie Shipstead
Africa Oyé, the UK's largest festival of music from the continent of Africa, celebrates its 30th anniversary in Liverpool's Sefton Park this month. Its…
- Front Row
Front Row reviews 1952
To celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee, Front Row discusses some of the cultural highlights of 1952.Samira Ahmed is joined by broadcaster Dame Joan…
- Front Row
Tracey Emin, Anthony Joseph, Bergman Island
Anthony Joseph – poet, musician, and academic – joins us to talk about his new poetry collection, Sonnets for Albert, which considers the personal impact of…
- Front Row
Rory Kinnear on the film Men, Lord Parkinson on the new UK City of Culture, The Duchess of Cornwall, Mo Abudu on Blood Sisters
Actor Rory Kinnear plays ten characters- all the male roles but one- in the new psychological horror film from Alex Garland, Men. He joins Samira Ahmed to…
- Front Row
Refik Anadol, Jasdeep Singh Degun, The British Art Show
Immersive digital art in Coventry, the British Art Show, & music from Jasdeep Singh Degun.
- Front Row
Reviews of The Midwich Cuckoos, Pistol and Edvard Munch, Meg Mason on Sorrow and Bliss
Meg Mason is the latest in our series of interviews with authors shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her novel Sorrow and Bliss is narrated by…
- Front Row
The Art of Burning Man, dementia on stage, dogs on screen at Cannes
Radical Horizons: The Art of Burning Man is an outdoor exhibition on the Chatsworth House estate - a series of monumental sculptures from the festival in the…
- Front Row
ABBA Voyage, Terence Davies, Zaffar Kunial's poem for George Floyd
48 years after the British jury gave them nul points at the Eurovision song contest, ABBA the avatars begin a long term arena residency in London. Samira talks…
- Front Row
The Cannes Film Festival, John Godber's Teechers, the winner of the British Book Awards
Jason Solomons reports live from the Cannes Film Festival, with news of the surprise hits of this year's festival and who's in contention for the big prizes…
- Front Row
Cornelia Parker and Emergency reviewed, The Wreckers, Ivor Novello Awards
Melly Still on directing ‘The Wreckers’, by Ethel Smyth, the first ever opera by a woman composer to be performed at the Glyndebourne Festival.Morgan…
- Front Row
Joanna Scanlan; director Indu Rubasingham; the Norfolk and Norwich Festival
Bafta-winning actress Joanna Scanlan on learning Welsh and acting in the language for the very first time in Y Golau - a new crime drama for S4C and BBC…
- Front Row
Kay Mellor remembered
Television screenwriter Kay Mellor, the woman behind popular series like Band of Gold, Fat Friends and The Syndicate, is remembered by fellow dramatist Sally…
- Front Row
Top Gun Maverick, Joseph Wright of Derby Painting, Kingsway Tram Subway, Louise Erdrich
36 years after playing pilot Pete Mitchell in the first Top Gun film, Tom Cruise returns to the role. Now Mitchell is one of the US Navy's top aviators, a…
- Front Row
Oklahoma! on stage and Conversations with Friends on TV reviewed; The Bob Dylan Centre; The Florence Nightingale Museum reopens
On today's Front Row review, we discuss directors taking a new look at much loved works: Daniel Fish’s Broadway production of Oklahoma!, now at the Young Vic…
- Front Row
The directors of Everything Everywhere All At Once
Film directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, otherwise known as ‘the Daniels’, join us to discuss their much anticipated sci-fi, multiverse film -…
- Front Row
Eurovision; BookTok and young adult publishing; Waldemar Januszczak on art in Ukraine
Eurovision decided to ban Russian participation this year on the grounds that it might bring the contest into disrepute, following the invasion of Ukraine…
- Front Row
Clio Barnard, Belle and Sebastian, Lisa Allen-Agostini
Clio Barnard talks to Samira Ahmed about directing the television adaptation of Sarah Perry’s bestselling novel The Essex Serpent. It stars Claire Danes as…
- Front Row
PJ Harvey, Radical Landscapes exhibition and TV show The Terror-Infamy reviewed
Singer songwriter PJ Harvey tells us about Orlam, her narrative poem set in a magic realist version of the West Country - a rural, and at times gothic…
- Front Row
Deesha Philyaw, Tristan Sharps, County Durham bid for City of Culture
This year’s Brighton Festival has two guest directors for the first time in its history. One of them, Tristan Sharps, artistic director of Brighton based…
- Front Row
Nathaniel Price, Alex Heffes, Actors and AI
Nathaniel Price discusses his drama First Touch, opening at the Nottingham Playhouse, about an aspiring young footballer growing up in Nottingham in the 1970s…
- Front Row
Caryl Lewis, Gwenno, Anthony and Kel Matsena
Huw Stephens, familiar to listeners to Radio Cymru and Radio Wales presents a multilingual, multicultural Bank Holiday edition of Front Row from Cardiff. Caryl…
- Front Row
The Corn is Green play and Walter Sickert exhibition reviewed, Cherylee Houston
Observer theatre critic Susannah Clapp and broadcaster and Editor of the Wales Art Review Gary Raymond review The Corn is Green at the National Theatre and…
- Front Row
Raphael exhibition; The Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist; poet Valzhyna Mort
Dr Matthias Wivel, co-curator of the Raphael exhibition at the National Gallery, discusses the life and death of the Renaissance painter and how he shaped the…
- Front Row
Tim Foley, Heartstopper, The Proms, Lawrence Power performs
Emerging playwright Tim Foley is in the distinctive position of having won a prize for every play of his that has been staged. He joins Front Row to discuss…
- Front Row
Punchdrunk's The Burnt City, John Morton on Ten Percent, musician Jack Savoretti
The Burnt City is the biggest production to date from the pioneering immersive theatre company Punchdrunk. As the company takes up residence in the former…
- Front Row
Atlantis and The Young Pretender reviewed, Martin Green, Venice Biennale
Atlantis (2019) was the Ukrainian entry for that year's Oscars. It now seems incredibly prescient in its depiction of a Ukraine set post-war in 2025. Film…
- Front Row
Sarah Solemani on TV's Chivalry; male soprano Samuel Marino performs; Bradford's bid for UK City of Culture
Chivalry, the new Channel 4 comedy which looks at the making of a Hollywood movie in a post MeToo world, has been co-created by its co-stars – Sarah Solemani…
- Front Row
Robert Eggers on The Northman, Oliver Jeffers, the late Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Director Robert Eggers discusses his new film The Northman, set in Iceland at the turn of the 10th century. A Nordic prince sets out on a mission of revenge…
- Front Row
Abdulrazak Gurnah and the Big Jubilee Read from the Library of Birmingham
The Big Jubilee Read is a reading for pleasure campaign by the Reading Agency and the BBC highlighting 70 books from across the Commonwealth published during…