Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Liane Moriarty, Matthew Bourne, Igor Levit
Liane Moriarty is the best-selling author of nine novels including, Big Little Lies, and Nine Perfect Strangers, both of which have been adapted for…
- Front Row
BBC National Short Story Award Shortlist, tenor Stuart Skelton, Shang-Chi film review, Girl Bands now
Front Row announces the shortlist for the £15,000, 16th BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University. Judge Fiona Mozley, author of…
- Front Row
Elijah Wood, the future of live streaming, Imriel Morgan
Elijah Wood tells Tom Sutcliffe about his new film No Man of God. Elijah Wood plays criminal profiler Bill Hagmaier in a story based on interview transcripts…
- Front Row
The Chair reviewed, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction, Timespan shortlisted for Museum of the Year, Punchdrunk
The recent Netflix comedy drama, The Chair, centres on an English professor, played by Sandra Oh who has just been appointed the first female chair of the…
- Front Row
Photographer/film-maker Shirin Neshat, author Yaa Gyasi, Michael K Williams tribute
Iranian-born artist, photographer and filmmaker Shirin Neshat talk to us about her latest work - a feature film entitled Land of Dreams which premiered at The…
- Front Row
Cathy Brady, Mick Fleetwood, Jean Paul Belmondo
Guitarist Peter Green last performed with Fleetwood Mac, the band he help found, in 1970. Fellow founding-member Mick Fleetwood has honoured Green's legacy in…
- Front Row
Spencer at Venice Film Festival, Sally Rooney review, Mogwai, Redemption through reading, Cornish Ordinalia
Irish author Sally Rooney’s third novel 'Beautiful World, Where Are You' has just been released amid a fanfare of publicity and speculation. It follows the…
- Front Row
Quentin Tarantino
When Quentin Tarantino’s debut novel, was published earlier this summer, he gave his only UK broadcast interview to Front Row. Now in a special edition of the…
- Front Row
Covid pilot events, Ian Rankin, Janine Jansen, Neal Cooper
Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus crime novels, has recently completed a book left unfinished by the father of the ‘tartan noir’ genre William…
- Front Row
Hugh Quarshie and Steve Coogan, the Paraorchestra, Daisy Haggard
The murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the subsequent police investigations threw up a lot of questions about institutional racism and corruption within…
- Front Row
Actor Liz Carr on Silent Witness and Hollywood
Liz Carr's role in Silent Witness was a groundbreaking step in the depiction of disability in primetime TV drama. The actor, comedian and broadcaster, who has…
- Front Row
Paula Hawkins, Nia DaCosta, Our Ladies film review, Paralympic dressage music
Paula Hawkins’s novel The Girl on the Train sold 23 million copies and was made into a film starring Emily Blunt. Now she has written A Slow Fire Burning, a…
- Front Row
Underwater Museum in Cyprus, Poet Fred D'Aguiar, Helen Zaltzman on Answer Me This podcast
Jason deCaires Taylor has been working in underwater art for 15 years. Today, he joins us to discuss his new museum Musan, built in the Mediterranean sea off…
- Front Row
The Rolling Stones in conversation with John Wilson
Following the announcement of the death of the musician Charlie Watts, tonight’s Front Row is an archive edition featuring John Wilson in conversation with the…
- Front Row
Natalya Romaniw, John Tanner, Josh Azouz, Charlie Watts
Music journalist David Hepworth reflects on the life and drums of Rolling Stone Charlie Watts who has died aged 80.Natalya Romaniw is a soprano on her way to…
- Front Row
Kalena Bovell, Don Everly, Jack Thorne, Reza Mohammadi
American conductor Kalena Bovell makes her Proms debut with the Chineke! Orchestra this week. She tells Samira about her path into conducting, and why it’s so…
- Front Row
Nicolas Cage film Pig, Singer-songwriter Moses Sumney, The White Lotus, Sisters
Michael Sarnoski is the director and co-writer of Pig, starring Nicolas Cage and a pig that is brilliant at finding truffles – until it’s stolen. Cage’s trip…
- Front Row
Cinderella, Sean Shibe, Censor, Firstsite
At last, Cinderella has made it to the ball. After postponement, rearrangement, and postponement again because of, first the lockdown, then social distancing…
- Front Row
Live from The Edinburgh Festival, including film-maker Isaac Julien
This year's Edinburgh Festival is a smaller affair than normal but it's packed full of delicious cultural goodness. We speak with film director Isaac Julien…
- Front Row
Live from the Edinburgh Festival with Henning Wehn, Frances Poet, Fara and Arusa Qureshi
The Edinburgh Festival is a much more pared-down event this year because of Covid, but despite this there is still plenty on offer. Comedian Henning Wehn is…
- Front Row
Music in Afghanistan, The Song Project, Manchester Collective
Dr Ahmad Sarmast, founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music tells John Wilson of his fears and hopes for music-making as his country…
- Front Row
Vikingur Olafsson, Power in publishing, Thackray Museum of Medicine.
Last year, Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson was Front Row's artist-in-residence from Reykjavik. Finally this week, he's able to join John Wilson in the…
- Front Row
The Courier, Deceit, 2.22 A Ghost Story review
In 1962 the USA and USSR engaged in one of the most terrifying acts of brinksmanship the world has seen. But few people know of the role played by an ordinary…
- Front Row
Celebrating Stravinsky
Russian composer Igor Stravinsky died 50 years ago this year. Yet his influence is still felt today, whether it's the pounding rhythms of The Rite of Spring or…
- Front Row
Paradise, John Boyne, Stuart Semple
Paradise opens at the Olivier auditorium of the National Theatre tomorrow. It's a new version of a play that had its premiere, and was acclaimed, in 409BC -…
- Front Row
Phil Wang, Shape Open exhibiton, All Bound Together, Lost manuscripts of Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Phil Wang joins us to discuss his stand up show, Philly Philly Wang Wang that he filmed at the London Palladium over the pandemic. Exploring race, romance…
- Front Row
Sir Tom Stoppard, Ryan Bancroft, Museum of The Year, Nick Laird
Sir Tom Stoppard's Olivier Award-winning play Leopoldstadt closed because of Covid in March 2020. Tomorrow it returns to the same stage and the same cast will…
- Front Row
Sarah, Duchess of York on her new novel, Max Richter
Sarah, Duchess of York, talks to Nick Ahad about her debut Mills and Boon novel, Her Heart for a Compass, based on the life of her ancestor, Lady Margaret. She…
- Front Row
Repairing Beirut's museum artefacts, Vivo, DCMS performer Visas
On the anniversary of the Beirut port explosion, we talk to representatives from both The British Museum and The Archaeological Museum at the American…
- Front Row
Elif Shafak, Jonathon Heyward, Stillwater review
Booker Prize shortlisted Turkish writer Elif Shafak has a new novel: The Island Of Missing Trees. Set in Cyprus it follows lovers who risk everything in a…
- Front Row
Kathleen Marshall and Sutton Foster, Tim Renkow, Scarlett Johansson suing Disney.
Yesterday the audience was on its feet – more than once - to applaud the cast, the band and the design of Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre in London. On…
- Front Row
Billie Eilish reviewed, Sir James MacMillan on the First Night of the Proms, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Edinburgh Art Festival
Ben Okri's new play Changing Destiny is an adaptation of one of the world's oldest known stories, the ancient Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe. Tonight marks not only…
- Front Row
Derby: 300 Years of Making
Geeta Pendse visits the new Museum of Making in Derby - an £18 million redevelopment that celebrates the city's 300-year industrial heritage. Jamie…
- Front Row
Tokyo: Art & Photography, Brett Goldstein and Nick Mohammed, Wellcome Photography Prize
Tokyo: Art & Photography at The Ashmolean in Oxford is a celebration of the city currently hosting the Olympics. The exhibition’s curator Lena Fritsch…
- Front Row
David Lan on The Walk, The 2021 Booker Prize longlist, David Livingstone birthplace re-opening
As a 3.5 metre tall puppet called Little Amal begins an 8,000km journey from Turkey to Manchester to highlight the difficulties faced by refugee children…
- Front Row
Morris Hayes on posthumous Prince album, reopenings in Northern Ireland, actor Amir El-Masry on new film Limbo
Five years after Prince's death, the musician's music director of over 20 years, Morris Hayes, discusses Prince's posthumous new album Welcome 2 America…
- Front Row
April De Angelis, Tokyo Olympics, Jordan Tannahill, Neil Mendoza
Playwright April De Angelis joins Tom to talk about her new musical Gin Craze! Described as 'a booze soaked love ballad from the women of Gin Lane.' The Tokyo…
- Front Row
McKellen's Hamlet reviewed, Mercury Prize nominees, Alex Von Tunzelmann on statues
Susannah Clapp, theatre critic of The Observer reviews the new age-blind production of Hamlet starring Ian McKellen, which officially opened up at the Theatre…
- Front Row
Jon Batiste, Museum of the Year shortlist, The Humboldt
American musician Jon Batiste has many strings to his bow – he’s an activist, recording artist, band leader for a daily TV late night chat show, a singer…
- Front Row
Ivorian director Philippe Lacôte on his film Night of the Kings, Best Pick podcast, Tirtzah Bassel Canon in Drag
Ivorian director Philippe Lacôte talks about his film Night of the Kings, set in a notorious Abidjan prison run by the inmates, in which he explores the West…
- Front Row
Debbie Harry on a new Blondie album, 'Reclaiming Amy', Reassessing Amy Winehouse's musical legacy
Chart-topping New York post-punk group Blondie have more than 40 years of chart success under their belts and in 2019 they decided to travel to play some…
- Front Row
Quentin Tarantino, YA Fiction, Report from Cannes, The Vegetable Seller
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is a Hollywood veteran and it was the ending of Hollywood’s golden age that was the subject of his last film – Once Upon a Time in…
- Front Row
Anna Meredith on Bumps Per Minute, British Podcast Awards, Generational Differences in Publishing
This summer Somerset House in London will be home to a new work by composer Anna Meredith, Bumps Per Minute, which has a distinctly fairground feel. It uses…
- Front Row
Documentary Witches of the Orient, Antonia Fraser's verse and who should be writing book reviews?
A new documentary Witches Of The Orient' looks back at the last time that Tokyo acted as host. Volleyball made its debut in The 1964 Summer Olympics. And the…
- Front Row
Nowhere Special, Art and ecology with George Monbiot and Ruth Maclennan, "Mid-list" novelist Chris Paling
Uberto Pasolini made his name in the film industry as a producer with the international success of his film - The Full Monty. He’s continued to produce but in…
- Front Row
Marcus Rashford mural, Ian McMillan, gender split in publishing
The mural of footballer Marcus Rashford which was defaced with racist graffiti after England lost the Euro 2020 final last night was part of Withington Walls…
- Front Row
Llangollen bridge wrapped in patchwork for its Eisteddfod, Cannes Film Festival, Zaida Bergroth on film Tove
Film critic Jason Solomons brings a touch of glamour to tonight’s proceedings with his report from this year’s Cannes Film festival which opened this week.Tove…
- Front Row
Laura Mvula, Michael Spicer, Anthony Bolton
Laura Mvula’s first two albums were Mercury-Prize nominated, and now 5 years later she has returned with ‘Pink Noise’, an 80’s-inpsired-synth-inflected album…
- Front Row
Ola Ince on Romeo & Juliet, harassment and bullying in the acting profession, BFI's Ben Roberts
British director Ola Ince discusses her new stage production of Romeo & Juliet, currently on at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Ince has given it a contemporary…
- Front Row
Manchester International Festival
With her new sound and light installation, Arcadia, Theatre and Opera director Deborah Warner has brought the feel of the field into The Factory – the new home…
- Front Row
Paula Rego at Tate Britain, Black Widow, Cultural Recovery Fund a year on
The largest ever UK retrospective of the Portuguese-born artist Paula Rego opens at Tate Britain this week. Featuring over 100 works, many not seen before, the…
- Front Row
Giles Terera, Chi-chi Nwanoku, The 2021 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Reviewing Another Round
Actor Giles Terera tells us about his new book Hamilton and Me: an Actor’s Journal, his inside account of preparing for, rehearsing and performing in the West…
- Front Row
Bobby Gillespie, Karla Black, Audience Anxiety
We speak with Bobby Gillespie, front man of Primal Scream who has released a new album, Utopian Ashes, comprised of duets with French singer Jehnny Beth from…
- Front Row
Mark-Anthony Turnage, V&A East, Patricia Lockwood
Composer and Arsenal fan Mark-Anthony Turnage will be setting a football game to music. Not just any game, but Arsenal’s title-winning 1989 final game of the…
- Front Row
Dickens readings, Smart Fund, Randall Goosby
Later in his career Dickens toured the country doing hugely popular dramatic readings of his works. For his last tour he added in the scene where Bill Sykes…
- Front Row
Simon Russell Beale, French Exit, Lisa Taddeo
Simon Russell Beale was a choral scholar and the actor remains a serious musician who can play a Bach fugue. Now he is taking the role of Johann Sebastian in…
- Front Row
Siân Owen on Under Milk Wood, Nick Broomfield, Essex stereotypes in culture
It’s third time lucky for the National Theatre: it tried to re-open the Olivier, its largest auditorium, with The Death of England – Delroy in October. The…
- Front Row
Marianela Núñez, Charlotte Perriand exhibition review, Latitude Festival
Ninety years since Dame Ninette de Valois founded what we know now as the Royal Ballet and 75 since her post war production of Sleeping Beauty, Tom Sutcliffe…
- Front Row
The Overseas Student, Cherie Jones, India's Parliamentary District row
We're speaking to all the authors shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021 and tonight it's the turn of Cherie Jones. Her novel, How the One-Armed…
- Front Row
Joan Armatrading, Erland Cooper, EU cultural quotas
Joan Armatrading discusses her 22nd album, Consequences, and writing songs about love inspired by observation rather than personal experience and how, despite…