Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Dante's Divine Comedy 700 years on with Katya Adler; Costa Book Awards category winners
Suzannah Lipscomb, Chair of Judges for the Costa Book Awards 2020, joins us to reveal exclusively the winners in each of category: Novel, Children’s, Poetry…
- Front Row
Art that brightened the year - violinist Tasmin Little, Baillie Gifford winner Craig Brown, actress Rochenda Sandall
Front Row celebrates some of the art that brightened a dark year.British violinist Tasmin Little has hung up her violin and retired from the concert stage in…
- Front Row
Evelyn Glennie, The Serpent's Tom Shankland, chosen families in culture
The family you choose, rather than the family you’re born into, is fertile territory for writers. From Henry V, to The Lord of the Rings, to Josie and the…
- Front Row
Pianist Lang Lang on Bach's Goldberg Variations
The pianist Lang Lang this year released his first recording of Bach's 1741 keyboard masterpiece, Goldberg Variations, feeling he was finally ready to do so 20…
- Front Row
A poetry edition, with Simon Armitage, Vanessa Kisuule, Anthony Anaxagorou, Em Power, Anna Selby, Daphne Astor, talking, reading
The pandemic is having a profound impact on the arts. But you don't need to go anywhere, involve other people or need many materials, to write or read poetry…
- Front Row
Australian composer, musician and actor, Tim Minchin
Tim Minchin, the Australian stage performer with unkempt long hair and black mascara eyes, looks back over his career since his early days trying to scrape a…
- Front Row
Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones - Death to 2020
Black Mirror creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones discuss their new Netflix mocumentary Death to 2020, a documentary-style film that tells the story of…
- Front Row
Mackenzie Crook, Collaborative board games, Janey Godley, Zing Tsjeng's party choice
Mackenzie Crook talks about Saucy Nancy, the latest episode in his festive revivals of the children’s TV series Worzel Gummidge, which originally aired in the…
- Front Row
Bridgerton, Rachel Joyce, The custodians of our cultural institutions
Creator Chris van Dusen on Bridgerton, Netflix’s new drama series set in Regency England, about the daughter of a powerful family as she makes her debut onto…
- Front Row
George C Wolfe on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Let Him Go reviewed, Winifred Atwell celebrated
Director George C. Wolfe on his new film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, in which Viola Davis stars as the legendary “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey, alongside the…
- Front Row
David Fincher
Visionary director David Fincher on Mank, his new film about 1930s Hollywood, as seen through the eyes of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) as he…
- Front Row
Boris Giltburg, Christmas films, Party season substitutes
2020 marks Ludwig Van Beethoven’s 250th birthday, and pianist Boris Giltburg has taken on the mammoth task of learning, performing and recording all 32 of…
- Front Row
The Lark Ascending at 100, Wonder Woman 1984 reviewed, reading outside your comfort zone
Wonder Woman was the film that turned the reputation of DC Comics’ foray into big budget movies around in 2017. Director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot…
- Front Row
John le Carré tribute; Comedy double act The Pin; Aliza Nisenbaum
Novelist William Boyd and Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies at Oxford, reflect on the work of John le Carré exploring why he was more than a…
- Front Row
Barbara Windsor remembered, Vaughan Williams, Cultural Recovery Fund loans, American Utopia reviewed, Zaina Arafat
The death of actress Barbara Windsor was announced today. A household name from EastEnders and the Carry On films, she was also acclaimed for her early…
- Front Row
George Clooney's The Midnight Sky. Cyberpunk 2077. The debate on the National Trust
The Midnight Sky is George Clooney’s post-apocalyptic new film, which he directs and stars in alongside Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo. Is this Clooney’s…
- Front Row
Julia Hart on her film I'm Your Woman, Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave
Writer and director Julia Hart joins Samira to talk about I'm Your Woman, a gritty crime drama set in the 1970s. Rachel Brosnahan (Marvellous Mrs Maisel) stars…
- Front Row
Ryan Murphy’s new film starring Meryl Streep, James Corden and Nicole Kidman, reviewed
Ryan Murphy’s new film, The Prom, bursts into song and dance as four down-on-their-luck Broadway stars descend on a small Indiana town in support of a girl who…
- Front Row
Viggo Mortensen, Alex Wheatle, William Hill Sports Book of the Year
Viggo Mortensen joins us live to talk about his new film, Falling, his debut as a director, which he also wrote. It's the story of a conservative father moving…
- Front Row
New Tracey Emin exhibition, The Crown controversy, Walter Presents: The Announcer
The fourth in the Netflix series of The Crown, written by Peter Morgan and starring Olivia Coleman as the Queen, has raised questions about its historical…
- Front Row
Katie Melua, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Crimes Against Christmas
Seventeen years after achieving global success with her debut album, Katie Melua talks about her latest record Album No.8, and how she took a course in short…
- Front Row
Yazz Ahmed, Lucy Bailey, The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone
Yazz Ahmed, trumpeter and composer, and winner of the Innovation Award at tonight’s Ivors Awards, joins us in the studio. Yazz’s music blends jazz, arabic…
- Front Row
Henry Blake on County Lines; museums and galleries post Covid; re-reading Jane Austen's Emma
As museums and galleries in tiers one and two prepare to reopen on Wednesday, we consider what the future might look like for these much loved institutions…
- Front Row
Mandolin player Avi Avital, Marina Abramović, Possessor reviewed
Avi Avital., the world's leading mandolin player, on his new album The Art of the Mandolin, in which he performs music specially written for the instrument by…
- Front Row
Hollywood star Amy Adams, Corrie at 60 and Musician Jake Blount
The actress Amy Adams is one of Hollywood’s brightest stars with multiple Oscar nominations and a roster of unforgettable roles to her name from the adorable…
- Front Row
Playwright Roy Williams, Poet Fred D'Aguiar, Defending Digga D documentary
Roy Williams joins Samira Ahmed to talk about Death of England: Delroy. Just before Lockdown 2, this play’s opening night became its closing night. The…
- Front Row
Simon Russell Beale; Costa Book Awards shortlists; Guy Garvey
We exclusively reveal and analyse the 2020 Costa Book Prize shortlists. Critics Alex Clark and Jade Cuttle discuss the books chosen in the five categories…
- Front Row
Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart on Shuggie Bain
On Front Row last week, Douglas Stuart was awarded the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction for Shuggie Bain, his debut novel about a boy in 1980s Glasgow who…
- Front Row
Tim Minchin, Jan Morris remembered, new gaming consoles, Nicholas Pinnock
Tim Minchin - the Australian actor, comedian, performer, musician, and composer and lyricist of the Olivier Award-winning RSC stage show Matilda The Musical –…
- Front Row
The 2020 Booker Prize Ceremony
Live from the Roundhouse, London, Front Row brings you the 2020 Booker Prize ceremony. Who will be the winner of the £50,000 prize for fiction in this…
- Front Row
Gillian Anderson, South Georgia artist commission, the role of literary prizes
Gillian Anderson on her technique for perfecting Margaret Thatcher’s distinctive voice in the fourth season of The Crown, and the recent debate the TV series…
- Front Row
Patrick, Colm Tóibín on James Joyce, Amy Macdonald, Christopher Reid
Patrick is a black comedy from Belgium set in a woodland nudist camp. After his father dies and leaves him to run the campsite, Patrick’s favourite hammer is…
- Front Row
Fela Kuti documentary; writing and reading trauma; The Queen's Gambit review
Fela Kuti was the creator of Afrobeat – a blend of traditional Yoruba and Caribbean music with funk and jazz that exhilarated the global music scene in the…
- Front Row
Steve McQueen, The Simpsons, Brutal North, Jenny Sturgeon
The Simpsons is the longest running scripted primetime TV show ever. As season 31 kicks off in the UK we explore its potent popularity with comedian and fan…
- Front Row
Booker Prize Book Group, Julian Lloyd Webber on Malcolm Arnold, Nick Park's lockdown discovery
We conclude our tour of the novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020 tonight with a final book group where listeners put their questions to Brandon Taylor…
- Front Row
Tana French, Mary Wollstonecraft statue, Industry, Ralph McTell's The Unknown Warrior
Tana French is the creator of the Dublin Murder Squad crime books, that inspired the 2019 BBC TV series. Her gritty urban mysteries have been translated into…
- Front Row
Abel Selaocoe, Billie Holiday, Edoardo Ponti on Sophia Loren
The cellist and singer Abel Selaocoe grew up in a township in the south of Johannesburg and creates music that draws on classical, African and contemporary…
- Front Row
The Voices of the Women in Classical Myths in 15 Heroines; Front Row's Book Group with Booker Nominee Douglas Stuart
Ulysses, Hercules, Jason and Achilles - classical mythology is all about men of action. The women tend to have things - often horrible - happen to them: they…
- Front Row
Dame Judi Dench and Wendy Craig remember Geoffrey Palmer; Ruth Wilson; Graeae; Kylie and Little Mix albums; Ted Hughes's Crow
The death of Geoffrey Palmer was announced today. Two of his leading co-stars, Dame Judi Dench and Wendy Craig, pay tribute.Ruth Wilson plays the sinister and…
- Front Row
Could being visually impaired enhance an artist’s work?
Could being visually impaired enhance an artist’s work? We’ll discuss that with Richard Butchins who’s made a BBC 4 documentary - The Disordered Eye - arguing…
- Front Row
Alice Oswald's Weather Anthology, What a Carve Up!, Memoir writing
We can't go to the movies for a fix of action now. We can, though, witness spectacle that even the biggest budget blockbusters can't match - by simply going…
- Front Row
Kristin Scott Thomas talks about playing Mrs Danvers in Rebecca
In an extended interview, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas talks about relishing her latest role as the scary housekeeper Mrs Danvers in the new Netflix adaptation of…
- Front Row
Cellist Steven Isserlis plays, the lockdown's impact on the arts and Booker shortlisted Avni Doshi
Steven Isserlis tells John Wilson about his new album of late works by Sir John Tavener. It is a very personal project: Tavener and Isserlis were friends, the…
- Front Row
Sam Smith, Turner's Modern World, Cold War Steve, US elections on film
When the singer Sam Smith came out as non-binary last year it was headline news around the world. After two global number one albums, an Oscar, a Golden Globe…
- Front Row
Dawn French talks about her comedy and novel writing careers
Samira Ahmed talks to comedienne, actress and writer Dawn French. Dawn became famous with her comedy performimg partner of many decades; Jennifer Saunders…
- Front Row
His House director Remi Weekes, Booker Prize Book Group with Tsitsi Dangarembga
For the second of Front Row's Booker Prize Book Groups, listeners put their questions to Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga whose novel This Mournable Body…
- Front Row
Elisabeth Moss, Julia Bullock, memorialising loved ones in video games
Elisabeth Moss on her latest role as the horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson in the new film Shirley. And she discusses the new series of The Handmaid’s…
- Front Row
Sofia Coppola, Booker Book Group with Diane Cook, Olivier Awards
Film-maker Sofia Coppola talks about reuniting with Bill Murray for her new film On The Rocks, a comedy about a martini-drinking playboy father who reconnects…
- Front Row
Frankenstein, William Boyd, Rachel Whiteread, The Sister
In Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster, six performers from Battersea Arts Centre's Beatbox Academy interpret Mary Shelley’s classic novel from their own…
- Front Row
James Graham, Nottingham's Rock City celebrates 40 years, Liam Bailey, Phoebe Boswell
Geeta Pendse presents Front Row live from Nottingham in a shared broadcast with BBC Radio Nottingham. In spite of virus restrictions, Nottingham Playhouse goes…
- Front Row
Francois Ozon's Summer of '85; Acclaimed violinist Tasmin Little; Derry International Choir Festival
Acclaimed violinist Tasmin Little announced her retirement from the stage recently. The musician is selling her beloved violin to focus on teaching. She will…
- Front Row
Aké Festival special: Tayari Jones, Derek Owusu, Victor Ehikhamenor, Sara-Jayne Makwala King
A collaboration with the Aké Festival: leading black writers and artists discuss Black Lives Matter and related issues of this year in connection to their…
- Front Row
Nicole Kidman, Professional magicians and COVID, Birmingham Royal Ballet
Nicole Kidman talks about starring in new thriller The Undoing. A therapist's life unravels after she learns that her husband might be responsible for a…
- Front Row
Roddy Doyle, Gairloch Museum, Kronos Quartet, Dr Blood's Old Travelling Show
Roddy Doyle talks about his latest novel, Love. In the course of one summer’s evening in Dublin, two old drinking buddies revisit the pubs and the love affairs…
- Front Row
Anais Mitchell on creating her musical, Hadestown
Anaïs Mitchell took the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and turned it into Hadestown, which became an immensely successful musical at the National Theatre and on…
- Front Row
Jodi Picoult, Science Museum, winners and losers of the Cultural Recovery Fund
The global bestselling author Jodi Picoult discusses her 26th novel The Book Of Two Ways. It’s the story of a hospice worker who - when her plane crashes in…
- Front Row
Hugh Laurie on new drama Roadkill, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Arts degrees and Covid
Hugh Laurie talks about Roadkill, a major new political drama for BBC One written by David Hare. Roadkill is a four-part fictional thriller about a self-made…
- Front Row
Museum of the Year recipients. Arts minister Caroline Dinenage on the Cultural Recovery Fund results
This year’s Art Fund Museum of the Year Prize will be split 5 ways rather than a winner being chosen from a shortlist. Jenny Waldman, director of Art Fund…