Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Alex Wheatle, Miranda July, Football club appoints Artistic Director, London Film Festival roundup
Alex Wheatle discusses his new novel Cane Warriors, based on the true story of a group of slaves in Jamaica who, in 1760, rose up against their white British…
- Front Row
Skunk Anansie's Skin on her new memoir
Skin - the singer, songwriter, DJ and lead vocalist of the multi-million-selling British rock band Skunk Anansie - looks back over her life in her new memoir…
- Front Row
Melanie C, live music industry in crisis, Johnny Nash remembered
We discuss the future of music making in the UK. We speak to Mel C, formerly Sporty Spice, about her eighth studio album, Melanie C, which reflects her new…
- Front Row
2020 BBC National Short Story Award and the BBC Young Writers' Award
We announce the winner of the 2020 BBC National Short Story Award and the Young Writers' Award on its 15th anniversary.Judges Irenosen Okojie and Jonathan…
- Front Row
Grace Jones exhibition, Steve McQueen's film Mangrove, A newly rediscovered work by Henry Purcell
The London Film Festival opens this week with Mangrove, by the Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen. It’s the first in an ambitious five-part film series…
- Front Row
Radha Blank, Chuck D, Dramas The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The Comey Rule reviewed
Radha Blank won the Directing Prize at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival for her debut film, The 40-Year-Old Version. She also wrote and stars in the movie which…
- Front Row
An extended interview with Graham Norton
Graham Norton is one of the most successful entertainment presenters in British broadcasting. He has a popular Radio 2 show, is the face of the BBC's…
- Front Row
Miss Virginia, Helen Reddy remembered, Sarah Nicolls, Gary Clarke
Miss Virginia is a new film based on the story of Virginia Walden Ford’s fight to create positive educational opportunities for African-American students in…
- Front Row
Little Mix: The Search, Artemisia Gentileschi, No Masks
The 17th Century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi is the subject of a major new exhibition at London's National Gallery. Critic Waldemar Januszczak…
- Front Row
2020 Booker shortlist, Nicholas Serota, author Sarah Hall
Earlier today the shortlist for the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction was announced. Two time winner Hilary Mantel has not made the list for the final part of her…
- Front Row
Michael Kiwanuka, Boys in the Band film, the future for arts freelancers
Michael Kiwanuka said he was seriously surprised when he won the 2020 Mercury Prize last week. Tom Sutcliffe talks to the singer-songwriter about dropping out…
- Front Row
Poetry and performance from Cumbria's Contains Strong Language festival
Dove Cottage Grasmere is the heart of Romantic poetry and is hosting part of this year's Contains Strong Language festival. We'll be asking what the Romantics…
- Front Row
David McKee - BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award, Royal Academy dilemma, Serlina Boyd on Cocoa Girl
David McKee has just been named as the recipient of the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Author and illustrator of the Elmer books which with vivid…
- Front Row
Mike Bartlett, Miss Juneteenth film, theatres repurposed as courtrooms, Susanna Clarke
Doctor Foster creator, Mike Bartlett, has come up with a new drama for BBC1. Set in Manchester, Life follows the stories of the residents of a large house…
- Front Row
Skin, The Box in Plymouth, Sean Borodale
Lead singer of Britpop band Skunk Anansie, Skin has headlined Glastonbury, sold millions of albums, and recently competed in The Masked Singer. As her memoir…
- Front Row
ENO drive in opera, ITV drama Honour, Jesse Armstrong, 'Festival of Brexit'
Announced by Theresa May in 2018 and quickly dubbed the “Festival of Brexit”, submissions are now being made for the UK government funded £120 million festival…
- Front Row
Katherine Ryan, Nick Hornby, artist Mark Bradford, TV drama Us reviewed
The Los Angeles-based American artist Mark Bradford, who represented the USA at the Venice Biennale in 2017, discusses his new series of Quarantine Paintings…
- Front Row
Rocks, Phoebe Stuckes, Eley Williams
Rocks is the new feature film directed by Sarah Gavron with a screenplay by Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson. Writer Niellah Arboine reviews the film which is…
- Front Row
Tricky, Ratched reviewed, live theatre returns to The Playhouse Londonderry, NSSA nominee Jack Houston
Twenty five years ago Bristol musician Tricky pioneered a new genre of downtempo hip-hop with his album Maxinquaye. As he releases his 14th studio album, Fall…
- Front Row
Dennis Kelly on The Third Day, Nica Burns, Jan Carson, Sir Terence Conran
Nica Burns, owner of some of the biggest West End theatres, discusses her plan to re-open them in sequence from 22 October, starting with Adam Kay’s one man…
- Front Row
David Tennant on playing Dennis Nilsen, BBC National Short Story Award shortlist announced, The Painted Bird reviewed
David Tennant talks to Front Row about new ITV drama DES, in which he plays one of the most infamous serial killers in UK history, Dennis Nilsen - a civil…
- Front Row
Lang Lang, Diana Rigg remembered, Cinema distribution under Covid-19
Diana Rigg has died aged 82. Her breakthrough role was as Mrs Emma Peel in The Avengers, going on to have a distinguished career across film, theatre and…
- Front Row
The future of Arts broadcasting, Winner of 2020 Women's Prize For Fiction, Film director Antonio Campos
Tonight the winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction is announced at a special virtual ceremony – the judgement delayed because of Covid 19. We talk to the…
- Front Row
Andrew O'Hagan, The Singapore Grip, Theatre at the point of no return
Andrew Lloyd Webber told MPs today that the arts are at the "point of no return". Also speaking to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee was Rebecca…
- Front Row
Benjamin Grosvenor performs for Front Row
The Venice Film Festival is currently underway, featuring films we’ll be seeing on our screens over the coming months. Jason Solomons is just back from the…
- Front Row
Mulan review, Lorna Sage's memoir 20 years on, and must art be political?
The much-loved story of the Chinese warrior Mulan is the latest Disney animation to get a live-action remake. Its less a direct remake of the 1998 original and…
- Front Row
The office in culture, Kate Clanchy, publishers' Super Thursday
As major City firms and the likes of Facebook and Google allow their employees to work from home for the foreseeable future, does it herald the end of the…
- Front Row
Bernardine Evaristo shortlisted for Women's Prize, Anoushka Shankar at the Proms, Film Les Misérables reviewed
Bernardine Evaristo on Girl, Woman, Other - shortlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize For Fiction. As Front Row continues our interviews with writers on the…
- Front Row
Ruth Jones, Roger Kneebone, Game Review, The Tempest
Gavin & Stacey writer and actor Ruth Jones joins us to discuss her new novel Us Three, which follows the tumultuous friendship of three women over four…
- Front Row
Robert Macfarlane, bestselling author, walker, mountaineer and campaigner, talks to Kirsty Lang
Robert Macfarlane walks into the mountains, along ancient paths and down into caves and potholes. He has written beautiful and popular books about these -…
- Front Row
Luke Jerram, Elena Ferrante's new novel, Bolu Babalola, Britney Spears's conservatorship battle
British artist Luke Jerram discusses his new work, In Memoriam, a large-scale outdoor installation designed specifically to be presented in large open and…
- Front Row
Eastenders returns, Composer Errollyn Wallen, Katy Perry profiled, I'm Thinking of Ending Things reviewed
British composer Errollyn Wallen has been putting the finishing touches to her new arrangement of the Hubert Parry hymn Jerusalem, to be performed as part of a…
- Front Row
Women’s Prize For Fiction - Natalie Haynes; 2020 International Booker Prize winner; Agatha Christie’s lost play, The Lie
Natalie Haynes on A Thousand Ships - shortlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize For Fiction. As Front Row continues our interviews with authors on the shortlist…
- Front Row
An extended interview with dramatist Lucy Prebble
As her new drama I Hate Suzie launches, dramatist Lucy Prebble talks to Tom Sutcliffe about her writing career.Prebble is Co-Executive Producer and writer on…
- Front Row
Algorithms in the arts, Composer Hannah Kendall, Daljit Nagra's Poetry Roundup, Cuties film controversy
Following the outcry at shool exam results downgraded by an algorithm and then revised to take into account human teachers expectations instead, we consider…
- Front Row
Christopher Nolan's Tenet reviewed, British Museum re-opens, Paula Peters on Wampum exhibition, Shedinburgh fringe festival
Next week finally sees the release of Tenet, the latest big-budget film by Christopher Nolan. For our Friday Review, film critic Ryan Gilbey and novelist and…
- Front Row
The One and Only Ivan director Thea Sharrock, Educating Rita, writing about music, research on Covid-19 risk from singing
The One and Only Ivan is a new Disney film about a 400-pound silverback gorilla called Ivan. He lives in a suburban shopping mall with other animals where they…
- Front Row
Stanley Spencer's wives, the damage to culture in Beirut, Angie Cruz
The Wives of Stanley Spencer are the subject of a new exhibition Love, Art, Loss at the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham, Berkshire. Artist and illustrator…
- Front Row
Modern Productions in a Roman Theatre, the Art of the Prequel, the Pandemic and Redundancies in the Arts Industries
As novelist John Connolly publishes a prequel to his hugely successful Charlie Parker thriller series, he and critic Suzi Feay discuss the art of creating a…
- Front Row
An interview with Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson
Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in Jamiaca 68 years ago, moving to London to join his mother aged 11 and has created a unique career as a performance poet…
- Front Row
Gloria Estefan, Pinocchio, Shane McCrae
The Miami singer Gloria Estefan discusses her Cuban roots and the musical and cultural links the country shares with Brazil, as she releases her new album…
- Front Row
Lyricist Don Black
Lyricist Don Black looks back at his five decade career writing hit songs and musicals. The first British songwriter to win an Oscar, for Born Free in 1967…
- Front Row
Lovecraft Country, Prison Radio Drama, Women's Prize For Fiction Shortlisted Jenny Offill
Lovecraft Country is a new 10-episode HBO series, based on the 2016 novel by Matt Ruff, set in 1950s Jim Crow America. The story is about a young African…
- Front Row
Glyndebourne Opera returns. My Rembrandt film. How dangerous is playing the trumpet?
From Wednesday, opera lovers will again be able to watch performances at Glyndebourne Opera in East Sussex, although this year the summer festival will look…
- Front Row
Xiaolu Guo, Belarus Free Theatre, Blindness, The Leach Pottery
Xiaolu Guo was named as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists 2013. She talks about her latest book A Lover’s Discourse, which is a story of love and…
- Front Row
Es Devlin, Drama by postcard, Ali Smith's Summer, photographer Alys Tomlinson
To mark the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki this week, the Imperial War Museum commissioned artist and stage…
- Front Row
Arts in the Midlands, Love Letters to Scotland, Soweto Kinch
Arts organisations in the West Midlands say the region is one of the worst hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. In Birmingham, despite emergency relief funding…
- Front Row
Maggie O'Farrell, Singing in Choirs and Covid, Mark Billingham's Lockdown Discovery
Front Row is featuring interviews with all the shortlisted authors for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. Tonight, Maggie O'Farrell, whose novel Hamnet is…
- Front Row
Little Birds writer Sophia Al-Maria, Simon Armitage, Summer reads, Tara Gbolade
Qatari-American artist, writer, and filmmaker Sophia Al-Maria discusses her screenplay for the latest big release from Sky Atlantic. Inspired by Anaïs Nin’s…
- Front Row
Barbara Kingsolver as poet, Es Devlin's Lockdown Discovery, Sculptor Thomas J. Price, pianist Leon Fleisher remembered
Barbara Kingsolver talks about her new book, How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) which is only her second collection of poetry. As well as offering…
- Front Row
Sir Alan Parker remembered, Beyoncé's Black is King, Prodigal Son, Natasha Trethewey, Don Hahn
Film director Alan Parker is remembered by Dick Clements and Ian La Frenais, who wrote The Commitments.Disney Producer Don Hahn (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion…
- Front Row
Whipped cream on The Fourth Plinth, Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, and Booker Prize nominated Avni Doshi
Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee discusses her new TV series - psychological thriller, The Deceived. In the drama, inspired by Hitchcock’s Rebecca, Dial M for…
- Front Row
Hilary Mantel, Electronic at The Design Museum, Ai Wei Wei, the future for the panto?
In the run-up to the announcement of the winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction on the 9th of September, Front Row will be hearing from each of the six…
- Front Row
Shawanda Corbett, Booker longlist 2020, Claire Oakley
Shawanda Corbett, a ceramic artist and performer whose performances combine dance with music, prose and poetry, is the latest in our series of interviews with…
- Front Row
Shirley Collins, Kit de Waal, Caine Prize for African Writing winner, Olivia de Havilland remembered
Nigerian British writer Irenosen Okojie has been announced as the winner of this year’s £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing. It was awarded for her story…
- Front Row
Mira Nair on A Suitable Boy, Taylor Swift's album Folklore, the film How to Build a Girl, Alberta Whittle and Theatre News
Film director Mira Nair on A Suitable Boy - her six part BBC One adaptation of Vikram Seth's huge novel. Set in 1951 in newly independent, post-partition…
- Front Row
Jimmy McGovern; crime writing prize; dancing in lockdown; photographer Tyler Mitchell
In July 2005 Anthony Walker an 18 year old black man was killed in a racist attack in Huyton, Merseyside. Jimmy McGovern’s new BBC drama Anthony - inspired by…
- Front Row
Tom Sutcliffe talks to screenwriter and film director Oliver Stone about his memoir Chasing the Light
Oliver Stone has written or directed some of cinema's most powerful films - Midnight Express, Platoon, Scarface, Salvador, Natural Born Killers. Now he has…
- Front Row
Nell Dunn, Kelly O'Sullivan, 846, Q Magazine
An icon of 1960s feminism and freethinking, Nell Dunn – now in her 80s - author of Up The Junction, Poor Cow and Steaming talks to Tom Sutcliffe about The…
- Front Row
Josephine Mackerras, Sean Edwards, summer theatre round-up, John Mullan on Mansfield Park
Josephine Mackerras discusses her award winning first feature film, Alice, which she has directed, written and produced. Alice is living an enviable life in…