Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Normal People, Víkingur Ólafsson, Seán Hewitt, Theresa Lola
For Front Row’s Friday Review, BBC journalist Sophie Raworth and the novelist Naomi Alderman discuss the new TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s extraordinarily…
- Front Row
Moffie director Oliver Hermanus, Sharon D Clarke, Lesbian visibility, Anna Meredith
Oliver Hermanus's new film about a gay teenage conscript and his brutal experience of being in the South African army during Apartheid is called Moffie, a…
- Front Row
Paapa Essiedu, Arts Minister Caroline Dinenage, Turning our tragedies into comedy
Arts Minister Caroline Dinenage on the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis. We put questions to her from arts organisations around the…
Front RowOrganist Anna Lapwood, The Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist, Gangs of London
Organist Anna Lapwood, who is Director of Music at Pembroke College Cambridge, performs a Bach chorale prelude, live on the new organ she has installed in her…
- Front Row
Jackie Kay, Roderick Williams, Killing Eve Season 3 and C Pam Zhang
Leading baritone Roderick Williams was halfway through an ENO run of Anthony Minghella’s production of Puccini's Madame Butterfly at the London Coliseum when…
- Front Row
Adam Macqueen's thriller, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, a podcast masterclass and the amazing set of Treasure Island
Adam Macqueen talks to Kirsty about his debut novel, Beneath the Streets, a counterfactual thriller set in London in the 1970s which imagines what might have…
- Front Row
Virus Art, Naomi Alderman, Angela Barnes
Comedian Angela Barnes is the new host of Radio 4’s stalwart show The News Quiz. Fresh from recording the first episode of the new series, we ask how they’re…
- Front Row
Sir Patrick Stewart on Shakespeare's Sonnets, Shahnaz Ahsan, Devs
Sir Patrick Stewart has been releasing daily readings of Shakespeare's Sonnets on Twitter, recorded in different parts of his Californian home. He tells Kirsty…
- Front Row
Russell Howard, Siobhan Miller, International Prize for Arabic Fiction, John Mullan on Northanger Abbey
Comedian Russell Howard on his new lockdown TV show, Home Time. Video conferenced from his childhood bedroom, he gives his entertaining take on life in…
- Front Row
Martin Scorsese
Masculinity, music, violence, guilt and redemption: one of the all-time great Hollywood directors Martin Scorsese in conversation about his latest film, The…
- Front Row
Víkingur Ólafsson, Christabel Blackburn, Nitin Sawhney, Audiobooks
Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson will be Front Row's Artist-in-Residence during the lockdown, delivering weekly live performances on the grand piano of the currently…
- Front Row
James Graham on Quiz, Braids, changes in the ways we listen to music, and John Prine
On Easter Monday ITV will broadcast the first instalment of Quiz, the adaptation by James Graham of his play about the coughing controversy and the major…
- Front Row
AL Kennedy, Sam Sweeney performs live, lockdown listening habits
AL Kennedy won the Costa Prize 2007 for her novel Day. She talks about her new book of short stories, the aptly named We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time – a…
- Front Row
Wordsworth Anniversary, Kerry Shale radio play, Critic Gillian Reynolds, Composer Nainita Desai
On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the great English poet William Wordsworth, Juliet Stevenson reads some of his most famous poems and Michael…
- Front Row
Miles Davis's Bitches Brew, Gaming, Cressida Cowell in the Culture Clinic
Miles Davis released his seminal album Bitches Brew 50 years ago this week. Saxophonist Soweto Kinch and Michael Carlson consider the impact of the double…
- Front Row
Dua Lipa, Sara Collins, Edinburgh festivals cancelled, Molly O’Cathain
Dua Lipa shares the inspiration behind her new album Future Nostalgia, what it's been like releasing an album under quarantine.As the Edinburgh Festivals are…
- Front Row
The Dramatist James Graham
This edition of Front Row is devoted to one of the most exciting playwrights to emerge this century. James Graham is only 37 but has already become a foremost…
- Front Row
Soprano Chen Reiss, Theatre Online, National Poetry Competition
To mark Beethoven's 250th anniversary, soprano Chen Reiss has released an album of rarely performed Beethoven arias called Immortal Beloved. She joins us live…
- Front Row
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson plays live from Reykjavik
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has a new album, Debussy – Rameau, exploring the music of two very different but complementary composers. He plays live…
- Front Row
Gloria Gaynor, Offline Arts, film Vivarium and novel Hamnet reviewed, Culture Clinic
Disco legend Gloria Gaynor made headlines earlier this month when her TikTok video encouraging people to wash their hands to her hit I Will Survive went viral…
- Front Row
Owen Sheers, Nikita Lalwani, Writing in isolation
The bestselling children’s book series The Snow Spider has been adapted for TV by award-winning writer, poet and playwright Owen Sheers. It is a fantasy drama…
- Front Row
Eliza Carthy, Art galleries and coronavirus, Terrence McNally obituary
Singer and fiddle player Eliza Carthy, daughter of folk doyens Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy, is known as a folk musician but, while being steeped in…
- Front Row
Simon Armitage, Stephen Hough, Chris Riddell on Asterix creator Albert Uderzo
Poet Laureate Simon Armitage talks about his new poetry collection Magnetic Field: the Marsden Poems, which is inspired by the West Yorkshire village he grew…
- Front Row
Rathbones Folio winner, Disney+, Malory Towers on TV, Live performance from National Theatre of Scotland
Front Row has announced Valeria Luiselli the winner of the 2020 Rathbones Folio book prize for her novel Lost Children Archive and John Wilson speaks live to…
- Front Row
Gareth Malone, Contraltos, Louise Wallwein
It was a call from Dame Esther Rantzen for choirmaster Gareth Malone to bring the nation together under his metaphorical baton that has inspired Gareth’s…
- Front Row
Lennie James, Rob Auton, Jess Gillam
Actor and screenwriter Lennie James talks about the return of his award-winning Sky drama Save Me, in which he plays a father trying to rescue his daughter…
- Front Row
Gary Sinyor, Arts Council aid, Theatre Uncut
Director and writer Gary Sinyor joins John Wilson to discuss his new sitcom The Jewish Enquirer. This follows hapless journalist Paul, played by Tim Downie, in…
- Front Row
David Baddiel, arts prize for social change, film news
Author and comedian David Baddiel is going to read The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, now his UK tour has been cancelled due to coronavirus, and he…
- Front Row
How theatres will cope with PM's advice? Jennifer Offill, Roy Hudd, Kevin Guthrie
American author Jenny Offill discusses her highly anticipated new novel, Weather, about a female librarian struggling to cope with a domestic life haunted by…
- Front Row
Kodo Drummers, Marina Lewycka, Arts affected by coronavirus
The Kodo drummers from Japan formed in 1981 and are currently nearing the end of their world tour. Five members bring their drums, flutes and cymbals to our…
- Front Row
Dame Judi Dench
Dame Judi Dench looks back at her six decade career in theatre, television and film, from playing Lady Macbeth to M in Bond. As she prepares to return to the…
- Front Row
Cartoonist Steven Appleby, Sally Abbott, The Hunt and Bacurau
Steven Appleby’s comic strips have graced the pages of many national newspapers including The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Observer. Now…
- Front Row
Misbehaviour, Marian Keyes, Mental health app, McCoy Tyner obituary
The Miss World beauty pageant in 1970 is probably best remebered for one thing: The Women’s Liberation movement's intervention. They staged a protest at the…
- Front Row
Representation and diversity in the arts
In recent weeks, two new reports on diversity in the arts have generated headlines. Arts Council England has issued a document called Equality, Diversity and…
- Front Row
Rachel Parris, Mark Gatiss on Aubrey Beardsley, Andy Burnham
The Mash Report’s Rachel Parris discusses why her private life rather than politics has inspired her new stand up show, All Change Please. As the Greater…
- Front Row
Hassan Abdulrazzak, Onward, The art of the memoir
Playwright and writer Hassan Abdulrazzak discusses his latest play The Special Relationship, a dark satire about the deportation of ex-prisoners from the US…
- Front Row
Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy, Women in hip hop, Creativity in isolation
Hilary Mantel's novel The Mirror and The Light is published tomorrow. In the Front Row readers' panel, three of our listeners - Deborah Stuart, Sasha Simic…
- Front Row
Noughts + Crosses, Pretty Woman the Musical, the rise of Subtitles
Koby Adom on directing Malorie Blackman's best-selling young adult novel Noughts + Crosses for BBC1, creating an alternative world where Europe has been…
- Front Row
Film director Francis Annan, Denise Mina, Amateur dramatics - its development and popularity
Director Francis Annan discusses his film Escape from Pretoria. Daniel Radcliffe and Ian Hart star in the true story of the imprisonment of white…
- Front Row
Elisabeth Moss, Aravind Adiga, 20th anniversary of The Sims computer game
Elisabeth Moss talks about her new film The Invisible Man, a 21st century reboot of the HG Wells story. Told from the victim’s point of view, Elisabeth plays…
- Front Row
Director Céline Sciamma, conductor André J. Thomas, clash of the titles
French director Céline Sciamma on her BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, about an 18th Century artist who falls in love with the…
- Front Row
Viviana Durante, Jeet Thayil, filming amidst the coronavirus outbreak, new visa rules for touring artists
Ballerina Viviana Durante discusses her evening of dance celebrating Isadora Duncan, whose radical barefoot dancing shocked and enthralled European audiences…
- Front Row
Zadie Smith on Authors as Readers, British Surrealism, Playwright Jingan Young, The Mirror and the Light publicity
Authors Zadie Smith and Francine Prose join Front Row to consider how authors read, as the shortlist for the Rathbones Folio Prize, largely chosen by authors…
- Front Row
Sarah Williams - Flesh and Blood, Todd Haynes - Dark Waters, Bradford Library Funding, Murder 24/7
Film director Todd Haynes talks to Samira about his latest film Dark Waters. Starring Tim Robbins, it's a tale of environmental catastrophe, corporate greed…
- Front Row
Quality Street in Halifax, Jasdeep Singh Degun, Artist-led Hotels
Laurie Sansom, the new Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides on his vision for the theatre company and what British theatre can learn from a small drama…
- Front Row
The Prince of Egypt, Costume designer Sandy Powell, Irish folk singer Lisa O’ Neill
Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist of Wicked and Godspell, on his spectacular new stage musical about Moses, The Prince of Egypt, based on the 1998…
- Front Row
George MacKay, Shirin Neshat, Richard Thomas
George Mackay, star of BAFTA winning film 1917, talks about his latest, The True History of the Kelly Gang, inspired by Peter Carey's novel about Australia's…
- Front Row
Al Pacino and Logan Lerman, Antoinette Nwandu, End of the Century, Coronavirus and the arts
Al Pacino and Logan Lerman discuss their roles in the new TV drama series Hunters. 'Inspired by true events' it's about a group of individuals in New York in…
- Front Row
Raphael's Sistine Tapestries, Michael Winterbottom, Arts Prizes in Crisis and Art History Limericks
This week the Sistine Chapel is unveiling ten tapestries by Raphael, to mark the 500th anniversary of artist’s death and now, for the first time since the 16th…
- Front Row
Emma and the Rom Coms Revival, the César Academy resignation and James Taylor sings American Standards
Eleanor Catton, who in 2013 became the youngest writer to win the Booker Prize for her monumental novel The Luminaries, talks about her screenplay for the new…
- Front Row
David Mitchell, Elizabeth Llewellyn, Wuthering Heights on stage
Comedian David Mitchell discusses his West End debut playing William Shakespeare in Ben Elton’s stage adaptation of the BBC TV sitcom, Upstart Crow. The play…
- Front Row
Leicester Comedy Festival, Eshaan Akbar, Ishi Khan, Easy Life
Geeta Pendse presents Front Row from Leicester, home of the Leicester Comedy Festival, which is currently taking place in over ninety venues across the city…
- Front Row
Tom Stoppard, Steve McQueen, South Korean film guide
Leopoldstadt is the area of Vienna where poor Jews lived, and the title of Tom Stoppard’s new play. It’s about a family who come from there but, cultured…
- Front Row
Sir Tom Stoppard
Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard discusses his new play, Leopoldstadt, in an extended interview.Leopoldstadt is the area of Vienna where poor Jews lived, and the…
- Front Row
Art Deco By The Sea, The Whip - Juliet Gilkes Romero, Meet The Family - Catherine Bray
A new exhibition 'Art Deco By The Sea' has opened at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, looking at the impact of the movement on the architecture as well as…
- Front Row
Sarah Phelps on The Pale Horse, We Will Walk, Kamau Brathwaite and George Steiner remembered
As she completes her quintet of Agatha Christie adaptations with The Pale Horse, screenwriter Sarah Phelps discusses why Christie’s supernatural murder mystery…
- Front Row
Kirk Douglas remembered, American Dirt, Daniel Kehlmann
We look at the career of Kirk Douglas who has died at the age of 103. Not only was he a fine actor - and one of the last of the Hollywood Golden Age - he was…
- Front Row
Front Row Risk List: The ten riskiest artworks of the 21st century
In the finale of Front Row’s Risk season we’ll be debating the biggest creative risk takers as we reveal the Front Row Risk List – the 10 riskiest artworks of…
- Front Row
Novelist - Eimear McBride, Film - Parasite, Playwright - Jasmine Lee-Jones and the Petworth Beauties get their legs back
The Korean film Parasite is in the running for Best Picture, Director, and International Feature at the Oscars on Sunday. Critic Mark Eccleston reviews the…