Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Lorna May Wadsworth, Marriage Story, My Mother Said I Never Should, I Feel Pretty
Portrait painter Lorna May Wadsworth has forged a remarkable career with subjects including David Tennant, Michael Sheen, David Blunkett and Baroness Thatcher…
- Front Row
War Of The Worlds re-imagined, Stephen Bourne- Playing Gay, Museum Funding
HG Wells’ classic novel The War of the Worlds has been adapted many times including the infamous occasion on which Orson Welles’ radio version convinced some…
- Front Row
Emilio Estevez, 100 Novels That Shaped Our World, David Attenborough's Gamelan music
Emilio Estevez discusses his forthcoming film The Public which he has written, directed and stars in, along with Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater, set in…
- Front Row
Emilia Clarke on Last Christmas, Theatre ceiling collapse, End of the F***ing World returns
Emilia Clarke talks about her new film Last Christmas, inspired by the music of George Michael and destined to be one of the major movies of the season. It's…
- Front Row
Alison Balsom, Fez, Robert MacFarlane
Alison Balsom, Britain's leading trumpet soloist, talks about her new album Royal Fireworks, a collection of Baroque pieces by Bach, Telemann, Handel and…
- Front Row
The Irishman, Abomination opera, Murder In The Cathedral, The joy or blight of fireworks
With a reported budget of $160m, Martin Scorsese returns to the familiar territory of The Mob and organised crime in America in his new Netflix film The…
- Front Row
Scott Z Burns, writer and director of The Report, poet Katrina Porteous and the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting winner
New Amazon Original docudrama The Report sees an idealistic Washington staffer played by Adam Driver tasked by his senator boss to lead an investigation of the…
- Front Row
Patti Smith, Tom Harper, Doctor Sleep reviewed
Patti Smith, legendary musician and poet, looks back at a troubled year, 2016, in a new memoir, Year of the Monkey. Director Tom Harper discusses his new film…
- Front Row
Jack Thorne on His Dark Materials, Sorry We Missed You, Emily Howard
Screenwriter Jack Thorne discusses his new HBO/BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, said to be the BBC's most expensive drama yet. Ken…
- Front Row
Ian McKellen; theatre director Sarah Frankcom; Guilt reviewed
In their new film, The Good Liar, Ian McKellen plays Roy Courtnay, a con artist who when he meets Betty McLeish, a well-to-widow played by Helen Mirren, can't…
- Front Row
Introducing New Artists from Devon
Recorded in front of an audience at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth, Sarah Gosling introduces and showcases the artists and performers making a name for…
- Front Row
David Baddiel, Apple TV+, Wellcome Collection's scary podcasts
David Baddiel has had a varied career. He's been a (Wembley Arena-filling) stand-up comedian, a chart-topping performer (3 times with the same song Three…
- Front Row
Harry Hill, Peter Brook, film podcasts
Harry Hill's Clubnite is a new cabaret TV show from the comedian featuring his choice of comic entertainers. Harry talks to Stig about what he looks for in…
- Front Row
24/10/2019
Multi BAFTA-winning writer Jack Thorne returns to our TV screens tonight with the latest in his trilogy exploring life in modern Britain. "The Accident" on…
- Front Row
Bruce Springsteen's Western Stars, Harold Bloom, Islamic folios, new 'Monuments Men'
Bruce Springsteen is about to release a film of his latest album, Western Stars. In the hayloft of his 100-year-old barn in New Jersey, he performs the album…
- Front Row
Joy Labinjo, By The Grace of God reviewed, Alastair Sooke, actors doing other jobs
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival, By the Grace of God is Francois Ozon's new feature film about sexual abuse hidden by the…
- Front Row
David Attenborough's cameraman, Bridget Riley exhibition, Forward Poetry winner
David Attenborough's new documentary series Seven Worlds, One Planet has been four years in the making, we speak to Bertie Gregory, a wildlife cameraman who…
- Front Row
Scooby Doo at 50, Poetry in endangered languages, Composer Judith Weir
There is much concern about the loss of biodiversity. But what of the linguistic and cultural ecosystem? It is thought that half of the world's 7,000 languages…
- Front Row
Gavin Hood, Moving to Mars, Salvator Mundi, Winsome Pinnock & Amit Sharma
Gavin Hood, director of Tsotsi and Eye in the Sky, discusses his new film Official Secrets, which stars Keira Knightley as the GCHQ whistleblower who was taken…
- Front Row
Víkingur Ólafsson, social housing on screen, Hannah Khalil
Having won several album of the year awards for his recording of works by J.S Bach, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson performs and talks about reinventing…
- Front Row
Aisling Bea, Booker Prize Double, Zawe Ashton
Aisling Bea, writer and star of the recent hit Channel 4 comedy This Way Up, on her new Netflix drama Living with Yourself, in which she plays the wife of a…
- Front Row
Margaret Atwood book group, LA artist Mark Bradford, Peanut Butter Falcon review
Ahead of the announcement of the 2019 Booker Prize winner tonight, it's the final Front Row Booker Prize Book Group with shortlisted author Margaret Atwood, in…
- Front Row
Sienna Miller, Elif Shafak, Giri/Haji
Sienna Miller discusses her latest role as a mother whose daughter goes missing, in her new film American Woman, directed by Jake Scott. Our latest Front Row…
- Front Row
When Mary Beard met Margaret Atwood
Mary Beard meets the acclaimed Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood. As her sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale – The Testaments – is published, in a wide-ranging…
- Front Row
Nobel Prizes in Literature, Goldie's Drum'n'Bass picks, artist Es Devlin
The Swedish Academy today announced the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Winners, not winner, because, embroiled in a scandal over allegations of…
- Front Row
Salman Rushdie, playwright Katori Hall, computer games tax avoidance
The latest Front Row Booker Prize Book Group features Salman Rushdie answering listeners’ questions about his shortlisted novel Quichotte, a satire on current…
- Front Row
Extinction Rebellion, Staging Shakespeare, Timothee Chalamet in The King, Dancer/choreographer Dada Masilo
The dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo grew up dancing to Michael Jackson songs on the streets of Soweto. She later trained as a ballerina and contemporary…
- Front Row
The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Economics of Publishing, Ravel's Bolero
Following a Best Director win at Sundance, Joe Talbot discusses his film The Last Black Man in San Francisco, along with its star Jimmie Fails. Based on Jimmie…
- Front Row
Booker Book Group with Chigozie Obioma, RuPaul's Drag Race UK, Kurt Weill's The Silver Lake
Our latest Front Row Booker Prize Book Group puts its questions to shortlisted author Chigozie Obioma about his book An Orchestra of Minorities, the story of…
- Front Row
Debbie Harry, the Portraits of Gauguin, the best political podcasts
Debbie Harry is one of the defining musical artists of her age, known of course for her work with Blondie crafting and performing hits such as Heart of Glass…
- Front Row
Rupert Goold on his film Judy, Kara Walker reviewed, Booker Book Group with Bernardine Evaristo
Director Rupert Goold discusses his new film Judy. Starring Renée Zellweger as legendary singer Judy Garland, the movie examines the final year of the star's…
- Front Row
The BBC National Short Story Award ceremony
Five authors have been shortlisted for the 2019 BBC National Short Story Award and the Young Writers' Award, the winners of which will be announced in front of…
- Front Row
Helen Mirren, Joker, Rona Munro
Helen Mirren discusses taking on the role of notorious Russian empress Catherine the Great, Russia’s longest-ruling female leader for a new TV miniseries. She…
- Front Row
Poetry and performance from Hull's Contains Strong Language festival
Stig Abell talks to John Godber, one of the most-performed playwrights in the English language and somebody who has been interpreting the city of Hull in his…
- Front Row
Derek Paravicini, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Booker Book Group with Lucy Ellmann
Front Row begins a series of unique book groups with each of the authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019. Today novelist Lucy Ellmann, whose epic 1000…
- Front Row
Brittany Howard, Boarding schools in fiction, Ed Thomas
Brittany Howard is the frontwoman for the phenomenally successful American blues rock band Alabama Shakes. She joins us to discuss her first solo album, Jaime…
- Front Row
Staging Antony Gormley, Dolly Wells, The Politician
Antony Gormley’s new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London features a series of new artworks which are monumental in size, scale and weight, from a 5000kg…
- Front Row
Peter Bowker on World on Fire, The Emmys, Amina Atiq, New poetry releases
Writer Peter Bowker discusses his epic new drama World On Fire, which follows the first year of World War II told through the intertwining fates of ordinary…
- Front Row
Lulu Wang on The Farewell, Dave, Jessie Burton
The Farewell, a film about an American family who return to China to visit their dying grandmother, has been a surprise box office hit in the US and is winning…
- Front Row
Rotters in literature, John Keats' poem To Autumn, The Art of Innovation at the Science Museum
We look at rotters in fiction: do women have equal status with men when it comes to being bad in books? Rotters have populated the novel since Robert Lovelace…
- Front Row
Soweto Kinch, Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture launch, Sam Fender
Saxophonist Soweto Kinch has curated this year’s Koestler Arts exhibition, Another Me, featuring 150 artworks by inmates from a number of prisons and secure…
- Front Row
Maurizio Cattelan at Blenheim Palace, Ad Astra reviewed, Japanese Culture, Shakespeare Folio discovered
A solid gold toilet reputedly worth £4.7 million has been stolen from Blenheim Palace. It's part of the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's new exhibition…
- Front Row
Alex Kingston, Criminal, Falling piano sales
Alex Kingston, best known for her TV roles in Dr Who and ER, discusses her new role in Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy Of The People on stage at the Nottingham…
- Front Row
Downton Abbey, Alexei Sayle, National Short Story Award - Jo Lloyd, Istanbul Biennial
Downton Abbey hits the big screen this week as the Crawleys host the none other than King George V himself in a new film edition of the hit television show…
- Front Row
Lucy Prebble, Temple, NSSA - Lynda Clarke, Alan Ayckbourn's Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present
Lucy Prebble’s play A Very Expensive Poison opened last week at the Old Vic in London. It tells the story of the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 with…
- Front Row
Front Row at the Proms - Jamie Barton, Daniel Kidane, impact of Brexit on classical music
John Wilson presents Front Row from the BBC Proms, with the American mezzo soprano Jamie Barton, about to perform as the soloist at the Last Night of the…
- Front Row
The British Ceramics Biennial, Novelist Nell Zink, The Jumper Factory, Tamsin Grey
Ten years ago when the first British Ceramics Biennial took place, things didn't look good for pots or Stoke-on-Trent, known as 'the potteries' of the UK. The…
- Front Row
For Sama and Venice Film Festival roundup, NSSA - Lucy Caldwell, Etgar Keret, Peter Nichols obituary
For Sama is a prize-winning documentary by female Syrian filmmaker Waad al-Kateab, recording life in Aleppo for her young daughter who was born shortly after…
- Front Row
BBC National Short Story Award Shortlist, Protest Song, How to listen to jazz
A celebration of the short story as chair of judges Nikki Bedi joins Front Row to reveal the 2019 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University and…
- Front Row
Margaret Atwood's The Testaments reviewed, Ryan Wigglesworth, Robert Battle
Margaret Atwood's long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale - The Testaments - is due to be published next Tuesday, but following the release of a number of…
- Front Row
Chrissie Hynde, The Theatre of Parliament, Arts Minister Rebecca Pow
Proceedings in the House of Commons yesterday drew an unusual degree of public attention, with set pieces from Boris Johnson (interrupted by the defection of…
- Front Row
The Booker Prize shortlist, Lucian Freud's new biography, The importance of arts to local identity
William Feaver discusses the first part of his comprehensive biography of the great British figurative painter Lucian Freud, who died in 2011. Feaver first got…
- Front Row
The Capture, Venice Film Festival highlights, Enid Blyton reevaluated
BBC One’s big autumn thriller serial is The Capture. Telling the story of former soldier Shaun Emery, whose conviction for an unlawful killing during active…
- Front Row
Salman Rushdie on Quichotte, Joanna Hogg on The Souvenir
Sir Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children has twice been named the Best of Booker. Now his new novel Quichotte, a modern take on Cervantes' classic that is both…
- Front Row
Mrs Lowry and Son reviewed, Anna Calvi, Poet Stephen Sexton
Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave star in Mrs Lowry and Son, a new film about the Pendlebury painter LS Lowry and his mother. Critic Sarah Crompton…
- Front Row
James Graham on drama and constitutional turmoil, Jeff Pope on A Confession, The literary arts and The Troubles
Playwright James Graham, author of Brexit: the Uncivil War and The Coalition, talks about making drama out of a constitutional crisis and how soon is too soon…
- Front Row
Colson Whitehead, Duke Ellington's Sacred Music, Carnival Row, Sheila Steafel
Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2016 novel The Underground Railroad, about slaves escaping from the southern states and seeking sanctuary in…
- Front Row
Edna O'Brien on her new novel Girl, her first The Country Girls, and her career in between
A Front Row for Bank Holiday Monday: Kirsty Lang interviews the writer Edna O'Brien about her new novel, her first novel and her career in between, spanning…
- Front Row
Andrew Davies on Sanditon, Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, the literature of citizen and state
Screenwriter Andrew Davies talks to Samira Ahmed about his latest period drama, Sanditon, based on an unfinished novel by Jane Austen. They discuss what…
- Front Row
Danny Brocklehurst on Brassic, Why are fewer people taking English A level?, Fisherwomen
The Bafta winning writer Danny Brocklehurst tells Front Row about the new Sky One comedy drama Brassic. It focuses on Vinnie O’Neill whose incompetent criminal…