Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
David Tennant and Michael Sheen, Scottish Smallpiper Brìghde Chaimbeul, Youth Music Projects
The long awaited adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s cult fantasy novel Good Omens arrives on Amazon on Friday. Samira talks to Michael Sheen and…
- Front Row
Lenny Henry, Posy Simmonds, When They See Us
Lenny Henry discusses his latest role as Elmore in August Wilson’s play King Hedley II. King is a young black man, just out of prison, who dreams of starting a…
- Front Row
Drag Becomes Her, The moon in the arts, Restoration tragedy at the RSC
Kirsty is joined by drag queens Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme, two of the biggest stars of American TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race, who are on stage in London in…
- Front Row
Anish Kapoor, Beanie Feldstein, Vampire Weekend
Anish Kapoor’s latest exhibition features new sculptures in welded steel, granite and onyx, as well as a series of large-scale paintings which he rarely shows…
- Front Row
Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet, Little Steven, Judith Kerr
Matthew Bourne's new dance work Romeo + Juliet has a young cast featuring dozens of teenage dancers who auditioned to join his professional company. John talks…
- Front Row
Frank Skinner, George the Poet, TV affecting social change
Comedian Frank Skinner returns to the stand-up stage with his new tour Showbiz which he will be taking to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer where he first made…
- Front Row
Stephen Poliakoff, News from Cannes Film Festival, Selina Thompson
Stephen Poliakoff talks about his new BBC Two drama Summer of Rockets. The story of Russian immigrant and inventor Samuel Petrukhin's attempts to induct his…
- Front Row
Dexter Fletcher on Rocket Man, Jessica Andrews, Artists as activists, Folio Prize winner
Rocketman is the new Elton John film musical that charts the singer’s life from his upbringing in Pinner, meeting his long-time collaborator Bernie Taupin…
- Front Row
Cannes, David Chipperfield on I.M. Pei, Denise Mina, Sean Edwards
News from the Cannes Film Festival, including the premieres of Elton John biopic Rocketman and Ken Loach's Sorry We Missed You. With film critic Jason…
- Front Row
Stephen Graham, new Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, ENO's Dido
The actor Stephen Graham originally made his mark as the racist skinhead Combo in Shane Meadows’s 2006 film This Is England. The actor and director have teamed…
- Front Row
Gentleman Jack, correcting the contemporary art canon, #BeMoreMartyn, Futbolka
Television dramatist Sally Wainwright has written award-winning crime series such as Happy Valley, heart-warming love stories such as Last Tango in Halifax…
- Front Row
Fun Lovin' Crime Writers - band, AI: More than Human - exhibition, Medusa - ballet
Mark Billingham, Val McDermid and Doug Johnstone are well-known for their detective stories, which they write alone. But they come together as members of the…
- Front Row
Keanu Reeves, Doris Day remembered, art as an aphrodisiac
Keanu Reeves returns to cinemas in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, reprising his role as the super-assassin. He takes pride in performing most of the action…
- Front Row
Edmund de Waal and other news from the Venice Biennale, Elizabeth Macneal
On the night of 18th April, 2015 a 90-foot fishing boat packed with migrants sent out a distress signal. It collided with a vessel responding to that call and…
- Front Row
Mark Haddon, Jimmie Durham controversy, Anglo-Saxon burial, Michelle Terry
Mark Haddon is the author of the phenomenally successful The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. He talks about his first novel in seven years, The…
- Front Row
Guy Chambers, Nina Stibbe, Creativity and wellbeing
When Guy Chambers teamed up with Robbie Williams in 1997, they created one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in British pop history. Now Guy has…
- Front Row
Film director Amma Asante, Joe Boyd on Aretha Franklin, Ireland's Abbey Theatre
Director Amma Asante on her new film Where Hands Touch, which follows Leyna, an Afro-German girl, living under the increasingly dangerous and racist Nazi…
- Front Row
Architect Sir David Adjaye in Venice
Among the designs of the leading British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye OBE are the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in…
- Front Row
Rokia Traoré, Bill Buford on Granta, artworks in political posters
The Malian singer Rokia Traoré is celebrated for her extraordinary voice, her collaborations with musicians and writers such as Damon Albarn and Toni Morrison…
- Front Row
Small Island, Chernobyl, Poet Laureate, Obamas
The death of Andrea Levy earlier this year adds a poignancy to the National Theatre's staging of her prizewinning 2004 novel Small Island, the story of the…
- Front Row
Leonardo da Vinci 500th Anniversary, Salvator Mundi
Ben Lewis talks about his book The Last Leonardo, about the world's most expensive work of art, the painting Salvator Mundi. Authenticated as a Leonardo in…
- Front Row
John Singleton remembered, Afghanistan's music scene, Tolkien reviewed, the effect of music on the brain
JRR Tolkien’s literary canon has inspired some of the highest-grossing films ever, now a biopic about his life is being released to cinemas. Tolkien stars…
- Front Row
Les Murray remembered, Women's Prize For Fiction shortlist, Kubrick exhibition, Captain Corelli on stage
Front Row pays tribute to Les Murray, Australia’s foremost contemporary poet, who died today aged 80. Unlike famous compatriots such as Germaine Greer and…
- Front Row
The Avengers phenomenon, Linda Grant, Adapting Ibsen for today
Avengers: Endgame marks the culmination of 10 years of interlinking Marvel movies. After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War, and the loss of some…
- Front Row
The Cranberries, The Art Fund Museum of the Year shortlist, Cultural Repatriation
We announce the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019 shortlist. Chair of the Judges and Director of the Art Fund Stephen Deuchar explains why these museums are in…
- Front Row
Adeel Akhtar, Artist Doris Hatt, Joe Orton
Adeel Akhtar, who stars in the new BBC1 series Back to Life, talks about his acting career – from Four Lions to becoming the first non-white male to win a Best…
- Front Row
A Celebration of the Pub in Culture
We consider the connection between the public house and the arts. Why do pubs make such great settings, provide so much inspiration and serve as great venues…
- Front Row
Golden Age of Children's Books?
Liz Pichon on her creation Tom Gates, the hugely popular series of books for young readers now on stage.Zanib Mian is the author of a new book about a Muslim…
- Front Row
Saxophonist Jess Gillam, war poster artist Abram Games, author Tayari Jones
The saxophonist Jess Gillam was a finalist in the BBC Young Musician award in 2016 and went on to take the Last Night of the Proms by storm last year. She…
- Front Row
Beyoncé, Madonna, West Side Story, Children's Literature
Two female icons of the music industry release new works today. Beyonce’s new film Homecoming is released alongside a surprise new live album. The film focuses…
- Front Row
Notre-Dame de Paris, Roger McGough, Chimerica
As France vows to restore Notre-Dame de Paris after last night's devastating fire, we discuss the artistic, musical and cultural significance of this great…
- Front Row
Andrew Scott, Maggie Smith's new play reviewed, William Eggleston
Andrew Scott, who played the priest in the recent run of the TV comedy drama Fleabag, talks about the sexual chemistry between him and Phoebe Waller-Bridge…
- Front Row
The Work, Life and Legacy of Poet Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney died in 2013. Had he lived tomorrow would have been his 80th birthday. Heaney was a rare writer - a poet both beloved and respected. He was an…
- Front Row
Jenny Saville, Laura van der Heijden, The art of the deadline
British painter Jenny Saville, the most expensive living female artist in the world, discusses her new self-portrait, painted in response to Rembrandt's…
- Front Row
Composer Gavin Bryars, Isabella Hammad, Opera singers sing pop
The contemporary classical composer Gavin Bryars talks about the latest incarnation of his acclaimed 1971 work, Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet – a 12-hour…
- Front Row
Useful Art, Embodying Ruskin, National Theatre for Northern Ireland? Unicorn Store
Alistair Hudson, Director of the Whitworth in Manchester and Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven have been awarded a Transformative…
- Front Row
Munch at British Museum, Neil Jordan - Greta, Legacy of Game Of Thrones, What makes a great ending to a TV series?
The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is best known for The Scream, and a rare lithograph of the picture is at the heart of a major new exhibition of Munch’s work…
- Front Row
Carlos Acosta, Iain Bell, BAFTA Games Awards
Carlos Acosta went from an impoverished upbringing in Havana, Cuba to a world-renowned ballet dancer and the first black Principal of The Royal Ballet. He…
- Front Row
The Shed, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Jonathan Lethem, Marvin Gaye
Tomorrow sees the opening of an ambitious new multi-purpose arts venue, The Shed, in New York. This £360m building, featuring a vast telescoping outer shell…
- Front Row
Sir David Attenborough, The Sisters Brothers, Lee Ridley
Sir David Attenborough discusses Our Planet, his new eight-part series and Netflix debut, which explores the unique wonders of the natural world, from the…
- Front Row
Toby Jones - Don't Forget the Driver, Shazam!, Bach Passions
Toby Jones tells us about turning his hand to writing for the new six part BBC2 TV series, Don’t Forget The Driver. It's a dark and poignant comedy about…
- Front Row
Suzi Quatro, Museum numbers, John Kani
Suzi Quatro was the first female bass player to become a rock star in the 1970s, with hits like Devil Gate Drive and Can the Can. Fifty-five years after her…
- Front Row
Local Hero on stage, the anti-climax in culture, Agnes Varda remembered
The 1983 Scottish film Local Hero was a much-loved comedy drama about an American oil company rep who is sent to a fictional village in Scotland to purchase…
- Front Row
Tash Aw, Arts Sponsorship row, Parry's Judith
Tash Aw, winner of the Whitbread Award and Commonwealth Book Prize, discusses his new novel We the Survivors, about a man born in a Malaysian fishing village…
- Front Row
Scottish artist Katie Paterson, Ted Hughes Award winner, Casting factual TV
Scottish artist Katie Paterson’s exhibition at Turner Contemporary, Margate, explores our relationship with the vastness and mysteries of the universe, as she…
- Front Row
A history of classical music in ten minutes - plus tragedy on today's stage
A history of classical music in 10 minutes. Pianist Jeremy Denk traces seven centuries of Western Classical Music in one recital and album, C.1300 – C.2000…
- Front Row
Matthew Herbert's Brexit Big Band, Van Gogh and Britain, At Eternity's Gate, Scott Walker
Politics and Big Band music :British musician Matthew Herbert has created The State Between Us, a new album made in reaction to the progress of Brexit. It's a…
- Front Row
The Power of Pinter, Javaad Alipoor, Richard Hawley's musical
The recent Pinter season at the Pinter Theatre in London, culminating in the current production of Betrayal starring Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton and Charlie…
- Front Row
David Bailey, Joseph Hillier Plymouth Sculpture
Photographer David Bailey has shot some of the most iconic portraits of the last six decades, from the Kray twins to the Queen. He talks about his life and…
- Front Row
The White Crow reviewed and tackling difficult issues in theatre
Ralph Fiennes' third film as director is The White Crow, the story of how Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev came from a peasant upbringing to be one of the…
- Front Row
Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges, Jessica Hynes, the art of the meme
Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges discuss their new film Ben is Back, in which a mother faces difficult challenges when her drug-addicted son returns to the…
- Front Row
Jordan Peele, The rise of country music, Christian Marclay's show reviewed
Jordan Peele talks about Us - his new film about a family terrorised by their doppelgängers. Having upturned the horror genre with his Oscar-winning racial…
- Front Row
Girl reviewed, Long Lost Likely Lads, Winners of a $165,000 literature prize, News from the London Book Fair
Briony Hanson reviews the Golden Globe nominated film, Girl, which tells the story of a trans teenage girl who, training to be a ballerina is struggling to…
- Front Row
Turn Up Charlie, Fisherman's Friends, Cheeky chappies, David Bowie demo
Idris Elba has a new Netflix comedy series: Turn Up Charlie. He plays a struggling DJ and eternal bachelor, who is given a final shot at success when he…
- Front Row
Waitress, Sadie Jones, Internet at 30
In 2016 Waitress made history as the first Broadway musical with an all-female creative team. Millie Taylor reviews the new West End production, with music and…
- Front Row
Maggie Gyllenhaal, BalletBoyz
Maggie Gyllenhaal discusses her new film The Kindergarten Teacher, in which she plays a teacher who believes one of her students is a child prodigy and begins…
- Front Row
Cheat, Richard Billingham, Club culture, Diana Athill
In ITV’s new psychological thriller Cheat, a university lecturer accuses a student of cheating in her essay, sparking a series of retaliations which threaten…
- Front Row
Samuel L Jackson, British-Chinese play Under The Umbrella and the launch of Scala Radio
The career of Hollywood superstar Samuel L Jackson was recently revealed to have made him the highest-grossing actor of all time. He joins Samira to discuss…
- Front Row
The Specials' Terry Hall, the plays of Athol Fugard, Artemisia Gentileschi
When The Specials released their new album Encore recently, their first new music with Terry Hall since the classic Ghost Town in 1981, it went straight to…
- Front Row
Stephen Merchant, Novels review, Clean Break at 40
Stephen Merchant has written and directed the feature film Fighting with my Family, which tells the unlikely true story of a young British woman from Norwich…