Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Review: Alex Garland's film Warfare, Audition by Katie Kitamura, Shanghai Dolls by Amy Ng on stage
Alex Garland's latest film Warfare, which is co-directed by US military veteran Ray Mendoza turns back the clock back nearly twenty years to reconstruct a…
- Front Row
Photographer Susan Meiselas, The Impact of Trump's Tariffs on Musical Instrument Manufacturers, Author Ewan Morrison.
American documentary photographer and President of the Magnum Foundation Susan Meiselas speaks about her fifty-year career, as she receives the Outstanding…
- Front Row
Muriel's Wedding the Musical, Dr Who, Anthony Horowitz on Marble Hall Murders
Director and Screenwriter PJ Hogan, creator of the 1994 comedy Muriel's wedding, speaks to Samira Ahmed about the new musical adaptation of his film. With lead…
- Front Row
Review: Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes in The Return, On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle, Holy Cow film
Classics professor Edith Hall and writer Lawrence Norfolk join Tom to review The Return, a retelling of the end of Homer’s Odyssey, where the hero Odysseus…
- Front Row
Tracy Chapman, the Arthur Miller moment in UK theatres, Rock Royalty
Singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman talks about the re-release of her eponymous debut album after 35 years, about how those songs of oppression and aspiration…
- Front Row
Kym Marsh on Abigail's Party, Severance creator Dan Erickson, film franchises in flux
Kym Marsh on stepping into the iconic role of Beverly in theatre classic Abigail's Party as the play opens at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.Film…
- Front Row
Manhunt play by Robert Icke, new Edwardians exhibition, film director Waris Hussein
Theatre director Robert Icke's production of Oedipus won best revival and a best actress award for Lesley Manville at last night's Olivier Awards - but his new…
- Front Row
Reviews of Mobland, The Most Precious of Cargoes and Giuseppe Penone exhibition
Nancy Durrant and Jason Solomons join Tom to review: The new offering from Guy Ritchie, Mobland, with familiar themes of drug gangs and violence and starring…
- Front Row
Tilda Swinton, Michael Sheen on the new Welsh National Theatre, Richard Burton's influential teacher
Tilda Swinton talks about her role in Joshua Oppenheimer's post-apocalyptic musical film The End, and about her intention to take a break from acting, Actor…
- Front Row
Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker, Design Council at 80, The Women of Llanrumney
Charlie Brooker talks about the return of his wildly popular tech and sci-fi dystopian drama Black Mirror. This new six-part series includes Paul Giamatti as a…
- Front Row
Freedom of Expression in the Arts
Front Row looks at freedom of expression in the arts. From rows about cancel culture to allegations of censorship and the charge that the arts has become…
- Front Row
Review: The Studio, Grayson Perry, La Cocina
For our review programme Tom Sutcliffe is joined by critics Dorian Lynskey and Briony Hanson. They are looking at: New comedy series The Studio, set in…
- Front Row
Peter Capaldi's new album, the great Ossian myth, Brian Friel's short stories
Peter Capaldi talks about his latest album – Sweet Illusions – a nod to the thriving 80s music scene in Glasgow where Peter made his musical debut fronting The…
- Front Row
Peter Mullan as Bill Shankly, 100 years of Art Deco, Jonathan Pie
The actor and director Peter Mullan talks about taking on the role of Bill Shankly in the new theatre production in Liverpool, Red or Dead, about the…
- Front Row
Bryan Ferry, Disney's Snow White, the impact of cash prizes on creativity
Bryan Ferry discusses his latest album, Loose Talk and reflects on his long career in music. Disney's new live action version of Snow White has just opened and…
- Front Row
Review: Clueless the Musical, Oscar winning animated film Flow, Robert de Niro in The Alto Knights. Plus poetry from Seán Hewitt
Critics Hanna Flint and Boyd Hilton join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Clueless, a new musical based on the 1995 film staring Alicia Silverstone. They also discuss…
- Front Row
Francois Ozon's new film When Autumn Falls, Pierre Boulez Centenary, Shona McCarthy on leaving Edinburgh Festival's Fringe
French auteur Francois Ozon, whose previous films include 8 Women, Swimming Pool and Potiche, talks about his latest, When Autumn Falls, a bittersweet story of…
- Front Row
Julian Barnes's new book Changing My Mind, Victor Hugo's artwork, Emma Donoghue's novel The Paris Express
Sculptor Antony Gormley and Professor of French literature, Catriona Seth discuss Victor Hugo's visual art with Tom Sutcliffe. Victor Hugo was a 19th century…
- Front Row
Vikingur Olafsson's lockdown piano performance, how the pandemic changed The Arts, Liz Pichon's interactive world of The Mubbles
Front Row's artist in residence, acclaimed Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson, reflects on five years since lockdown and we have another listen to his Front…
- Front Row
Review: Edvard Munch portraits, Indian film Sister Midnight, Chekhov's The Seagull with Cate Blanchett
Samira Ahmed and guest critics - the novelist and anthropologist Tahmima Anam and Ben Luke from the Art Newspaper - give their verdict on the week’s cultural…
- Front Row
Former Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins performs, Torrey Peters' new book, centenary of Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay
Songwriter and musician Edwyn Collins performs live from his latest album, Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation, a series of 11 optimistic and defiant tracks…
- Front Row
The Leopard, Natasha Brown, Manchester International Festival, Elizabeth Fritsch
As Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel The Leopard is dramatised for television, director Tom Shankland and film critic Peter Bradshaw discuss the power of…
- Front Row
Jack Thorne and Philip Barantini on Adolescence, Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi
Adolescence – the new Netflix series starring Stephen Graham – explores every parent’s worst nightmare: a teenage son accused of a knife-crime. Co-writers and…
- Front Row
Review: film Mickey 17, David Szalay’s novel Flesh, Get Millie Black TV series
In Front Row's Thursday review, Ellah Wakatama and Rhianna Dhillon give their take on Bong Joon Ho's new film Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattison, David…
- Front Row
Jessica Lange, Welsh National Opera's new joint leaders, artist Alison Watt
Actor Jessica Lange discusses her latest film, an adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize winning play Long Day's Journey Into Night, in which she plays…
- Front Row
Raoul Peck on photographer Ernest Cole, the death of Bill Dare, 14th-century art in Siena, Colum McCann's novel Twist
A new exhibition at London's National Gallery hopes to shed light on artists in 14th Century Siena, who have often been overshadowed by their Tuscan neighbours…
- Front Row
Daniel Evans as Edward II, Laura Carreira's film On Falling, last night's Oscar winners
Sean Baker made Oscar history, becoming the first person to win four Academy Awards for directing, editing, writing and producing a single film, Anora…
- Front Row
Review: Leigh Bowery exhibition, The Summer with Carmen film, Michael Amherst's novel The Boyhood of Cain
Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the film critic Ryan Gilbey and art critic and author Charlotte Mullins review the week's latest cultural releases including Tate…
- Front Row
Anjelica Huston, Tim Roth and British Museum Director Nicholas Cullinan
Kirsty Wark talks to Anjelica Huston about playing a magnificent matriarch in the adaptation of Agatha Christie's Towards Zero, which begins on BBC One this…
- Front Row
New medical drama Berlin ER, Stacy L Smith, German Elections, Santanu Bhattacharya
As the Oscars hove into view this weekend, the news is the women are coming - Stacey L Smith from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative on their research showing…
- Front Row
25 Years of 21st Century: Theatre
We look back at the quarter century in performing arts, exploring the changes in live stage performance and asking how the theatrical landscape has changed…
- Front Row
Review: A Thousand Blows, Richard II, Perspectives by Laurent Binet
John Mullan and Caroline Frost join Tom to review Steven Knight's new historical drama A Thousand Blows, Nicolas Hytner's production of Richard II staring…
- Front Row
25 Years of 21st Century: Art and Architecture
Kirsty Wark and guests discuss how visual art and architecture have evolved over the last 25 years. In the latest of our special series reflecting the changing…
- Front Row
Muhammad Ali in South Shields, Sheila Fell exhibition in Cumbria, Dame Myra Hess
Playwright Ishy Din on his new play, Champion inspired by the 1977 visit of celebrated boxer, Muhammed Ali, to South Shields. Art historian Frances Spalding…
- Front Row
Walter Salles on I'm Still Here, Matt Goss performs live, The Face magazine exhibition at National Portrait Gallery
Samira Ahmed talks to Brazilian director Walter Salles about his film I'm Still Here - which has already won multiple awards including the Golden Globe for…
- Front Row
Review: Bridget Jones; Linder Stirling exhibition; Memoir of a Snall animation
Robbie Collin and Louisa Buck join Tom Sutcliffe to review the fourth Bridget Jones film Mad About the Boy staring Renée Zellweger, the Oscar nominated…
- Front Row
Future of TV soaps, Joseph O'Connor's new book, stage version of Murakami short stories
As scheduling changes are made to ITV soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and as the 40th anniversary of EastEnders is celebrated with a live special on BBC…
- Front Row
25 Years of 21st Century: Books
Front Row continues to look at how culture has changed in the first 25 years of this century with an edition focusing on books.Tom Sutcliffe is in the Front…
- Front Row
Robert de Niro, Gladiators exhibition, Festen: Mark Anthony Turnage and Lee Hall's new opera
Hollywood legend Robert De Niro explains why he's starring in his first ever TV series Zero Day, where he plays a former US President out to find the culprits…
- Front Row
Review: The Last Showgirl, Oedipus, Nobel author Han Kang's novel We Do Not Part
Tom is joined by the writer and broadcaster Octavia Bright and the Observer's theatre critic Susannah Clapp to review another version of the Greek classic…
- Front Row
September 5 director Tim Fehlbaum, new Motherland spin-off TV series Amandaland, the history of Slapstick
Writer Holly Walsh and actor Lucy Punch on the Motherland spin-off series, Amandaland which also stars Joanna Lumley Director, screenwriter and producer of…
- Front Row
25 Years of 21st Century: Film and Television
Front Row continues to look at how culture has changed in the first 25 years of the century with an edition focusing on film and TV.Samira is joined by Radio…
- Front Row
Director Coralie Fargeat on The Substance, Josephine Baker's autobiography, poet Anne Carson on Elektra on stage
Coralie Fargeat has been nominated as best director for her film The Substance which stars Demi Moore. She tells Samira about her inspiration for the satirical…
- Front Row
Review: Mike Leigh's Hard Truths, Inside No. 9 on stage, film Saturday Night
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer Dreda Say Mitchell and critic Scott Bryan to assess the week's cultural releases, including a new stage version of the hit TV…
- Front Row
Jane Austen's sister, artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman, football in fiction
As new BBC One drama adaptation, Miss Austen, shines fresh light on Jane Austen's sister Cassandra, Gill Hornby, who wrote the eponymous novel on which Miss…
- Front Row
25 Years of 21st Century: Music
Front Row looks at how culture has changed in the first 25 years of this century, starting with Music. Samira is joined by Radio 4's Add to Playlist hosts…
- Front Row
Review: supernatural thriller film Presence, Edmund White's sex memoir and Brazil! Brazil! at the Royal Academy
Rowan Pelling, journalist and founding editor of the Erotic Review, and the film critic Tim Robey join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the Oscar nominations and…
- Front Row
James Graham on Brian & Maggie, The Merchant of Venice, Live music from Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart
Writer James Graham on his Channel 4 drama Brian & Maggie, which stars Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter, and which tells the story of a hard-hitting interview…
- Front Row
Anora director Sean Baker, Caryl Phillips's new novel, Somerset House exhibition on Soil
Anora is one of the leading contenders in the current film awards season - and its star Mikey Madison looks likely to get an Oscar nomination too. Its director…
- Front Row
The Brutalist director Brady Corbet and star Adrien Brody, Sidney Poitier season at BFI
The Brutalist's director Brady Corbet and star Adrien Brody talk about making the hotly anticipated film. With a season of Sidney Poitier's films underway at…
- Front Row
Review: Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, TS Eliot prize poetry, Italian wartime film Vermiglio
Lemn Sissay and Rhianna Dhillon review the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalamet, the TS Eliot Prize-winning poetry collection…
- Front Row
Franz Ferdinand play in the studio, Richard Price on his new novel Lazarus Man, verdict on BAFTA nominations
Franz Ferdinand play live from their new album The Human Fear, eleven songs which explore deep-set human anxieties and how overcoming and accepting them drives…
- Front Row
Vivaldi's Four Seasons reimagined, impact of L.A. fires on culture, Leigh Whannell's new horror film, Dead Ink Books
Sir Michael Morpurgo and violinist Daniel Pioro discusss reimagining Vivaldi's Four Seasons for a recording with the Manchester Camerata featuring new poetry…
- Front Row
Michael Sheen, Matthew Bourne on Oliver! and ghostwriting
Actor Michael Sheen explains how he was rehearsing his role as the creator of the NHS, Nye Bevan when he heard about the demise of National Theatre Wales and…
- Front Row
Review: Angelina Jolie's Maria, AL Kennedy's novel Alive in the Merciful Country, Architecton documentary
Viv Groskop and David Benedict join Tom Sutcliffe to talk about Maria, the Maria Callas biopic staring Angelina Jolie. They also review Alive in the Merciful…
- Front Row
Asif Kapadia's dystopian film 2073, anthology comic marks 25 years since armed forces "gay ban" lifted, Nick Frost in Get Away
Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Fiona MacLellan
- Front Row
Jesse Eisenberg & Kieran Culkin on their film A Real Pain, improving visual literacy in school, how Jerry Springer changed TV
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin about their new film A Real Pain - in which they play mis-matched cousins touring Poland to honour…
- Front Row
Nicole Kidman on Babygirl, Brian Eno on art and Herod
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson talk about their award-winning new film Babygirl, where she plays a married mum and high powered tech CEO who begins an…
- Front Row
Review: Nosferatu, Lockerbie, Nickel Boys
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by the critics Bidisha and Peter Bradshaw to review the highlights of the week:Nosferatu - Robert Eggers' remake of F.W Murnau's 1922…
- Front Row
Front Row on the Shipping Forecast, at the Cutty Sark
Samira Ahmed presents Front Row's contribution to Radio 4's New Year's Day celebration of the Shipping Forecast, marking a century since the BBC began…