Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Jacqueline Wilson, JRR Tolkien poetry, BBC TV thriller Nightsleeper
Dame Jacqueline Wilson talks about Think Again, the long-awaited adult novel which is the sequel to her much-loved Girls series of books. Actors Alexandra…
- Front Row
Australian Front Row with Paul Kelly, Simon Armitage, Jazz Money and Shankari Chandran
The BBC's Contains Strong Language festival has left British shores for the first time - and Australian arts and culture presenter Michael Cathcart hosts a…
- Front Row
Richard O'Brien & Jason Donovan on 50 years of Rocky Horror, Bella Mackie
Richard O'Brien and Jason Donovan on 50 years of the Rocky Horror Show, Bella Mackie on her new novel which follows the success her hit book How to Kill Your…
- Front Row
REVIEW: Film: Firebrand; BOOK: Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake; TV: Kaos
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by academic and critic John Mullan and Elodie Harper, the bestselling author of The Wolf Den Trilogy for the Front Row review show…
- Front Row
Jeremy Denk, Scottish Arts Crisis, Harry Mould
Members of Scotland's cultural community discuss the controversy around a cut to vital funding. Ahead of his third year performing at the Lammermuir Festival…
- Front Row
TV: Colin from Accounts; Musical: Why Am I So Single? Hak Baker performs
Following the international success of SIX the Musical, writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss are in the studio to discuss their new work Why Am I So Single? They…
- Front Row
Michael Keaton; The The play live; Tim Minchin on life, art and success
Michael Keaton on his new film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, coming over 35 years after the original film and which reunites him with director Tim Burton.Tim…
- Front Row
Review: film: Kneecap, TV: Bad Monkey, book: Ootlin by Jenni Fagan
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Leila Latif and Dorian Lynskey to review Kneecap, a debut film from Rich Peppiatt about a trio of Irish language rappers from West…
- Front Row
James Graham, Alexander McCall Smith, the art of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
Sherwood writer James Graham argues that TV has a problem with working class representation, both in front of and behind the screen, as he delivers this year's…
- Front Row
Fran Healy, affordable artists' studios, climate change storytelling
Fran Healy, lead singer of indie-rock band Travis, on why their tenth album LA Times is the most personal since their breakthrough album, The Man Who, and why…
- Front Row
Pat Barker, the films of Alain Delon, Proms played by memory, Orlando Weeks
Samira Ahmed talks to Pat Barker about the final part of her Troy trilogy, The Voyage Home. Alain Delon has died at the age of 88 - President Macron called him…
- Front Row
The Outrun, Gwyneth Paltrow dramas, Comedy Roundup, Rebels & Patriots
Kirsty Wark reviews highlights from the Edinburgh Festival, joined by critics Ian Rankin, Chitra Ramaswamy and Dominic Maxwell. They discuss two adaptations of…
- Front Row
David Morrissey, Relaxed performances, Alien: Romulus
David Morrissey stars as a hapless father in the new BBC comedy Daddy Issues - alongside Sex Education's Aimee Lou Wood as his pregnant daughter. Samira Ahmed…
- Front Row
Nish Kumar, Miriam Margolyes, Rose Matafeo, Teenage Fanclub
This programme has been edited since broadcast.Kirsty Wark launches Front Row's regular Scottish editions with a live show from the Edinburgh Festival…
- Front Row
Emily Tesh and the Hugo Awards; Dating shows; Kelly Jones
This year’s WorldCon - the World Science Fiction Convention - took place in Glasgow and pop culture critic Gavia Baker-Whitelaw reports on the international…
- Front Row
Pericles, Babes, Michael Longley
Critics Susannah Clapp and Tim Robey join Tom to review a new RSC production at Stratford of one Shakespeare’s less performed plays Pericles, the pregnancy…
- Front Row
Sky Peals film, documentary Doom Scroll, & could a book written 100 years ago be the ultimate millennial read?
Ex-Wife, a 1929 novel by Ursula Parrott, about the failure of a young couple’s marriage and the subsequent promiscuous partying of the wife in New York, was a…
- Front Row
Joan Baez, Shakespeare in British Sign Language, Charlotte Mendelson
Joan Baez on her poetry collection inspired by her diagnosis of multiple personality disorder, called When You See My Mother Ask Her to Dance. Shakespeare's…
- Front Row
Kensuke Kingdom, best Young Adult Fiction reads, do film trailers reveal too much?
Directors Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry on Kinsuke's Kingdom, their hand-drawn animated film which features a shipwrecked boy who learns about the natural world…
- Front Row
Didi and Echoes by Evie Wyld reviewed; Benjamin Grosvenor performs Busoni
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Rhianna Dhillon and Viv Groskop to review novel Echoes by Evie Wyld, which focuses on Max, a ghost who, stuck in the flat they had…
- Front Row
Dramatizing MPs, Jon Savage on LGBTQ and music, Stirling Prize shortlist, Screenwriters v AI
Labour MPs are having a moment on the stage with Jennie Lee, the UK's first Arts Minister, the subject of Lindsay Rodden's eponymous new play for Mikron…
- Front Row
Deadpool v Wolverine, Cherry Jones, Leyla McCalla
A new production of The Grapes of Wrath opens at the National Theatre with Cherry Jones taking on the role of matriarch Ma Joad. She joins Samira to talk about…
- Front Row
Deadpool & Wolverine, Cherry Jones, Leyla McCalla
A new production of The Grapes of Wrath opens at the National Theatre with Cherry Jones taking on the role of matriarch Ma Joad. She joins Samira to talk about…
- Front Row
James Baldwin Centenary Special
Colm Toibin, Bonnie Greer and Mendez join Samira Ahmed to celebrate the life and work of the American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, author of…
- Front Row
Review: theatre: Hello Dolly; TV: The Decameron; film: About Dry Grasses
Novelist Stephanie Merritt and literary editor of the Spectator Sam Leith are Tom Sutcliffe's guest reviewers. They give their verdict on the new production of…
- Front Row
Keanu Reeves & China Miéville, The Cultural Olympiad in Paris, Making in Blackburn
Hollywood star Keanu Reeves and award-winning author China Miéville have joined forces for The Book of Elsewhere, which is based on Keanu's hit comic book…
- Front Row
Arts Sponsorship in Crisis?
Samira discusses the perilous situation facing arts sponsorship in the UK, amid growing protests and campaigns, with leading figures from the worlds of arts…
- Front Row
Fangirls musical, countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski, Sam West
Tom talks to the creators of the hit Australian musical Fangirls, Yve Blake and Paige Rattray, as it opens in London. Countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski makes…
- Front Row
Review: TV: Those About To Die, Film: Thelma, Theatre: ECHO
Jason Solomons and Kate Maltby join Tom to review Those About to Die, the new 10-part ‘sword and sandal’ series from Amazon Prime, directed by Roland Emmerich…
- Front Row
Danny Dyer and Pete Bellotte on his hits for Donna Summer
Writer actor Ryan Sampson and actor Danny Dyer on their new sky comedy series Mr Bigstuff which explores the relationship between two brothers and masculinity…
- Front Row
Disco Prom, fast-food themed immersive art, arts funding crisis in Wales, Bill Viola remembered
As Disco makes its debut at the Proms, conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, who will be leading the BBC Concert Orchestra at Saturday’s Everybody Dance! The…
- Front Row
Anne-Marie Duff, Al Murray, Melvyn Hayes, Billboard art
Anne-Marie Duff talks about her role in the crime thriller Suspect and her career from Shameless to Bad Sisters, Al Murray and Matthew Moss on the ongoing…
- Front Row
Review Show: Theatre: Slave Play, Film: Fly Me To The Moon, TV: Sunny
Boyd Hilton and Dreda Say Mitchell join Samira to review the 12 time Tony nominated Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris which has just opened in London, having…
- Front Row
Museum of the Year winner announced
For the first time ever, breaking (known commercially as break dancing) is going to be featured as a sport at the main Olympic Games when they are hosted in…
- Front Row
Chariots of Fire staged, Pompidou Centre redeveloped, My Native Land republished
Playwright Mike Bartlett and theatre director Robert Hastie on their new stage production of Chariots of FireAs preparations are made for a major redevelopment…
- Front Row
Laurie Anderson's album Amelia, what's in the new Culture Secretary's in-tray?
Laurie Anderson, the Grammy award-winning artist and musician whose career has spanned five decades, discusses her latest work. a song cycle based on the final…
- Front Row
Review: Starlight Express, Anita Desai's book Rosarita, film: The Nature of Love
Author Abir Mukherjee and critic Sarah Crompton join Tom Sutcliffe for the review show. After opening 40 years ago, Starlight Express has been updated and…
- Front Row
Poet Paul Muldoon, film Unicorns and writer Stefan Zweig.
The Irish giant of verse Paul Muldoon is this year’s Writer in Residence at Ledbury Poetry Festival. He discusses the importance of workshopping and his new…
- Front Row
The Bear, Moonchild Sanelly, Dundee Contemporary Gallery
The hit series The Bear is back for a third series. Samira talks to Ebon Moss Bachrach, who plays Richie. His cousin Carmen has been trying to transform their…
- Front Row
Lynda la Plante, AI and copyright, funding literary festivals
Lynda la Plante discusses her final Jane Tennison novel, Whole Life Sentence and discusses the enduring legacy of Prime Suspect.Lea Ypi remembers the late…
- Front Row
Reviews - Douglas is Cancelled, Ronald Moody Sculptures, The Importance of Being Earnest
Reviews of: The ITV comedy drama Douglas is Cancelled - a four part series written by Steven Moffat, starring Hugh Bonneville as middle-aged television…
- Front Row
Next to Normal, British TV history, In the Eye of the Storm
Next to Normal stormed Broadway in 2009 with its portrayal of a woman struggling with her mental health. It went on to win three Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize…
- Front Row
The Marilyn Conspiracy, Rachel Podger, Emma Glass
Violinist Rachel Podger has assembled an intriguing selection of English Baroque chamber pieces on her new CD The Muses Restor'd. She tells Kate about some of…
- Front Row
Kyoto, Nathaniel Rateliff, Midsummer Day poetry
The UN climate conference in Kyoto in 1997 is the setting for a new play at the RSC. Its writers Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson talk about the dramatic potential…
- Front Row
Review: Film Green Border, Exhibition Stories of Henry VIII's Queens, TV: Federer: Twelve Final Days. Plus Joseph Coelho
Philippa Gregory and Briony Hanson join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the National Portrait Gallery’s Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens, award winning…
- Front Row
Graham Gouldman, Jaws anniversary, queering Shakespeare
Musician Graham Gouldman performs live from his new album, as well as talking about his Lancashire upbringing and and playing in the band 10cc50 years ago…
- Front Row
Stephen Fry, New Comedians, Questlove
Stephen Fry stars in Treasure, where he plays a jovial Holocaust survivor who returns to his native Poland from his home New York with his stubborn…
- Front Row
Kiss Me Kate, UK election: culture policies, Persephone Books
Broadway star Stephanie J Block performs So In Love from the new production of Kiss Me Kate, at London’s Barbican. Tom talks to her and the Tony Award-winning…
- Front Row
Review of films Sasquatch Sunset and Ama Gloria and a look at Vivienne Westwood's clothes
Sasquatch Sunset has been dubbed the year's strangest film, about a family of mythological bigfoot monsters. Ama Gloria is a French film about the bond between…
- Front Row
James Shapiro, BEKA, Molly Bloomsday
Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro has turned his attention to the incredible story behind the Federal Theatre in 1930s America in his new study “The Playbook…
- Front Row
Liverpool's Taylor Swift Art Trail, Les Dennis, the state of UK festivals
As Liverpool enters the Swiftularity with the arrival of the arrival of the record-breaking phenomenon that is Taylor Swift and her Eras world tour, Nick…
- Front Row
Jon Bon Jovi, Clare Pollard & Marina Warner, Viggo Mortensen and Vikki Krieps
Jon Bon Jovi talks about his band’s new album Forever and their new documentary Thank You, Goodnight on Disney+ which celebrates the band’s 40th anniversary in…
- Front Row
Review: Film - Rosalie, TV - Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, Book - The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
Kevin Barry’s new novel is The Heart in Winter, a love story set in the American wild west in the 1890s. The film Rosalie is a period piece inspired by the…
- Front Row
Christos Tsiolkas, Victoria Canal, Baillie Gifford festival sponsorship
Christos Tsiolkas, the Australian writer best known for The Slap, talks about The In-Between, his visceral yet tender new novel about two men finding love in…
- Front Row
Queenie, Female pirates, dating dramas
Presenter Samira Ahmed talks to Candice Carty-Williams who has adapted her award-winning novel Queenie for an eight-part series on Channel 4, starring Dionne…
- Front Row
Richard Linklater, Ultimate 90s Bollywood Song, Esther Swift
American director Richard Linklater, who made his name with Boyhood and the Before Sunset films, talks about his new comedy thriller Hit Man, which stars Glen…
- Front Row
Review: The Beast, We Are Lady Parts, Beyond Fashion exhibition
Samira Ahmed is joined by author Anita Sethi and critic Tim Robey to review time-skipping sci-fi epic The Beast, where human emotions are perceived as a…
- Front Row
Adrian Dunbar on Samuel Beckett, Degas exhibitions, Chigozie Obioma
Adrian Dunbar is co-curator of the Beckett Unbound Festival that takes place in various venues across Liverpool this weekend and sees him directing Beckett's…
- Front Row
Bernard Butler, Kafka, Benedict Cumberbatch
Hollywood star Benedict Cumberbatch talks about his new series Eric, where he plays a troubled puppeteer in 80s New York whose life and marriage unravel when…
- Front Row
Hay Festival 2024 - Young Adult Fiction
In a special edition of Front Row recorded at this year's Hay Festival, school children and young people put questions to four giants of Young Adult…