Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
The Sympathizer, Ivor Novello Awards, Michelle Terry on Richard III
Samira Ahmed is joined by the Guardian’s music editor Ben Beaumont-Thomas plus cultural sociologist and music researcher Dr. Monique Charles to review…
- Front Row
Vicky McClure, LS Lowry and the sea, International Booker Prize 2024
Line of Duty star Vicky McClure on her new TV thriller Insomnia, in which she plays a lawyer losing her grip on the daily juggle of family life and work as old…
- Front Row
Colm Tóibín, Miranda Rutter & Rob Harbron, Iain Sinclair on John Deakin
Colm Tóibín's not a fan of follow-ups so why has he written a sequel to his bestseller Brooklyn, which was made into a film starring Saoirse Ronan? He talks to…
- Front Row
George Miller, Miranda July, Orchestral Qawwali Project
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is the latest film from the writer director George Miller, 45 years after the first Mad Max film with Mel Gibson aired. He joins us to…
- Front Row
Review: Big Cigar on AppleTV, Elton John’s photos at V&A, animated/live action film If
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by journalist Kevin Le Gendre and critic Hanna Flint to review The Big Cigar, which tells the story of Black Panther leader Huey P…
- Front Row
John Cleese's Fawlty Towers on stage, Beatrice Harrison, Cannes
Fawlty Towers arrives on the West End stage nearly 50 years after it first appeared on TV. John Cleese talks about why the sitcom wasn’t initially regarded as…
- Front Row
Withnail and I on stage, Women & Art at Tate Britain, Alan Murrin
Bruce Robinson has written a stage adaptation of his cult 1987 film Withnail And I - a tragicomedy that evokes the end of an era as the 60s give way to 70s and…
- Front Row
Damian Barr on Maggie & Me, Italian neorealist film, A.I. and Fake Art
A memoir about growing up gay in Scotland under the shadow of Thatcherism, Maggie & Me was published to wide acclaim in 2013. Damian Barr joins to discuss how…
- Front Row
La Chimera, Bodkin, a new novel called Great Expectations reviewed
La Chimera is a new film directed by Alice Rohrwacher and starring Josh O’Connor as a British archaeologist who gets caught up in a network of stolen Etruscan…
- Front Row
Sir Stephen Hough, Arab Strap, can authors make money?
From winning the piano section of the first BBC young musician of the year as a teen to recording over 60 albums and publishing 40 original works, Stephen…
- Front Row
Party Games play, 200 years of Beethoven’s 9th, literary editing
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, music critic Norman Lebrecht and conductor JoAnn Falletta discuss what makes it revolutionary…
- Front Row
Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Jeremy Deller, Scarborough Spa Orchestra
Nick visits Scarborough and talks to Sir Alan Ayckbourn as he rehearses an old play - Things We Do For Love - and looks forward to the staging of his 90th play…
- Front Row
The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Marc Quinn at Kew, The Fall Guy,
Harvey Keitel stars in The Tattooist of Auschwitz - a six-part Sky Atlantic series based on the best-selling novel by Heather Morris, inspired by the real-life…
- Front Row
Spirited Away at London Coliseum, Eurovision build-up, terminal diagnosis films
Award winning director behind Les Miserables John Caird and co-writing partner Maoko Imai talk about adapting the iconic Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away for…
- Front Row
Michelangelo exhibition at British Museum, Jembaa Groove perform, Inside Number 9
Historian Andrew Graham-Dixon and art curator Kate Bryan discuss Michelangelo: the last decades, a major new exhibition at the British Museum which focuses on…
- Front Row
Hanif Kureishi, Ingrid Persaud, Arts Council funding
Hanif Kureishi has joined forces with Emma Rice to adapt his 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia into an RSC production that’s just opened at the Swan Theatre…
- Front Row
Pet Shop Boys, review of Challengers film and Expressionists exhibiition
The Pet Shop Boys are the most successful duo in UK music history. Forty years after their first hit West End Girls they are about to release their new album…
- Front Row
The Legend of Ned Ludd, Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist, Mohammad Barrangi
The Legend of Ned Ludd - writer Joe Ward Munrow and director Jude Christian discuss their new play at the Liverpool Everyman theatre which explores the…
- Front Row
Women and Shakespeare, best beach reads, Black British music exhibition
The British Library isn’t all books; it has a huge sound archive, one of the largest in the world. It has drawn on this for Beyond the Bassline, the first…
- Front Row
Designer Sir Kenneth Grange, Taylor Swift's new album, Venice Art Biennale
Taylor Swift returns with The Tortured Poets Department, a surprise double album that features 31 tracks that fans are saying is her most intimate and…
- Front Row
London Tide with music by PJ Harvey, Salman Rushdie's story of survival: Knife and tenor Ian Bostridge
Knife is Salman Rushdie’s memoir about surviving a near-fatal knife attack in August 2022 and the long, painful period of recovery that followed. Ben Power’s…
- Front Row
Lionel Shriver's new book Mania, Tyrell Williams on Red Pitch
Lionel Shriver on her latest novel Mania, in which she creates an alternative USA where the Mental Parity Movement insists that everyone is equally clever. Can…
- Front Row
Sir John Akomfrah, bicentenary of Byron's death and sped-up music
Lord Byron died 200 years ago on Friday. Lady Caroline Lamb described him as 'mad, bad and dangerous to know'. Fiona Stafford has edited Byron's Travels, a new…
- Front Row
The Book of Clarence, Liberation Squares, Northern Ireland's filming boom
British director Jeymes Samuel discusses his new film The Book of Clarence, a Biblical comedy about a down-on-his-luck young man who tries to escape from a…
- Front Row
Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black and Percival Everett's James reviewed
Back to Black is the Amy Winehouse biopic out this week and directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. James is Percival Everett’s retelling of Mark Twain’s 1884 novel…
- Front Row
Folk musician Martin Simpson, movie icon Anna May Wong, and classical music leaders criticise Arts Council England
Anna May Wong was an international star who appeared in some of Hollywood’s biggest movies in a career that spanned from the silent films of the 1920s, through…
- Front Row
Nathan Hill, Maggie Rogers, International Booker shortlist
Nathan Hill talks about his new novel Wellness, the follow-up to his acclaimed debut The Nix.Maggie Rogers, the singer-songwriter whose career was launched by…
- Front Row
Yinka Shonibare, Sean Shibe, cinema and digital decay
Artist Yinka Shonibare talks about his new exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, which explores the legacy of Imperialism. Guitarist Sean Shibe performs early…
- Front Row
Beyonce’s new album Cowboy Carter, Netflix drama Ripley, Io Capitano movie reviewed
Beyonce’s new album Cowboy Carter - Netflix drama Ripley starring Andrew Scott - Io Capitano, the Oscar-nominated movie about teens in Senegal in search of a…
- Front Row
50 years of ABBA’s Waterloo, Harewood House exhibition, Trevor Griffiths remembered, the rise of eco fiction and drama
Almost 50 years to the day when ABBA's Waterloo triumphed at Eurovision, ABBA specialist Carl Magnus Palm and Millie Taylor, professor of musical theatre…
- Front Row
Dev Patel on Monkey Man, which books are on the curriculum?
Actor Dev Patel joins to talk about his directorial debut Monkey Man, a movie inspired by the Indian legend of Hunaman that tells the dark and brutal story of…
- Front Row
The National Gallery at 200
The National Gallery opened its doors on 10th May 1824. The public could view 38 paintings, free. Now there are more than 2,300, including many masterpieces of…
- Front Row
Steven Knight drama This Town reviewed, The Perth Museum re-opening
Peaky Blinders' writer Steven Knight's new drama, This Town, is out this week. Author Daniel Rachel and art historian Sarah Gaventa review.We'll also review a…
- Front Row
Big Mood, how does comedy work? Bach St John Passion
Camilla Whitehill on her new Channel 4 sitcom Big Mood, starring Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West, which explores the lives of Millennials. Gareth Malone and…
- Front Row
Norah Jones performs, Sir Ian McKellen on Player Kings, Keisha Thompson
Norah Jones discusses her new album, Visions, and reflects on the song, Come Away With Me, that made her name along with a special performance in the Front Row…
- Front Row
Poet Nikki Giovanni, Andrew Buchan on TV drama Passenger
Nikki Giovanni is one of only a handful of poets whose work has been published as a Penguin Modern Classic in their own life time. A key figure of America's…
- Front Row
Kristen Wiig drama Palm Royale and animation Robot Dreams reviewed, Michael Ondaatje on his new poetry collection
The Independent’s chief film critic Clarisse Loughrey and the Telegraph’s film critic Tim Robey review the Oscar-nominated animation Robot Dreams which follows…
- Front Row
Kazuo Ishiguro on jazz, March hares and film ratings
Writer Kazuo Ishiguro and jazz musician Stacey Kent talk about collaborating on their new book of lyrics, The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain.What’s the…
- Front Row
Marjane Satrapi, using AI for alternative history, and the Harlow Sculpture Trail
Marjane Satrapi is best known for being the cartoonist and film maker behind Persepolis. She talks to Samira Ahmed about her new book - Woman, Life, Freedom -…
- Front Row
Architect Daniel Libeskind, composer Karl Jenkins
Daniel Libeskind, the architect best known for the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the World Trade Centre masterplan in New York, talks about designing a building…
- Front Row
Keir Starmer, Monster and Reading Genesis reviewed
Labour leader Keir Starmer joins to discuss his party's new arts strategy, which he unveiled this morning, aiming to boost access to the arts and grow the…
- Front Row
Paul Theroux on Orwell, Patsy Rodenburg on training actors, musician Sam Lee
Paul Theroux discusses his new novel, Burma Sahib, about George Orwell’s formative years as a colonial police officer in what is now Myanmar.Voice expert…
- Front Row
Philippa Gregory on Richard III, Blackpool's Showtown, has the superhero franchise bubble burst?
Historical novelist Philippa Gregory talks to Nick Ahad about writing her first stage play, Richard, My Richard, for Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot…
- Front Row
Beth Ditto of Gossip, Ethan Coen on Drive-Away Dolls, Michael Donkor
Beth Ditto talks to Tom Sutcliffe about reuniting with her band Gossip for their first new album in nearly a decade.Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke discuss…
- Front Row
Jordan Harvey in session, Nye and Copa 71 reviewed
The up'n'coming Scottish country singer performs songs from his debut album It Is What It Is ahead of his debut solo performance at the Country To Country…
- Front Row
Ava DuVernay on Origin, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julianne Moore
Ava DuVernay talks to Tom Sutcliffe about her latest film, Origin. It stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson…
- Front Row
Kate Rusby, Edward Bond, Eve Steele and the decline of female filmmakers
The acclaimed English folk singer-songwriter Kate Rusby performs live and chats about her new Singy Songy Session Tour.Theatre critic Michael Billington…
- Front Row
Ray Winstone, K Patrick, Ferris & Sylvester
Ray Winstone, star of Sexy Beast and Nil By Mouth, talks about new Netflix series The Gentlemen brought to television screens by director Guy Ritchie.K…
- Front Row
Dune 2, Brian Bilston, Angelica Kauffman RA, Nachtland
This week sees the release of the much anticipated Dune part 2, the sequel to 2021’s part 1, a series based on Frank Herbert’s 1960’s sci fi classic. We also…
- Front Row
Benjamin Britten, director Kaouther Ben Hania, music from Owen Spafford and Louis Campbell
Kate Molleson talks to Kaouther Ben Hania about her Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters, which explores the impact of two sisters fleeing to join…
- Front Row
The Jury: Murder Trial, Bhangra Nation, Bluestockings
Channel 4’s new reality TV series, The Jury: Murder Trial features a real-life murder case, re-run in front of two juries who are unaware of each other’s…
- Front Row
Sheridan Smith. Movement Coaches and Sexism in French Cinema
In an exclusive for Front Row, Sheridan Smith performs Magic, a song from her new musical Opening Night, which is directed by Ivo Van Hove, with music from…
- Front Row
Minority Report at Nottingham Playhouse, Wicked Little Letters, and TV series Boarders reviewed
Minority report, the Sci-Fi classic by Philip K Dick, has already been adapted for film and television and now it’s a stage play that employs an innovative mix…
- Front Row
Wim Wenders, Len Pennie and Angus Robertson
Wim Wenders on his new Oscar nominated Japanese language film Perfect Days, about a toilet cleaner in Tokyo as he goes about his work. Koji Yakusho won the…
- Front Row
Rhiannon Giddens, Peter Sarsgaard, Casting Directors
Rhiannon Giddens, the musician, composer and former lead singer of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, performs live with her band. She talks about her work in…
- Front Row
Sir Peter Blake, David Harewood, John Logan
Sir Peter Blake is famous for his Pop Art paintings, collages and album covers – and not just Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. But the artist, now 91…
- Front Row
Jed Mercurio on Breathtaking, Yoko Ono retrospective reviewed
The writer of Line of Duty, Jed Mercurio, a former doctor, turns his attention to the impact of the Covid pandemic on NHS staff and patients in the ITV drama…
- Front Row
Ukraine drama A Small Stubborn Town, Emma Rice, The Hugo Awards
Andrew Harding on the Radio 4 drama, A Small Stubborn Town, inspired by his work as the BBC Ukraine correspondentEmma Rice is one the UK’s most celebrated…
- Front Row
Stephen Sanchez, Godzilla turns 70
Stephen Sanchez found fame on Tik Tok, bringing his 1950s inspired music and style to an audience of young fans. At just 20 years old, he was Elton John’s…
- Front Row
Reinaldo Marcus Green on One Love, Bryce Dessner of The National
Director Reinaldo Marcus Green talks to Tom Sutcliffe about One Love, his biopic about the legendary reggae singer-songwriter Bob Marley and his music.Bryce…