Front Row
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
Episodes
Review: Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey with Matt Damon and Zendaya
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by film critic Tim Robey and classicist Edith Hall to discuss:Christopher Nolan's much anticipated film version of Homer's epic The Odyssey, shot with IMAX cameras and with a stellar cast which includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Samantha Morton.A new production of The Oresteia directed by acclaimed Australian director Simon Stone at the Bridge Thea
Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman
The coming-of-age series Heartstopper has been a phenomenon with young readers and viewers in recent years. Its creator Alice Oseman joins us as the film Heartstopper Forever lands on Netflix, and as the final graphic novel in her series is published. JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is one of the all-time greats of American literature and has inspired many writers including George Saunders, D
Christopher Nolan on his film The Odyssey, Little House on the Prairie, novelist Candice Carty-Williams
British director Christopher Nolan discusses his biggest cinematic blockbuster yet: The Odyssey, which stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and more, in his retelling of Homer’s epic poem about the warrior Odysseus’s battles with ancient Greek monsters like the Cyclops, Circe and the Sirens on his quest to return to his family after the Trojan War.We talk with Tom Kiehl, CEO of the industr
Diane Morgan on playing a robot in TV comedy Ann Droid.
Diane Morgan on her BBC TV comedy series Ann Droid, in which she stars as the eponymous robot helper to Sue Johnston. We pay tribute to actor Sam Neill, who has died at the age of 78. His screen work stretched from blockbusters like Jurassic Park to small independent New Zealand releases.Anna Reynolds, Surveyor of the King's Pictures, on the rehang of Buckingham Palace Picture Gallery. Reopened re
Review Show: The Rolling Stones album Foreign Tongues
Critic and columnist Dr Kate Maltby and author Michael Donkor join Tom Sutcliffe to review Robota, the inaugural large-scale production at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Oxford. The production explores what happens to humanity when the line between human and machine blurs. They also discuss Country People by Pulitzer Prize nominated author Daniel Mason. The novel explores a year in th
Lynval Golding of The Specials on the band's swansong album
Lynval Golding of two-tone and ska legends The Specials , on the band’s final album, Live from the Cathedral, which was recorded in Coventry Cathedral. and which pays tribute to the band's late frontman Terry Hall. Photographers Tish Murtha and Sandra George, whose work represented disadvantaged and marginalised communities in Newcastle and Edinburgh respectively, were not given the recognition th
Ai Weiwei in Manchester
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has just created his largest site-specific exhibition - Ai Weiwei: Button Up! - which has now opened at Aviva Studios in Manchester. Xiaowen Zhu, Director of esea contemporary art gallery, has been to see the monumental works on show and shares her thoughts on whether in this case bigger is truly better.
Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour on his ground-br
Madonna's Confessions II album, Daphne du Maurier, Sky buying ITV
Confessions II is Madonna's first album in 7 years. Novelist Matt Cain and journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer discuss going back to the dancefloor.Sky TV has offered £1.6 bn pounds for ITV's free to air channel and its streaming platform ITVX. Jake Kanter, journalist for the screen industry website Deadline, considers what it will mean for British television. With a new play about Daphne
Review Show: Penélope Cruz in The Invite, Pride the Musical
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by critics Bidisha and David Benedict to review:The Invite, a new film directed by Olivia Wilde about two couples who join each other for dinner, starring Seth Rogan and Olivia Wilde as hosts and Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz as their guests.Pride the Musical, created by the same team as the hit 2014 film, which tells the true story of a group of LGBT activists who suppor
Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro on his passion for films featuring trains
The acclaimed novelist Kazuo Ishiguro talks about how he went about curating a season of films featuring trains for the BFI - from classics such as Shanghai Express by Josef von Sternberg and Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express to lesser known gems - and about how trains have inspired his own work - including songs, and his forthcoming novel, Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger. Actresses M
Dave Eggers on his new novel Contrapposto and Supergirl director Craig Gillespie
Author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and The Circle, Dave Eggers is back with a new novel about a young aspiring artist. Contrapposto follows Cricket, an insular smalltown boy, enchanted by drawing, as well as an older girl, and in part draws on Eggers’ on experiences of the art world. Visiting the UK for the first time in over a decade, he speaks to Samira Ahmed in a rare intervie
Penelope Keith tribute, Russell Tovey, Katherine Rundell on fairy tales
We mark the passing of actress Dame Penelope Keith, speaking with John Lloyd and Mel Giedroyc about her long career. Actor Russell Tovey plays a troubled police officer dealing with a late night emergency in The Guilty at The Donmar Warehouse in London.Katherine Rundell on updating Cinderella for a contemporary audience, as part of Radio 4's Once Upon a Time series. We discover the photographic g
Review Show: Frida Kahlo, Mads Mikkelsen in The Last Viking, Museum of the Year
Writer Charlotte Mullins and author Viv Groskop join Tom to discuss the Frida Kahlo exhibition at Tate Modern in London. It's the highest pre-selling exhibition in Tate's history, and contains 30 significant works, has her clothes on display, and looks at the artist's life and impact on contemporaries and later generations.They also offer their verdict on the Danish black comedy The Last Viking, w
Lauren Child on 25 years of Charlie & Lola
25 years since she published her first Charlie and Lola book, former Children's Laureate Lauren Child returns with a new friendship-focused series featuring best-friends Lotta and Lola. She joins us to talk about her approach to writing for children and about the importance of reading together as a family. Refik Anadol, one of the creative team behind Dataland, a vast new museum dedicated to AI
Bill Nighy on acting, podcasting and style tips
Bill Nighy joins to talk about his new family drama 500 Miles, where he plays a reclusive painter on the west coast of Ireland who gets an unexpected visit from his two Sheffield-based grandsons. He also discusses his early days in acting, his famous role in Love Actually, and why he's become an agony uncle in a new podcast.
Today, the Carnegie Medal for Writing was awarded to Beth O’Brien for h
Linda Perry sings live, and we celebrate Mel Brooks' 100th birthday
Linda Perry came to fame as lead singer of the all-female band Four Non-Blondes. She went on to be a hugely successful songwriter and producer, writing hits for the likes of Pink and Christina Aguilera, and collaborating with Dolly Parton. She's now released her first solo album for 27 years - Let It Die Here - and a documentary film of the same name. Linda came to perform for Front Row and expla
Review: Anish Kapoor, Virginia Woolf's Night and Day, Toy Story 5
Writer Stephanie Merritt and Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin join Tom to review Anish Kapoor’s immersive exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London, which includes huge red sculptures, black holes and boundless mirrors that challenge perspectives. They also discuss The End Of Everything by M. John Harrison, a post-apocalyptic novel where the nature of the crisis remains unclear. And they revi
Katherine Hepburn novel, plus the Obama Presidential Center opens
Priya Parmar's novel The Original tells the story of how actor Katharine Hepburn set out to become one of the true movie icons of the 20th century and succeeded. She's joined to talk about Hepburn's life and career by film historian Pamela Hutchinson. As the Obama Presidential Center opens later this week in Chicago, we hear how its architecture is being viewed in the city, how it compares with
A new Brian Epstein biography and how Estonia is protecting its cultural treasures from potential attack
The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, is widely regarded as the man who helped the band break through. He's inspired plays, films, and even an artistic installation by the Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller. He's now the subject of a new biography, Mr Moonlight, by Philip Norman.A Unesco-listed cathedral in Kyiv went up in flames on Sunday night after an intense Russian bombing attack. The U
David Hockney special
Tom Sutcliffe presents a special edition of Front Row on the art of David Hockney. The artists Maggi Hambling and Tacita Dean and Andrew Marr speak to Tom about Hockney's career and innovations.Tom also speaks to art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston and the art critic and author James Cahill, author of The Beverley Hills Housewife: Hockney’s Californian Muse and the World Beyond the Pool, published
Review: Steven Spielberg's alien film Disclosure Day
Film producer Jason Solomons and Guardian columnist Zoe Williams join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day – a film which looks at whether aliens are really out there. John D. MacDonald’s psychological thriller The Executioners has inspired two Cape Fear films and now there’s a 10-part TV series starring Amy Adams and Javier Bardem. Jason and Zoe give their verdicts. The
Scotland's National Poet Peter Mackay honours the country's football team
Scotland's Makar Peter Mackay on his poems honouring Scotland's football team as they head to the FIFA World Cup - one, his own work, the other curated from lines submitted by members of the public. Can they help propel the team to victory in their first tournament in many years? Crime writer Denise Mina tells us about the extraordinary true crime case that inspired her book The Last Drop, now ada
Barry Manilow brings the Manilow magic to Front Row
Barry Manilow on maintaining his musical curiosity as he releases his 33rd studio album, What A Time, and what it's like to have one of his biggest hits, Copacabana, sung by Sabrina Carpenter.With the start of the World Cup this week, sports photographer Tom Jenkins, and Tim Marlow, Director of The Design Museum and one of the judges for this year's Football Art Prize at the Millennium Gallery in
Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, Pan African art and John Tavener's opera Krishna
Samira Ahmed talks to Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter about their new album MirageEkow Eshun, writer and broadcaster, and Polly Savage, Lecturer in the Art History of Africa at SOAS, University of London, discuss an exhibition of Pan African art at the Barbican, Project a Black PlanetFront Row introduces its AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker for 2026, Genevieve Robyn Arkle, who is a Lecturer in Music H
Review: High Society and film Savage House
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer Alexander Larman and critic Arifa Akbar to discuss:A new production of High Society, Cole Porter's musical showcase at London's Barbican, starring Call the Midwife's Helen George in the role of the amorously vexed Long Island socialite Tracy Lord who finds her heart pulled in every which direction. Also starring Freddie Fox and Felicity Kendal.The film Savage Hous
Live from the Belfast Book Festival
As the Belfast Book Festival opens Kirsty Wark is joined by a range of guests at the Crescent Arts Centre. She'll be discussing reading and freedom of expression with Hilary McCollum, whose new book As A Lover is inspired by the scandal which followed the publication of Radclyffe Hall's story of lesbian love The Well of Loneliness in 1928, and by novelist and short story writer Lucy Caldwell whose
Rivals writer Sophie Goodhart on new TV series Alice and Steve; depictions of dogs in art
Award winning jazz saxophonist and broadcaster Soweto Kinch and writer and director of new film Köln 75, Ido Fluk, join Tom to explore the importance of Keith Jarrett’s seminal performance at the Cologne Opera House in 1975, and its subsequent album, which became the bestselling solo album in jazz history.Sex Education and Rivals writer Sophie Goodhart on her award-winning comedy-drama Alice and S
Marilyn Monroe at 100
On what would have been her 100th birthday, we look at the enduring popularity of Marilyn Monroe, with film journalist and fan Kim Morgan and reviewer Angie Errigo Sathnam Sanghera talks about the meaning of George Michael.Jazz legend and saxophonist Courtney Pine talks about his career, forty years after his seminal debut album Journey to the Urge Within.And poet Joelle Taylor, author of Maryvill
Review Show: Paul McCartney, Russell T Davies, Maggie O'Farrell
Rachel Lloyd, Deputy Culture Editor of The Economist, and writer Lawrence Norfolk join Tom to discuss Channel 4's new queer drama Tip Toe, which is the latest series by Russell T Davies and stars Alan Cumming as a gay bar owner in Manchester and David Morrissey as his long-standing neighbour whose previously friendly relationship takes a dark turn. They also talk about Paul McCartney’s 18th studio
Ann Patchett, plus why launch an all-male publishing house?
Nashville-based novelist Ann Patchett tells us about her tenth novel, Whistler, in which a chance encounter between a woman and her stepfather after many years leads to unexpected revelations. As a new publisher - Conduit Books - launches with the intention of promoting work by male authors, we discuss why this might be needed, with its founder, the writer Jude Cook, and with Ellah Wakatama, Edito
Jazz legend Miles Davis at 100
Writer and broadcaster Kevin Le Gendre, and trumpeter and composer Yazz Ahmed on 100 years of Miles Davis - the musician regarded as the Picasso of jazz.Artist Keith Tyson has just donated a quarter of a million pounds for an astronomy post at Oxford University. He's joined by Professor Ken Arnold, director of the Medical Museum at the University of Copenhagen, to discuss the relationship between
Live from Hay with Jack Thorne and Val McDermid
Live from Hay, celebrating reading and writing in many different forms, Samira is joined on stage by Jack Thorne - multi-award-winning screenwriter of the TV sensation Adolescence and his newest drama Falling, about a nun and a priest who fall in love.Also, Tartan Noir titan Val McDermid speaks about crime fiction and her 40 years of writing.The Ian Fleming estate has granted novelist Vaseem Khan
Review Show: Douglas Stuart's John of John and Cannes Film Festival
Samira Ahmed is joined by writer Matt Cain and critic Suzi Feay to review:Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart's new novel John of John, set on the Isle of Harris. New series The Boroughs, which stars Alfred Molina and Geena Davis in a retirement community, executive produced by Stranger Things' Duffer Brothers. And Holy Pop!, a new exhibition at Somerset House in London tha
Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid
Canadian author Rachel Reid talks to us about the the phenomenon which has followed the publication of her books about the romantic relationship between rival ice hockey players.We speak to author Yang Shuang-zi and translator Lin King, the author and translator of this year's International Booker Prize winning book, Taiwan Travelogue. And Mull Historical Society's latest album In My Mind There’
Winston Churchill: The Painter, and Smoggie Queens creator and star Phil Dunning
The paintings of Winston Churchill are being exhibited at the Wallace Collection in London. Xavier Bray, Director of the Wallace Collection, and Katharine Carter, curator at Chartwell, Churchill’s country house in Kent, discuss what we learn about Churchill from his art.Creator and star Phil Dunning talks about series two of Smoggie Queens, which follows a close-knit group of friends; it’s a celeb
White Lotus and Bridget Jones star Leo Woodall on his new film
Leo Woodall stars in the film Tuner, about a young piano prodigy who turns to crime, in cinemas on the 29th May.The classical music world has been paying tribute to the soprano Dame Felicity Lott, who died on Friday at the age of 79. Critic David Benedict joins us to discuss her life in music.Ronald Firbank is considered a pioneering queer voice of modernist fiction, but he's often overlooked. Sir
Review Show: Rivals and Ian McKellen in The Christophers
Observer Theatre critic Susannah Clapp and Heat's Entertainment Director Boyd Hilton join Samira to discuss The Christophers - Steven Soderbergh’s film about an ageing artist and a young forger hired to copy his work, starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel. They also discuss the second series of Rivals, based on Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster novel which was set in the affluent 80s world of commercial
Mark Cousins on his 16-hour epic documentary
From landmark releases to hidden treasures, director Mark Cousins on his 16-hour epic The Story of Documentary Film, which is screening at the Cannes Film Festival this week. A hundred years since Virginia Woolf published her essay On Being Ill, writer Darcey Steinke is presenting a newly commissioned work in response at the Charleston Festival this week. She joins us alongside poet Jade Cuttle to
The rock star architect of the Baroque age, Sir John Vanbrugh
This year marks the tercentenary of polymath Sir John Vanbrugh, regarded as the rockstar architect of the Baroque era. Art historian Sir Charles Saumerez Smith, co-curator of the Vanbrugh exhibition at the Sir John Soane’s Museum, and Rory Fraser who is writing a biography on Vanbrugh, discuss the man happy creating dramas for the British stage and dramatic buildings on the British landscape.Turne
Highs, lows and naked jet-skiers at the Venice Biennale
Critics Ben Luke and Aviva Dautch bring us all the news from The Venice Biennale.
Following the death of the great Shakespearean actor Michael Pennington, we speak to former RSC Director Gregory Doran about his impact on the stage. A new small exhibition Elizabeth I: Queen and Court Is running in London. It includes rarely seen portraits of The Virgin Queen that are normally held in private coll
Reviewing The Sheep Detectives, Elizabeth Strout and Henry Moore at Kew
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by journalist and podcaster Nick Hilton and writer and historian Catherine McCormack to review a selection of cultural items from this week:They'll look at The Sheep Detectives, starring Hugh Jackman, a live-action film in which a group of ovine sleuths attempt to solve the murder of their shepherd. Elizabeth Strout's latest novel, The Things We Never Say, about a Massachus
Author Siri Hustvedt on her memoir, Ghost Stories
Acclaimed author Siri Hustvedt on Ghost Stories, her memoir of her marriage to novelist, poet and filmmaker Paul Auster and her grief following his death in 2024. Following last night's live report on the controversies surrounding this year's Venice Biennale, we are joined by one of the curators of the Ukrainian Pavillion, to hear how a concrete sculpture of a deer rescued from the frontline of th
Antony Gormley in 2D
Antony Gormley joins Samira Ahmed. The sculptor and artist is best known for landmarks such as Angel of the North or the beach figures of Another Place, in Liverpool. But Antony has also been exhibiting drawings since the 80s and with the publication of the book Drawing he tells Samira what this art means to him.After the Devil Wears Prada 2 topped the box office this week, BBC New Generation Thin
Celebrating the art of Illustration, with Sir Quentin Blake and Posy Simmonds
As the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration prepares to open in London, we find out how illustrators are adapting to a changing world.Starting with a rare interview from Quentin Blake, we'll hear how this once undervalued side of the visual arts still creates the defining images of childhoods, whilst also now playing a central role in the visual language of the internet. Featuring voices working
Review: Spanish master Zurbarán at the National Gallery
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by playwright Mark Ravenhill and academic and critic Maria Delgado to review:The first major UK exhibition of Spanish master Francisco de Zurbarán at the National Gallery.A new Spanish language series adaptation of Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits on Amazon Prime video.Please Please Me by Tom Wright, a play about manager Brian Epstein and The Beatles at the Kiln Th
Paul Weller on his musical evolution
From the rebellious spirit of The Jam in the 1970s to the soulful sound of The Style Council and mellow ballads as a solo artist, singer-songwriter Paul Weller is about to release Weller At The BBC Volume 2 - a series of session recordings of his classic hits and interpretations of other artists' songs. He .discusses his musical evolution and his influences. She's been rather overshadowed by fell
Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce on the new Children's Booker Prize
Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce launches the Children's Booker Prize and discusses some of the themes of his forthcoming Waterstones Children's Laureate Lecture - The Kids Are Not Alright- which calls for the reading of physical books to made a central part of childhood. Soap writer and aficionado Sharon Marshall on how long-running television dramas are employing bold storytelling techni
The Devil Wears Prada 2, with director David Frankel
The Devil Wears Prada 2 director David Frankel on why it was time to bring the old gang back together again.
David Haig's new play "Magic" imagines the real life friendship between Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
A new play "Stage Kiss" looks at what kissing on stage entails. Playwright Sarah Ruhl and actress Emma Fielding discuss how to do it well (and badly).
And Luke Roberts, lecturer in M
Review: Half Man, Richard Gadd’s follow up to Baby Reindeer
Critics Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Ludovic Hunter-Tilney join Tom to review Half Man, Richard Gadd’s follow up to his hit Baby Reindeer. They also discuss Anne Hathaway as a faded pop star looking to make a comeback in supernatural thriller Mother Mary. Plus they assess Deborah Levy’s book My Year in Paris With Gertrude Stein: a fiction. To celebrate Shakespeare's birthday, author and translator Dani
Michael Jackson biopic controversy
A new biopic chronicles one of the 20th century’s biggest and most controversial music icons, but appears not to paint the whole picture about his life. We discuss Antoine Fuqua's Michael, which stars the pop legend Michael Jackson's nephew Jaafar in the lead role. Stand and Deliver is a National Theatre of Scotland production which tells the story of a legendary industrial dispute. In 1981, worke
Vivaldi film, author Ben Lerner and V+A East's Music Is Black exhibition
Primavera, a new film about Vivaldi tells the story of his composing for pupils of an institution for abandoned girls. We speak to the film's director Damiano Michieletto, better known as an award-winning opera director, about his film and about Vivaldi himself.
The Music is Black is the inaugural exhibition at London’s new V&A East Museum and it celebrates 125 years of Black British music. Le
Are straight male novelists avoiding sex scenes? Plus new BBC drama Mint
Director Charlotte Regan on her new BBC thriller, MintHave heterosexual male novelists stopped writing sex scenes? We discuss with writer Luke Kennard, author of Black Bag, and editor of the Erotic Review Lucy Roeber.Poet Laureate Simon Armitage plays live in studio with his band L.Y.R.Video game writer and critic Cara Ellison joins us to run through the highlights from the recent BAFTA Games Awar
Reviewing Lena Dunham's memoir, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Big Mistakes
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by reviewers Dreda Say Mitchell and Viv Groskop to consider Lena Dunham's controversial memoir - Famesick. A new adaptation of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - directed by Clint Dyer at London's Old Vic Theatre. And Dan "Schitts Creek" Levy has a new dark comedy series on Netflix; "Big Mistakes"
Dancer and choreographer Gene Kelly's wife and biographer Patricia Ward Kelly on Starstruck
Scottish Ballet's Starstruck honours Gene Kelly's creative legacy and his passion for creating "dance for the common man". His wife Patricia Ward Kelly tells us about this fusion of ballet, jazz, tap and tango danced to the music of Chopin, Ravel and Gerswhin. As the winner of the inaugural Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing is announced as Adam Weymouth for his book Lone Wolf, about a journey fro
Jack Savoretti sings live, plus Turner Prize winner Veronica Ryan
Jack Savoretti sings a song from his latest album We Will Always Be The Way We Were, which is leading the race to top the charts this week. David Szalay's Booker Prize-wnnning novel Flesh is currently at the centre of a debate around inspiration and homage, as critics point to similarities between his novel and Stanley Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon. Literary critics Aled Maclean-Jones and Alex Clar
Mark Gatiss at the RSC and novelist Margaret Drabble
Mark Gatiss takes on the role he's always wanted to play, the lead in Brecht's Hitler satire The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. As the Government considers charging tourists to visit England's national museums, we discuss these proposals with TV executive and arts advocate Sir Peter Bazalgette, who’s been an advisor to the DCMS, and Alison Cole - Director, The Cultural Policy Unit think tank. As sh
Review: Is it ok to film theatre curtain calls on your phone?
On the review show this week: critics Muriel Zagha and Tahmima Anam review Francois Ozon's film The Stranger., based on the Albert Camus novel which has often been described as unfilmable.Amitav Ghosh's novel Ghost Eye, set in India and dealing with parallel timelines, multiple global locations, environmental catastrophe and a young girl with mysterious powers. Jim Jarmusch's latest film Father M
W1A creator John Morton on Twenty Twenty Six
Writer and director John Morton, one of the team behind 2012 and W1A, on the new comedy Twenty Twenty Six, set in the run up to this year's football World Cup.Artist Lachlan Goudie's new book The Secrets of Painting explores the creative big bangs in art over the centuries which have given us artistic movements - from Giotto and Rembrandt's use of oil paint to Berthe Morisot's use of an outdoor ea
Was Queen Victoria coercively controlled by Prince Albert?
Writer Daisy Goodwin on Victoria: A Queen Unbound. Was the marriage between Victoria and Albert as idyllic as it has been portrayed? Her new play explores the idea that Prince Albert exerted coercive control over Queen Victoria. Following the launch of the Official UK Christian & Gospel Singles Chart, we speak to the founder of the chart's partner organisation, O'Neil Dennis, and Mobo winning
The Birth of Television: A Forgotten History
100 years ago, inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated his new 'televisor' to the public for the first time. In this special edition of Front Row, Samira Ahmed and guests explore the origins of television in the UK, charting how those early experimental days set a template for this exciting new medium. Guests:
TV producer and historian Professor John Wyver, whose new book Magic Rays of Light tells
Review: The Drama starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by critics Tim Robey and Nancy Durrant to review:Robert Pattinson and Zendaya's new film The Drama about a young couple in the lead up to their wedding.Life of Pi author Yann Martel's novel Son of Nobody about a newly discovered classic text with the story partly told in footnotes.And from the creator of Mum and Him and Her, Stefan Golaszewski's new BBC drama series Babies
SNL UK Cast, plus Trash Cinema Icon Mink Stole
In venues around the UK and here on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC Sounds, it’s Live Comedy Day today – a celebration of live comedy and grassroots clubs. We’re joined by two of the cast of the new Saturday Night Live UK, Emma Sidi and Hammed Animashaun, and by Amanda Dwyer, who won the Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award at the Glasgow Comedy Festival this weekend, to discuss the stand-up landsca
Robert Macfarlane on the revelations to be found underground
Writer Robert Macfarlane on the world underground as a new documentary, Underland, inspired by his award-winning book of the same name is released in cinemas. The film explores how mankind has often explored some of the spaces miles beneath our feet.Dancer and choreographer Meryl Tankard on creating a new work, Echoes of '78, which pairs the original dancers of a work created by German choreograph
Lesley Manville, and what do astronauts listen to in space?
Lesley Manville, on appearing in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at London's National TheatreArt In Space: As Nasa prepares to send people back to the Moon, former astronauts Helen Sharman and Cady Coleman talk us through the books & music they took with them into space. Do classicists underestimate how difficult it is to read Homer's Odyssey? Ahead of Christopher Nolan's new adaption, we'll discuss
Review: Riz Ahmed comedy Bait, Schiaparelli at the V&A
On this week's review show, critic and broadcaster Rhianna Dhillon and fashion historian and writer Amber Butchart join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Riz Ahmed's new comedy series Bait, which follows a struggling actor who auditions for the role of James Bond and has to deal with the fallout. They give their verdicts on Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A in London, featuring the work of d
Actor Forbes Masson on the stage production of cult sitcom The High Life
Actor Forbes Masson on the National Theatre of Scotland's stage musical revival of cult sitcom The High Life in which he starred alongside Alan Cumming as air stewards working the commuter route between London and Scotland. The writers behind the hotly anticipated whodunnit novel The Ending Writes Itself - billed as being by Evelyn Clarke but in fact written by Cat Clarke and VE Schwab - talk abou
Noah Wyle on hit hospital drama The Pitt
The much anticipated, Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning medical drama The Pitt finally hits HBO max screens in the UK this week. Samira talks to lead actor Noah Wyle who plays Dr ‘Robby’ Robinavitch, about being back in a high octane emergency department drama decades after making his name as Dr Carter in ER.The Elizabethan composer John Dowland died 400 years ago this month. Next weekend there
Saturday Night Live arrives in the UK
The UK now has its own SNL, 50 years after the US original. But is it funny? Culture journalist Natalie Jamieson gives her verdict. As the BFI begins a season of boxing films, we explore why the sport has inspired so much influential cinema, with BFI curator Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka and boxing broadcaster Steve Bunce.Phil Dunster, best known for his role in Ted Lasso, discusses his new comedy Roos
Review: La Grazia, the latest film from The Great Beauty director Paolo Sorrentino
Writer Alexander Larman and journalist Zoe Williams join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the film La Grazia - which was written and directed by The Great Beauty’s Paolo Sorrentino, and stars Toni Servillo as a fictional Italian President. They also review Summerfolk at the National Theatre in London. Brother and sister writers Moses and Nina Raine have adapted this version of Maxim Gorky’s play which ce
Sylvia Plath's final year, and Hue and Cry perform Labour of Love
From bellringing to beekeeping - Author Helen Bain talks about the highly detailed research she conducted for the writing of her The Daffodil Days, inspired by Ted Hughes and Sylvia Pllath's year in North Tawton in Devon in 1962, and on why she has told the story in reverse, through the observations of the locals who came into contact with them at the time. Hue & Cry, who first made their nam
Gentleman Jack ballet, BTS reunited, Irish myths - a feminist retelling, Len Deighton remembered
Anne Lister, the 19th century landowner and diarist, better known by her nickname, Gentleman Jack, has inspired folksongs, television dramas, and now a ballet. As Northern Ballet begin a UK tour of their new Gentleman Jack production, Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa explains how she translated Lister's diaries into dance.As K-Pop super band BTS are set to return with a new
The Oscars, Ryan Gosling, Self Esteem performs
Self Esteem, aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor, performs her new song written for David Hare’s play Teeth 'n' Smiles.We bring you a roundup of the 2026 Academy Awards. Ryan Gosling discusses his new sci-fi adventure film Project Hail Mary.And a look at the BBC's new talk show format, The Claudia Winkleman Show, with Boyd Hilton, entertainment director at Heat Magazine, and Bea Ballard, executive producer on
Review: David Hockney in Normandy, and Asako Yuzuki's new novel
Art critic Ben Luke and writer Sarah Crompton join Samira Ahmed to review David Hockney’s first exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, which includes new works and a digitally created ninety-metre-long frieze which was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry. They also discuss Hooked by Asako Yuzuki, the author behind the award-winning b
James McAvoy on his directorial debut, California Schemin'
Actor James McAvoy who has starred in everything from Shameless to X Men talks about turning director for his debut feature, California Schemin'. The film, which is billed as being "based on a true lie", tells the story of two young rappers from Dundee who pretended to be American in order to be taken seriously by the record industry - and ended up touring with Eminem in the 2000s. BBC One's ne
Howard Jacobson's new book, Howl
Booker Prize-winning author Howard Jacobson discusses his new novel, Howl.Musician Thea Gilmore talks about her latest project The Echo Line, where she creates music from anonymous messages. Thea also performs the song Silvie live, which is the second track from the project.A book containing 10,000 writers' names entitled Don't Steal This Book is being given out at the London Book Fair as a stand
Cillian Murphy on Peaky Blinders, plus Timothee Chalamet's opera backlash
Cillian Murphy talks to Samira Ahmed about the return of Tommy in new film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. Timothee Chalamet's disparaging comments on opera and ballet have caused a stir. Matthew Hemley, editor of the stage, responds to what the Oscar nominee actually said.As London Book Fair begins, and new data suggests adult fiction sales are increasing, we ask why non-fiction seems to be in
Review: The Bride! Maggie Gyllenhaal's film about the bride of Frankenstein
Writer Rebecca Stott and Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin join Tom to discuss The Bride! Maggie Gyllenhaal's film about the bride of Frankenstein, starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale.They also talk about the novel Bad Fiction by Rebecca Sarah Ley which is based around a creative writing course and relationships with the lauded course leader.There’s going to be a new BBC TV documentary ab
Will Self on The Quantity Theory of Morality
Will Self dives in to his latest satirical novel in which he looks at the alienation of modern life, and takes a stab at middle-class life. He discusses how his experiences with cancer have impacted his writing, and his outlook. 75 years after the death of composer and performer Ivor Novello, we celebrate his life and works - from musicals to the talkies. Kirsty is joined by Novello specialist Ian
Author Julia Quinn on Bridgerton
Author Julia Quinn published The Duke and I, the first novel in her eight-part Bridgerton series, in 2000. Twenty years later the adaption of her books would become a television phenomenon. Julia reflects on the place of class, race, and sex in her Regency romances and why getting a call from one of television's most successful producers was such a transformative moment for the genre that she lov
Pixar at 40
Media journalist Al Horner discusses the latest twist in Warner Bros sale.Pixar's chief creative officer Pete Docter on the inner workings of the animation giant as it marks its 40th anniversary this year.100 years after his birth, and with a special BFI season underway, we assess the work of the Polish director Andrzej Wajda, with fellow director Agnieszka Holland and film writer Ian Christie. Br
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