Front Row

BBC Radio 4

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

  1. pred 12 h

    Madonna's Confessions II album, Daphne du Maurier, Sky's anticipated takeover of 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 du Maurier - Daphne, The Secret Lives of Daphne Du Maurier - at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, the playwright Rosie Race joins Samira Ahmed, along with Helen Taylor, author of a detailed biographical guide to her work, The Daphne du Maurier Companion to discuss her life and work. And with last weekend’s 4th of July celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of US independence from Britain, actor and filmmaker Tara Gadomski looks at the impact of the cultural events taking place across the country. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd

    42 min

  2. pred 4 d.

    Review: Penélope Cruz in The Invite film and 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 support a Welsh mining community during the 1980's miners' strikes. And the novel Trouble Was by Charlotte Edwardes which is told from the perspective of young schoolboy Frank whose family leaves their home to move in with their aunt in her farmhouse, during the 1976 heatwave. Tom also talks to journalist William Lee Adams about the news that Canada is joining Eurovision. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Lucy Collingwood

    42 min

  3. pred 5 d.

    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 Maureen Beattie and Tracy-Ann Oberman discuss why they've changed the gender of popular roles for stage productions which are opening soon - Lear at Pitlochry Festival Theatre which sees one of Shakespeare's greatest tragic figures portrayed as a matriarch in decline, and at the Theatre Royal Bath, Garry Essendine in Noel Coward's comedy about the perils of celebrity Present Laughter is now Gerri Essendine, an ageing actress desperately clinging on to her youthful beauty. Author Stuart Cosgrove hails Village People frontman Victor Willis (whose death has just been announced) as one of the finest soul voices of his generation, whose talents were perhaps overlooked due to the novelty reputation which came to be associated with the group. And Dr Sonke Prigge tells us why - and how - he has preserved the sound of the clattering mill, traditionally used in Germany to scare away birds from cherry orchards, for the British Library's sound archive. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

    42 min

  4. pred 6 d.

    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 interview. As an officially licensed AI Michael Caine narrated audiobook The Odyssey has recently been released, Media and AI lawyer Kelsey Farish and Guardian Film Editor Catherine Shoard discuss why a number of high profile actors, or their estates, have signed up to have their images and voices cloned for use by AI and what it means for the future of the industry. Jamir Nazir has won this year's Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Called The Serpent in the Grove, he explains how his childhood observations of rural life in his native Trinidad inspired the story, and describes the impact of winning on him and his family. Craig Gillespie talks about his new film Supergirl, a space adventure starring The House of Dragon actress Milly Alcock as Superman's mighty cousin. The I, Tonya and Cruella director reveals how this movies was inspired by the western True Grit and why he wanted to make the last daughter of Krypton a more complex and flawed character than has been shown on screen before. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd

    42 min

  5. 29. 6.

    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 genius of Jacques Henri Lartigue, whose work spanned almost the entire 20th century. An exhibition of his colour photographs has just opened in Milton Keynes Presenter: Samira Ahmed

    42 min

  6. 25. 6.

    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, which is the 6th film by director/actor trio Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Mads Mikkelsen. Finally, they talk about Lisa Owens' novel Natural Disaster which dissects the last 24 hours before a mother goes back to work after maternity leave. Plus The Box in Plymouth is revealed as the winner of the UK Museum of the Year, with Chair of Judges Jenny Waldman. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

    42 min

  7. 24. 6.

    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 art which opened this weekend in Los Angeles, tells us about the multi-sensory experiences visitors walk through on their journey through the building and how the Museum embraces and celebrates digital art while finding solutions to energy usage and volumes of data. Turner Prize winning artist Jasleen Kaur's new trail of sculptures on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow take the form of weather vanes and question the city's links to trade and colonialism. She tells us more about this commission to mark Glasgow 2026, the cultural festival which complements this summer's Commonwealth Games. And as an exhibition of theatrical portraits of stars of stage and screen by Cecil Beaton go on display at Harewood House in Yorkshire, curator Bryony Smith and design historian Stephen Bayley explain why everyone who was anyone wanted to sit for the legendary photographer, and how his photographs also changed public perceptions of the monarchy. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

    42 min

  8. 24. 6.

    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 her debut YA novel Wolf Siren, and Kate Rolfe won the Carnegie Medal for Illustration for her book Wiggling Words. Both join Front Row to discuss their books Hold To This Earth: Works by Contemporary Indigenous North American Artists from Tia Collection is the new show at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Art critic Veronica Simpson reviews. Merky Books Prize-winning writer, and filmmaker, Sufiyaan Salam, on the inspiration behind his debut novel, Wimmy Road Boyz, which follows three young males pushed to the limits of their masculinity during a life-altering night out. Presenter Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

    43 min
Zobraziť všetky epizódy (2 tis.)

Moderujú a účinkujú

O relácii

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

Informácie

  • Námet
    BBC Radio 4
  • Aktívne
    2006 - 2026
  • Epizódy
    2 tis.
  • Hodnotenie
    Vhodné
  • Autorské práva
    © (C) BBC 2026
  • Zobraziť webstránku
    Front Row
  • Poskytovateľ

Viac od: BBC

Mohlo by sa vám páčiť