Front Row

BBC Radio 4
  • 4.4 (113)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY
Front Row

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

  1. 23 HR. AGO

    Pedro Almodovar, Vanessa Bell, Richard Bean

    The acclaimed Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovor talks about this new film The Room Next Door, which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival the Golden Lion and stars Tilda Swinton as a woman dying of cancer who enlists her friend Julianne Moore to help her end her life at a time of her choosing. The Bloomsbury Group of writers and thinkers that included the likes of Virginia Woolf, Clive Bell and John Maynard Keynes has enduring appeal, so as a new exhibition at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes opens to explore the life and legacy of Vanessa Bell, Virginia's sister, her granddaughter the writer Virginia Nicholson and the show's curator Anthony Spira talk about what made this circle of lovers and friends so unique. Playwright Richard Bean had a smash in the West End with his smash hit farce One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Corden. Now he talks about his new play Reykjavik which is now on at the Hampstead Theatre and explores the British fishing trawler industry, which like coal, was once a mass employer of men and had a terrible safety record. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ruth Watts

    42 min

  2. 4 DAYS AGO

    Review: TV The Franchise; Film The Crime is Mine; Book Juice by Tim Winton

    Mel Giedroyc and Sarah Crompton join Samira to review The Franchise, the new comedy series from Armando Iannucci offering a behind the scenes look at the filming of a superhero film franchise. They also review Tim Winton’s epic new novel Juice, set in the future of a climate change ravaged Australia. And Francois Ozon's new comedy film The Crime is Mine, which sees an actress charged with murder finding the courtroom the perfect place to launch her career starring Isabelle Huppert. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Corinna Jones

    43 min

  3. 5 DAYS AGO

    Rupert Everett, Scotland's Female Bands, artist Everlyn Nicodemus

    Actor Rupert Everett on his debut collection of stories, The American No. Carla J Easton talks about her music documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland's Girl Bands. And Lung Leg perform in the studio. And artist Everlyn Nicodemus on her belief that "art is resurrection" at her first retrospective, at the National Galleries of Scotland. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

    42 min

  4. 6 DAYS AGO

    Jodie Whittaker, Japanese food art, Booker writer Anne Michaels

    Jodie Whittaker talks to Tom Sutcliffe about returning to the stage for the first time in over a decade to star in an updated version of John Webster's 17th-century revenge tragedy The Duchess [of Malfi]. The super-realism of Japanese food replicas is on show in London exhibition Looks Delicious! Curator Simon Wright and Japanese food expert Akemi Yokoyama reflect on this distinctive art. Baroness Ludford discusses buying single theatre seats. Canadian writer Anne Michaels talks about her Booker Prize shortlisted novel Held, which begins on the French battlefield in 1917 and spans 4 generations. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

    43 min

  5. OCT 14

    Bronski Beat Age of Consent 40th Anniversary, Percival Everett, Horror on stage

    Forty years ago Bronski Beat released Age of Consent, a record so loud and proud that it become an era-defining moment of gay liberation. We look back at the record's music, legacy and politics with novelist Matt Cain and Laurie Belgrave, who has produced the new 'The Age of Consent 40' concert at the Southbank Centre. Samira talks to Percival Everett about his Booker-shortlisted James, a potent retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which offers a new voice to the enslaved character Jim. And, we look at how the horror genre has developed on the stage with Jessica Andrews who has adapted Saint Maud for Live Theatre in Newcastle and Matthew Dunster who directed 2:22 A Ghost Story and the recent West End production of The Pillowman. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ruth Watts

    42 min

  6. OCT 10

    Review: Film - Timestalker, Theatre - The Other Place, TV - Disclaimer

    Tom Sutcliffe and his guests journalist Stephen Bush and theatre critic Kate Maltby review the latest cultural releases. These include Apple TV's thriller Disclaimer which stars Cate Blanchett and Sacha Baron Cohen, Alice Lowe's comedy sci-fi film Timestalker and Alexander Zeldin's modern reworking of Antigone at the National Theatre, The Other Place. And after today's announcement that Han Kang has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, her former editor at Granta Magazine, the author Max Porter talks about her poetic prose. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Paula McGrath and Natasha Mardikar

    42 min

  7. OCT 9

    Booker author Charlotte Wood, Surrealism discussion & playwright Tim Price on Odyssey '84

    Booker Prize-shortlisted author Charlotte Wood talks about her novel Stone Yard Devotional. In the month that marks 100 years since the publication of poet André Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism, artist Gavin Turk and art historian Professor Alyce Mahon discuss the significance and impact of surrealism on art over the past century. And playwright Tim Price on Odyssey '84, an epic retelling of the 1984 Miners' Strike, inspired by Homer's Odyssey, which is being staged at Cardiff's Sherman Theatre. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

    43 min

  8. OCT 8

    Rick Astley, The West Wing at 25, Barbara Walker

    Rick Astley on his new autobiography, Never, which reflects on hitting the big time twice courtesy of his debut hit single, Never Gonna Give You Up. The West Wing is 25 - television critic Scott Bryan and columnist Sonia Sodha discuss why the glossy American political drama series continues to inspire politicians worldwide. Artist Barbara Walker on drawing the Black British experience in her new exhibition, Being Here, at the Whitworth. Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

    42 min
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Hosts & Guests

4.4
out of 5
113 Ratings

About

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

Information

  • Creator
    BBC Radio 4
  • Years Active
    2006 - 2024
  • Episodes
    2K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2024
  • Show Website
    Front Row

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