2,000 episodes

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

Front Row BBC Radio 4

    • Society & Culture

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

    Liverpool's Taylor Swift Art Trail, Les Dennis, the state of UK festivals

    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 visits the Taylor Town Trail - the new art trail dedicated to the singer's albums/eras - in the city centre and talks to one of the trail's co-producer Rhiannon Newman from Culture Liverpool, Kirsten Little - artistic director of the trail, and three of the artists involved in the project - Simon Armstrong, Rachel Smith-Evans, and Catherine Rogers.
    Les Dennis makes his Shakespeare debut as Malvolio in a new production of Twelfth Night directed by Jimmy Fairhurst. Almost as soon as the final preview performance ends, Nick joins them backstage at Shakespeare North Playhouse to discuss finding the heart in one of Shakespeare's least-loved characters, and why songs by the Arctic Monkeys Blondie, and Charlie Chaplin have an important role in this retelling of the play set in the music industry.
    As the music festival season begins, news that 28 festivals have been cancelled or postponed with that number expected to rise to 100 by the end of the year prompted Front Row to reflect on the current state of music festivals in the UK with Nick Morgan, CEO of We Group - a live events production company, who has launched the Your Festival Needs You campaign, and BBC Radio 6 Music journalist and festival aficionado Georgie Rogers.
    Presenter: Nick Ahad
    Producer: Ekene Akalawu

    • 42 min
    Jon Bon Jovi, Clare Pollard & Marina Walker, Viggo Mortensen and Vikki Krieps

    Jon Bon Jovi, Clare Pollard & Marina Walker, 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 rock and roll this year.
    Clare Pollard’s new book The Modern Fairies is set in 17th century France, where stories of trapped princesses and enchanted beasts are performed at the home of Madame Marie D'Aulnoy, who invented the term “conte de fée” or fairytale. Samira talks to Clare and cultural historian Marina Warner about the importance of pioneers such as D'Aulnoy and Charles Perrault, who brought many of these stories to subversive salons long before the Brothers Grimm.
    Viggo Mortensen and Vikki Krieps star in the new western The Dead Don’t Hurt, in which they play an immigrant couple trying to build a new life in Nevada as the American Civil War begins. This is his second film as writer and director.

    • 42 min
    Review: Film - Rosalie, TV - Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, Book - The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

    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 true story of a French bearded lady who, together with her husband, ran a café in rural France in the late 19th century.
    And Disney’s Paris set drama series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld explores the late Chanel fashion designer’s life.
    Max Liu and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh join Tom Sutcliffe to review.
    Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
    Producer: Torquil MacLeod

    • 42 min
    Christos Tsiolkas, Victoria Canal, Baillie Gifford festival sponsorship

    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 their fifties.
    Victoria Canal performs her Ivor Novello award winning song Black Swan and talks about her life in music.
    And with several literary festivals severing their ties with Baillie Gifford, Martha Gill and Grace Blakeley discuss the growing story behind the sponsorship row along with Adrian Turpin, Director of the Wigtown Book Festival in Dumfries and Galloway
    Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
    Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

    • 42 min
    Queenie, Female pirates, dating dramas

    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 Brown. It traces a year in the life of a young woman navigating a difficult course through her relationships with friends, family and casual partners, with the shadow of unresolved trauma always looming in the background.
    As two dramas, Strategic Love Play and Love In Gravitational Waves, explore the nature of that modern romantic encounter - the date, their respective playwrights, Miriam Battye and Testament, join Samira to discuss turning the tryst into theatre.
    Authors Briony Cameron and Francesca De Tores talk about the rise of female pirates in fiction.
    Presenter: Samira Ahmed
    Producer: Claire Bartleet

    • 42 min
    Richard Linklater, Ultimate 90s Bollywood Song, Esther Swift

    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 Powell as quiet teacher who leads a secret double life helping this police catch people trying to hire a hit man. The movie opens on Netflix on Friday.
    Asian Network is celebrating 90s Bollywood, revealing the Ultimate 90s Bollywood Song as voted for by listeners from a shortlist of 50. It was counted down on air on Friday and is available to listen to on BBC Sounds now. We are speaking to presenter Haroon Rashid live from Birmingham on Zoom.
    Harpist Esther Swift plays live and talks about her first solo studio album Expectations of a Lifetime.
    Presenter: Samira Ahmed
    Producer: Corinna Jones

    • 42 min

Top Podcasts In Society & Culture

Dua Lipa: At Your Service
BBC Sounds
World Of Secrets
BBC
Philosophize This!
Stephen West
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
What We Said
Dear Media
Cancelled with Tana Mongeau
Tana Mongeau & Studio71

You Might Also Like

This Cultural Life
BBC Radio 4
Books and Authors
BBC Radio 4
Bookclub
BBC Radio 4
Arts & Ideas
BBC Radio 4
Private Passions
BBC Radio 3
Start the Week
BBC Radio 4

More by BBC

More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC Radio 4
The Archers
BBC Radio 4
Global News Podcast
BBC World Service
Newshour
BBC World Service
13 Minutes to the Moon
BBC World Service
BBC Inside Science
BBC Radio 4