Front Row

Grandmaster Flash, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, talks about his memoir, Birth of a Culture, and the music and events that shaped his life and his music.

The Ramayana is one of the world’s oldest stories and as the new film, Rise of A Legend, hits screens this week telling of the epic battle between the evil Ravana and righteous Rama, we look at the cultural and literary significance of this famous tale with performance storyteller and author Vayu Naidu and writer and director Jatinder Verma.

Patrick Stewart won people's hearts from his Shakespearean theatre work to his portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. We hear an interview he gave to Front Row from 2023, in which he discusses his journey from working class Yorkshire to Hollywood.

And the voice of K9, John Leeson, has died. Actor and comedian Toby Hadoke pays tribute to the man behind Doctor Who's iconic robot dog.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Producer: Andrea Kidd

Nina Raine has adapted George Eliot's Middlemarch for the RSC, into a 2 part, 6-hour long stage play. How does it measure up to the book and the much-loved TV adaptations?

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Actor Ashley Walters, who previously starred in the acclaimed series Adolescence and Top Boy, on his feature directorial debut Animol, a harrowing drama about youth crime and humanity, set in a juvenile detention centre, which draws on Walters' own experience as a younger man.

We discuss the reinvention and subversion of the fairy tale genre, with comedian and author Daniel Foxx. whose new book Fairytales for Privileged Children: Little Red Riding Hood Blows Her Trust Fund & Other Premium Tales skewers the wealthy and elite in today's society, and with Michelle Anya Anjirbag, whose Cinderella: A Cultural History is published this week. How have writers across the centuries used often ancient plots to explore contemporary themes such as justice, gender and sexuality?

And in the latest of our interviews with the writers shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize, we speak to author Elizabeth Strout about The Things We Never Say, a spare and economical tale set in the American state of Maine, about marriage, secrets and kindness.

And there's been a spate of theatre closures across the country this year. What's behind this, and did Chancellor John Healey's budget today offer any support for the sector?

Presenter: Kirsty Wark

Oscar winner Sam Rockwell and Oscar nominee John Malkovich join Tom to talk about their new film Wild Horse Nine from Banshees of Inisherin writer and director Martin McDonagh.

A new resource pack from the University of Leeds's Cultural Institute offers practical tools to help arts organisations prepare for, manage and learn from conflict, particularly divisive 'culture wars' issues. Its author Professor Aylwyn Walsh tells Tom about the growing need for this resource.

Marlon James won the Booker Prize in 2015 for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. He has been shortlisted again this year for his new book The Disappearers, which focuses on the difficulties of being gay in 1980s Jamaica. He discusses the book with Tom as part of our series of interviews with all of this year's shortlisted authors.

And last week the new president of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, ordered the removal of dozens of items from the National Museum of Colombia, including artefacts related to LGBTQ+ history, feminism and the political history of the country. Luis Fajardo from BBC Monitoring joins Tom to talk about the events and the subsequent protests.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Best-selling author of The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger talks about her much-anticipated sequel Life Out of Order, which returns to the story of the time travelling father and daughter.

Playing FBI agent Dale Cooper in the 1990s tv series Twin Peaks made a cult star of actor Kyle MacLachlan. He discusses his memoir Fictional Selves, which reflects on this, and his other roles for auteur David Lynch.

Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic classic Dracula may have shaped visions of vampires for generations, but the blood-sucking creature of the night has fascinated writers long before he first left Transylvania. Nick Groom joins to talk about his new collection Vampire Tales, which features some of the earliest known stories about vampires, while author and vampire fan Suzi Feay reads her new poem Vampire from her latest book of poetry Maledictions.

And Gilles Mentré, co-founder of the Prix Pascal of AI Literature, explains his hopes for this new award.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Reviewers Alexander Larman and Bidisha consider two films: Fatherland, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, starring Sandra Huller, it tells the story of novelist Thomas Mann's tour of war-ravaged Germany in 1949.

And Korean family drama Possible Love, directed by Lee Chang-dong, which delicately and incisively explores the tensions of power and wealth in two couples from different strata of society.

Also... the return of Martin Guerre, the musical. From the team behind Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, it debuted in 1996, and over the following three decades it has had many rewrites and reimaginings. Now it's back for a very short run. And with a much shorter duration. Have they found the formula to make it a critical and popular success this time around?

Today the shortlist was announced for the UK City of Culture 2029. Four places are now in the running and the £10 million prize. They are Blackpool, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Wrexham. These four locations were recommended by the UK City of Culture expert advisory panel, chaired by Sir Phil Redmond who tells us more about the shortlist and what it means to win the title.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Director Sofia Coppola on completing her mother Eleanor’s documentary about the making of Sofia’s feature Marie Antoinette, following her death. The film goes behind the scenes of the lavish 2006 biopic starring Kirsten Dunst - in spectacular locations such as Versailles - and is in cinemas around the UK from this Friday.

Can prescribing culture - such as choirs, art classes and poetry workshops - improve young people's mental health? As the Southbank Centre in London launches Ombri, a new referral platform prescribing access to arts for young people, we're joined by the centre's Artistic Director, Mark Ball, and by GP and broadcaster Margaret McCartney, to discuss the practicalities of prescribing culture, how to ensure young people from disadvantaged communities are reached, and how the success of a scheme such as this can be measured.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Argentinian-American writer Hernan Diaz has mined history as inspiration for his previous novels, but in his latest, Ply, he looks to a dystopian future, and a city, resembling a decaying New York, in which his central character, a "pincher" steals electricity from the grid to power a underground music scene, but risks the wrath of the authorities, He tells us about moving into the realm of speculative fiction and about how he was inspired by everything from ancient Greek philosophy to 21st century particle accelerators.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark

As A A Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, one of the most loved bears in children's literature reaches 100, Jane Riordan, author of the new Pooh books, and Hollie Piff, EH Shepard archivist at the University of Surrey discuss the appeal of the 'bear of very little brain'.

Poet and writer Luke Kennard on his Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted novel, Black Bag.

Following thee announcement of the death of Douglas Dunn, poet Don Paterson pays tribute to the man he describes as 'the finest Scottish poet of the post-war period'.

Renoir and Love is the new show at the National Gallery in London. Catherine Ostler, author of The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War & Betrayal, has been to see it and explains why this artist who came to the fore in the 19th century has so much to say to a 21st century audience.

Presenter Kate Molleson

Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi on his screen adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun, in which 'artificial friends' have been created to provide companionship for lonely teenagers in a near-future dystopian world.

Theatre critic Susannah Clapp discusses Caryl Churchill's 15 minute play Triumph and what these short performances can do for the theatre experience.

Of the 123 people who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, 14 of them have been published by the small American publishing house New Directions. Its Vice President and Senior Editor Declan Spring shares the secret of their success.

Tony award-winning actor Jonathan Groff is starring in a new production of As You Like it at the RSC in Stratford. He tells Samira about immersing himself in Shakespeare for the frist time.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Critic David Benedict and journalist Muriel Zagha discuss Kristin Scott Thomas in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, adapted by award winning playwright Conor McPherson.

They also discuss survival thriller Whalefall, in which a diver is swallowed by a whale.

Plus they'll be giving their verdict on Elif Shafak's novel In One Brief Moment All Eternity, which tells the story of Madame Bovary author Gustave Flaubert through fictional and real women.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe