Front Row

By BBC Radio 4

Society & Culture

What's Front Row about?

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

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Munich: The Edge of War, Au...

01.19.2022

Munich: The Edge of War is new film set in 1938 at the time of the Munich Agreement when the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was making a last ditch attempt to avoid war with Hitler’s Germany. Starring Jeremy Irons ...

Front Row episodes:

01.19.2022 Munich: The Edge of War, Australia, Jo Browning Wroe on her novel, A Terrible Kindness Munich: The Edge of War is new film set in 1938 at the time of the Munich Agreement when the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was making a last ditch attempt to avoid war with Hitler’s Germany. Starring Jeremy Irons ...
01.18.2022 Tilda Swinton, secrecy in screen casting, proposed cuts at Stoke museums Tilda Swinton talks to Samira about her new film Memoria, in which she plays a Scottish woman who, after hearing a loud 'bang' at daybreak, begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia. We investigate the ...
01.17.2022 Adrian Lester on Trigger Point; Heal and Harrow perform live; northern writing prizes Actor Adrian Lester joins Samira to discuss his varied career on stage, in film and now back on UK television in the gripping new ITV police drama, Trigger Point. Scottish musicians Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl AKA Heal and Harrow ...
01.13.2022 Boiling Point and Hanya Yanagihara's To Paradise reviewed, Costa Children's Award winner Manjeet Mann Writers Okechukwu Nzelu and Stephanie Merritt join Tom Sutcliffe to review Hanya Yanagihara’s novel To Paradise, eagerly awaited by fans of her Booker-shortlisted A Little Life. Over three distinct time settings it tells a vast story about the United States, ...
01.12.2022 Ascension, John Preston on Robert Maxwell and is vinyl manufacturing at breaking point? Kirsty Lang speaks to John Preston who has won the Costa biography award for Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell. As a new vinyl pressing plant opens in Middlesbrough, we hear about the long delays facing bands because of the ...
01.11.2022 Winner of TS Elliot Prize for Poetry, Unboxed, Folk at the Hampstead Theatre We talk to Joelle Taylor fresh from her win last night of the 2021 TS Eliot Prize for Poetry for her collection of poems which explores her life as a lesbian. 2022 has three big cultural events in store: Unboxed, ...
01.10.2022 Sheffield Crucible Theatre at 50, Philosophy in the Gallery, Self Esteem As Sheffield's Crucible Theatre celebrates its 50th anniversary, Nick Ahad talks to Artistic Director Robert Hastie. Sheffield pop star Self Esteem on her award-winning album Prioritise Pleasure. Plus public debates about philosophy at Sheffield's Graves Gallery. Photo: Presenter Nick Ahad ...
01.06.2022 Joe Wright on Cyrano, Costa poetry winner Hannah Lowe, A Hero In his latest film Cyrano, director Joe Wright has tackled the 1897 French verse drama, Cyrano de Bergerac. He joins Tom Sutcliffe to discuss turning a classic into a musical and dispensing with Cyrano’s prominent nose. The winner of the ...
01.05.2022 Andrea Arnold, Claire Fuller, Afghanistan National Institute of Music Filmmaker Andrea Arnold on her first documentary film, Cow, about the life of two cows, which one critic described as 'a meaty slice of bovine socio-realism.' We talk to Dr Ahmad Sarmast, founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute ...
01.04.2022 The Costa Book Awards, Julia Ducournau on Titane, disabled access to arts and culture The Costa Book Awards are in their 50th year. Tonight on Front Row, Chair of Judges Reeta Chakrabarti will join Samira Ahmed to announce each of this year’s category winners for First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s. We’ll also ...
12.23.2021 Joan Didion remembered, Call the Midwife, The Tragedy of Macbeth and a review of the year in culture Writer and essayist Olivia Laing reflects on the work of the American journalist and essayist Joan Didion, who has died at the age of 87. With the Christmas Special of Call the Midwife taking its usual slot on BBC One ...
12.22.2021 Paul Thomas Anderson, Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden, Postcard from Doncaster Paul Thomas Anderson discusses directing and writing his new romantic comedy, Licorice Pizza, starring Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper and Tom Waits. The film is a coming-of-age story, complicated by the fact that the protagonist is 15 and his love interest, ...
12.21.2021 Anything Goes, Live arts venues under Omicron, The Princess Bride Broadway star Sutton Foster and director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall talk to Samira Ahmed about staging the musical Anything Goes, one of the hottest tickets of the year at The Barbican, ahead of a Boxing Day screening on BBC 2. ...
12.20.2021 Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kehinde Wiley, Christmas book gifts Maggie Gyllenhaal discusses her new film The Lost Daughter, an adaptation of the novel by Elena Ferrante. Gyllenhaal has written the film and it is her directorial debut, which stars Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Ed Harris. Samira talks to ...
12.16.2021 Don't Look Up, Around the World in 80 Days, Cutting It Fine Jonathan Freedland, Sarah Churchwell and Leila Latif review Adam McKay's satire Don't Look Up, with a stellar cast including Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, and Around the World in 80 Days starring David Tennant, one of the BBC's Christmas TV ...
12.15.2021 Postcard from Scarborough, Derek Jarman Protest!, Benjamin Cleary A major retrospective of Derek Jarman’s work, Protest!, opens at the Manchester Art Gallery this week. One of the most influential figures in 20th century British culture the exhibition focuses on the diverse strands of Jarman’s practise as a painter, ...
12.14.2021 Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín on winning the David Cohen prize, the sudden rise in Covid-19 related theatre closures and a seasonal dance round-up with Sarah Crompton.
12.13.2021 Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Sarah Phelps, puppetry on stage Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, which transforms a West End theatre into a Berlin night club in the late 1920s, stars Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee and Jessie Buckley as chanteuse Sally Bowles. Alice Saville reviews the show. Screenwriter ...
12.09.2021 Cat Power performs live. Amanda Gorman poetry, Sex And The City follow up and Drive My Car reviewed What makes a good cover version? And is it an underrated musical genre? American singer-songwriter and queen of the cover-version Cat Power AKA Chan Marshall joins Samira live in the studio to discuss and perform from her forthcoming album, Covers. ...
12.08.2021 Musician Carwyn Ellis performs; The Rules of Art? exhibition; filmmaker Rosemary Baker; Port Talbot postcard Front Row comes from Cardiff this evening. Joining presenter Huw Stephens to play live in the studio is Welsh musician Carwyn Ellis, who has been collaborating with Brazilian musicians and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Huw also looks closely ...
12.07.2021 Steven Spielberg, Working Class Heritage, Will Sharpe Samira talks to Steven Spielberg about his new version of the musical West Side Story, along with Ariana DeBose who plays Anita. Following the recent demolition of the Dorman Long Tower at the former steelworks in Redcar and the auction ...
12.06.2021 Playwright James Graham on Best of Enemies; Lamb film review; The Belarus Free Theatre; remembering actor Antony Sher Britain’s foremost writer of political drama, James Graham, has written a new play ‘Best of Enemies’, about the television debates in the US in 1968 between the right wing thinker William Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal, the left wing writer. ...
12.02.2021 The Hand of God and Dürer exhibition reviewed, Aaron Sorkin on Lucille Ball Paolo Sorrentino’s film The Great Beauty won an Oscar. Now he has returned to his home city of Naples to make a film based on his own autobiography, The Hand of God, which shows how his passion for the footballer ...
12.01.2021 The 2021 Turner Prize Ceremony Front Row is live from the 2021 Turner Prize Ceremony at Coventry Cathedral. Samira Ahmed hears from Turner Prize judges actor Russell Tovey and curator Zoe Whitley, and the director of Tate Britain Alex Farquharson, about why they chose artists' ...
11.30.2021 The Parthenon Marbles; Get Back documentary review; Turner Prize nominees Project Artworks; the literary canon As the debate over the Parthenon Marbles has resurfaced in recent weeks, we take a deep dive into this decades old dispute. Alexander Herman, Assistant Director of the Institute of Art and Law joins presenter Tom Sutcliffe to provide insight ...
11.29.2021 Kelly Lee Owens, Stephen Sondheim, Rowan Williams, Black Obsidian Sound System The electronic musician Kelly Lee Owens won this year’s Welsh Music Prize for her album Inner Song. She tells Samira Ahmed about her inspiration - and her collaborations with John Cale, Björk and Michael Sheen. This evening theatres in the ...
11.25.2021 House of Gucci, Adele's 30 and The Every by Dave Eggers The designer Henry Holland and writers Stephanie Merritt and Tahmima Anam review House of Gucci, The Every by Dave Eggers and Adele's new album 30. In the run up to the Turner Prize, Front Row is hearing from the artists’ ...
11.25.2021 Suzanne Lacy, Bishop Auckland, Silent Night As her first major retrospective in the UK opens in Manchester, the distinguished American artist Suzanne Lacy discusses a career which has seen her standing at the junction of aesthetics and activism, filmmaker Camille Griffin on her Christmas comedy horror ...
11.23.2021 Andrew Lloyd Webber, Turner Prize nominees Gentle / Radical, Costa Book Awards During the pandemic Andrew Lloyd Webber has been more of a campaigner than a composer. He talks to Samira Ahmed how to keep theatres open now, taking his show Cinderella to Broadway and his latest ambition - to write a ...
11.22.2021 The Power of the Dog film review; Turner Prize nominees Cooking Sections; South African literature today Jane Campion is famous for The Piano and a baby grand plays a crucial role in her new film The Power of the Dog, in which Benedict Cumberbatch plays a heavy smoking, unwashed and deeply troubled rancher in 1920s Montana. ...
11.18.2021 King Richard, Wheel of Time and new Zadie Smith play reviewed, Playwright Moira Buffini New movie King Richard stars Will Smith and focuses on the father of Venus and Serena Williams. The Wife of Willesden is the first play by Zadie Smith. And Wheel of Time is a new fantasy series on Amazon Prime ...
11.17.2021 Ralph Fiennes on Four Quartets, Songlines exhibition, art postcard from Plymouth ‘A spiritual enquiry into what it is to be human’ is how Ralph Fiennes describes T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. On the eve of the opening in the West End he tells presenter Elle Osili-Wood about his stage presentation and ...
11.16.2021 Céline Sciamma on her film Petite Maman, author Sarah Moss on The Fell, diversity in folk arts Céline Sciamma’s last film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, won awards worldwide after its release in 2019. Now the French filmmaker is back with Petite Maman – a meditative film set in the French countryside in which an eight ...
11.15.2021 Lin-Manuel Miranda, Climate Fiction, Kayleigh Llewellyn Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his debut as film director with a cinematic retelling of the stage musical - tick, tick…Boom! The film stars Andrew Garfield as a musical theatre composer desperate to succeed in his chosen field before his 30th birthday. ...
11.11.2021 Tori Amos performs, The Courtauld Gallery reopening and Dopesick series reviewed, Heidi Stephens live blogs Tori Amos plays live and tells presenter Tom Sutcliffe about going from rock bottom to renewal in her lockdown album conceived on the Cornish coast, Ocean to Ocean. The Courtauld Gallery in London, renowned in particular for its collection of ...
11.10.2021 Art in Shetland, Timothy Ogene, Sharon Heal and Paul McCartney For many years Shetlanders with ambitions to become artists had to leave to train and work. Not any longer, and young artists are also returning to the islands. Jen Stout reports on the ancient and modern arts in Shetland. Nigerian ...
11.09.2021 Venice and climate change, the story that inspired Dostoevsky, Dean Stockwell remembered The unique cultural heritage of Venice is under threat from increasingly frequent flooding and rising sea levels. Anna Somers Cocks OBE, founding editor of the Art Newspaper and Fellow of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, signed a ...
11.09.2021 Jeymes Samuel on The Harder They Fall, author Sofi Oksanen, John Gilchrist of UK Theatre, Paul McCartney British filmmaker, singer-songwriter and music producer Jeymes Samuel AKA The Bullitts discusses his new film The Harder They Fall. Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen on her new novel Dog Park. Jon Gilchrist, Executive Director of Home in Manchester and incoming president ...
11.04.2021 Spencer, Alan Cumming and Paul McCartney Alan Cumming discusses his autobiography, Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life. This volume chronicles some of his career highs after Hollywood came calling, including working with Stanley Kubrick, filming with the Spice Girls and holidaying with Gore Vidal. Front ...
11.03.2021 The 2021 Booker Prize Ceremony Shortlisted authors Anuk Arudpragasam, Damon Galgut, Patricia Lockwood, Nadifa Mohamed, Richard Powers and Maggie Shipstead join Samira Ahmed live in Broadcasting House's Radio Theatre for the announcement of the winner of the 2021 Booker Prize. Last year's winner Douglas Stuart ...
11.02.2021 Little Amal, Anne Carson, Paul McCartney and The National Trust Little Amal, a giant puppet of a refugee girl, will complete her epic journey from Gaziantep on the Turkey/Syria border to Manchester tomorrow. Theatre director David Lan discusses what the project has achieved. Euripides’ tragedy Herakles was first performed in ...
11.01.2021 Armando Iannucci, Booker shortlisted author Maggie Shipstead, Paul McCartney on Penny Lane Meet the anagrammatical Orbis Rex, Queen Dido, Blind Dom’nic, as they battle a wet and withered bat from Wuhan in Front Row as Armando Iannucci, Samira Ahmed’s guest, reads from and talks about Pandemonium, his new mock-heroic epic poem written ...
10.28.2021 Passing film, Colin in Black and White, Booker Prize book group on Bewilderment, Paul McCartney Critics Michael Donkor and Jan Asante review actor Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut feature film Passing and the series Colin in Black and White, about former NFL player Colin Kaepernick. In the fifth of our Booker Prize Book Groups, listeners put ...
10.27.2021 The reopening of the Hall for Cornwall, Paul McCartney on Eleanor Rigby and Booker Prize nominated author Nadifa Mohamed Front Row visits Truro to report on the re-opening of the Hall for Cornwall after a 3 year, £26million refurbishment. The new 1300 auditorium complements the granite of the old building, and the Cornish landscape. And the opening show – ...
10.26.2021 Booker shortlisted novelist Patricia Lockwood, Science Museum director Ian Blatchford, Paul McCartney Patricia Lockwood is the latest author to join our Booker Prize Book Groups. Three listeners will ask her about No One Is Talking About This, a novel that’s been described as “ferociously original”, exploring a relationship with the online world ...
10.25.2021 Paul McCartney, Paul Muldoon, Booker Prize Book Group on The Promise In the first instalment of our new series, Inside the Songs, Paul McCartney talks about his life and song-writing through the prism of ten key lyrics, beginning with The Beatles’ classic All My Loving. Poet Paul Muldoon discusses working with ...
10.21.2021 Booker Prize Book Group: Anuk Arudpragasam on A Passage North Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
10.21.2021 Bradford Postcard; Ron’s Gone Wrong; Re-directing a play Producer-director Sarah Smith made her animation debut with the festive favourite, Arthur Christmas. Ten years on she’s back with Ron’s Gone Wrong, a warm-hearted romp with a robot and a critique of social media’s impact on young minds. For this ...
10.19.2021 BBC National Short Story Award and BBC Young Writers' Award winners We announce the winners of the BBC National Short Story Award 2021 and the BBC Young Writers' Award 2021. Kirsty Lang is joined for the show by National Short Story Award judges James Runcie and Fiona Mozley and Young Writers' ...
10.18.2021 Arinzé Kene on playing Bob Marley; Clare Norburn sings John Dowland; the first Working Class Writers Festival Arinzé Kene talks to Samira Ahmed about playing Bob Marley in the new musical Get Up, StandUp! Singer Clare Norburn is live in the studio to perform a piece by 16th Century composer John Dowland and discuss her new play ...

Older episodes

Front Row

What's Front Row about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Front Row episodes:

Munich: The Edge of War, Australia, Jo Browning Wroe on her novel, A Terrible Kindness

Tilda Swinton, secrecy in screen casting, proposed cuts at Stoke museums

Adrian Lester on Trigger Point; Heal and Harrow perform live; northern writing prizes

Boiling Point and Hanya Yanagihara's To Paradise reviewed, Costa Children's Award winner Manjeet Mann

Ascension, John Preston on Robert Maxwell and is vinyl manufacturing at breaking point?

Winner of TS Elliot Prize for Poetry, Unboxed, Folk at the Hampstead Theatre

Sheffield Crucible Theatre at 50, Philosophy in the Gallery, Self Esteem

Joe Wright on Cyrano, Costa poetry winner Hannah Lowe, A Hero

Andrea Arnold, Claire Fuller, Afghanistan National Institute of Music

The Costa Book Awards, Julia Ducournau on Titane, disabled access to arts and culture

Joan Didion remembered, Call the Midwife, The Tragedy of Macbeth and a review of the year in culture

Paul Thomas Anderson, Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden, Postcard from Doncaster

Anything Goes, Live arts venues under Omicron, The Princess Bride

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kehinde Wiley, Christmas book gifts

Don't Look Up, Around the World in 80 Days, Cutting It Fine

Postcard from Scarborough, Derek Jarman Protest!, Benjamin Cleary

Colm Tóibín

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Sarah Phelps, puppetry on stage

Cat Power performs live. Amanda Gorman poetry, Sex And The City follow up and Drive My Car reviewed

Musician Carwyn Ellis performs; The Rules of Art? exhibition; filmmaker Rosemary Baker; Port Talbot postcard

Steven Spielberg, Working Class Heritage, Will Sharpe

Playwright James Graham on Best of Enemies; Lamb film review; The Belarus Free Theatre; remembering actor Antony Sher

The Hand of God and Dürer exhibition reviewed, Aaron Sorkin on Lucille Ball

The 2021 Turner Prize Ceremony

The Parthenon Marbles; Get Back documentary review; Turner Prize nominees Project Artworks; the literary canon

Kelly Lee Owens, Stephen Sondheim, Rowan Williams, Black Obsidian Sound System

House of Gucci, Adele's 30 and The Every by Dave Eggers

Suzanne Lacy, Bishop Auckland, Silent Night

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Turner Prize nominees Gentle / Radical, Costa Book Awards

The Power of the Dog film review; Turner Prize nominees Cooking Sections; South African literature today

King Richard, Wheel of Time and new Zadie Smith play reviewed, Playwright Moira Buffini

Ralph Fiennes on Four Quartets, Songlines exhibition, art postcard from Plymouth

Céline Sciamma on her film Petite Maman, author Sarah Moss on The Fell, diversity in folk arts

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Climate Fiction, Kayleigh Llewellyn

Tori Amos performs, The Courtauld Gallery reopening and Dopesick series reviewed, Heidi Stephens live blogs

Art in Shetland, Timothy Ogene, Sharon Heal and Paul McCartney

Venice and climate change, the story that inspired Dostoevsky, Dean Stockwell remembered

Jeymes Samuel on The Harder They Fall, author Sofi Oksanen, John Gilchrist of UK Theatre, Paul McCartney

Spencer, Alan Cumming and Paul McCartney

The 2021 Booker Prize Ceremony

Little Amal, Anne Carson, Paul McCartney and The National Trust

Armando Iannucci, Booker shortlisted author Maggie Shipstead, Paul McCartney on Penny Lane

Passing film, Colin in Black and White, Booker Prize book group on Bewilderment, Paul McCartney

The reopening of the Hall for Cornwall, Paul McCartney on Eleanor Rigby and Booker Prize nominated author Nadifa Mohamed

Booker shortlisted novelist Patricia Lockwood, Science Museum director Ian Blatchford, Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney, Paul Muldoon, Booker Prize Book Group on The Promise

Booker Prize Book Group: Anuk Arudpragasam on A Passage North

Bradford Postcard; Ron’s Gone Wrong; Re-directing a play

BBC National Short Story Award and BBC Young Writers' Award winners

Arinzé Kene on playing Bob Marley; Clare Norburn sings John Dowland; the first Working Class Writers Festival