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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Dear Evan Hansen, Emmanuel ...

11.18.2019

Dear Evan Hansen is the Tony award winning musical about a socially anxious teenager who, via a web of lies, gets caught up in social media adulation following a classmate’s suicide. As the musical opens in London’s West End amidst ...

Front Row episodes:

11.18.2019 Dear Evan Hansen, Emmanuel Jal, How to Make a Living as a Writer Dear Evan Hansen is the Tony award winning musical about a socially anxious teenager who, via a web of lies, gets caught up in social media adulation following a classmate’s suicide. As the musical opens in London’s West End amidst ...
11.15.2019 Northern Ballet at 50, Art B&B, Iced Bodies As Northern Ballet reaches its half century, the company's Artistic Director David Nixon discusses his love of telling stories through Dance. Ever fancied sleeping in an artwork? Soon you’ll be able to do exactly that at the Art B&B – ...
11.14.2019 Floods and art, Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries, Tom Rosenthal With Italy set to declare a state of national emergency in Venice after the Unesco world heritage site was engulfed by a 6ft 'acqua alta', flooding its historic basilica and many other sites of great historic interest, art critic Jonathan ...
11.13.2019 Tobias Menzies plays Prince Philip; Six, a musical about the wives of Henry VIII; and Rapman This edition of Front Row has a regal air. As the third series of The Crown airs next week, with Olivia Coleman taking over the role of Queen Elizabeth from Claire Foy, Stig Abell talks to Tobias Menzies about the ...
11.12.2019 Lorna May Wadsworth, Marriage Story, My Mother Said I Never Should, I Feel Pretty Portrait painter Lorna May Wadsworth has forged a remarkable career with subjects including David Tennant, Michael Sheen, David Blunkett and Baroness Thatcher. As a major retrospective of her work - Gaze - opens at the Graves Gallery in her home ...
11.11.2019 War Of The Worlds re-imagined, Stephen Bourne- Playing Gay, Museum Funding HG Wells’ classic novel The War of the Worlds has been adapted many times including the infamous occasion on which Orson Welles’ radio version convinced some American citizens that Martians really were invading the Earth . Now a new BBC ...
11.08.2019 Emilio Estevez, 100 Novels That Shaped Our World, David Attenborough's Gamelan music Emilio Estevez discusses his forthcoming film The Public which he has written, directed and stars in, along with Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater, set in Cincinnati Public Library in the middle of winter. 100 Novels That Shaped Our World have ...
11.07.2019 Emilia Clarke on Last Christmas, Theatre ceiling collapse, End of the F***ing World returns Emilia Clarke talks about her new film Last Christmas, inspired by the music of George Michael and destined to be one of the major movies of the season. It's written by and also stars Emma Thompson. Emilia plays a young ...
11.06.2019 Alison Balsom, Fez, Robert MacFarlane Alison Balsom, Britain's leading trumpet soloist, talks about her new album Royal Fireworks, a collection of Baroque pieces by Bach, Telemann, Handel and Purcell, played on the "natural" trumpet, a baroque instrument without any valves, which means that each note ...
11.05.2019 The Irishman, Abomination opera, Murder In The Cathedral, The joy or blight of fireworks With a reported budget of $160m, Martin Scorsese returns to the familiar territory of The Mob and organised crime in America in his new Netflix film The Irishman. The three-and-a-half-hour-long drama spans 50 years and reunites Scorsese with Robert De ...
11.04.2019 Scott Z Burns, writer and director of The Report, poet Katrina Porteous and the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting winner New Amazon Original docudrama The Report sees an idealistic Washington staffer played by Adam Driver tasked by his senator boss to lead an investigation of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, which was created in the aftermath of 9/11. His ...
11.01.2019 Patti Smith, Tom Harper, Doctor Sleep reviewed Patti Smith, legendary musician and poet, looks back at a troubled year, 2016, in a new memoir, Year of the Monkey. Director Tom Harper discusses his new film The Aeronauts set in 1862, starring Eddie Redmayne as a pioneering meteorologist ...
10.31.2019 Jack Thorne on His Dark Materials, Sorry We Missed You, Emily Howard Screenwriter Jack Thorne discusses his new HBO/BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, said to be the BBC's most expensive drama yet. Ken Loach’s new film Sorry We Missed You concerns a parcel delivery driver and his carer wife ...
10.30.2019 Ian McKellen; theatre director Sarah Frankcom; Guilt reviewed In their new film, The Good Liar, Ian McKellen plays Roy Courtnay, a con artist who when he meets Betty McLeish, a well-to-widow played by Helen Mirren, can't believe his luck. Sir Ian talks to John Wilson about this role, ...
10.29.2019 Introducing New Artists from Devon Recorded in front of an audience at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth, Sarah Gosling introduces and showcases the artists and performers making a name for themselves in Devon, in collaboration with BBC Music Introducing. Grace Lightman is an electropop singer ...
10.28.2019 David Baddiel, Apple TV+, Wellcome Collection's scary podcasts David Baddiel has had a varied career. He's been a (Wembley Arena-filling) stand-up comedian, a chart-topping performer (3 times with the same song Three Lions), a TV chat show presenter, a prize-winning children's author, creator of highly-acclaimed shows about his ...
10.25.2019 Harry Hill, Peter Brook, film podcasts Harry Hill's Clubnite is a new cabaret TV show from the comedian featuring his choice of comic entertainers. Harry talks to Stig about what he looks for in comedians, what makes him laugh and the nature of surrealism. The greatly ...
10.24.2019 24/10/2019 Multi BAFTA-winning writer Jack Thorne returns to our TV screens tonight with the latest in his trilogy exploring life in modern Britain. "The Accident" on Channel 4, starring Sarah Lancashire, is set in a small Welsh town in the aftermath ...
10.23.2019 Bruce Springsteen's Western Stars, Harold Bloom, Islamic folios, new 'Monuments Men' Bruce Springsteen is about to release a film of his latest album, Western Stars. In the hayloft of his 100-year-old barn in New Jersey, he performs the album alongside a full orchestra, featuring brass, banjo, accordion and steel guitar. Kate ...
10.22.2019 Joy Labinjo, By The Grace of God reviewed, Alastair Sooke, actors doing other jobs Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival, By the Grace of God is Francois Ozon's new feature film about sexual abuse hidden by the Catholic Church in France. Briony Hanson reviews. The young artist Joy ...
10.21.2019 David Attenborough's cameraman, Bridget Riley exhibition, Forward Poetry winner David Attenborough's new documentary series Seven Worlds, One Planet has been four years in the making, we speak to Bertie Gregory, a wildlife cameraman who was at the heart of the show. The new retrospective of the work of the ...
10.18.2019 Scooby Doo at 50, Poetry in endangered languages, Composer Judith Weir There is much concern about the loss of biodiversity. But what of the linguistic and cultural ecosystem? It is thought that half of the world's 7,000 languages might not survive into the next century. Stig Abell talks to Chris McCabe, ...
10.17.2019 Gavin Hood, Moving to Mars, Salvator Mundi, Winsome Pinnock & Amit Sharma Gavin Hood, director of Tsotsi and Eye in the Sky, discusses his new film Official Secrets, which stars Keira Knightley as the GCHQ whistleblower who was taken to court by the British government for leaking a top secret email to ...
10.16.2019 Víkingur Ólafsson, social housing on screen, Hannah Khalil Having won several album of the year awards for his recording of works by J.S Bach, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson performs and talks about reinventing Bach for a new generation. This year the highest accolade in British architecture, the Stirling ...
10.15.2019 Aisling Bea, Booker Prize Double, Zawe Ashton Aisling Bea, writer and star of the recent hit Channel 4 comedy This Way Up, on her new Netflix drama Living with Yourself, in which she plays the wife of a man who undergoes a mysterious treatment only to discover ...
10.14.2019 Margaret Atwood book group, LA artist Mark Bradford, Peanut Butter Falcon review Ahead of the announcement of the 2019 Booker Prize winner tonight, it's the final Front Row Booker Prize Book Group with shortlisted author Margaret Atwood, in which she meets a group of readers to discuss The Testaments, her long awaited ...
10.11.2019 Sienna Miller, Elif Shafak, Giri/Haji Sienna Miller discusses her latest role as a mother whose daughter goes missing, in her new film American Woman, directed by Jake Scott. Our latest Front Row Booker Prize Book Group puts its questions to shortlisted author Elif Shafak about ...
10.11.2019 When Mary Beard met Margaret Atwood Mary Beard meets the acclaimed Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood. As her sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale – The Testaments – is published, in a wide-ranging encounter Mary talks to her about how Gilead has changed almost 35 years on from ...
10.10.2019 Nobel Prizes in Literature, Goldie's Drum'n'Bass picks, artist Es Devlin The Swedish Academy today announced the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Winners, not winner, because, embroiled in a scandal over allegations of sexual assault by the husband of one of its members, the Academy delayed last year’s prize ...
10.09.2019 Salman Rushdie, playwright Katori Hall, computer games tax avoidance The latest Front Row Booker Prize Book Group features Salman Rushdie answering listeners’ questions about his shortlisted novel Quichotte, a satire on current politics, the opioid crisis and the influence of popular culture that’s also been praised for its touching ...
10.08.2019 Extinction Rebellion, Staging Shakespeare, Timothee Chalamet in The King, Dancer/choreographer Dada Masilo The dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo grew up dancing to Michael Jackson songs on the streets of Soweto. She later trained as a ballerina and contemporary dancer. Now she creates very modern takes on classical ballets. Her reworking of Swan ...
10.07.2019 The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Economics of Publishing, Ravel's Bolero Following a Best Director win at Sundance, Joe Talbot discusses his film The Last Black Man in San Francisco, along with its star Jimmie Fails. Based on Jimmie Fail's own life, it's about his attempt to reclaim the house his ...
10.04.2019 Booker Book Group with Chigozie Obioma, RuPaul's Drag Race UK, Kurt Weill's The Silver Lake Our latest Front Row Booker Prize Book Group puts its questions to shortlisted author Chigozie Obioma about his book An Orchestra of Minorities, the story of chicken farmer Chinonso whose aspirations lead him to leave Nigeria for Cyprus – a ...
10.03.2019 Debbie Harry, the Portraits of Gauguin, the best political podcasts Debbie Harry is one of the defining musical artists of her age, known of course for her work with Blondie crafting and performing hits such as Heart of Glass, Dreaming and One Way or Another. As her memoir Face It ...
10.02.2019 Rupert Goold on his film Judy, Kara Walker reviewed, Booker Book Group with Bernardine Evaristo Director Rupert Goold discusses his new film Judy. Starring Renée Zellweger as legendary singer Judy Garland, the movie examines the final year of the star's life when, despite struggling with ill health, she was forced to take a demanding five ...
10.01.2019 The BBC National Short Story Award ceremony Five authors have been shortlisted for the 2019 BBC National Short Story Award and the Young Writers' Award, the winners of which will be announced in front of a live audience in the BBC Radio Theatre. Lucy Caldwell, Lynda Clark, ...
09.30.2019 Helen Mirren, Joker, Rona Munro Helen Mirren discusses taking on the role of notorious Russian empress Catherine the Great, Russia’s longest-ruling female leader for a new TV miniseries. She talks about the preparation for the role, her habit of binge-watching TV and why she admires ...
09.30.2019 Poetry and performance from Hull's Contains Strong Language festival Stig Abell talks to John Godber, one of the most-performed playwrights in the English language and somebody who has been interpreting the city of Hull in his plays for over thirty years, from Bouncers to Up and Under. His latest ...
09.26.2019 Derek Paravicini, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Booker Book Group with Lucy Ellmann Front Row begins a series of unique book groups with each of the authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019. Today novelist Lucy Ellmann, whose epic 1000 page novel Ducks, Newburyport is told in a stream of consciousness. Ellmann is ...
09.25.2019 Brittany Howard, Boarding schools in fiction, Ed Thomas Brittany Howard is the frontwoman for the phenomenally successful American blues rock band Alabama Shakes. She joins us to discuss her first solo album, Jaime, which is dedicated to her sister who died at a young age. Brittany talks about ...
09.24.2019 Staging Antony Gormley, Dolly Wells, The Politician Antony Gormley’s new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London features a series of new artworks which are monumental in size, scale and weight, from a 5000kg suspended piece of iron to a gallery flooded with 33,000 litres of seawater, ...
09.23.2019 Peter Bowker on World on Fire, The Emmys, Amina Atiq, New poetry releases Writer Peter Bowker discusses his epic new drama World On Fire, which follows the first year of World War II told through the intertwining fates of ordinary people drawn from Britain, Poland, France, Germany and the United States as they ...
09.20.2019 Lulu Wang on The Farewell, Dave, Jessie Burton The Farewell, a film about an American family who return to China to visit their dying grandmother, has been a surprise box office hit in the US and is winning critical acclaim. John talks to the writer and director Lulu ...
09.19.2019 Rotters in literature, John Keats' poem To Autumn, The Art of Innovation at the Science Museum We look at rotters in fiction: do women have equal status with men when it comes to being bad in books? Rotters have populated the novel since Robert Lovelace first appeared in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa nearly two centuries ago. But ...
09.18.2019 Soweto Kinch, Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture launch, Sam Fender Saxophonist Soweto Kinch has curated this year’s Koestler Arts exhibition, Another Me, featuring 150 artworks by inmates from a number of prisons and secure units across the UK. Kinch discusses the works, and performs a piece from his forthcoming album ...
09.17.2019 Maurizio Cattelan at Blenheim Palace, Ad Astra reviewed, Japanese Culture, Shakespeare Folio discovered A solid gold toilet reputedly worth £4.7 million has been stolen from Blenheim Palace. It's part of the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's new exhibition Victory is Not an Option which remains open and combines a retrospective of his work along ...
09.16.2019 Alex Kingston, Criminal, Falling piano sales Alex Kingston, best known for her TV roles in Dr Who and ER, discusses her new role in Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy Of The People on stage at the Nottingham Playhouse. Kingston plays Dr Stockman, who is punished by the ...
09.13.2019 Downton Abbey, Alexei Sayle, National Short Story Award - Jo Lloyd, Istanbul Biennial Downton Abbey hits the big screen this week as the Crawleys host the none other than King George V himself in a new film edition of the hit television show. Critic Sarah Crompton considers if it’s a success. Comedian Alexei ...
09.12.2019 Lucy Prebble, Temple, NSSA - Lynda Clarke, Alan Ayckbourn's Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present Lucy Prebble’s play A Very Expensive Poison opened last week at the Old Vic in London. It tells the story of the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 with a treatment ranging from the high theatricality of song, dance and ...
09.11.2019 Front Row at the Proms - Jamie Barton, Daniel Kidane, impact of Brexit on classical music John Wilson presents Front Row from the BBC Proms, with the American mezzo soprano Jamie Barton, about to perform as the soloist at the Last Night of the Proms, singing Verdi, Bizet, Saint-Saens and paying tribute to Judy Garland with ...

Older episodes

Front Row

What's Front Row about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Front Row episodes:

Dear Evan Hansen, Emmanuel Jal, How to Make a Living as a Writer

Northern Ballet at 50, Art B&B, Iced Bodies

Floods and art, Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries, Tom Rosenthal

Tobias Menzies plays Prince Philip; Six, a musical about the wives of Henry VIII; and Rapman

Lorna May Wadsworth, Marriage Story, My Mother Said I Never Should, I Feel Pretty

War Of The Worlds re-imagined, Stephen Bourne- Playing Gay, Museum Funding

Emilio Estevez, 100 Novels That Shaped Our World, David Attenborough's Gamelan music

Emilia Clarke on Last Christmas, Theatre ceiling collapse, End of the F***ing World returns

Alison Balsom, Fez, Robert MacFarlane

The Irishman, Abomination opera, Murder In The Cathedral, The joy or blight of fireworks

Scott Z Burns, writer and director of The Report, poet Katrina Porteous and the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting winner

Patti Smith, Tom Harper, Doctor Sleep reviewed

Jack Thorne on His Dark Materials, Sorry We Missed You, Emily Howard

Ian McKellen; theatre director Sarah Frankcom; Guilt reviewed

Introducing New Artists from Devon

David Baddiel, Apple TV+, Wellcome Collection's scary podcasts

Harry Hill, Peter Brook, film podcasts

24/10/2019

Bruce Springsteen's Western Stars, Harold Bloom, Islamic folios, new 'Monuments Men'

Joy Labinjo, By The Grace of God reviewed, Alastair Sooke, actors doing other jobs

David Attenborough's cameraman, Bridget Riley exhibition, Forward Poetry winner

Scooby Doo at 50, Poetry in endangered languages, Composer Judith Weir

Gavin Hood, Moving to Mars, Salvator Mundi, Winsome Pinnock & Amit Sharma

Víkingur Ólafsson, social housing on screen, Hannah Khalil

Aisling Bea, Booker Prize Double, Zawe Ashton

Margaret Atwood book group, LA artist Mark Bradford, Peanut Butter Falcon review

Sienna Miller, Elif Shafak, Giri/Haji

When Mary Beard met Margaret Atwood

Nobel Prizes in Literature, Goldie's Drum'n'Bass picks, artist Es Devlin

Salman Rushdie, playwright Katori Hall, computer games tax avoidance

Extinction Rebellion, Staging Shakespeare, Timothee Chalamet in The King, Dancer/choreographer Dada Masilo

The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Economics of Publishing, Ravel's Bolero

Booker Book Group with Chigozie Obioma, RuPaul's Drag Race UK, Kurt Weill's The Silver Lake

Debbie Harry, the Portraits of Gauguin, the best political podcasts

Rupert Goold on his film Judy, Kara Walker reviewed, Booker Book Group with Bernardine Evaristo

The BBC National Short Story Award ceremony

Helen Mirren, Joker, Rona Munro

Poetry and performance from Hull's Contains Strong Language festival

Derek Paravicini, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Booker Book Group with Lucy Ellmann

Brittany Howard, Boarding schools in fiction, Ed Thomas

Staging Antony Gormley, Dolly Wells, The Politician

Peter Bowker on World on Fire, The Emmys, Amina Atiq, New poetry releases

Lulu Wang on The Farewell, Dave, Jessie Burton

Rotters in literature, John Keats' poem To Autumn, The Art of Innovation at the Science Museum

Soweto Kinch, Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture launch, Sam Fender

Maurizio Cattelan at Blenheim Palace, Ad Astra reviewed, Japanese Culture, Shakespeare Folio discovered

Alex Kingston, Criminal, Falling piano sales

Downton Abbey, Alexei Sayle, National Short Story Award - Jo Lloyd, Istanbul Biennial

Lucy Prebble, Temple, NSSA - Lynda Clarke, Alan Ayckbourn's Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present

Front Row at the Proms - Jamie Barton, Daniel Kidane, impact of Brexit on classical music

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