Front Row

Samira Ahmed is joined by writer Matt Cain and critic Suzi Feay to review:

Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart's new novel John of John, set on the Isle of Harris.

New series The Boroughs, which stars Alfred Molina and Geena Davis in a retirement community, executive produced by Stranger Things' Duffer Brothers.

And Holy Pop!, a new exhibition at Somerset House in London that celebrates fandom.

Also, film critic Tim Robey joins Samira from the Cannes Film Festival to talk through some of his highlights.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Canadian author Rachel Reid talks to us about the the phenomenon which has followed the publication of her books about the romantic relationship between rival ice hockey players.

We speak to author Yang Shuang-zi and translator Lin King, the author and translator of this year's International Booker Prize winning book, Taiwan Travelogue.

And Mull Historical Society's latest album In My Mind There’s A Photograph sees singer-songwriter Colin Macintyre work with lyrical contributions from a panoply of world-leading authors. He reveals his collaborative process with the likes of Irvine Welsh, Ali Smith, Irenosen Okojie, Yiyun Lee, and Sir Alexander McCall Smith, and performs a track live in the Front Row studio.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark

The paintings of Winston Churchill are being exhibited at the Wallace Collection in London. Xavier Bray, Director of the Wallace Collection, and Katharine Carter, curator at Chartwell, Churchill’s country house in Kent, discuss what we learn about Churchill from his art.

Creator and star Phil Dunning talks about series two of Smoggie Queens, which follows a close-knit group of friends; it’s a celebration of queer culture and a love letter to Middlesbrough and its community.

As questions are being asked about the use of AI in one of the regional winning entries of a prestigious short story prize for unpublished fiction, writer and journalist Hari Kunzru talks about the impact of AI on writing.

And Tom visited the RHS Chelsea Flower to see the Tate Britain show garden, which offers a taster of the forthcoming Clore Garden.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Leo Woodall stars in the film Tuner, about a young piano prodigy who turns to crime, in cinemas on the 29th May.

The classical music world has been paying tribute to the soprano Dame Felicity Lott, who died on Friday at the age of 79. Critic David Benedict joins us to discuss her life in music.

Ronald Firbank is considered a pioneering queer voice of modernist fiction, but he's often overlooked. Sir Alan Hollinghurst and the poet and critic Jack Parlett join us to assess his literary impact and his legacy, a century on from his death.

Mary Astell championed women’s education and spoke out against what she saw as the tyranny of marriage in the early 18th century. But despite her impact she's in danger of being forgotten. Now a new play imagines her in conversation with another famous feminist philosopher, Virginia Woolf, encountering each other in a celestial waiting room. We speak to the playwright, Shelagh Stephenson about her play Astell & Woolf, playing now at Newcastle's Live Theatre.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Observer Theatre critic Susannah Clapp and Heat's Entertainment Director Boyd Hilton join Samira to discuss The Christophers - Steven Soderbergh’s film about an ageing artist and a young forger hired to copy his work, starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel.

They also discuss the second series of Rivals, based on Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster novel which was set in the affluent 80s world of commercial TV.

Plus, they talk about the West End transfer of 1536. It's Ava Pickett’s award-winning historical debut play about female friendship set around the backdrop of Anne Boleyn’s arrest for treason.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

From landmark releases to hidden treasures, director Mark Cousins on his 16-hour epic The Story of Documentary Film, which is screening at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

A hundred years since Virginia Woolf published her essay On Being Ill, writer Darcey Steinke is presenting a newly commissioned work in response at the Charleston Festival this week. She joins us alongside poet Jade Cuttle to discuss the challenges of writing about pain and sickness and about the most visceral examples in literature.

And with a raft of stage musical productions inspired by films opening around the country, Tony and Olivier Award-winning director John Tiffany, whose production Once is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre later this month and critic David Benedict discuss why certain scripts are deserving of multiple incarnations.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark

This year marks the tercentenary of polymath Sir John Vanbrugh, regarded as the rockstar architect of the Baroque era. Art historian Sir Charles Saumerez Smith, co-curator of the Vanbrugh exhibition at the Sir John Soane’s Museum, and Rory Fraser who is writing a biography on Vanbrugh, discuss the man happy creating dramas for the British stage and dramatic buildings on the British landscape.

Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid is known for her distinctive brightly coloured paintings of black characters. She reflects on representing Great Britain at this year's Venice Biennale, and her ambition as a painter to capture the awkward moment.

Marking tonight's first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, television critic Scott Bryan assesses this year's runners and riders aiming to win the song for Europe.

Theatre and opera director Kip Williams on directing the UK premiere of the Pulitzer prize-winning opera Angel's Bone which has its UK premiere in Manchester tonight. Fresh from directing one-woman shows with Cynthia Erivo in Dracula, and Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray, he talks about juggling the challenges of a contemporary genre-fusing opera.

Presented by Nick Ahad

Critics Ben Luke and Aviva Dautch bring us all the news from The Venice Biennale.

A new small exhibition Elizabeth I: Queen and Court Is running in London. It includes rarely seen portraits of The Virgin Queen that are normally held in private collections. Historians Tracy Borman and Siobhan Clarke join Tom to talk about the crossover between portraits and propaganda for 16th century monarchs

Hilary Mantel's controversial 2015 short story, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, has been adapted for stage at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. We speak to playwright Alexandra Wood about why she chose to re-tell this story now.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by journalist and podcaster Nick Hilton and writer and historian Catherine McCormack to review a selection of cultural items from this week:

They'll look at The Sheep Detectives, starring Hugh Jackman, a live-action film in which a group of ovine sleuths attempt to solve the murder of their shepherd.

Elizabeth Strout's latest novel, The Things We Never Say, about a Massachusetts school teacher dealing with major changes and crises in his life

And a new exhibition: Kew in London is staging the largest ever presentation of outdoor artworks by Henry Moore; 30 of his sculptures among the glorious gardens.

Presenter Tom Sutcliffe

Acclaimed author Siri Hustvedt on Ghost Stories, her memoir of her marriage to novelist, poet and filmmaker Paul Auster and her grief following his death in 2024.

Following last night's live report on the controversies surrounding this year's Venice Biennale, we are joined by one of the curators of the Ukrainian Pavillion, to hear how a concrete sculpture of a deer rescued from the frontline of the conflict in Ukraine forms the centrepiece of their exhibit.

As a new documentary - Salm Nan Daoine (Psalms of the People) explores how the Gaelic Psalm singing tradition is being kept alive in communities across Scotland and Ireland, singer and musician Rob MacNeacail talks about the history of the tradition and gives us a live demonstration in the studio.

And as a major new project is launched by the National Theatre of Scotland to enable care-experienced people to tell authentic stories about their lives,, playwright Nicola McCartney is joined by the artistic director of The Big House, a London-based charity which empowers young care-experienced people through theatre to fulfil their potential through impactful stage productions.

Presenter: Kate Molleson