Front Row

Megan Swann is the first ever female President of The Magic Circle, and the youngest ever President at just 28 years old. She tells Tom how she got into magic, and how she uses magic to share an environmental message.

Richard Smyth is one of the five authors shortlisted for the £15,000, 16th BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University. He tells us what his short story, ‘Maykopsky District, Adyghe Oblast’ and his 2008 appearance on Mastermind have in common.

On what would have been her 90th birthday Front Row celebrates the work of the artist Dame Elizabeth Blackadder who died last month. Susan Mansfield, the writer and art critic for The Scotsman, examines one of her paintings - Cat and Flowers (1981) from the Fleming Collection

Award winning film maker Mark Cousins’s new film The Story of Looking is a reflection by the film maker as he waits for an operation to restore his vision on the powerful role that the visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives. Playwright Mark Ravenhill and writer on film Sophie Monks Kaufman give their take on the film, and react to the news of the deaths of filmmakers Roger Michell and Melvin van Peebles.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

On 6 October 1941 “The Coventry Telegraph” reported that women of Coventry had sent a message of support to the women of Stalingrad. And so began a relationship that became formalised by twin city status in 1844. Coventry now has 26 twin cities and those connections are celebrated in a new project, Twin Cities: Postcard Poems which paired ten poets from Coventry with poets from across the world. The resulting correspondence led to new poems being written and we hear from two of the poets involved: Emile Lauren Jones – the newly announced Coventry Poet Laureate - and David Morley.

Boff Whalley came to public attention as part of the exuberant pop group – Chumbawumba. He joins Front Row to discuss the Belgrade Theatre’s new musical, Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency. It’s a show that he’s written the music for, and which is based on a true housing story that happened in London in the 1970s, Members of the cast of The Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency perform one of the songs in the musical - B.N.V.A. R

The Twin Cities: Postcard poems have also been collected into a new book – To Coventry by Sun. Poet Jane Commane is the editor of the new collection and as well as the organiser of the Twin Cities: Postcard poems project. She talks to Nick about Coventry’s multi-twinned status and how correspondence from abroad can help us to see our homes afresh.

The distinguished 19th century African-American actor, writer, and theatre manager, Ira Aldridge, makes an appearance in the world premiere of a new play, This Little Relic, set in present-day Coventry. The writer and actor Karla Marie Sweet, has written the play and discusses why she wanted to bring Ira Aldridge back to the future.

Presented by Nick Ahad

There's some excitement in the world of English traditional music: Spiers and Boden have reunited, recorded a new album and are embarking on a month long tour. Squeezebox player John Spiers met fiddle player Jon Boden in a pub session twenty years ago and quickly established themselves as a duo playing English music, winning a devoted following and several awards. They formed the hugely successful 11-piece folk big band Bellowhead, but separated in 2014 and didn't play together again until this year. Spiers and Boden talk about their new album, Fallow Ground, explain how they find old tunes, and write new ones. And they play two tunes inspired by ancient English places.

A DCMS Report has called for a “complete reset” of the music industry following an investigation into the economics of music streaming services. Reporter Melanie Abbott describes the impact that streaming and new forms of music distribution have had on the earnings of artists and why the Government have accepted the recommendation to refer major music groups to the Competition and Markets Authority.

Although written before the pandemic and the rise of working from home culture, Calvin Kasulke’s novel, Several People are Typing is set entirely on the Slack chat of staff working at a small advertising agency. He joins us to discuss how our online versions of ourselves can interact with our physical lives, as well as the complexities of writing as an online bot.

We talk to another of the authors shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2021. Danny Rhodes’s story ‘Toadstone’ tells the story of a man returning to the village of his childhood, and looking to his own future. Danny Rhodes is a novelist and a lecturer in creative writing.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

We announce the winner of the 2021 Art Fund Museum of the Year, the world’s largest museum prize. Front Row broadcasts a special programme from London's Science Museum, reflecting on the resilience and imagination of museums throughout the pandemic.

John Wilson will be joined by judges Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate; artist Thomas J Price, Lead of Strategic Projects at Google Suhair Khan and broadcaster Edith Bowman. As well as Director of Art Fund Jenny Waldman.

We'll also be exploring the future of museums and galleries with Tilly Blyth from the Science Museum and Sandra Shakespeare from the British Black Museum project.

Presenter: John Wilson

Everybody’s Talking about Jamie is a feature film based on the stage musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16. It centres on Jamie, a gay teenager from Sheffield who wants to attend his prom in drag. Ellen E Jones reviews.

We talk to another of the authors shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2021. Rory Gleeson’s story is called The Body Audit and in it a group of teenagers carry out a revealing ritual, with surprising results. Rory Gleeson is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter.

Woodcarver Hugh Wedderburn, discusses the genius of this art, Grinling Gibbons, whose tercentenary is celebrated in a new exhibition at Compton Verney in Warwickshire.

Main image above: Limewood carvings by Grinling Gibbons

Visible Skin: Rediscovering the Renaissance through Black Portraiture is a new outdoor exhibition across King’s College London’s Strand Campus, showcasing artworks by opera singer Peter Brathwaite. He talks to Tom Sutcliffe about creating the portraits and images, as well as his role in the new opera The Time of Our Singing.

Indecent, a play which has just opened at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, explores the origins of the highly controversial 1906 play The God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, and follows the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it. John Nathan reviews.

One of the more unusual sights in Coventry City of Culture is a narrowboat that’s a brightly painted floating library of short stories. It’s also an artwork, Small Bells Ring, created by artists Heather Peak and Ivan Morison of Studio Morison. The boat, RV Furor Scribendi welcomes on board the people of Coventry, works with local libraries and hopes to attract those who might not ordinarily engage with books. Reporter Ushma Mistry of BBC CWR steps aboard.

Last year the playwright and author Lucy Caldwell was a judge for the BBC National Short Story Award but this year she’s been shortlisted for the third time for her story All the People Were Mean and Bad. She talks to Front Row about the appeal of writing about a moment of intimacy on a journey, the power of storytelling for children – and whether people really are mean and bad.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

If you go down to the Oastler Centre carpark in Bradford over the next few days, you’re sure of a big surprise because this derelict multi-storey is the venue for a new theatrical production - Peaceophobia - exploring the passions and the lives of three young Pakistani-heritage Muslim men from Bradford as they attend a car meet. Evie Manning is co-director of the show and joins Front Row to explain how Peaceophobia came about.

Sam Delaney reviews Jack Thorne's new Channel 4 drama, Help, which is set in Liverpool care home during the pandemic.

Georgina Harding is known as an acclaimed novelist for works including Painter of Silence which was shortlisted for what was then the Orange Prize (now Women’s Prize) for Fiction in 2012. She has just been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award for Night Train. It’s the account of a woman’s train journey across Ukraine, striking up conversation with a fellow passenger. It will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday at 15:30. She talks to Front Row about the story.

In a career spanning thirty years Kurt Ellling has been nominated no less than ten times for a Grammy and won the Jazz Vocal Album award twice. His latest album Superblue was recorded under lockdown conditions with all the musicians playing in separate studios. Kurt explains how they managed to maintain the spontaneity under such conditions and how that will translate to playing live on his British dates.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Award-winning author Anuradha Roy crafts pots as well as prose. She joins us live from India to discuss the fusion of ceramics and storytelling, pottery and politics in her new novel, The Earthspinner, a coming of age story set between two continents.

At a recent auction some 19th century pottery jugs, expected to fetch £100 or so, sold for £3,000 - £4,000. They were bought by major museums vying to add them to their collections. The jugs' selling point was that they were decorated with anti-slavery images or celebrations of abolition. Clare Durham, ceramics specialist at auctioneers Woolley & Wallis, who sold them, talks to Kirsty Lang about pottery propaganda and the increased interest in such pieces.

The British Ceramics Biennial is the largest ceramics event in the UK. Its new artistic director, Clare Wood, joins Front Row to discuss the shortlist for the festival’s contemporary ceramics prize and to reflect on a new artwork that puts slavery on a plate.

Nadine Dorries replaces Oliver Dowden as the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. BBC Arts Correspondent Vincent Dowd discusses the implications.

Main image: A plate from Jacqueline Bishop's History at the Dinner Table exhibition.

The role of Norman, the longsuffering, waspish eponymous dresser in Ronald Harwood's 1980 play, might have been written for Julian Clary. It's about a touring theatre company bringing Shakespeare to the provinces during the Blitz. As all the young actors are away fighting it's a motley crew, led by Sir, a monstrous yet pathetic veteran actor. Sir's mind and his world are crumbling. Only Norman can cajole him onto the stage. Now Julian Clary is playing Norman, in a touring theatre company, during a pandemic. He talks to Kirsty Lang about Norman, his relationship with Sir, and how, now we know more about dementia, this play, considered the best ever about theatre itself, is more pertinent than ever.

This week, the Royal Opera House opened to a full capacity audience for the first time since March 2020, with Sir Antonio Pappano picking up the baton in the pit. He tells Kirsty how good it felt to be back, why it’s taken so long for him to conduct Verdi’s popular masterpiece, and why he’s jealous of his continental counterparts.

And on the day that the Booker Prize shortlist is announced, we’re joined live in the studio by Horatia Harrod, member of the judging panel and an editor at The Financial Times Weekend, to discuss the six novels in the running for this year's £50,000 award.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Liane Moriarty is the best-selling author of nine novels including, Big Little Lies, and Nine Perfect Strangers, both of which have been adapted for television. Her latest novel, Apples Never Fall, is a mystery wrapped up in a domestic drama which focuses on an Australian family shaped by their passion for tennis.

Described as a pianist like no other, Igor Levit describes himself as a citizen and a European before a pianist. He has performed around the world, but when lockdown put a stop to that he took to live-streaming “House Concerts” from his apartment in Berlin. His new album ‘On DSCH’ features music by Shostakovich and Ronald Stevenson. He tells John Wilson why he chose music by those composers, and what he learnt from music in lockdown.

Matthew Bourne joins us to discuss his new ballet The Midnight Bell, based on the work of the writer Patrick Hamilton

Presenter: John Wilson