Front Row

In a wide ranging extended interview, Sir Tom Jones looks back at his life and career, from his coal-mining upbringing in South Wales to global superstardom.

He talks about the therapy he underwent to restore his ability to sing after the death of his wife and the two year quarantine he endured as a child because of tuberculosis.

He recalls the time he lost his temper with John Lennon, and the singing teacher who urged him to become on operatic tenor.

At the age of 80, Tom has recorded a new album of songs that relate to his life, by writers such as Michael Kiwanuka and Bob Dylan, called Surrounded by Time.

Presenter: John Wilson

Rose Matafeo discusses her new BBC3 comedy Starstruck. It follows Jessie, a millennial living in East London juggling two dead end jobs and navigating the awkward morning-after-the-night-before, when she discovers the complications of accidentally sleeping with a famous film star. She talks about creating a rom-com, diversity and why her comedy hero is the Dude in the Big Lebowski.

The composer Isobel Waller-Bridge is known for her eclectic influences and celebrated scores for stage and screen, ranging from Emma to Vita and Virginia and Fleabag. She has composed the score for a new RSC production of The Winter’s Tale, due to have been staged last year but now filmed for BBC Lights Up. She talks about scoring a play that has such shifts of mood, her intimate and detailed working process and the rewards of collaboration.

On Earth Day, Folk duo Ninebarrow explain how they're offsetting their carbon footprint in a plan inspired by the story of Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, second-in-command at the Battle of Trafalgar, who planted acorns as recompense for the great oaks that were being chopped down for ship building. Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere from the band explain how this story also inspired their new album, A Pocketful of Acorns.

Presenter: Nick Ahad

Actor, writer and director Noel Clarke discusses his latest role in the new five-part ITV drama series Viewpoint, in which he plays a surveillance detective tracking the movements of the prime suspect in the disappearance of a young woman.

In the interview he looks back over a career which started with his breakthrough role in Kidulthood in 2006, which he wrote and starred in, and his further success in its sequels Adulthood and Brotherhood. His acting roles have included Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, as well as five years on Doctor Who. He's been back on our screens recently in the high-octane thriller Bulletproof with Ashley Walters.

Earlier this month Noel was awarded the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema 2021, and in his acceptance speech he chose to highlight the industry’s need to reflect a more diverse representation, both in front of, and behind, the camera.

NB: This programme was broadcast before any allegations about Noel Clarke's behaviour came to light.

Presenter Kirsty Lang

Main image: Noel Clarke as DC Martin Young in Viewpoint

Kayo Chingonyi is an award-winning poet, producer, DJ and lyricist. Kayo joins Tom to talk about his much anticipated new collection A Blood Condition, exploring family, identity and his Zambian heritage. Plus his new music podcast series Decode, which takes a deep dive into Dave’s Mercury Prize-winning debut album Psychodrama, revealing its musicality and lyricism over 11 episodes.

Schubert’s song cycle, Winterreise, is regarded as the pinnacle of German Lied. This musical story of a young man pining for his lost love and drifting into existential despair has long fascinated audiences and scholars. Now mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato has brought a new approach to this composition. She joins Front Row to discuss how a woman’s perspective has created fresh meaning to Schubert’s winter journey.

Lucy Holt reviews The Importance of Being Earnest at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield. This digital production transposes the original narrative of Wilde’s classic comedy to the cobbles and stone walls of the north of England. The updated narrative follows the story of struggling actor Jamil and rom-com star Algy, who come together in the pursuit of love, being true to yourself and Nando’s.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

London Grammar's debut album in 2013 won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song. Their follow up four years later topped the album charts. Singer and songwriter Hannah Reid talks about their latest album Californian Soil, about sexism in the music industry, and using lockdown as a chance to learn to read music.

Craig Easton was last week announced as Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards. He discusses his project Bank Top, a photographic celebration of the residents of a mixed community in Blackburn, for which he won the award.

Domhnall Gleeson and his brother Brian have paired up for the new Channel 4 sitcom Frank of Ireland - the first episode aired last last week which Brian has described as “a physical, slapstick comedy about an arrogant fantasist called Frank Maron who’s in his thirties at home with his mother.” Comedian and co-host of the Tellybox podcast Emma Doran reviews the new Channel 4 series.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Main image: London Grammar

Director Deborah Warner discusses her new production of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, which opens at the Teatro Real in Madrid on Monday. The staging of this multinational co-production has become significantly more difficult in the wake of Brexit and more recently she has had to adapt to the numerous challenges posed by Covid.

The death was announced today at the age of 52 of Helen McCrory, whose credits included Peaky Blinders, The Queen, Harry Potter and many highly-praised stage roles including Medea and The Deep Blue Sea. Theatre critic Susannah Clapp reflects on her contribution to stage and screen.

Cybercrime is a lucrative source for fraudsters; companies’ customer accounts, personal bank details, and pension funds, presenting regular targets for the digital criminals. Now it seems that the world of publishing is attracting the online scammers. Heloise Wood, Deputy News Editor of The Bookseller, shares her latest scoop.

Mare of Easttown is a new HBO/Sky Atlantic series starring Kate Winslet as a small-town Pennsylvanian detective investigating a local murder as life crumbles around her. Lanre Bakare (Guardian arts and culture correspondent) and Jen Chaney (New York Magazine’s Vulture TV critic) discuss the drama with Kirsty

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Paul Theroux talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his latest novel “Under The Wave At Waimea” set in Hawaii where he now lives. Published just as he’s celebrated his 80th birthday - it uses surfing as an allegory for consideration of ageing, contemplation, writing, reading and reflecting on his professional and personal life. The conversation ranges across Theroux's long and successful career as a writer of fiction and of travel books.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Rapper and writer Testament discusses his new work Orpheus in the Record Shop which fuses spoken word and beatboxing with players from the Orchestra of Opera North in an new collaboration that gives the Greek myth of Orpheus a contemporary Yorkshire twist.

Festivals this summer are still in doubt as organisers can't secure insurance commercially. Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, CEO of UK Music, discusses how likely it will be that the government will step in to provide an indemnity.

British nature writing remains overwhelmingly white, despite its continuing popularity. With the recent establishment of new prizes and literary journals for diversity in nature writing things are starting to change - but slowly. John talks to two authors bucking the trend: Anita Sethi, author of a new memoir called I Belong Here about reclaiming the countryside for people of colour and Paul Mendez, who contributed an essay to the new collection, In the Garden, about the gardens of his Windrush grandparents.

Presenter: John Wilson

Main image: Testament in Orpheus in the Record Shop

Ammonite tells the story of fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea who develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever. Set in 1840’s England and starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. The British Council's Director of Film, Briony Hanson reviews.

In his early 20s, the actor and producer Jack Holden volunteered for the LGBT+ helpline, Switchboard. A decade on, his experiences there form the foundation of his new play, Cruise, which explores the impact of the 1980s AIDS crisis on the gay community in Soho.

Poet and performer Mark Gwynne Jones discusses his celebration of the landscape of Britain’s first National Park as it marks its 70th anniversary, in Voices from the Peak, a journey through the Peak District in word and sound, featuring the atmospheres, wildlife and stories of a land rich in contrasts.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Leila Latif reviews Too Close, ITV’s new psychological thriller starring Emily Watson and Denise Gough, which will be broadcast on consecutive nights this week.

On the day that commercial art galleries are allowed to re-open in England, Rachel Whiteread discusses her new exhibition Internal Objects at the Gagosian gallery in London. The exhibition features new resin sculptures, and the gallery's two main rooms are occupied by two new works - large sheds made of found materials and painted in white household paint.

As the BAFTA winners were announced over the weekend, Chloe Zhao’s film Nomadland won four prizes including best film, best actress for star Frances McDormand and best director. Film critic Leila Latif joins Kirsty to tell us more about the exciting young director, and her first feature film Songs My Brothers Taught Me which has just been released for the first time in the UK.

Novelist Rosa Rankin Gee joins Kirsty to talk about her new novel, Dreamland, set in a dystopian future where rising tides and political extremism have left one coastal community, and one small family, to fend for itself.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Main image: Emily Watson as Dr Emma Robertson in Too Close