Front Row

The death of Geoffrey Palmer was announced today. Two of his leading co-stars, Dame Judi Dench and Wendy Craig, pay tribute.

Ruth Wilson plays the sinister and ruthlessly ambitious Mrs Coulter in the BBC’s lavish adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. We catch up with her as series two begins to discuss the relationship with her estranged daughter Lyra, working with a digital monkey, and to ask if baddies are just more fun to play.

November marks the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, criminalising discrimination against disabled people in many areas of life. The anniversary is being marked on BBC TV and radio with a focus on the arts. For Radio 4, Jenny Sealey, of Graeae Theatre, and Polly Thomas have directed an adaptation of a Ben Johnson play - Bartholomew Fair - reimagined as The Bartholomew Abominations, set in a dystopian future.

Two major pop acts have new releases out – longstanding international treasure Kylie Minogue and relative newcomers on the block, Little Mix. Katie Puckrik and Roisin O’Connor join John to discuss the merits (or otherwise?) of the albums and also to select a cultural highlight they’ve been enjoying recently

Fifty years ago Ted Hughes published Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow. The Crow is a violent shape-shifter, a ruthless trickster who is determined to survive. A new edition of Crow has just been published and in Front Row Marina Warner, who has written the foreword, reveals the brutal beauty that Hughes achieved. The poet Zaffar Kunial reflects on how the rough music of the Songs of the Crow echoes across half a century to us today. We hear, too, from the archive, powerful readings of the poems by Ted Hughes himself.

Presenter: John Wilson

Could being visually impaired enhance an artist’s work? We’ll discuss that with Richard Butchins who’s made a BBC 4 documentary - The Disordered Eye - arguing just that. He looked at the work of artists who are known to have had low vision, such as Degas and Monet and those who were blind like Sargi Mann. And heard from contemporary artists like landscape painter Keith Salmon and sensory photographer Sally Booth.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

We can't go to the movies for a fix of action now. We can, though, witness spectacle that even the biggest budget blockbusters can't match - by simply going outside into the weather. 'Use should be made of it,' wrote Virginia Woolf. 'One should not let this gigantic cinema play perpetually to an empty house.' The poet Alice Oswald discusses Gigantic Cinema: A Weather Anthology that she's compiled with editor Paul Keegan, capturing writing about the weather, from the deluge in Gilgamesh, the earliest known poem, to 'Billie's Rain' one written a few years ago, about sitting in a van listening as rain hammers on the roof.

Missing the stage? Don’t despair - three regional theatres just got together to stage a lockdown-proof digital production of Jonathan Coe’s classic 1994 satirical novel What A Carve Up! They’ve re-imagined it for 2020, and added an all-star cast from Tamzin Outhwaite to Sharon D Clark, with cameos from Stephen Fry and Derek Jacobi. Katie Popperwell reviews.

In recent years, the growing popularity of Life Writing - creative writing based on autobiography or memoir - can be seen across book awards shortlists as well as the sheer number of creative writing courses dedicated to the subject. As the annual Spread the Word Life Writing Prize opens for entries, we talk to judge Frances Wilson about the kind of work the prize is seeking as well as the latest developments in this type of writing. She’ll be joined by Poet and teacher Anthony Anaxagorou, whose book How to Write It - published this month by Stormzy’s publishing imprint, Merky Books - aims to encourage budding writers to tell their story.

Presenter Ben Bailey Smith

In an extended interview, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas talks about relishing her latest role as the scary housekeeper Mrs Danvers in the new Netflix adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

Kristin first trained to teach drama, not to perform in it and when she tried to transfer to the acting course, she was told, without any consoling words, that her only real chance of playing a big part was to join an amateur drama group. Devastated, Kristin went to Paris to become an au-pair and eventually trained as an actor there. After a terrific review for a performance with a travelling theatre troupe, she landed a part in a Prince video which was followed by her first big break, playing the amoral, adulterous wife Brenda in an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust. Since then she's often been associated with a kind of bone-china English womanhood — playing characters who are beautiful, refined, perhaps a little brittle too— characters such as Katherine in Anthony Minghella's film The English Patient or Fiona in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Kristin reflects on how her upbringing taught her to hold back on emotions, and how she’s always sought out roles like Fiona, where the character is not all she seems and drops a mask. And she describes how her recent appearance in Fleabag struck a chord with a lot of women, where she gave a hilarious and rousing speech about reaching the menopause.

Interviewed guest : Dame Kristin Scott Thomas

Steven Isserlis tells John Wilson about his new album of late works by Sir John Tavener. It is a very personal project: Tavener and Isserlis were friends, the composer wrote pieces for the cellist and Isserlis gave the first performances of some of Tavener's works. His music was greatly influenced by the liturgy and traditions of the Orthodox Church, but this album reveals his openness to other religions. One piece echoes the call and response form of the Anglican church, in another the cello duets with a Sufi singer. There isn't a piece for solo cello so Isserlis plays part of Tavener's famous piece, The Protecting Veil, which was written for him, .

The latest announcement about renewed lockdown restrictions which will remain in place until at least December 3rd have thrown the plans of theatres, museums and many other public institutions into disarray. They had just emerged from the first lockdown and reworked their plans to incorporate social distancing. Now all that effort seems to have come to naught as new rules have been announced. John Wilson speaks to Matt Hemley from The Stage and Adrian Vinken, CEO at Theatre Royal Plymouth, whose Christmas show may have to be cancelled…again.

Presenter: John Wilson

When the singer Sam Smith came out as non-binary last year it was headline news around the world. After two global number one albums, an Oscar, a Golden Globe, multiple Grammys and 3 Brit awards, the 28-year-old singer is very much an international household name. And yet, as they release their third album, Love Goes, they are still beset by self-doubt. Sam Smith talks to Front Row about fame, heartbreak and songs to put a smile on your face.

Turner’s Modern World, a new exhibition at Tate Britain in London, explores how the painter JMW Turner (1775-1851) responded to the momentous events of his day, from technology’s impact on the natural world to the dizzying effects of modernisation on society. Charlotte Mullins reviews the exhibition which also reflects on the artist’s interest in social reform, especially his changing attitudes towards politics, labour and slavery.

Satirist Cold War Steve, aka Christopher Spencer, has been described as the ‘Brexit Bruegel’ and ‘A modern day Hogarth’. The collage artist is famous for his provocative look at the state of art and politics, depicting international political figures in uncompromising terms.

As the drama surrounding next week’s US presidential election reaches fever pitch, film critic Tim Robey picks his choice of the best portrayals of the contest on film, from Betty Boop for President to Primary Colours.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Main image: Sam Smith

Samira Ahmed talks to comedienne, actress and writer Dawn French. Dawn became famous with her comedy performimg partner of many decades; Jennifer Saunders. Together they won British Comedy Awards and BAFTAs but Dawn has also achieved acting success on her own - The Vicar Of Dibley, Murder Most Horrid, Delicious, Psychoville and many more.

And she is also a best-selling, highly successful writer of 4 novels. Her latest is Because Of You, the story of a baby stolen from the maternity ward and raised by a different mother who lost her own baby the same day.

Dawn reflects on her life and career: growing up as a Forces kid, meeting Jennifer, their stand-up and TV work together and as part of The Comic Strip Presents, working with Richard Curtis on The Vicar of Dibley and the power of comedy to agitate politically.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

For the second of Front Row's Booker Prize Book Groups, listeners put their questions to Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga whose novel This Mournable Body is shortlisted for the title. It’s the third part of a trilogy that began with the highly-acclaimed Nervous Conditions in 1988. The books tell the story of Tambudzai, a woman whose life has been full of promise but who now finds herself mired in the conditions of late 20th century Harare and pushed to the very edge. The author will also talk about her arrest after a protest earlier this summer, its consequences and the support she has received from other writers.

First-time feature film director Remi Weekes had his horror thriller snapped up by Netflix for an eight-figure sum at Sundance earlier this year. This week you’ll be able to see the film and Weekes joins Samira Ahmed to talk about His House - the story of Bol and Rial who escape war-torn South Sudan and arrive in the UK aboard a boat that sinks in the channel. The peeling walls of the Essex house they are allocated hold an evil spirit that has followed them from Africa. The authorities say they must not leave and the couple are left to deal with a haunted house that is almost as horrible as their own past.

Presenter Samira Ahmed

Elisabeth Moss on her latest role as the horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson in the new film Shirley. And she discusses the new series of The Handmaid’s Tale, which she’s now directing as well as starring in, and which has had to be filmed during the pandemic.

Presenter: Elle Osili-Wood

Main image: Elisabeth Moss as Shirley

Film-maker Sofia Coppola talks about reuniting with Bill Murray for her new film On The Rocks, a comedy about a martini-drinking playboy father who reconnects with his daughter (Rashida Jones) on an adventure through New York.

Front Row is convening a series of Booker Prize book groups in which readers can put questions to the six shortlisted authors, ahead of the announcement of the winner on the programme in November. We start with American author Diane Cook who's nominated for her debut novel, The New Wilderness. Set in the near future in an unnamed country, it's about a mother who takes her daughter away from the life-threatening pollution of The City to live in the wilderness with an experimental community. Cook is joined by Front Row listeners to talk about the book.

And with many venues still closed, the pandemic has hit the theatre sector particularly hard this year. But the industry was finally able to pay tribute to some of the best performances of the past year at last night's re-scheduled Olivier Awards.

Presenter: John Wilson