Front Row

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson will be Front Row's Artist-in-Residence during the lockdown, delivering weekly live performances on the grand piano of the currently empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, Iceland. Each week will also feature a mini-masterclass about the piece. Tonight Víkingur performs his own transcription of Sigvaldi Kaldalóns’ Ave Maria. Kaldalóns was a doctor aswell as a composer and Víkingur dedicates this performance as a prayer to all the people suffering and to the health workers fighting against COVID-19.

Winner of the Sky Portrait Artists of the Year, Christabel Blackburn, gives us top tips on how to draw a portrait ourselves at home, and discusses why she's so drawn to the genre and what it was like winning the show.

British-Indian musician, producer and composer Nitin Sawhney discusses his forthcoming album Immigrants, a celebration of émigrés' culture across the globe, in which he showcases creations 'inspired and contributed to by artists who either identify themselves as immigrants, are from immigrant heritage or wish to express support for those international immigrants who have found themselves judged or disadvantaged by pure accident of birth.’

We conclude our ‘listening week’, focusing on entertainment available for the ear, with a look at audiobooks. Over the past decade this $3.5bn industry has been the success story of an otherwise sluggish publishing market and in a moment when many have more time on their hands there’s no better way to consume books whilst being productive. Times audiobook critic Christina Hardyment discusses the best and worst recent releases and what goes into making a good recorded reading.

Presenter Tom Sutcliffe

On Easter Monday ITV will broadcast the first instalment of Quiz, the adaptation by James Graham of his play about the coughing controversy and the major convicted of cheating on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Graham tells Kirsty Lang why the story remains important. It's about truth, fact and power - the power of television. And there's a remarkable performance by Michael Sheen as Chris Tarrant.

Braids was scheduled to premiere at the Live Theatre in Newcastle this April. Longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award, it follows two girls – Jasmine and Abeni - who navigate growing up as the only people of colour in a rural part of Durham. Kirsty is joined by writer Olivia Hannah, and actors Olivia Onyehara and Cynthia Emeagi, who will be performing a scene from the play.

With Front Row focusing on ‘listening’ this week, music writer Kieran Yates considers the changing landscape of music, from live radio broadcasts to live streaming and ‘quarantine concerts’. She also discusses the listening experience of what’s called 8D audio, and the importance of listening on headphones.

And the death of the singer songwriter John Prine, who won the respect of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Kris Kristofferson.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Image: MATTHEW MACFADYEN as Charles Ingram and SIAN CLIFFORD as Diana Ingram in Quiz

AL Kennedy won the Costa Prize 2007 for her novel Day. She talks about her new book of short stories, the aptly named We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time – a powerful collection about characters living on the edge, from a woman finally snapping at a white man's racist tirade at a zoo, to the host of a podcast revealing why she is haunted by the state of New Mexico.

Sam Sweeney, fiddle player in the trio Leveret and formerly of Bellowhead, has just released his second album, Unearth Repeat. It is, he says, is an un-concept album, where he simply plays the music he loves. He tells Samira what he means and plays a tune.

As our routines are changed beyond recognition, what happens to regular activities like listening to podcasts and radio? Initial statistics suggest that most podcast listening is down, while radio listening is up. Podcasters Caroline Crampton and Joseph Fink consider what this means for listeners and for the people who make audio.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Image: AL Kennedy

On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the great English poet William Wordsworth, Juliet Stevenson reads some of his most famous poems and Michael McGregor, Director of the Wordsworth Trust, explains why Wordsworth is particularly relevant today, at a time of crisis.

As Front Row begins a week of celebrating the joys of listening - to radio, podcasts, audiobooks, music and drama - radio critic Gillian Reynolds talks about the joys of entertainment for the ears.

Actor Kerry Shale discusses his radio drama, The Kubrick Test, which tells the true story of his encounter with one of cinema’s most influential figures. For many years, the great director’s methods were shrouded in mystery. So when, in 1987, a young actor gets an invitation to enter Kubrick’s hidden world, he leaps at it. And, of course, gets more than he bargained for. The Kubrick Test will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Wednesday at 2.15 pm.

Composer Nainita Desai is a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit, and is the International Film Music Critics Association Breakthrough Composer of 2020. She has scored many TV and film dramas as well as video games, and she discusses her score for For Sama, Waad al-Kateab’s Oscar-nominated film that won the BAFTA for Best Documentary this year.

Presenter: John Wilson

Miles Davis released his seminal album Bitches Brew 50 years ago this week. Saxophonist Soweto Kinch and Michael Carlson consider the impact of the double album, and discuss the recent documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool.

What video games should we play while we’re self-isolating? Video games expert, journalist and broadcaster Jordan Erica Webber gives us her top picks and tips for first-time gamers. And as even the World Health Organisation recommends 'playing active video games' during lockdown, we look at the mental and physical health benefits of gaming.

This week The Front Row Culture Clinic is looking at how to keep children entertained and educated whilst under lockdown, with portrait painter Lorna May Wadsworth who is launching a painting competition for the under 12s - the winner will have their painting hung in a prestigious London gallery. Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell, who is reading a chapter of How To Train Your Dragon every day from her garden shed with Book Trust Home Time, considers how to keep house-bound kids happy and motivated.

As the Scottish Ensemble string orchestra celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, concert violinists Jonathan Morton and Clio Gould from the Ensemble perform two short inventions by Bach, live from their home.

Presenter Samira Ahmed

Dua Lipa shares the inspiration behind her new album Future Nostalgia, what it's been like releasing an album under quarantine.

As the Edinburgh Festivals are cancelled this year, Joyce McMillan of The Scotsman discusses what this means for theatre, comedy and the arts, and for the city itself.

Set and costume designer Molly O’Cathain, on lockdown at home with her parents in Dublin, has combined her love of art and skill as a production designer to recreate famous painting of couples using her parents as models. She tells John how she's been doing it.

Sara Collins won the 2019 Costa First Novel Award for The Confessions of Frannie Langton. In the latest in our J’Accuse series, she takes on what she sees as the segregation of publishing and the expectations on writers of colour to “tackle” the subject of race.

Presenter: John Wilson

This edition of Front Row is devoted to one of the most exciting playwrights to emerge this century. James Graham is only 37 but has already become a foremost chronicler of modern Britain on stage and screen. He is known for taking on the big issues of the day – Brexit, privacy online, parliamentary democracy, fake news - whilst enabling his audience to see things from the points of view of those involved. In This House the whip's office, more than the chamber of the House of Commons, is where power plays. His controversial television play Brexit: The Uncivil War, set in the offices of the Vote Leave campaign, brought our attention to the critical role played by Dominic Cummings, now the Prime Minister’s chief adviser. At Easter ITV will broadcast his adaptation of his play – Quiz – about the coughing controversy and the major accused of cheating on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It is about truth, fact and power - the power of television.

Graham's work in the theatre is often interactive: in Privacy audience members were asked to keep their phones on and information gathered from them became part of the drama. The final performance of The Vote, set in a polling station, was live-streamed from one as it closed on the night of the general election of 2015. In Quiz the audience became the trial jury. Graham talks about the importance of the live, communal aspect of theatre, and, too, how television can be an arena where millions can consider the complex challenges of our times.

In a wide ranging, richly illustrated interview James Graham tells Kirsty Lang about the crucial role of drama in explaining power and politics, in learning about how our society works, and the importance of being even-handed.

To mark Beethoven's 250th anniversary, soprano Chen Reiss has released an album of rarely performed Beethoven arias called Immortal Beloved. She joins us live from her home in Vienna, and also performs a favourite aria by Handel.

With arts organisations scrambling to reproduce their output online, we discuss the dilemmas of streaming works intended to be experienced communally. Academic Kirsty Sedgman, who specialises in audience research, and theatre critic Alice Saville, Editor of Exeunt Magazine, consider the consequences for artists and their audiences.

Susannah Hart has won the National Poetry Competition for her poem Reading the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, which draws from her experiences as a school governor - the poem is her reaction to how we support and look after children at risk.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Image: Chen Reiss

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has a new album, Debussy – Rameau, exploring the music of two very different but complementary composers. He plays live from Reykjavik, exclusively for Front Row.

Actor Jo Hartley - best known for her roles in Shane Meadows' This is England series - discusses her new TV drama, In My Skin, which is coming to BBC Three. It's the story of a Welsh teenager - Bethan - who is dealing with mental illness, friendships and her sexuality. Her mother Trina - played by Hartley - has bipolar disorder and is sectioned in a psychiatric ward but Bethan is doing all she can to hide her mother's condition from her friends and the school authorities. The part is based on the personal experiences of Welsh writer Kayleigh Llewellyn.

Musician Mik Scarlet gives his Disabled Person’s Guide to Surviving (and Thriving) in Lockdown. He passes on his top tips and argues that, although on screen disabled people are often portrayed as weak and needing help, there is a lot the able-bodied can learn from this community who are more familiar with enforced time spent at home.

The death of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki has been announced. Music critic and Radio 3 presenter Tom Service considers what it was about his music, which sounded uncompromisingly modern, that also appealed to people who felt they wouldn't normally enjoy modern classical music.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Disco legend Gloria Gaynor made headlines earlier this month when her TikTok video encouraging people to wash their hands to her hit I Will Survive went viral. She joins us from her home in South Carolina, to discuss winning a Grammy for her latest album Testimony, and how she's keeping busy in self-isolation.

As galleries and art centres close their doors many organisations are turning to digital platforms to reach audiences, but what about the 5 million people in the UK that don’t have access to the internet? Front Row speaks to Stella Duffy, co-director of Fun Palaces and Sally Shaw, Director of Firstsite Gallery in Colchester about the initiatives they’re setting up to reach those that are not online.

Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel is named after Shakespeare’s only son Hamnet, who died of the Plague. It has been almost universally acclaimed as her finest work.

And Shahidha Bari joins Front Row for our Cultural Clinic. She'll be answering questions on the cultural significance of clothes - especially when we're at home and tempted to stay in our PJs all day.

Presenter: John Wilson