Front Row

Toby Jones tells us about turning his hand to writing for the new six part BBC2 TV series, Don’t Forget The Driver. It's a dark and poignant comedy about Brexit Britain, set in a coach company in Bognor Regis.

The latest DC comics film Shazam! flies into cinemas this week. Originally published as a comic strip in 1939, it's the story of Billy Batson, a normal 14-year-old who is given the ability to transform into an adult superhero just by uttering the magic word “Shazam!”. Film critic Larushka Ivan Zadeh will tell us whether or not it's any good.

At Easter, choirs across the country prepare to perform Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions. We explore the significance of these intense and monumental works. Kirsty is joined by director Peter Sellars, who is staging the St John Passion at London’s Royal Festival Hall conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and music historian Hannah French.

6 April Tewkesbury Abbey – St John Passion – City of Birmingham Choir

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Suzi Quatro was the first female bass player to become a rock star in the 1970s, with hits like Devil Gate Drive and Can the Can. Fifty-five years after her first performance, Suzi talks about her new album No Control which she wrote with her son.

Playwright and actor John Kani and director Janice Honeyman discuss John's new play for the RSC – Kunene and the King - which reflects on South Africa's post-apartheid history through the relationship of a dying white actor and his black nurse.

Britain's museums and galleries show an increase of nearly 9% in visitor numbers in the last year, with Tate Modern leap-frogging the British Museum for the top spot. Nicholas Cullinan of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and Gordon Rintoul of National Museums Scotland debate the importance of visitor numbers as they plan their future programmes.

Presenter: Stig Abell

The 1983 Scottish film Local Hero was a much-loved comedy drama about an American oil company rep who is sent to a fictional village in Scotland to purchase the town for his company. This film has now been adapted into a stage musical at the Edinburgh Lyceum with all 19 songs composed by Mark Knopfler, who wrote the film soundtrack. So does Local Hero the musical work? Novelist Ian Rankin delivers his verdict.

After a two-year build-up, the UK will not be leaving European Union today after all. To reflect the mood of the nation, we investigate the anti-climax in art with film critic Hannah McGill and writer Matt Thorne. Why do writers and film-makers use it, what effect does it have, and what makes an anti-climax poignant or simply frustrating?

Legendary film-maker Agnès Varda's death was announced today, at the age of 90. She was one of the key figures in the French New Wave in the 1960s, making films like Cleo from 5 to 7, Le Bonheur and The Creatures. Hannah McGill reflects on the career of the influential figure, and the first female director to receive a rare honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2015.

In the wake of the press release issued yesterday by the National Theatre for its new season - of the seven plays presented, only one was directed by woman and none was written by a woman - Lisa Burger, the newly appointed joint Chief Executive of the National Theatre, and current Executive Director, discusses whether women playwrights and directors are still having a hard time making their presence felt at the National Theatre.

Presenter John Wilson

Tash Aw, winner of the Whitbread Award and Commonwealth Book Prize, discusses his new novel We the Survivors, about a man born in a Malaysian fishing village who tries to make his way in a country and society that is transforming. He describes the book as a tribute to those battling to survive in a ruthless, rapidly changing world.

As museums such as the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Modern sever ties with the philanthropic Sackler family following controversy over its alleged role in the opioid crisis, what is the wider impact on the ethics of arts sponsorship? How much scrutiny of arts sponsors should there be? Andrea is joined by Heledd Fychan, chair of the Museum Association's Ethics Committee and author and academic Tiffany Jenkins.

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind is one of the nation's favourite hymn tunes, yet the tune itself comes from a much bigger work, the oratorio Judith by Hubert Parry, which is about to get its first UK performance in almost one hundred years at the Royal Festival Hall in London next week. Music historian Jeremy Summerly explores the significance of this musical revival.

Presenter: Andrea Catherwood

Scottish artist Katie Paterson’s exhibition at Turner Contemporary, Margate, explores our relationship with the vastness and mysteries of the universe, as she works with scientists who have pioneered research on the cosmic spectrum. The artist discusses her fascination with the physical world.

So many successful TV shows have non-celebrities at their heart, from documentaries to reality programmes like Made in Chelsea and Great British Bake Off. But how do programme-makers find the contributors who will make interesting viewing? Co-director of production company Drummer TV Rachel Drummer Hay and TV critic Emma Bullimore give their perspective on what makes a good cast.

The 2018 Ted Hughes Award highlights outstanding contributions made by poets to our cultural life. Front Row talks to the winner of the £5000 prize, live from the award ceremony, minutes after the announcement is made this evening.

As a member of The Beat, Ranking Roger was one of the stars of British Ska, bringing his “toasting” skills to many of the band’s big hits. To mark his death, music critic and broadcaster Kevin Le Gendre pays tribute.

Presenter: Janina Ramirez

A history of classical music in 10 minutes. Pianist Jeremy Denk traces seven centuries of Western Classical Music in one recital and album, C.1300 – C.2000, demonstrating at the piano the evolution of harmony from the medieval composer Machaut to Philip Glass.

Author Arundhati Roy has agreed to appear at Hay Festival in May following the loss of sponsorship from corporate Tata. Will Gompertz reports on the growing trend for arts organisations to drop significant investment from businesses which artists and audiences see as unethical.

Does tragedy still have a place in contemporary British theatre? Playwrights Roy Williams and April De Angelis, and Dr Rosie Wyles, lecturer in classical history and literature at the University of Kent, discuss.

Presenter: Stig Abell

Politics and Big Band music :British musician Matthew Herbert has created The State Between Us, a new album made in reaction to the progress of Brexit. It's a work which includes original composition, choral elements and recorded sounds which reflect the triggering of Article 50; there's someone walking the Irish border, someone eating fish and chips and even someone flying a WWII bomber. Matthew Herbert discusses his intentions for the work, recording in Europe, and why he changed the name from The Brexit Big Band to The Great Britain and Gibraltar European Union Membership Referendum Big Band.

A new exhibition at Tate Britain brings together the largest group of Van Gogh paintings shown in the UK for nearly a decade. Van Gogh and Britain charts Vincent's years in London between 1873 and 1876 as a young art dealer before he tookup painting. Head curator Carol Jacobi and specialist Martin Bailey discuss the influence of Britain on Van Gogh’s art, and his art on British artists in subsequent years.

This week also sees the opening of a new film about Van Gogh directed by Julian Schnabel. At Eternity’s Gate features Willem Dafoe as the artist in his later – and most productive – years working in the South of France. The director describes his artistic vision for the film.

The singer Scott Walker has died. We speak to prize-winning author and Scott Walker fan Eimear McBride - who wrote the introduction to a book of his lyrics - about his extraordinary varied career

Presenter: Kirsty Lang

The recent Pinter season at the Pinter Theatre in London, culminating in the current production of Betrayal starring Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton and Charlie Cox, suggests that Harold Pinter has a durability that other writers of his generation may not be able to claim. What are the qualities that give his work resonance to an audience today? The director Jamie Lloyd, theatre critic and Pinter biographer Michael Billington, and Dr Catriona Fallow, research fellow on the Harold Pinter: Histories and Legacies project, tell Front Row why they think his work endures.

In his award-winning play The Believers Are But Brothers, Javaad Alipoor invited audiences to experience the world of young disaffected men online by joining a WhatsApp group. Alipoor talks to Stig Abell about the play which tells four fictional stories - an Islamic State group recruiter, two British recruits and an Alt-Right 'white boy' from California, and has which has now been adapted into a drama BBC Four.

Guitarist and songwriter Richard Hawley thought he hated musicals, realised that actually he quite liked them and went on to write one that opened this week at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Standing at the Sky's Edge is about Park Hill, the flats the that flank Sheffield like a city wall. It tells their story, from the optimism of their conception as an urban utopia, through dereliction and recent redevelopment and recovery. Woven through are Hawley's songs, and the professional cast is augmented by many local people. The writer, broadcaster and Sheffield resident, Paul Allen, reviews the show.

Presenter: Stig Abell

Photographer David Bailey has shot some of the most iconic portraits of the last six decades, from the Kray twins to the Queen. He talks about his life and career and how to achieve the perfect portrait shot.

Tomorrow the UK’s largest cast bronze sculpture is unveiled in Plymouth. John talks to artist Joseph Hillier, who has been working on the crouching female figure called Messenger for the last two years.

Sophie Wright from Magnum considers the different ways photographers have captured the body in a new exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, The Body Observed: Magnum Photos.

Presenter: John Wilson

Ralph Fiennes' third film as director is The White Crow, the story of how Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev came from a peasant upbringing to be one of the greatest dancers, and how whilst on tour in Paris in 1961 he defected to the West from the Soviet Union. Critic Sarah Crompton reviews.

Last week dozens of well-heeled American parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, were charged with involvement in a scheme to fabricate academic and athletic credentials to get their children into prestigious universities. And last week Joshua Harmon’s play ‘Admissions’ opened here. It’s about a woman who, devoted to improving diversity at her elite school, finds herself somewhat challenged when her son doesn’t get into Yale - but his mixed race best friend does. And this week another American play, ‘Downstate’ by Bruce Norris, opens at the National Theatre. This is set in a group home where four men, convicted of sex crimes against children and tagged, live. A man comes to confront his abuser, but our sympathies are not only with him. With Samira Ahmed the two playwrights discuss how and why, far from being escapist, the theatre is where contentious issues are imaginatively examined today.

Presenter : Samira Ahmed