Front Row

Comedian Leo Reich, who has been named as one of the "best British talent" by The Times, and who has previously appeared in Lena Dunham's Netflix romcom Too Much, talks to us about creating his own sitcom - It Gets Worse - about a group of dysfunctional BFFs - for Channel 4.

It emerged this weekend that almost 100,000 items have gone missing (and are either lost or stolen) from museums in Scotland in recent years. How are museums misplacing so many artefacts in their collections, and what can be done to retrieve them? We are joined by a collections management expert and a representative of The Art Loss Register to discuss how widespread this problem is.

And a man marries an AI bride in the new production Darren Jackson's Wedding, by Big Telly Theatre Company, at the Belfast International Arts Festival. The show - staged partly in a church, partly at the Lyric Theatre, is a comic exploration of our relationship with technology and the importance of community, and follows the company's previous hit show Granny Jackson's Dead, a show set around an Irish family wake, which explored mourning and the growth of grief technology.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark

Bad Sisters actress Anne-Marie Duff talks to Samira about her latest role as Julie in Helen Edmundson’s play in Some Woman on stage at the National Theatre in London.

In the next of our interviews with this year's Booker Prize shortlisted authors, visionary novelist and father of "New Weird" fiction M John Harrison discusses his disorientating dystopia, The End of Everything.

And in the year of the Bayreuth opera festival's 150th anniversary, Samira discusses its history and significance with Genevieve Robyn Arkle, BBC / AHRC new generation thinker and lecturer in music history at King’s College London and Mark Berry, professor music and intellectual history at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Producer: Eliane Glaser

We speak backstage with Christine Baranski and Richard E Grant on appearing in Noel Coward's Hay Fever in London's West End.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Zoe Williams and Laurence Scott join Tom Sutcliffe to review:

The Social Reckoning, Aaron's Sorkin's new film which revisits the world of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg 16 years after his hit The Social Network. Mikey Madison stars as whistleblower Frances Haugen, who leaked tens of thousands of internal documents to the Wall Street Journal.

The 90s: Art and Fashion at Tate Britain, an exhibition curated by former Vogue editor Edward Enninful looking at the decade that brought us Kate Moss and Damien Hirst.

Partita, the new novel from Pulitzer and Women's Prize For Fiction winner Barbara Kingsolver, whose last book Demon Copperhead was a huge success. This novel tells the story of a gifted pianist living in rural Appalachia.

And as news is announced that Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, we discuss her work and significance.

Producer: Tim Bano

News broke today of a discovery which may rewrite cinematic history. In 1926 Scottish playwright Graham Moffat's film - Till the Bells Ring - using pioneering audio technology which allowed sound and pictures to be synchronised, was premiered in Edinburgh. For decades, Alan Crossland’s 1927 film The Jazz Singer – starring Al Jolson – has been regarded as the world's first talkie, but does this newly discovered film - in the BFI archive in Hertfordshire - take its crown? Historians Marc David Jacobs – and Pamela Hutchinson, join us to discuss the significance of this find.

Turner Prize-nominated artist Isaac Julien joins us to talk about his film work Lessons of the Hour – which is screening from this weekend until next April at Perth Museum, on the site where the renowned 19th century social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave speeches to packed out audiences almost 200 years ago. Julien’s film reflects Douglass’ significant legacy and he tells us about his approach to “aesthetic reparation” and about the relevance of Douglass’ work today. We also hear about Douglass' extraordinary life, from his great-great-great grandson.

And from ancient sculpture to an iconic 15th century painting by Botticelli and a gold bodysuit worn by Beyoncė, a new exhibition devoted to the Greek goddess of love and desire, Aphrodite, opens this week at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Writer and classicist Natalie Haynes guides us through the fascination with Aphrodite over five millennia.

And we pay tribute to the Oscar-winning American actress Eva Marie Saint, star of North By Northwest and On The Waterfront, who has died at the age of 102.

Presenter: Kate Molleson

The legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr is back with his fifth solo album The Age of Everything, which he's described as the most cathartic album he's ever written. He joins Samira to talk about road-testing these songs before recording them, why he auctioned off his whole guitar collection and what keeps him making music after five decades in the spotlight.

As French Impressionist Claude Monet's letters are published in English for the first time, Samira discusses what we learn about the man behind the paintings, with editor Teresa Krasny and art critic Charlotte Mullins.

The first of our interviews with the authors of the Booker Prize shortlist: Rebecca Perry talks about her novel May We Feed the King.

And after the news of author Jeffrey Archer's death, we revisit a memorable Front Row interview with him.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Two of the young stars of Saturday Night Live UK on bringing live satire back to television.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Susannah Clapp and Nick Hilton join Tom Sutcliffe to review Tom Cruise as a prosthetic laden billionaire oil tycoon in the film Digger, who is out to save humanity after causing a global catastrophe.

They also discuss Sky legal drama War – where Sienna Miller and Dominic West play a power couple who are getting divorced.

And they offer their verdicts on The Standard of Living, Dear England writer James Graham’s play about the life of economist John Maynard Keynes, played by Rory Kinnear.

Plus chair of judges, and former Front Row presenter, Kirsty Lang talks about the 2026 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction's shortlist which has been announced today.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Sherwood and Homeland star David Harewood talks to us about his lead role in Channel 4's new legal drama Pierre, which is co-written by John Donnelly and playwright Roy Wiliams.

Actor Simon Russell Beale discusses playing Liberace on stage in I'll Be Seeing You, the new play from Martin Sherman (who wrote Bent and Mrs Henderson Presents), a sparkling fantasia which follows a young writer struggling to create a play about the flamboyant superstar with a carefully constructed public image, who was awarded £8,000 in damages after an article strongly hinted he was a homosexual. The production - directed by Alan Cumming and Ben Occhipinti - is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 11 October.

An avatar of acclaimed Chinese-American pianist Yuja Wang is performing at the Southbank Centre in London between now and January with audience members donning a VR headset and wandering around the stage to observe her at close range. The Guardian's critic Erica Jeal, who described the performance as "like Disney's Fantasia on steroids" tells us more about the experience.

And we discuss the rise of the cultural logging platform - such as Letterboxd and Storygraph - which help us curate what the films we watch and the books we read and which help us share recommendations with each other.

And Bill Buckley pays tribute to broadcaster and campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, his colleague on the much-loved TV show That's Life!, who has died at the age of 86.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark

Tom Sutcliffe hosts the ceremony for BBC National Short Story Award and Young Writers Award 2026, in partnership with University of Cambridge, live from BBC Broadcasting House in London.

As well as the announcements of the winners of both awards, Tom is joined by judges David Almond, Tahmima Anam and Saba Sams to discuss the key ingredients for a standout short story. They also recommend the short story writers and collections which they love to read.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe