Front Row

Former footballer Edgar Davids and artist Paul Pfeiffer on creating a new work for the Manchester International Festival.

As four new twenty minute operas are premiered at the Buxton International Festival, Helen Goodman, artistic manager at the festival, and Hannah Ellis Ryan, artistic director of theatre company, HER Productions, discuss how short plays and operas can lead the way for change.

Jo Callaghan has an AI detective at the centre of her Kat and Lock crime fiction series. Ajay Chowdhury uses digital technology in his crime fiction. They discuss the impact developments in the tech world are having on their genre.

Presented by Nick Ahad

We mark Bastille Day with a dive into President Macron’s cultural policy for France. And we revisit the dark heart of filmmaking with two people who were there during the making of Apocalypse Now and Fitzcarraldo. Documentaries made about both films have been re-released - Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse, about Apocalypse Now is in cinemas, and Burden of Dreams about Fitzcarraldo is streaming.

Kasim Ali on his new novel about young British Pakistani men and gang culture. And Errolyn Wallen on composing for the First Night of the Proms.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Nancy Durrant and Boyd Hilton join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Moisturizer, the second album from the female English indie rock duo Wet Leg. Their self-titled debut reached number one on the UK charts. They also assess Modigliani – Three Days on the Wing of Madness, directed by Hollywood star Johnny Depp. The film is Depp's first since 1997 and it covers 72 hours in the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, played by Riccardo Scamarcio. Plus they have been to see More than Human at the Design Museum in London - an exhibition which explores how how to design with, and better understand, the living world. Finally, as part of our occasional Bugbears series, the comedian, broadcaster and events producer Hatty Ashdown makes the case for supporting live comedy.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Bestselling novelist Kate Mosse - much of whose historical fiction is set in medieval France - reacts to the news that the Bayeux Tapestry is to go on display at the British Museum in London next year.

Comedian and actor Kat Sadler on her BAFTA-winning sitcom Such Brave Girls, which is set in a dysfunctional single parent family.

Sitar virtuoso Nishat Khan tells us about his debut opera Taj Mahal which is being performed at Grange Park Opera this week.

And artist Lindsey Mendick whose work often focuses on powerful historic women, tells us about Wicked Game, her installation at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, which commemorates a historic visit by Elizabeth I 450 years ago and which takes the form of a fragmented chess board.

Presenter: Nihal Arthanayake

Superman is back on the big screen for the first time in nearly a decade, we speak with director James Gunn.

Presenter Samira Ahmed

Author Raynor Winn is accused of fabricating parts of her memoir The Salt Path, which she denies. We ask Alexandra Pringle, former Editor in Chief at Bloomsbury, how publishers respond when a book's authenticity is called into question.

Oasis are performing together for the first time in 16 years, kicking off in Cardiff at the weekend. Music journalist Ted Kessler was there.

Sadler's Well has team up with Pete Townshend to turn Quadrophenia into "A Mod Ballet". Director Rob Ashford talks about bringing this story, complete with stylish suits designed by Paul Smith, to a new generation."

It's the 80th anniversary of An Inspector Calls. Critic Michael Billington and cultural Historian Irene Lofthouse discuss J. B. Priestley's cultural legacy.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Tom is joined by reviewers Kate Maltby and Stephanie Merritt to discuss Laura Wade's adaptation for the RSC of Somerset Maugham's comedy The Constant Wife. Also Wendy Erskine's Belfast -set novel; The Benefactors. A polyphonic telling of a teenage girl's assault and its aftermath. And Rebecca Lenkiewicz's directorial debut Hot Milk. Based on Deborah Levy's novel, it stars Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey.

As the jury in the trial of music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs delivers its verdicts, author and cultural critic Mikki Kendall discusses how Americans will react.

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of its release, The Independent's chief film critic Clarisse Loughrey and Dan O'Brien of the University of Essex discuss Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's influential film Back to the Future.

Egyptian artist Wael Shawky talks about his operatic films which reframe Middle Eastern history from an Arab perspective.

And we bring you news of the Grand Egyptian Museum a vast, state-of-the-art space close to the Pyramids in Giza, which is home to 100,000 artefacts. 60% of the museum is now open to the public, but the official opening ceremony this week has been postponed due to tensions between Israel and Iran.

Also, we hear about a new collection, Nature Matters: Vital Poems from the Global Majority, from the editor Karen McCarthy Woolf and the featured poet Nick Makoha, who will be talking about his own collection The New Carthaginians at this year's Ledbury Poetry Festival.

Presenter: Nihal Arthanayake

Comedian and poet Tim Key on writing and starring in The Ballad of Wallis Island which has become one of the surprise film hits of the year.

Novelists Saima Mir and Marcia Hutchinson on setting their stories in Bradford.

Playwright Ntombizodwa Nyoni on reimagining the 5th Pan African Congress which took place in Manchester in 1945 for her new play, Liberation.

As the Japanese art form, Manga, makes its presence felt at this year's Bradford Literature Festival, writer and comic specialist Paul Gravett who has curated the exhibition, Make Mine Manga, and Manga artist, Eira Richards, discuss the visual vocabulary of this distinctive art genre.

Presented by Nick Ahad

British director Gareth Edwards talks to Samira Ahmed about how his love of the films of Steven Spielberg inspired his new film Jurassic Park Rebirth, the latest chapter in the blockbuster dinosaur film franchise. He also talks about the making of his film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is gaining even more acclaim after the huge success of the hit prequel series Andor.

The EU has brought in new anti-terror laws aimed at stopping groups like so-called Islamic State from profiting from the trade of antiquities. But art dealers are worried the new red tape will hit their legitimate trade too. Art world analyst Ivan Macquisten and investigative journalist Riah Pryor discuss the situation.

Lena Dunham’s latest series Too Much is a Rom-Com, inspired by her own life, moving to London and unexpectedly finding love with an indie musician, Luis Felber.

The Oscar-winning film and TV composer Lalo Schifrin died recently. He wrote hundreds of theme tunes and scores including Bullit, Enter The Dragon, THX 1138 and Dirty Harry. Also on TV: Starsky and Hutch, Planet of the Apes. His most famous work came in 1966 with the theme tune for Mission: Impossible. Neil Brand pays tribute

Presenter Samira Ahmed