Front Row

Charlie Brooker talks about the return of his wildly popular tech and sci-fi dystopian drama Black Mirror. This new six-part series includes Paul Giamatti as a man using AI to reconnect to a lost love who has died, Emma Corrin as a digitally recreated 40s screen star and, for the first time, follow-up episodes of two of the show's most popular episodes: Bandersnatch and USS Callister.

The Design Council is 80 and is celebrateing with a new book, Eight Decades of British Design. The Chief Executive of the Design Council, Minnie Moll, and Thomas Heatherwick, the designer famous for, among many projects, the cauldron for the Olympic flame at the games in London, reflect on the impact of design on our lives here in the past, now, and in the future.

The Women of Llanrumney sounds as if it might be the new Gavin and Stacey, but this Llanrumney was a sugar plantation in Jamaica, the setting for Azuka Oforka's first play which examines the links of Wales with slavery, its brutality, the role of slave revolts in bringing about abolition and, looking at the lives of three women, two enslaved and one enslaver, discusses the nature of freedom.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Front Row looks at freedom of expression in the arts. From rows about cancel culture to allegations of censorship and the charge that the arts has become 'woke', we explore what is happening.

Samira is joined by art curator, Ekow Eshun, novelist Philip Hensher, poet and author of Hounded, Jenny Lindsay and theatre critic Kate Maltby, who sits on the board of the campaign group Index On Censorship.

We hear from David Austin, British Board of Film Classification Chief Exec, about how sex and violence are classified for modern audiences.

And Shakespeares Globe Artistic Director Michelle Terry discusses her production of Richard III, which ignited a row over casting.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

For our review programme Tom Sutcliffe is joined by critics Dorian Lynskey and Briony Hanson.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Peter Capaldi talks about his latest album – Sweet Illusions – a nod to the thriving 80s music scene in Glasgow where Peter made his musical debut fronting The Dreamboys.

Through the Shortbread Tin is a new National Theatre of Scotland production about the supposed third century Scottish bard Ossian. Its writer – poet Martin O’Connor – and director Lu Kemp, share their exploration of one of the greatest literary hoaxes of all time

Should Brian Friel be known as short story writer, as much as a playwright? A decade after his death, a new edition of his stories has been published, many of which would inspire his plays such as Faith Healer, Dancing at Lughnasa and his breakthrough Philadelphia, Here I Come! Discussing the often overlooked work of the "Irish Chekhov" is a fellow master of the short story Louise Kennedy, and Dr Kelly Matthews, author of Brian Friel: Beginnings.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark

The actor and director Peter Mullan talks about taking on the role of Bill Shankly in the new theatre production in Liverpool, Red or Dead, about the much-loved Liverpool football club manager.

In April 1925 the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a seven-month exhibition of contemporary design, opened in Paris. Arts Décoratifs’ was soon shortened to Art Deco, and a movement was born. A century later Art Deco is being celebrated across the UK. Professor Bruce Peter, author of new book Art Deco in Scotland :Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age, and Dr Rachael Unsworth, who leads tours in Leeds that look at art deco buildings in the city, join Nick to discuss Art Deco and its legacy.

Art Deco in Scotland: Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age, is also accompanied by an exhibition at the Glasgow School of Art in April 2025. There are also a range of commemorative events in Liverpool this weekend organised by the Art Deco Society UK.

A decade ago, the comedian Tom Walker created the character of the roving news reporter Jonathan Pie, and his creation became an internet sensation, with the New York Times among his many fans. When he brought Jonathan Pie to Radio 4 with the radio phone-in comedy, Call Jonathan Pie, the critics were universal in their praise and it quickly became a podcast hit. As Call Jonathan Pie returns for a second series, Tom discusses creating a show that merges the personal and the political.

And to mark the first week of Spring, musician and broadcaster Tom McKinney, who will be taking on the Radio 3 Breakfast Show, asks for us to listen properly to the music of birdsong.

Presenter: Nick Ahad

Bryan Ferry discusses his latest album, Loose Talk and reflects on his long career in music. Disney's new live action version of Snow White has just opened and has attracted criticism from those who felt it departed too far from the original film. Film critics Larushka Ivan Zadeh and Al Horner explore why Disney's reinterpretation of its own canon has become so controversial. The Windham Campbell Prize gives away over a million pounds, shared between eight writers across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Previous British winners have included the poet Zaffar Kunial. Samira is joined by two of this year's winners, playwright, Matilda Ibini and poet, Anthony V Capildeo, to discuss the impact of the prize.

Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves changed cinema forever when the world's first animated film hit screens in 1937. Now the House of Mouse has just released a big budget live action remake of the beloved original that is arriving under a cloud of controversy. Larushka Iven-Zadeh, the Times films critic, and Al Horner, a Telegraph writer and host of the Script Apart podcast, joins to discuss.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Critics Hanna Flint and Boyd Hilton join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Clueless, a new musical based on the 1995 film staring Alicia Silverstone. They also discuss Flow, Oscar-winning, dialogue-free, animated film based around the story of a cat who must find safety after its home is devastated by a flood. Plus Robert de Niro playing two gangsters in the Mafia drama The Alto Knights.

Plus, ahead of World Poetry Day, we talk to Seán Hewitt whose second collection Rapture's Road has today been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

French auteur Francois Ozon, whose previous films include 8 Women, Swimming Pool and Potiche, talks about his latest, When Autumn Falls, a bittersweet story of age, youth and breaking the rules, set in a picturesque Burgundy village.

As the centenary of his birth approaches, leading pianist Tamara Stefanovich and musicologist Jonathan Cross discuss the legacy and reputation of the iconoclastic composer and conductor Pierre Boulez.

The outgoing director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Shona McCarthy talks about what she has achieved in her role, about the state of the Festivals sector in Edinburgh, and about the challenges facing her successor.

Presenter: Kate Molleson

Sculptor Antony Gormley and Professor of French literature, Catriona Seth discuss Victor Hugo's visual art with Tom Sutcliffe. Victor Hugo was a 19th century cultural colossus, known for monumental works such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables as well as his poems, plays and political writings. It's not so well known that throughout his career Hugo drew with pen and ink - the same tools he wrote with - creating some 4,000 pictures. The Royal Academy has gathered together about 70 of these in its exhibition 'Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo'.

Julian Barnes, one of our greatest living novelists, talks about his latest nonfiction book Changing My Mind. A series of essays published today by Notting Hill Editions, it ponders moments in his life when he's reconsidered long-held views, from memories and politics to words and the writing of EM Forster.

Bestselling author Emma Donoghue is known for her novel Room. She talks about mixing in real life characters to her latest work of fiction The Paris Express, which was inspired by seeing a surreal photograph of a nineteenth century French railway disaster.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Front Row's artist in residence, acclaimed Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson, reflects on five years since lockdown and we have another listen to his Front Row lockdown performance of the Adagio from Bach's Organ Sonata Number 4.

How were the arts affected when the country locked down five years ago? Matthew Hemley of The Stage and Louisa Buck of the Art Newspaper discuss how the Covid crisis impacted theatres, galleries and artists.

And the Tom Gates series children's writer Liz Pichon joins us to talk about her latest work for younger readers.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed