Front Row

Daniel Craig and Luca Guadagnino talk about their new film Queer, which is based on the William S. Burroughs novella about a love affair between an aging alcoholic and a young discharged serviceman in post-war 1950s Mexico City.

Public Service Broadcasting perform The South Atlantic from their latest album The Last Flight, which is themed around the pioneering American pilot Amelia Earhart who disappeared in 1937 whilst attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world.

Could the late Agatha Christie soon be heard narrating her own audio books? The audio publishing industry is currently wrestling with the creative, ethical and regulatory implications of the increasing using artificial intelligence. Samira explores the issues with Jon Watt, Chair of the Audio Publishers Group and Audio Director at Bonnier Books UK and Dr Kerry McInerney from Cambridge University and co-host of the Good Robot Podcast.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Disney's hit Inside Out 2 film explored youthful emotions to incredible success as the film is not only the highest grossing film of 2024 but it's also the most successful animated film of all time. Director Kelsey Mann explains how they made it.

Humphrey Bogart remains one of Hollywood's most iconic screen stars and new the new documentary Bogart: Life Comes In Flashes looks at his life and career through the five women who had the greatest impact on him, including the equally iconic Lauren Bacall. The film's director Kathryn Ferguson and the film historian Pamela Hutchinson explore Bogie's enduring appeal.

Tom talks to Susan Chardy, the star of new Zambian comedy-drama On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, who won Breakthrough Performance at last night's British Independent Film Awards.

And the Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw talks about today's Golden Globe nominations, which celebrates the best in film and television.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Naomi Alderman and Mark Ravenhill to review a new production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre, starring the current Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa, W1A’s Hugh Skinner and Sharon D Clarke. Plus comedy horror Rumours starring Cate Blanchett, and Grand Theft Hamlet – a documentary film which was shot inside the GTA game during the 2021 lockdown.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Scotland's new Makar (National Poet) Peter Mackay, whose appointment was announced this week, talks about how he intends to shape the role over the next three years.

Elizabeth Newman of Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Jon Gilchrist of Birmingham Hippodrome discuss new initiatives to boost the production of musical theatre around the UK.

Plus Jacob Rees-Mogg on his reality TV series Meet the Rees-Moggs.

And as the Scottish Budget is delivered, will arts organisations finally get some clarity on their funding?

Presenter: Kirsty Wark

Tom Sutcliffe hears from the Love Actually writer and director Richard Curtis about how much he's obsessed by Christmas - and how he's now moved into animation for his latest film That Christmas, based on his trilogy of children’s books.

There's advice on the best books to buy this Christmas from the literary critic Alex Clarke and Toby Lichtig, Fiction and Politics editor at the Times Literary Supplement.

Tom also talks to the Oscar-nominated screenwriter Iris Yamashita about her new audio drama Purple Heart Warriors, which tells the extraordinary story of a Japanese-American unit in World War Two.

And art critic Zarina Muhammad is in the studio to assess this year's Turner Prize artists, just as the winner is announced this evening.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

In 2019 fire destroyed the much of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. As the restoration is completed, Agnes Poirier describes the work of skilled artisans that she has watched over the past five years. Her documentary series for the World Service In the Studio programmes can be heard on BBC Sounds. Jacob Collier discusses and plays from his new Grammy nominated album, Djesse, Volume 4. The novelist Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz was interned as an "enemy alien" on the Isle of Man during World War Two, where he wrote a children's story recently unearthed in archive 80 years later. Writer Jonathan Freedland and illustrator Emily Sutton discuss breathing new life into King Winter's Birthday. And we remember the late screenwriter, Marshall Brickman, who worked with Woody Allen on Annie Hall.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Samira Ahmed's joined by this week's critics - Louisa Buck and Matt Everitt - to review Beatles '64, documenting the fab four's first trip to America with previously unseen footage shot by pioneering brothers Albert and David Maysles.

They've also been to see Tate Modern's new exhibition Electric Dreams, exploring how artists were inspired to use machines and algorithms to create mind-binding art before the internet.

Plus the star-studded new TV spy drama The Agency - starring Michael Fassbender, written by Jez Butterworth and produced by George Clooney - and we hear about this year's Deep Time music festival, taking it's inspiration from an imagined meeting between Jean-Michel Basquiat and John Cage in Edinburgh.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Nobel Prize winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk talks about the publication of his illustrated journals, Memories of Distant Mountains.

As he takes on the role of Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh, Donny Osmond talks about his career in music.

And in the week that marks the centenary of his death, artistic director of English National Opera Annilese Miskimmon and music critic and broadcaster Flora Willson discuss the perennially popular - but somewhat problematic - composer Giacomo Puccini.

Presenter: Kate Molleson

Director Edward Berger joins Tom Sutcliffe to talk about his thriller Conclave, staring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, which focuses on the election of a new pope. Berger's previous film All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars - this success contrasts with a century of film flops which critic Tim Robey wrote about in his book Box Office Poison and discusses with Signature Entertainment's Ben Jacques. We also have New York born and Tamil Nadu raised singer and musician Ganavya who performs and speaks about her musical style and influences.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Friends for fifty years, Sigourney Weaver and Selina Cadell discuss acting together in the Jamie Lloyd Company's new production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. As part of the BBC's Scam Safe week, we examine whether art fraud is on the rise with Georgina Adam from the Art Newspaper and and the lawyer Amanda Gray, a specialist from the firm Mishcon De Reya. And, musician Nitin Sawhney talks about his two new works Heart Suite, about by his recent heart attack, and Orbital, which is inspired by this year's Booker prize winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed