Front Row

Laurie Anderson, the Grammy award-winning artist and musician whose career has spanned five decades, discusses her latest work. a song cycle based on the final flight of the aviation pioneer Amelia Earheart. And we hear her reflections on the unexpected chart success of of O Superman back in in 1981.

While most of the incoming cabinet are already familiar with their briefs ministers, Lisa Nandy has just been appointed Culture Secretary having not shadowed the role. Lara Carmona of the industry body, Creative UK and Liam Kelly, senior culture writer at the Telegraph discuss some of issues that will be at the top of her in tray from the Arts Council to tax breaks and prioritising arts education.

The Oldham Coliseum has been resurrected. After last year's decision to close the building, actor Julie Hesmondhalgh led the campaign to re-open the 128 year old theatre. She's joined by the Council Leader Arooj Shah to discuss the work involved in bringing the Oldham Coliseum back to life .

Adelaide Hall sang with Duke Ellington, was a contemporary of Count Basie and Louis Armstrong, a jazz and scat pioneer who broadened out into popular tunes, entertained the troops for ENSA in the second world war and sang on the BBC, living in London for more than half her life. As she is remembered with an English Heritage blue plaque, we talk to her biographer and friend Stephen Bourne.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Author Abir Mukherjee and critic Sarah Crompton join Tom Sutcliffe for the review show. After opening 40 years ago, Starlight Express has been updated and opens in London in a specially designed auditorium. Rosarita by Anita Desai tells the story of Bonita, a young Indian woman who travels to Mexico to study and stumbles upon unknown evidence that her late mother had once been there. Monia Chokri's award winning French-Canadian rom-com The Nature of Love follows a philosophy professor navigating relationships. And, Dr Henry Gee discusses the world's oldest cave art which has been discovered in the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

The Irish giant of verse Paul Muldoon is this year’s Writer in Residence at Ledbury Poetry Festival. He discusses the importance of workshopping and his new collection Joy in Service on Rue Tagore.

Filmmakers Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd discuss their new film, Unicorns, a love story in which drag queen Aysha and mechanic and single father Luke embark on a romance against the backdrop of the gaysian club scene.

As the play Visit from An Unknown Woman opens at Hampstead Theatre, we talk to writer Christopher Hampton about adapting Stefan Zweig for the stage. Also joining the discussion about renewed interest in Zweig, one of the most significant Austrian writers of the 20th century is Rachel Cockerell, author of Melting Point.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

The hit series The Bear is back for a third series. Samira talks to Ebon Moss Bachrach, who plays Richie. His cousin Carmen has been trying to transform their family-run restaurant from a cheap and cheerful operation into The Bear - a serious dining experience. Series 2 ended with a successful but highly stressful first night with Richie as the maitre d' - and tensions are set to rise again in series three of the drama created by Christopher Storer who was inspired by a family restaurant where he once worked.

There's live performance in the Front Row studio from Moonchild Sanelly after multiple Glastonbury shows. She talks about her collaborations with Self Esteem and Beyonce and we hear her new single Scrambled Eggs.

Dundee Contemporary Arts is in the running for Museum of the Year 2024. We talk to director Beth Bate about this unique space.

Frank Cottrell Boyce has been named as the new Children's Laureate. He wants to encourage more of us to read to young children so we hear him reading from one of CS Lewis's Narnia stories.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Lynda la Plante discusses her final Jane Tennison novel, Whole Life Sentence and discusses the enduring legacy of Prime Suspect.

Lea Ypi remembers the late Albanian writer and poet Ishmail Kadare, author of The General of the Dead Army and The Palace of Dreams.

How is AI impacting music copyright? Hayleigh Bosher of Brunel University London, Reader in Intellectual Property Law and the music business journalist Eamonn Forde discuss.

And Julie Finch, CEO of Hay Festival, discusses the future of books festival funding.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Reviews of: The ITV comedy drama Douglas is Cancelled - a four part series written by Steven Moffat, starring Hugh Bonneville as middle-aged television broadcaster, Douglas Bellowes, who finds himself on the wrong side of 21st century social mores;

A new exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield, Ronald Moody Sculpting Life, puts the spotlight on the Jamaican-born artist who engaged with key moments in 20th-century art;

A new production at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest which places the Victorian comedy in a world of social media and pink fluffy cushions;

And a visit to the Craven Museum and Gallery in Skipton which has been shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024 prize.

Presenter: Nick Ahad

Next to Normal stormed Broadway in 2009 with its portrayal of a woman struggling with her mental health. It went on to win three Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize. Now staged in London, its creator Tom Kitt and star Caissie Levy talk about this deeply emotional musical and Caissie performs live.

Early 20th century Ukrainian art is the focus of the Royal Academy’s In the Eye of the Storm exhibition. Curator Katia Denysova talks about how Ukrainian art was able to flourish in a brief window, between the cultural suppression imposed by the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. Bold artistic styles are seen in works by Alexandra Exter and Kazymyr Malevich.

Marcus Prince talks about his time as the television programmer for the British Film Institute. He makes a case for why TV deserves a parity of respect with film – and shares some of his personal highlights from the archives.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Violinist Rachel Podger has assembled an intriguing selection of English Baroque chamber pieces on her new CD The Muses Restor'd. She tells Kate about some of the lesser known composers who were active in 17th and 18th century England and performs live in the studio.

A new play at the Park Theatre in London explores the conspiracies surrounding Marilyn Monroe's death. Creators Guy Masterson and Vicki McKellar discuss the truth behind the fiction.

Emma Glass's new book Mrs Jekyll realises Deborah Orr's final idea for a novel, having been approached by innovative publisher Cheerio. Glass, herself leading a dual life as a nurse and novelist, discusses drawing on RL Stephenson's original and balancing horror with humanity.

Presenter: Kate Molleson

The UN climate conference in Kyoto in 1997 is the setting for a new play at the RSC. Its writers Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson talk about the dramatic potential they saw in that moment and in the decade leading up to it.

Nathaniel Rateliff is a singer songwriter based in Denver, Colorado whose style of Americana and collaboration with the Nightsweats has garnered a steady following of fans due to his talent in storytelling and performance. He joins us to play live.

We celebrate Midsummer’s Day with poems that explore this heady midpoint in the year. Critic Tristram Fane Saunders chooses some of the most evocative midsummer verses, and Forward Prize-winning poet Sasha Dugdale reads “June”, a brand new poem specially commissioned for today’s Front Row.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Philippa Gregory and Briony Hanson join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the National Portrait Gallery’s Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens, award winning film Green Border and Federer: Twelve Final Days co-directed by Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia.

Tom is also joined by the Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho who’s just been announced winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing for his book The Boy Lost in the Maze.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe