Front Row

Anna May Wong was an international star who appeared in some of Hollywood’s biggest movies in a career that spanned from the silent films of the 1920s, through the advent of talkies in the 30s, to television in the 1950s, despite all the obstacles in her path. A new biography, Not Your China Doll, examines how against all the odds Anna May Wong found international fame and became a trailblazer for Asian American actors.

The English folk singer and guitar virtuoso Martin Simpson performs material from his new album - his 24th - Skydancers. The title track, commissioned by naturalist Chris Packham, highlights the plight of the Hen harrier. Simpson talks about his love of birds, of traditional song, of writing his own, the influence on him of American music, and a lifetime playing the guitar and banjo.

Some leaders of classical music organisations say that the attitude to funding by the Arts Councils in England and Wales is undermining excellence, and putting inclusion before professionalism. We hear from a range of voices, including Sir Antonio Pappano, Chief Conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Royal Opera House; John Gilhooly, director of the Wigmore Hall and chair of the Royal Philharmonic Society; Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and a former music director at Arts Council England; and Michael Eakin, Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and former Executive Director of the Arts Council Northwest.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Nathan Hill talks about his new novel Wellness, the follow-up to his acclaimed debut The Nix.

Maggie Rogers, the singer-songwriter whose career was launched by a student performance for Pharrell Williams that went viral, talks about her latest album Don't Forget Me.

Romesh Gunasekera discusses the novels on the International Booker Prize Shortlist, announced today.

And Melanie Abbott reports on how the BBC and Netflix’s disability partnership is progressing over two years on from its much heralded launch.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Artist Yinka Shonibare talks about his new exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, which explores the legacy of Imperialism.

Guitarist Sean Shibe performs early Scottish lute music and previews a new classical guitar concerto live in the Front Row studio.

And film experts Stephen McConnachie and Inés Toharia explain how fast changing technology and digital decay is putting preserving cinema under threat.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Beyonce’s new album Cowboy Carter - Netflix drama Ripley starring Andrew Scott - Io Capitano, the Oscar-nominated movie about teens in Senegal in search of a better life - all reviewed by film critic Leila Latif and music writer Jasper Murison-Bowie.

And novelist and critic John Domini remembers the American novelist (and his former teacher) John Barth, author of cult bestseller Giles Goat Boy, who has died at the age of 93. 

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Almost 50 years to the day when ABBA's Waterloo triumphed at Eurovision, ABBA specialist Carl Magnus Palm and Millie Taylor, professor of musical theatre, discuss how the song became such an all-conquering hit.

A visit to Harewood House to see a new exhibition, Colours Uncovered, which tells the story of this stately home through the prism of colour. Darren Pih, chief curator and artistic director of the Harewood House Trust and curator and archivist Rebecca Burton, take Nick through the house.

Dramatist and screenwriter Trevor Griffiths is remembered by theatre critic Michael Coveney, who was at the first night of his ground-breaking play Comedians, which put Jonathan Pryce on his road to stardom. Griffiths also provided Laurence Olivier with his last stage role. However, working class, left-wing and politically committed, Griffiths preferred writing for television because it allowed him to communicate with millions rather than thousands.

The environment and climate change is becoming increasingly popular in mainstream film, TV and fiction. Now Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, director of the 2022 Oscar-winning Japanese movie, Drive My Car, has his own eco-drama, Evil Does Not Exist, in cinemas this month. To discuss that and how climate change is breaking into the mainstream, Nick is joined by Eve Smith, the author of One, and by Greg Mosse, the author of The Coming Storm, both of which feature a near-future world significantly altered by environmental catastrophe.

Presenter: Nick Ahad

Actor Dev Patel joins to talk about his directorial debut Monkey Man, a movie inspired by the Indian legend of Hunaman that tells the dark and brutal story of a young man in Mumbai out to avenge the life of his mother.

As exam season approaches we ask which books are currently being taught in our schools, and why? We speak to Kit de Waal, whose breakthrough novel My Name is Leon has just been made a curriculum text, and Carol Atherton, English teacher and author of “Reading Lessons: The Books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter”.

MGM was Hollywood’s most famous maker of lavish musicals like such classics The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St Louis and Singin' in the Rain. As the famed film studio turns 100, musician and broadcaster Neil Brand has made a new Radio 3 documentary looking at their legacy. Critic David Benedict joins to discuss.

The National Gallery opened its doors on 10th May 1824. The public could view 38 paintings, free. Now there are more than 2,300, including many masterpieces of European art by geniuses such as Rembrandt, Turner and Van Gogh. It is still free.

The gallery's director, Gabriele Finaldi, guides Samira Ahmed through the collection. Artists Barbara Walker, Bob and Roberta Smith and Celine Condorelli, last year's artist-in-residence , choose paintings from the collection that are important to them, as does the critic Louisa Buck.

The Sainsbury Wing is closed for building work, giving an opportunity to attend to the paintings there, and Samira visits the conservation studio and the framing workshop.

She hears, too, from curator Mari Elin Jones in Aberystwyth about how during the Second World War the entire National Gallery collection was evacuated to a slate quarry in north Wales. The gallery's historians, Susanna Avery-Quash and Alan Crookham, show Samira photos of this period, and documents from the very beginning of the gallery. As part of the bicentennial celebrations 12 masterpieces are going to cities around the UK, to form the centre of exhibitions. Appropriately, Canaletto's 'The Stone Mason's Yard' will be going to Aberystwyth.

From BBC Archive recordings we hear how Kenneth Clark and pianist Myra Hess organised lunchtime concerts held in the empty gallery, keeping cultural life going during the Blitz.

Samira, Gabriele and Bob and Roberta first came to the National Gallery as children; Louisa Buck brought her children, who hunted for dragons in the paintings. The National Gallery is a welcoming, free, safe space for everyone, as a visitor, her baby asleep in his sling, happily explains.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Peaky Blinders' writer Steven Knight's new drama, This Town, is out this week. Author Daniel Rachel and art historian Sarah Gaventa review.

We'll also review a landmark exhibition on the Italian designer Enzo Mari which opens at the Design museum, showcasing his infinite calendar, self assembly book cases and beautiful children’s books.

We take a look inside Perth Museum after its 27 million pound refurbishment.

And we remember the American Sculptor Richard Serra who has died at the age of 85.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Camilla Whitehill on her new Channel 4 sitcom Big Mood, starring Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West, which explores the lives of Millennials.

Gareth Malone and Hannah French celebrate Bach's St John Passion, which was first performed in Leipzig 300 years ago this Easter.

Joel Morris, author of Be Funny or Die, discusses how comedy works and what makes us laugh with Father Ted director Lissa Evans.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Norah Jones discusses her new album, Visions, and reflects on the song, Come Away With Me, that made her name along with a special performance in the Front Row studio; Sir Ian McKellen and theatre director Robert Icke on tackling one of Shakespeare's greatest characters, Falstaff, in their new production Player Kings; and Keisha Thompson on how her year as artist-in-residence at Yorkshire Sculpture Park led to her creation of "sculpted poetry" in her new collection, Dé-rive.

Presenter: Nick Ahad