Front Row

Nikki Giovanni is one of only a handful of poets whose work has been published as a Penguin Modern Classic in their own life time. A key figure of America's Black Arts Movement as both a writer an activist, she speaks to Tom about her life and career.

A well-known actor, Andrew Buchan has now turned to writing with Passenger, the new ITV crimes drama set in the gothic landscape of the Lancashire-Yorkshire border.

And Oxford's Ashmolean museum has a new exhibition of Flemish drawings, Bruegel to Rubens. Artist Jonathan Yeo and critic Jonathan Jones, author of Earthly Delights: A History of the Renaissance, join to discuss.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

The Independent’s chief film critic Clarisse Loughrey and the Telegraph’s film critic Tim Robey review the Oscar-nominated animation Robot Dreams which follows the friendship of a dog and a robot - can their bond survive Robot being locked up on Coney Island beach, after his joints rust over following a paddle in the sea? They also give their verdict on Apple TV’s drama Palm Royale, in which a former beauty queen longs to join the super-rich ladies who lunch in 1960s Florida.

And on World Poetry Day the author of The English Patient Michael Ondaatje returns to verse in his new collection A Year of Last Things.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Writer Kazuo Ishiguro and jazz musician Stacey Kent talk about collaborating on their new book of lyrics, The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain.

What’s the significance of the hare in art and mythology? To mark the season of the March hare, writer Jane Russ, sculptor Sophie Ryder and musician Fay Hield explain.

And following the British Board of Film Classification’s update to their guidance, film critic Larushka Ivan Zedah and professor of film Ian Christie ask what age ratings mean for audiences and film-makers.

Presenter: Shahidha Bari

Marjane Satrapi is best known for being the cartoonist and film maker behind Persepolis. She talks to Samira Ahmed about her new book - Woman, Life, Freedom - which she has created with 17 Iranian and international comic book artists. It documents the story of the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a woman detained for allegedly not properly wearing the Islamic headscarf in 2022, and the subsequent protest movement which has swept Iran.

In the Event of Moon Disaster is part of a new exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norfolk. It uses artificial intelligence to reimagine history, to ask what is truth? Centre Director Dr Jago Cooper and digital artist Francesca Panetta dive into conspiracy and misinformation, and discuss how an event as influential as the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing could be manipulated, and how doubt can be cast on even the most well-known facts.

And Samira and producer Julian May follow the Harlow Sculpture Trail, encountering work by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Elisabeth Frink.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Daniel Libeskind, the architect best known for the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the World Trade Centre masterplan in New York, talks about designing a building to house Einstein’s archive in Jerusalem.

As Germany celebrates the 250th birthday of the painter Caspar David Friedrich with three major exhibitions, art historians Louisa Buck and Waldemar Januszczak discuss the significance of the Romantic artist famous for his paintings of people in evocative landscapes.

And the musician and composer Karl Jenkins joins Samira to talk about celebrating his 80th birthday with a concert tour.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Labour leader Keir Starmer joins to discuss his party's new arts strategy, which he unveiled this morning, aiming to boost access to the arts and grow the creative industries.

Writer and theologian Professor Tina Beattie and critic and broadcaster Matthew Sweet review Marilynne Robsinson’s new book Reading Genesis which offers a fresh look at the story of creation as told in the first book of the Bible.

They also give their verdict on the Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu's new film Monster. The mystery thriller won Best Screenplay at Cannes last May and is dedicated to Ryuichi Sakamoto as this was his final film score before his death last year.

Paul Theroux discusses his new novel, Burma Sahib, about George Orwell’s formative years as a colonial police officer in what is now Myanmar.

Voice expert Professor Patsy Rodenburg quit her job over fears that actors’ traditional “craft” skills are being lost, as screen acting overshadows theatre work.

Sam Lee, Bernard Butler and James Keay perform live and talk about Sam's new album, Songdreaming. Sam draws on traditional songs to explore the richness and fragility of the natural world here in the UK.

And we announce the winner of the Writers' Prize (formerly Rathbones Folio) Book of the Year 2024.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Historical novelist Philippa Gregory talks to Nick Ahad about writing her first stage play, Richard, My Richard, for Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot. Unlike Shakespeare's, Gregory's play is a tender, passionate, portrait of man in his time, surrounded by the women who influence his fate.

With Marvel, DC and Sony superhero films boring fans and the box office, Nick speaks with Comic Crush editor Paul Dunne and film journalist Feyi Adebanjo about what's gone wrong and if these billion dollar blockbusters can get their mojo back.

Showtown, Blackpool’s new museum of fun and entertainment opens on Friday. Liz Moss, the museum’s Chief Executive and journalist and former circus elephant girl Dea Birkett reflect on the museum’s ambitions.

Presenter: Nick Ahad

Beth Ditto talks to Tom Sutcliffe about reuniting with her band Gossip for their first new album in nearly a decade.

Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke discuss collaborating as a husband and wife team on their new film, Drive Away Dolls.

Michael Donkor discusses his new novel Grow Where They Fall, about a young British Ghanian teacher exploring his sexuality, heritage and past.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

The up'n'coming Scottish country singer performs songs from his debut album It Is What It Is ahead of his debut solo performance at the Country To Country Festival in London this weekend.

Plus, Susannah Clapp, the theatre critic for the Observer, and Boyd Hilton, the entertainment director of Heat Magazine, join to review the new play Nye at the National, which stars Michael Sheen as the politician who helped found the NHS and to look at the new football documentary Copa 71 about the real life story of a women's football tournament held in Mexico in 1971.