Front Row

Ava DuVernay talks to Tom Sutcliffe about her latest film, Origin. It stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson, following her journey as she researches her best-selling book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents while dealing with personal tragedy.

Gabriel García Márquez’s final novel Until August is being published posthumously today despite his final wishes. His son Gonzalo explains why, and critics Max Liu and Blake Morrison discuss the ethics of defying a writer’s final request.

Julianne Moore and director Oliver Hermanus discuss their historical TV drama Mary & George, which explores the affair between King James VI and I and George Villiers. Julianne Moore plays Mary Villiers, a woman who goes to extremes to improve her social position.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

The acclaimed English folk singer-songwriter Kate Rusby performs live and chats about her new Singy Songy Session Tour.

Theatre critic Michael Billington celebrates the life and legacy of the provocative British playwright Edward Bond, whose death was announced today.

Dr Stacy Smith, and film data researcher Stephen Follows, discuss Dr Smith's recent report revealing that the number of female film directors in Hollywood has fallen.

And playwright Eve Steele on her new play, Work It Out, inspired by real-life moments in a Zumba class and is now on at HOME in Manchester.

Presenter: Nick Ahad

Ray Winstone, star of Sexy Beast and Nil By Mouth, talks about new Netflix series The Gentlemen brought to television screens by director Guy Ritchie.

K Patrick’s in the studio to read from their first collection of poetry Three Births, which explores nature, contemporary queer experience and pop-culture icons like Catwoman and George Michael.

And folk duo Ferris & Sylvester perform live and discuss their new album, Otherness.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

This week sees the release of the much anticipated Dune part 2, the sequel to 2021’s part 1, a series based on Frank Herbert’s 1960’s sci fi classic. We also look at Marius von Mayenburg’s play Nachtland directed by Patrick Marber at the Young Vic in London and Angelica Kauffman: the Swiss artist finally gets a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, more than 250 years after she was one of its founding members. Seán Williams and Sam Marlowe review.

Plus, the 'unofficial poet Laureate of Twitter' Brian Bilston has broken some of his anonymity to go on the road with Henry Normal. To mark 29 February, Bilston reads An Extra Day from his collection Days Like These.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Kate Molleson talks to Kaouther Ben Hania about her Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters, which explores the impact of two sisters fleeing to join Islamic State, by bringing in actors to play them alongside the rest of their family in Tunisia.

We look at two new plays about British composer Benjamin Britten and the light they shed on a life shrouded with mystery and controversy. Kate is joined by Erica Whyman, the director of Ben and Imo by Mark Ravenhill, which is on at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, and also by Kevin Kelly, the writer of Turning the Screw, which I son at the King’s Head Theatre in London.

Plus live music from Owen Spafford and Louis Campbell, two young musicians who play with the idea of "English" folk. Their forthcoming EP, 102 Metres East, was recently recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in less than a day.

Presenter: Kate Molleson

Channel 4’s new reality TV series, The Jury: Murder Trial features a real-life murder case, re-run in front of two juries who are unaware of each other’s existence. Its creator Ed Kellie and BBC News' former legal affairs correspondent Clive Coleman discuss what the TV experiment tells us about how emotions can be swayed in the courtroom - and whether the juries will reach the same verdict.

In an exclusive for Front Row, Sheridan Smith performs Magic, a song from her new musical Opening Night, which is directed by Ivo Van Hove, with music from Rufus Wainwright. They discuss creating the new musical, which is based on the 1970s film and follows an actress going through a breakdown as she prepares to open a new show on Broadway.

Journalist Agnes Poirier on the French film awards the Cesars, and why they were overshadowed by allegations of male directors sexually abusing young female actors.

Movement director Polly Bennett has worked on hits like The Crown, Bohemian Rhapsody and Killing Eve while Sarah Perry often works on animations, helping actors to perfect the movement of animals, using motion capture. As the BBC's Bring the Drama Festival highlights behind the scenes careers, we discuss the role of the movement director in TV and film.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Minority report, the Sci-Fi classic by Philip K Dick, has already been adapted for film and television and now it’s a stage play that employs an innovative mix of technology, stagecraft and live performance. As it opens at the Nottingham Playhouse, Mark Burman talks to some of the creatives involved.

We review Wicked Little Letters, a black comedy starring Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley about a real-life poison pen letter writing campaign that scandalised a small seaside town in Sussex in 1920. And we look at Boarders, a new comedy series on BBC Three that follows five black kids from London who are invited to join a posh boarding school that has been embroiled in scandals of its own.

Our reviewers are the author and writer Okechukwu Nzelu and the author and journalist Anita Sethi.

Producer Ekene Akalawu

Wim Wenders on his new Oscar nominated Japanese language film Perfect Days, about a toilet cleaner in Tokyo as he goes about his work. Koji Yakusho won the Best Actor Award when the film premiered at this year’s Cannes film festival, and the film has been dubbed ‘slow cinema’.

Len Pennie came to prominence as a poet on social media during the Covid pandemic. As she publishes her first collection, Poyums, the feminist performance poet talks about writing predominantly in the Scots language.

Angus Robertson, SNP Cabinet Secretary for Culture, discusses the challenging situation facing the arts in Scotland, and his vision for the future. Kate Molleson also talks to arts campaigner Lori Anderson from Culture Counts.

Presenter: Kate Molleson

Rhiannon Giddens, the musician, composer and former lead singer of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, performs live with her band. She talks about her work in uncovering the real history of the banjo and writing her first solo album of original material.

Peter Sarsgaard discusses playing a man with early onset dementia in Memory, a performance that won him the Best Actor Award at last year’s Venice Film Festival.

What is the role of a casting director? As the BBC launches Bring the Drama, a new programme giving untrained amateurs a chance to get into acting, casting director and judge Kelly Valentine and theatre casting director Nadine Rennie discuss the art of discovering new talent.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe