Front Row

The announcement of the winners of the BBC National Short Story Award and the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University, live from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in London.

Joining presenter Tom Sutcliffe to celebrate and interrogate the short story form are the broadcaster and NSSA chair of judges Reeta Chakrabarti, alongside fellow judges and writers Jessie Burton, Roddy Doyle and Okechukwu Nzelu. The shortlisted stories and authors in alphabetical order are: 'The Storm' by Nick Mulgrew, 'It’s Me' by K Patrick, 'Guests' by Cherise Saywell, 'Churail' by Kamila Shamsie and 'Comorbidities' by Naomi Wood.

The BBC Young Writers Award, for writers aged between 14 and 18, will be announced by the BBC Radio One presenter Katie Thistleton, who’ll be joined on stage by fellow judge, the psychotherapist, writer and rugby player Alexis Caught. The shortlisted stories and authors in alphabetical order are: ‘Fridays’ by Evie Alam, 16, from South Shields, ‘Jessie’s God’ by Elissa Jones, 16, from Merseyside, ‘Creation’ by Daisy Kaye, 16, from Nottingham, ‘Skipper’ by Iona McNeish, 17, from Glasgow and ‘The Wordsmith’ by Atlas Weyland Eden, 18, from Devon.

All of the stories are available to listen to on BBC Sounds.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

As the cast of the Archers star in a new adaptation of Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford, Samira is joined by actors Louiza Patikas, who plays Helen in the Archers, and Susie Riddell, who plays Tracy, to discuss the two-part Radio 4 drama, now called Lark Rise to Ambridge.

Actor and chef turned director Philip Barantini joins Samira to discuss making the sequel for BBC television to his BAFTA-nominated, one-take film, Boiling Point, set in the febrile atmosphere of a high-end restaurant kitchen.

An ambitious series of spaces at the National Gallery of Scotland opens this week to display Scottish art created in the last 150 years. BBC Scotland’s arts correspondent Pauline McLean visits the new galleries and explains what the building and the works tell us about Scottish identity and how Scottish artists have been representing their country and people.

The Writers Guild of America has reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming services and producers, to end the strike by writers over pay and AI. The strike has had an impact on film and television production here and Lisa Holdsworth, Chair of the Writers Guild of Great Britain, explains the significance of the settlement for the UK.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Front Row opens this year’s Contain’s Strong Language festival live in Leeds. Nick Ahad talks to Detectorists star Toby Jones about his stage adaptation of Italo Calvino’s If On A Winters Night A Traveller, to the festival poet and rapper Testament about 50 Years of Hip Hop and the choreographer and artist Katja Heitmann about turning the everyday gestures of Leeds citizens into art. Plus poetry from the newly appointed Yorkshire Young Laureate.

Writer Joan Smith and art historian Katy Hessel review a retrospective exhibition of the performance artist Marina Abramovic at the Royal Academy and a new ITV drama about the Yorkshire ripper, The Long Shadow.

The Russian journalist, novelist and now playwright Dmitry Glukhovsky talks about his stage drama The White Factory telling the story of the ghetto in Łódź, Poland during the second world war. In it he explores the corrosive nature of compromise as the Jews are forced to choose which amongst them will be sent to the death camps and which will survive. He also talks to Tom about his exile from his homeland having spoken out against the war in Ukraine.

And Front Row celebrates of the centenary the publication of Harmonium, the first collection of poetry by the American Wallace Stevens. John Lightbody reads The Emperor of Ice Cream.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Marina Abramovic 1:10

Birmingham Royal Ballet is celebrating the city’s pioneering heavy metal band in a new production, Black Sabbath – the Ballet. Tom Sutcliffe talks to the director of BRB Carlos Acosta about how the marriage of apparently conflicting cultures came about. He also hears from the composer and arranger Christopher Austin on adapting the music for contemporary choreography and the dramaturg Richard Thomas about creating a narrative structure for an abstract dance form.

Today it was announced that Michael Gove has appointed commissioners to take over Birmingham Council. To find out how this might affect arts organisations in the city, Tom speaks to the Birmingham-based journalist and broadcaster Adrien Goldberg.

In our occasional series on cultural bugbears we hear from the author and Guardian journalist Tim Dowling.

As London Fashion Week draws to a close, we put the business of the British fashion industry under the spotlight with the Yorkshire-based designer and Professor of Fashion Matty Bovan, the New York Times fashion journalist Elizabeth Paton and the designer, academic and curator Andrew Ibi, whose exhibition The Missing Thread: Untold Stories of Black British Fashion is about to open at Somerset House.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Black Sabbath Ballet 1:18

From the enduring legacy of Colin Firth’s wet shirt to the colourful extravagance of Bridgerton, costumes have always been central in period dramas. But how much does adaptation match up to reality when it comes to regency fashion? To discuss this - and what’s revealed by the closet of the real-life Austen - Samira is joined by Hilary Davidson, author of ‘Jane Austen’s Wardrobe’, and the award-winning costume designer Dinah Collin.

Radio 4’s first poet-in-residence, Daljit Nagra, discusses his new poetry collection, indiom, set in an imaginary workshop where Indic heritage poets discuss the future of poetry and the kind of language(s) they should write in in these post-colonial times. It's a wide ranging mock heroic epic, with references ranging from Shakespeare to The Simpsons, written in Daljit Nagra's innovative, idiosyncratic and exuberant style.

The South African singer songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou discusses her music, which has been described as a melding of folk, jazz, electronic and dance music. Her song ‘She’ was shortlisted for the Oscar for best original song in 2018 for the documentary film Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. She performs live.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Jane Austen Fashion 1:03

When the artist Charlie Mackesy, best-known for his book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, heard Paul Simon’s most recent album, the acclaimed Seven Psalms, he was inspired to create a sketch for each ‘psalm’. They both join us on Front Row.

In the last of our interviews with all the authors shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award we talk to Kamila Shamsie about her story Churail.

Gabrielle Chanel opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Das Rheingold, the first part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle opens at the Royal Opera House in London. Head of Fashion at the Telegraph, Lisa Armstrong and writer Philip Hensher join us to review them both.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Paul Simon 1:10

Katherine Rundell on her new children’s fantasy book, Impossible Creatures. It's a story of two worlds, ours and one where the animals of myth and legend still survive, and thrive. A fantasy which does not shirk from dark themes, and was inspired by the metaphysical poetry of John Donne.

The next finalist in the National Short Story Award is South African writer Nick Mulgrew . His story, The Storm, is set in suburban Durban describes a toxic family dynamic against a backdrop of the dramatic and dangerous thunderstorms he remembers from his own childhood.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Katherine Rundell 1:00

Front Row looks at the impact of the Hollywood strikes. Film critic Leila Latif, Equity UK’s Secretary General Paul Fleming, and Lisa Holdsworth, screenwriter and Chair of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain explain the impact and the knock on effect on UK film and TV.

The theme to the video game Halo has become one of the best known pieces of game music ever released. Earlier this year fans from around the world were invited to join a virtual choir of thousands to sing the iconic chant. The BBC's Will Chalk signed up to take part.

Author K Patrick, talks about their short story, It’s Me, which has been nominated for this year’s BBC National Short Story Award.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Hollywood Strikes 01:09

Front Row gets an exclusive look at some of the treasures confirmed as missing by the British Museum, as art dealer, academic and whistleblower Dr Ittai Gradel, who says he bought them in good faith on eBay, returns them.

Missing Treasures 1:22