Front Row

Dr Matthias Wivel, co-curator of the Raphael exhibition at the National Gallery, discusses the life and death of the Renaissance painter and how he shaped the history of western art.

The shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction is announced today. Literary critic Alex Clark talks about the six books in contention for the prize, and we’ll be hearing from each of the authors before the winner is announced on June 15th.

Belarusian born poet Valzhyna Mort’s third collection, Music for the Dead and Resurrected, was ten years in the making and has only just been published in her home country. She joins Tom to discuss how she blends music and metaphor to confront state sponsored violence and censorship.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Image: Raphael's The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Child Saint (‘The Terranuova Madonna’), about 1505

Emerging playwright Tim Foley is in the distinctive position of having won a prize for every play of his that has been staged. He joins Front Row to discuss his third play, Electric Rosary – a sci-fi exploration of religion and science in the company of a group of nuns and a robot - which has just opened at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Based on the graphic novel by Alice Oseman, Heartstopper is the new Netflix LGBTQ+ drama set in a British high school about teen friendship and young romance. Jack Remmington is in the studio to review.

Music critic and author Jessica Duchen picks out some of the highlights in the Proms 2022 season and gives us her thoughts on the programme.

Viola player Lawrence Power performs live.

The Burnt City is the biggest production to date from the pioneering immersive theatre company Punchdrunk. As the company takes up residence in the former Royal Arsenal buildings of Woolwich, their first permanent space, they draw on the Greek tragedies of Agamemnon and Hecuba to reinterpret the Trojan war as a dystopian future noir.

The French comedy drama, Call My Agent, was one of the breakout hits of lockdown. It has spawned a Turkish version, an Indian version, and now an English version called Ten Percent. John Morton, the creator of BBC mockumentaries Twenty Twelve and W1A, joins Front Row to discuss the challenge of recreating the Parisian series in London.

Fresh from a sold-out UK tour this month, singer songwriter Jack Savoretti is live in the studio to perform his new single Dancing Through The Rain. The track is the second to be taken from his forthcoming release Europiana Encore, a special extended edition of his 2021 chart topping album, Europiana.

Presenter: Shahidha Bari

Photo: Performers Yilin Kong and Steven James Apicello in Punchdrunk's production The Burnt City Photographer credit: Julian Abrams

Atlantis (2019) was the Ukrainian entry for that year's Oscars. It now seems incredibly prescient in its depiction of a Ukraine set post-war in 2025. Film critic Laruskha Ivan-Zadeh and historian Kathryn Hughes join Front Row to review it. They'll also be talking about Michael Arditti's novel The Young Pretender. It imagines the life of the real-life child star Master Betty as a young adult attempting to re-enter the flamboyant world of Georgian theatre.

The Venice Biennale, one of the art world’s most prestigious events, opens to the public this weekend. Art critic Hettie Judah is currently in Venice and shares her thoughts about what’s on show at the vast international exhibition.

Ivor Novello winning composer Martin Green has immersed himself in the world of brass bands to prepare a new composition premiering this weekend at the Coventry Music Biennale. He tells Tom about writing his piece, Split the Air, and the people that create the incredible music they produce.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Chivalry, the new Channel 4 comedy which looks at the making of a Hollywood movie in a post MeToo world, has been co-created by its co-stars – Sarah Solemani, and Steve Coogan. Sarah joins Elle Osili-Wood on Front Row to discuss why MeToo has provided new grounds for comedy.

Venezuelan singer Samuel Mariño originally trained as a ballet dancer before embracing his rare vocal range as a male soprano and promoting gender and genre-fluid performance. He sings live in the studio, ahead of his debut London recital and the release of his new album, Sopranista, featuring arias recorded by a male soprano voice for the first time.

Four cities are in the running to be the UK’s next City of Culture and Front Row is hearing from the places on the final shortlist. Tonight it’s the turn of Bradford as reporter Aisha Iqbal hears about what the UK’s youngest city has to offer.

Presenter: Elle Osili-Wood

Image: Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani in Channel 4's Chivalry

Director Robert Eggers discusses his new film The Northman, set in Iceland at the turn of the 10th century. A Nordic prince sets out on a mission of revenge after his father is murdered. The plot, which is an old Nordic story, is allegedly the basis for the plot of Hamlet. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke.

The Olivier Awards recently returned to The Royal Albert Hall for a glittering ceremony, following a pandemic hiatus. They’re widely regarded as honouring a who’s who of great British theatre but critic David Benedict believes they aren’t truly representative. He joins Samira to make the case for shaking up the Oliviers.

Artist and writer Oliver Jeffers discusses Our Place in Space, a 10km sculpture trail representing the solar system which is part of Unboxed, a celebration of creativity, taking place across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and online from March to October.

We remember Sir Harrison Birtwistle, one of the most significant British composers of the last century, whose death at the age of 87 was announced yesterday.

Presenter Samira Ahmed

The Big Jubilee Read is a reading for pleasure campaign by the Reading Agency and the BBC highlighting 70 books from across the Commonwealth published during the decades of the Queen's reign. To mark the launch, Front Row comes from the Studio Theatre at the Library of Birmingham with an audience. Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah talks to Samira about his novel Paradise from 1994 which has been chosen as a Big Jubilee Read. Emma d'Costa from the Commonwealth Foundation explains how the books were chosen. Local author Kit de Waal comments and we hear from Birmingham's Poet Laureate, Casey Bailey, whose play GrimeBoy has just opened at the Birmingham Rep. He performs poems celebrating his city. And how are libraries faring ten years on from the first austerity cuts and two years after the pandemic? Briony Birdi of the University of Sheffield explains.

The full list of books is available from Monday 18 April at BBC Arts https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts

Photo credit: Tricia Yourkevich for the BBC

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Our Thursday review critics, Dr. Kirsty Fairclough and poet Joelle Taylor, give their assessment of Paul Verhoeven's film Benedetta and the exhibition Let the Song Hold Us at Liverpool's Fact Gallery.

Nick meets Alan Lane, Artistic Director of Slung Low Theatre Company in Leeds, to discuss his 'pandemic memoir', The Club on the Edge of Town.

Presenter: Nick Ahad

Photo: Daphne Patakia (L) and Virginie Efira (R) in the film Benedetta (Credit: MUBI)

Tom Robinson is the black man wrongly accused of raping a white girl in To Kill a Mocking Bird. In Harper Lee's novel and the film he is at the centre of the story but, defended by the white lawyer, Atticus Finch, almost voiceless. In the acclaimed new stage production now in the West End, the actor playing Tom Robinson, Jude Owusu, discusses his approach to the role and the relevance of the story today.

The UK’s City of Culture 2025 will be announced next month and Front Row is hearing from the four places on the shortlist. Tonight, Emily Hughes reports on Wrexham County Borough’s bid.

Simran Hans reviews the new film Operation Mincemeat, the new British war drama directed by John Madden.

Presenter Tom Sutcliffe

After being announced as the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2022, the Canadian photographer and artist Edward Burtynsky talks to Tom about his 40-year career as a landscape photographer.

This year’s Turner Prize is returning to Liverpool for the first time in 15 years. Laura Robertson, a writer, critic and editor based in the city gives us a rundown of the shortlisted artists announced today at Tate Liverpool: Heather Phillipson, Ingrid Pollard, Veronica Ryan and Sin Wai Kin.

Award-winning and twice Booker shorted listed author of The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his new novel Poguemahone. Described as this century’s Ulysses, the novel takes the form of a free verse monologue set in Margate in the mind and memories of Dan Fogarty and his sister Una.

Rafaella Covino, the founder and director of Applause for Thought, which offers free and low cost mental health assistance for people working in theatre, and Wabriya King, Associate Drama Therapist at the Bush Theatre, join Tom to discuss the growing need for wellbeing support across the theatre industry.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe