Front Row

Judd Apatow, Carnegie and Greenaway Medals for children's literature, job losses in theatre, Alison Brackenbury

06.17.2020 - By BBC Radio 4Play

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Judd Apatow - famous for film comedies like Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin, and Trainwreck - on his new film The King Of Staten Island, which he co-wrote with Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson. Pete plays a young man trying to get his life together after the death of his fire-fighter father. Today the damage to UK theatre caused by the Coronavirus has really begun to show: major producer Cameron Mackintosh has announced redundancy consultations for staff on blockbuster shows, including Hamilton and Phantom Of The Opera. Additionally, a hundred leading creative figures have signed a letter calling for government action to save the sector. We talk to Matthew Hemley, News Editor of theatre magazine The Stage, about the crisis faced by UK theatre. We announce the 2020 winners of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for writing for children and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration for children, and speak to the winners about their work. Plus Alison Brackenbury, Front Row’s virtual poet-in-residence for the week. She's been inspired by the museums and galleries she visited before lockdown and is sharing a poem a day from her Museums Unlocked series. Today’s is about buried treasure and takes us to Birmingham Museums’ Staffordshire Hoard exhibition, and back to the age of the Anglo-Saxons. Main image: Pete Davidson in The King of Staten Island

Image credit: (C) 2020 Universal Studios Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Producer: Emma Wallace

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