Margaret Cavendish was born exactly 400 years ago, and her many achievements include writing The Blazing World, arguably the first ever sci-fi novel. Novelist Siri Hustvedt and biographer Francesca Peacock discuss the enduring legacy of this pioneering woman, with extracts read by Rhiannon Neads Margreth Olin tells Samira about her film Songs of Earth, for which she returned to the valley in Western Norway where she grew up, and the year she spent learning from her elderly parents and from nature.  Graham Kibble-White, Deputy Editor of Total TV guide magazine and TV critic and broadcaster Scott Bryan share their top festive viewing tips – from ghosts stories to soaps, documentaries to children’s viewing. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian Wilkinson

Margaret Cavendish, Margareth Olin, Christmas TV

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

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Philosophy

Places & Travel

Line of Duty star Vicky McClure on her new TV thriller Insomnia, in which she plays a lawyer losing her grip on the daily juggle of family life and work as old traumas start to make their presence felt. The German writer Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofman on winning the International Booker Prize with the novel Kairos which marries a love story with the fall of the Berlin Wall. As a new exhibition - Lowry and the Sea – opens this weekend at the Maltings’ Granary Gallery in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, art historian and Lowry specialist Jonathan Horwich, and contemporary seascape painter Jo Bemis discuss this little-known side of L. S. Lowry's work and the challenge of capturing the everchanging sea on canvas. Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Vicky McClure, LS Lowry and the sea, International Booker Prize 2024

Colm Tóibín's not a fan of follow-ups so why has he written a sequel to his bestseller Brooklyn, which was made into a film starring Saoirse Ronan?  He talks to Tom Sutcliffe about not overwriting sex - and how Domhnall Gleeson's screen performance as a "quiet Irishman" in Brooklyn inspired him.  Miranda Rutter and Rob Harbron's new folk album, Bird Tunes, is inspired by birdsong they hear in woods in the Cotswolds. They perform a track on fiddle and concertina and talk about how manipulating the sounds made by blackbirds, wrens and cuckoos helped to inspire musical phrases in different keys.  Photographer John Deakin is now often overlooked, but he chronicled the artistic underbelly of mid-century Soho with iconic pictures, including those used by Francis Bacon. Iain Sinclair, whose new book Pariah/Genius revives Deakin, retraces his footsteps around town.  Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe 
Producer: Paula McGrath

Colm Tóibín, Miranda Rutter & Rob Harbron, Iain Sinclair on John Deakin

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is the latest film from the writer director George Miller, 45 years after the first Mad Max film with Mel Gibson aired.   He joins us to talk about where the vision for the film came from and how it's evolved, and about working with stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.  The visual artist, filmmaker, and novelist, Miranda July, discusses her second novel “All Fours” where a middle-aged woman’s detour from a planned road trip across America becomes a wry and provocative odyssey of self-exploration. Orchestral Qawaali Project is the brainchild of composer Rushil Ranjan and multi-instrumentalist and singer Abi Sampa.  Fusing devotional south Asian qawwali singing with the western classical tradition, it has grown from a lockdown project that went viral to a performance at the Royal Albert Hall later this month involving 135 performers on stage.  We hear a taster of their work live in the studio. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Corinna Jones

George Miller, Miranda July, Orchestral Qawwali Project

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by journalist Kevin Le Gendre and critic Hanna Flint to review The Big Cigar, which tells the story of Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton; Elton John’s Fragile Beauty exhibition at the V&A; and IF, a family film about imaginary friends. Tom also announces the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet

Review: Big Cigar on AppleTV, Elton John’s photos at V&A,  animated/live action film If

Fawlty Towers arrives on the West End stage nearly 50 years after it first appeared on TV. John Cleese talks about why the sitcom wasn’t initially regarded as a great success, his love and appreciation of comedy as an art form, and how a future project will see Basil running a hotel with his daughter. 100 years ago this month, the musician Beatrice Harrison was responsible for a landmark event in BBC history when she persuaded the corporation to broadcast live from her garden as she played her cello, accompanied by nightingales.  Writer and cellist Kate Kennedy who has recreated this event for a new Radio 3 documentary and Patricia Cleveland-Peck who has edited a book about Beatrice Harrison join Front Row to discuss the significance of this historic event. Jason Solomons joins us from the Cannes Film Festival to tell us what people there are getting excited about  and what's in store over the next ten days. Presenter:  Tom Sutcliffe
Producer:  Torquil MacLeod

Margaret Cavendish, Margareth Olin, Christmas TV

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