Front Row

Mike Bartlett, Hannah Hodgson, Nick Laird


Listen Later

The playwright Mike Bartlett is busy. The 47th, his dark comedy about the next presidential race, with Bertie Carvel giving an uncanny performance as Donald Trump is about to open at the Old Vic in London. So too is Scandaltown, his modern day Restoration comedy about social ambition, featuring characters with names such as Hannah Tweetwell and Freddie Peripheral. And he has another play, a love triangle, Cock, in the West End. Mike talks to Tom Sutcliffe about the appeal of writing gags, blank verse and characters who take control.

Hannah Hodgson's latest volume of poetry is '163 Days' in which she looks back in verse over her six months in hospital as teenager suffering from a severe and undiagnosed disease. Her poems are juxtaposed with her medical notes. The illness, which later proved to be mitochondrial encephalopathy, is incurable and she explores, in her poems, living with a terminal condition.

To mark the BBC's Art That Made Us season, Front Row invites artists from across the nations of the UK to choose the piece of art that made them, by shaping their artistic and cultural identity. Today we hear from the winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, poet Nick Laird who has chosen the 1935 poem Snow, by Louis MacNeice.

Ryan Marsh and James Thomas, two of the people involved in Europe’s first Non Fungible Token gallery, the Quantum Gallery, give us an insight into NFT Art and how it works.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Producer: Julian May

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Front RowBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

118 ratings


More shows like Front Row

View all
Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,715 Listeners

Ask Penguin by Penguin Books UK

Ask Penguin

149 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,071 Listeners

In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,540 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,880 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

866 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

611 Listeners

In Our Time: Science by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Science

724 Listeners

Arts & Ideas by BBC Radio 4

Arts & Ideas

306 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,738 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,024 Listeners

World Book Club by BBC World Service

World Book Club

369 Listeners

Desert Island Discs by BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Discs

2,029 Listeners

Great Lives by BBC Radio 4

Great Lives

502 Listeners

Last Word by BBC Radio 4

Last Word

48 Listeners

Backlisted by Backlisted

Backlisted

586 Listeners

Start the Week by BBC Radio 4

Start the Week

164 Listeners

Bookclub by BBC Radio 4

Bookclub

242 Listeners

Private Passions by BBC Radio 3

Private Passions

52 Listeners

The TLS Podcast by The TLS

The TLS Podcast

180 Listeners

The Waterstones Podcast by Waterstones

The Waterstones Podcast

43 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

3,172 Listeners

This Cultural Life by BBC Radio 4

This Cultural Life

113 Listeners

Take Four Books by BBC Radio 4

Take Four Books

8 Listeners

A Good Read by BBC Radio 4

A Good Read

39 Listeners