The Arts Hour

Nikki Bedi is joined by critic Zing Tsjeng to discuss cultural highlights of the week:

Australian actor and movie producer Margot Robbie on her experience filming Emerald Fennell’s racy take on Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Venezuelan-American theatre maker Moisés Kaufman explains what inspired his latest play, Here There Are Blueberries.

Hollywood leading man Ethan Hawke discusses his Oscar-nominated role as the prolific Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater’s film, Blue Moon

Norwegian director Mona Fastvold talks about their film, The Testament of Ann Lee, with star Amanda Seyfried.

And Iranian-born British actor Paul Chahidi describes how music from his native country provided the backdrop to his childhood in the UK

Plus, Nikki interviews Polish director Jan Komasa about his unsettling new film starring Adolescence's Stephen Graham. The Good Boy will be screening at London's Barbican as part of the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival on 11 March, ahead of an international release later in the month.

Photo credit: Zuzanna Krajewska

Nikki Bedi is joined by critic Katie Puckrik to discuss cultural highlights of the week:

Oscar winning British actor Riz Ahmed on his film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, set in London

Hollywood star Kristen Stewart on her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water

Japanese composer Dai Fujikura talks about turning Hokusai’s famous painting, The Great Wave, into a new opera

Author Sadiqa Johnson reveals how the real history of a Black American GI in Germany inspired her latest novel

Oscar nominated Brazilian cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, tells Nikki Bedi about his filming techniques for Train Dreams

And Kirsty Sinclair Dootson explains her dual fascination with the mid twentieth century explosion in colour film coinciding with social and political changes in India.

(Photo: Adolpho Veloso. Credit: Courtesy of Adolpho Veloso)

Nikki Bedi is joined by American comedian Josh Sharp and critic Rhianna Dhillon to discuss cultural highlights of the week:

Oscar and BAFTA nominated Nigerian British actor Wunmi Mosaku on her role as Hoodoo priestess Annie in the film, Sinners

American filmmaker Jared Bush on returning to his animated animal kingdom for Zootopia 2

Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard on the unsympathetic protagonist of his latest novel, The School of Night

Oscar winning American screenwriter Eric Roth talks about his debut play, an adaptation of the 1952 Western, High Noon

Comedian Josh Sharp explains the creative process behind his one man stage show, ‘ta-da!’ which blends personal stories from his life with a 2000 slide power point presentation

And Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi recounts her experiences of making films in restrictive circumstances

(Photo: Wunmi Mosaku attends the 31st annual Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California, U.S., January 4, 2026. Credit: REUTERS/Mike Blake)

Nikki Bedi talks to Daniyal Mueenuddin, the Pakistani-American author behind one of the year’s most anticipated novels, This Is Where The Serpent Lives. They discuss how it weaves a panoply of different characters with a kaleidoscopic overview of Pakistan’s social upheaval and rural/urban conflicts following independence.

Plus Bidisha joins as this week’s cultural critic, discussing Richard Linklater, French New Wave cinema, Albanian folk music, the films of Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi, the photography of Peter Hujar and one of world’s biggest selling genre’s: “romantasy”.

(Photo: Daniyal Mueenuddin. Credit: Chris Blonk)

Nikki Bedi is joined by film-maker Akinola Davies Jnr and film critic Larushka Ivan Zadeh to discuss cultural highlights of the week:

Oscar winning Mexican director Guillermo del Toro on the influence of a religious upbringing on his films

American singer and actor Andra Day on her role in the movie Is This Thing On....and the day Stevie Wonder telephoned her

German film-maker Werner Herzog on his survival films

US director Paul Feig talks about adapting the bestselling book The Housemaid for the big screen

British Nigerian writer director Akinola Davies Jnr tells Nikki about the making of his debut feature film, My Father’s Shadow, set on the day of the 1993 Nigerian elections

And British actor Claire Foy discusses training with birds of prey for her role in H is for Hawk.

(Photo: Godwin Egbo, Chibuike Marvellous Egbo, and Sope Dirisu in My Father's Shadow (2025). Credit: MUBI)

Nikki Bedi and critic William Lee Adams discuss the cultural highlights of the week:

Brazilian actor Wagner Moura and director Kleber Mendonça Filho on their film, The Secret Agent

Legendary American photographer Annie Leibovitz on photographing John Lennon just hours before he died

Indian musician and composer A. R. Rahman on working with fellow musical titan Hans Zimmer

British actor Toheeb Jimoh on the TV series, Industry, and the mentoring skills of Ian McKellen

(Credit: MUBI)

Nikki Bedi and Hanna Flint discuss cultural highlights of the week:

American director Noah Baumbach on working with George Clooney on the film, Jay Kelly.

English-Japanese actor Will Sharpe on portraying Mozart in the TV series, Amadeus.

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania tells Nikki about the making her film, The Voice of Hind Rajab.

Spanish-born actor Oona Chaplin talks about her work on Avatar: Fire and Ash.

And Brazilian-Norwegian singer songwriter Charlotte Dos Santos explains why she likes recording onto tape.

(Photo: Kaouther Ben Hania Credit: Ammar Abd Rabbo)

Nikki Bedi talks to Oscar-winning, Chinese director Chloé Zhao, who discusses making her new film Hamnet, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.

Plus, Timothée Chalamet on table tennis and playing the title role in the movie Marty Supreme.

Danish-Norwegian film-maker Joachim Trier talks about his latest film Sentimental Value.

And Mexican actor Diego Calva on working internationally as a bilingual South American performer.

Nikki is joined by critic Leila Latif to discuss the cultural highlights of the week.

(Photo: Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in Hamnet Crefit: Focus Features LLC)

Welcoming in the new year with a laugh, host Daliso Chaponda is joined by six international comedians for our annual comedy show: Norwegian comedian Thor Stenhaug, Nigerian stand-up Ayoade Bamgboye, South African Indian comic Kaneez Surka, Greek comedian George Zacharopoulos, Singaporean stand-up Jin Hao Li and American comic Kemah Bob.

Main image: Daliso Chaponda

As 2025 draws to a close, Nikki Bedi talks to writer Zadie Smith in a speacial interview about one of the big literary moments of the year: the publication of her new essay collection, Dead and Alive. The author of White Teeth, On Beauty and The Fraud reflects on what it means to be a muse, the idea of an "Art Monster" and how she grew up watching nine hours of television a day.

Also on the show we hear about Margaret Atwood's early memories of reading George Orwell, and from two men of the moment - Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal - about starring as two music-collecting lovers in The History of Sound.

Australian star Toni Collette reveals what it was like working with Kate Winslet on her directorial debut, the festive tear-jerker Goodbye June; and Kenyan-British director Gurinder Chadha recalls how a trip to India inspired her novel Bollywood take on Jane Austen, Bride and Prejudice.

Plus critic Rhianna Dhillon gives her thoughts on the film highlight of the year, and what to look forward to next.

Producer: Ciaran Bermingham