A special edition of Front Row, live from the Booker Prize for Fiction.  Samira Ahmed is joined on stage by Booker Prize judges actor Adjoa Andoh and Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro to discuss this year’s shortlist, before the chair of judges, novelist Esi Edugyan, announces the winner live on air.   Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent six years in detention in Iran, gives the keynote speech about the power of literature to take us to another world.  Front Row will also hear from all this year’s shortlisted authors, whose novels cover climate change, a democracy sliding into extremism, prejudice, grief and the complexities of race in America.  Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner

The Booker Prize Ceremony 2023

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

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Kevin Barry’s new novel is The Heart in Winter, a love story set in the American wild west in the 1890s.  
The film Rosalie is a period piece inspired by the true story of a French bearded lady who, together with her husband, ran a café in rural France in the late 19th century.
And Disney’s Paris set drama series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld explores the late Chanel fashion designer’s life.  
Max Liu and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh join Tom Sutcliffe to review. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Review: Film - Rosalie, TV - Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, Book - The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

Christos Tsiolkas, the Australian writer best known for The Slap, talks about The In-Between, his visceral yet tender new novel about two men finding love in their fifties.  Victoria Canal performs her Ivor Novello award winning song Black Swan and talks about her life in music. And with several literary festivals severing their ties with Baillie Gifford, Martha Gill and Grace Blakeley discuss the growing story behind the sponsorship row along with Adrian Turpin, Director of the Wigtown Book Festival in Dumfries and Galloway Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Christos Tsiolkas, Victoria Canal, Baillie Gifford festival sponsorship

Presenter Samira Ahmed talks to Candice Carty-Williams who has adapted her award-winning novel Queenie for an eight-part series on Channel 4, starring Dionne Brown. It traces a year in the life of a young woman navigating a difficult course through her relationships with friends, family and casual partners, with the shadow of unresolved trauma always looming in the background.      As two dramas, Strategic Love Play and Love In Gravitational Waves, explore the nature of that modern romantic encounter - the date, their respective playwrights, Miriam Battye and Testament, join Samira to discuss turning the tryst into theatre. Authors Briony Cameron and Francesca De Tores talk about the rise of female pirates in fiction. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Claire Bartleet

Queenie, Female pirates, dating dramas

American director Richard Linklater, who made his name with Boyhood and the Before Sunset films, talks about his new comedy thriller Hit Man, which stars Glen Powell as quiet teacher who leads a secret double life helping this police catch people trying to hire a hit man. The movie opens on Netflix on Friday. Asian Network is celebrating 90s Bollywood, revealing the Ultimate 90s Bollywood Song as voted for by listeners from a shortlist of 50. It was counted down on air on Friday and is available to listen to on BBC Sounds now. We are speaking to presenter Haroon Rashid live from Birmingham on Zoom. Harpist Esther Swift plays live and talks about her first solo studio album Expectations of a Lifetime. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Corinna Jones

Richard Linklater, Ultimate 90s Bollywood Song, Esther Swift

Samira Ahmed is joined by author Anita Sethi and critic Tim Robey to review time-skipping sci-fi epic The Beast, where human emotions are perceived as a threat; the second series of Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts, where the all-female Muslin punk band are recording their first album; they also give their verdict on the Beyond Fashion photography exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, which tracks how fashion photography has become an art form in its own right. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer:  Paula McGrath

The Booker Prize Ceremony 2023

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