Front Row

Front Row visits Truro to report on the re-opening of the Hall for Cornwall after a 3 year, £26million refurbishment. The new 1300 auditorium complements the granite of the old building, and the Cornish landscape. And the opening show – the world premiere of the Fisherman’s Friends musical, of course.We hear from Matt Hemley, News Editor for The Stage, about the ongoing affect of Covid on theatre audiences.Paul McCartney tell us how he wrote Eleanor Rigby.And Nadifa Mohamed joins a group of Front Row listeners for our latest Booker Prize Book Group, discussing her novel The Fortune Men, about a racist miscarriage of justice in Cardiff's Tiger Bay in the 1950s.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May

Patricia Lockwood is the latest author to join our Booker Prize Book Groups. Three listeners will ask her about No One Is Talking About This, a novel that’s been described as “ferociously original”, exploring a relationship with the online world and how it changes when an incredibly moving event happens in real life.The Science Museum has come in for criticism after choosing Adani Group, a company involved with fossil fuels, to sponsor their new energy galleries. Sir Ian Blatchford, Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group explains the thinking behind the partnership. As COP approaches, what is the art world doing to become more sustainable? Chris Garrard from Culture Unstained explains why they feel oil and fossil fuel sponsorship of the arts is a problem and Kate McGarry from the Galleries Climate Coalition discusses what they’re doing to try to fix the biggest problems.And we continue our new series, Inside the Songs, in which Paul McCartney talks about his life and song-writing through

In the first instalment of our new series, Inside the Songs, Paul McCartney talks about his life and song-writing through the prism of ten key lyrics, beginning with The Beatles’ classic All My Loving.Poet Paul Muldoon discusses working with Paul McCartney on his intimate and revealing new book, The Lyrics, and explains why he sees McCartney as a great literary figure.In the latest of our Booker Prize Book Groups, a panel of our listeners talk to the author Damon Galgut about his shortlisted novel The Promise, the story of a white South African family and a promise made to Salome, the black woman who works for them.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah JohnsonPhoto: Paul McCartney photographed by daughter Mary McCartney Photo credit: Mary McCartney

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

Producer-director Sarah Smith made her animation debut with the festive favourite, Arthur Christmas. Ten years on she’s back with Ron’s Gone Wrong, a warm-hearted romp with a robot and a critique of social media’s impact on young minds.For this week’s audio postcard, presenter and local boy Nick Ahad is in Bradford. He dons his hard hat to check out what’s happening at the famous art deco building, known as the Bradford Odeon, as it’s turned into a new cultural centre for live music. He also visits Kala Sangam, an intercultural arts centre established by two consultant doctors that provides a place for locals to try new arts and crafts and which supports local artists and arts organisations. And he meets one of those emerging local artists, playwright and actor Kamal Kaan.And how can theatre respond to a seismic event like the coronavirus pandemic, or the murder of George Floyd? Erica Whyman, Acting Artistic Director of The RSC and Roy Alexander Weise, joint Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre,

We announce the winners of the BBC National Short Story Award 2021 and the BBC Young Writers' Award 2021. Kirsty Lang is joined for the show by National Short Story Award judges James Runcie and Fiona Mozley and Young Writers' Award judges Katie Thistleton and Louise O'Neill.The BBC National Short Story Award is one of the most prestigious for a single short story, with the winning author receiving £15,000, and four further shortlisted authors £600 each. This year's shortlisted stories are ‘All the People Were Mean and Bad’ by Lucy Caldwell, ‘The Body Audit’ by Rory Gleeson, ‘Night Train’ by Georgina Harding, ‘Toadstone’ by Danny Rhodes and ‘Maykopsky District, Adyghe Oblast’ by Richard Smyth.Now in its seventh year, The BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University 2021 is open to all writers between the ages of 14 –18 years and was created to discover and inspire the next generation of writers. It is a cross-network collaboration between BBC Radio 4 and Radio 1. The 2021 BBC Young Writers’ Award shortl

Arinzé Kene talks to Samira Ahmed about playing Bob Marley in the new musical Get Up, StandUp!Singer Clare Norburn is live in the studio to perform a piece by 16th Century composer John Dowland and discuss her new play about Dowland, I, Spie. We discuss the inaugural Working Class Writers Festival taking place in Bristol this weekend with organiser Natasha Carthew and publisher Sarah Fortune.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Olivia Skinner

Front Row goes live to Coventry to announce the winner of the 2021 Riba Stirling Prize and discuss the shortlist with BBC Arts and Media correspondent David Sillito and architecture critic for the Guardian, Oliver Wainwright.Author Charlotte Philby and arts and books editor for Prospect Magazine Sameer Rahim join Tom Sutcliffe to review the new series of Succession and Silverview, John le Carré’s last novel.Film critic Hanna Flint fills us in on the highlights of this year’s London Film Festival. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Laura NorthedgePhoto: Brian Cox as Logan Roy in Succession Photo Credit: Sky Atlantic

Theatre director Emma Jordan discusses The Border Game, a new play to mark 100 years of the Irish border. We hear from Omagh in County Tyrone as reporter Freya McClement explores a moving new installation by artist Paula Stokes at the Ulster American Folk Park.And director Ridley Scott talks to Samira about his new film The Last Duel starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May Photo: Liz Fitzgibbon and Patrick McBrearty in The Border Game - photo credit Ciaran Bagnall

Suzan-Lori Parks, the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama on her play White Noise, which has its the UK premier tonight. Life is not so bad for four liberal friends, two couples, black with a white partner, until Leo has a run in with the cops and it all begins to unravel.The poet, playwright, and novelist, Owen Sheers, has written a new BBC One drama, The Trick. He talks to Samira about exploring what became known in 2009 as Climategate, when the emails of Professor Philip Jones, Director of the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University, were hacked and doubt cast on the research into climate change.For Front Row’s regular Tuesday Arts Audit today we’re exploring ongoing debates around the questionable provenance of artefacts housed in some of the world’s most famous museums with Malia Politzer from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Alexander Herman, Assistant Director of the Institute of Art and Law. How can broadening the representation of sci

Joan Collins discusses her memoir My Unapologetic Diaries.Tales of the City author and activist Armistead Maupin on his national tour and why he has moved from his beloved San Francisco to live in the UK.Engineering Value - Scenes from the Grenfell Inquiry is a new play every word of which has been taken from what was said at that public inquiry. Directors Nick Kent and Nadia Fall consider the ethics of verbatim theatre and the different ways of creating it. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Olivia Skinner

Cush Jumbo’s long-awaited performance as Hamlet and debbie tucker green’s film ear for eye come under the critical gaze of Ekow Eshun, Vanessa Kisuule and Sarah Crompton.Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has won this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. He joins Front Row to discuss his work and how he feels about winning. The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage on his fresh and contemporary new translation of the classic poem The Owl and the Nightingale.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah JohnsonPhoto Credit: Helen Murray

Broadcaster Huw Stephens sends an audio postcard from Aberystwyth, the small seaside town with the big arts centre mounting exhibitions and concerts, the National Library of Wales, the country's oldest University, a thriving bilingual music scene, one of the UK's leading comedy festivals and now - a film industry. The true story of one family’s journey from Afghanistan to Wales twenty one years ago is told on stage at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre this month. Tom hears from the writer of The Boy With Two Hearts, Hamed Amiri and musician Elaha Soroor about finding refuge and the freedom to make music.The British amateur golfer Maurice Flitcroft entertained fans globally and became the scourge of the golfing establishment when he passed himself off as a professional and entered the British Open in 1976. Now Welsh director Craig Roberts has made a new film about his life, starring Mark Rylance and Sally Philips. He explains why he wanted to make a film about a lovable sporting underdog.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe P

Wole Soyinka, the first African writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells Samira Ahmed about what impelled him to write his first new novel in five decades, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth.As theatres re-open across the UK and audiences return, are some theatre fans being left behind? We hear from Jamie Hale, an award-winning theatre director and playwright with a disability, and Richard Misek from the University of Kent, who is investigating the impact of digital arts on audiences.Film director Michael Winterbottom shares insights from his conversations with fellow filmmakers, from Ken Loach to Andrea Arnold and from Lynn Ramsay to Steve McQueen, about the challenges British directors face in getting independent British films made. Michael is joined by the debut feature filmmaker Cathy Brady to discuss what it takes to get a film on the big or small screen.PRESENTER: Samira Ahmed PRODUCER: Simon RichardsonPhoto: Wole Soyinka Photo credit: Mr TAIWO OLUSOLA-JOHNSON (TOJ Conce

In tonight's new look, 45 minute long Front Row...Hilary Mantel talks about turning her 874 page novel, The Mirror and the Light, the third volume in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, into a play of just a couple of hours. Kieran Hurley on The Enemy, his adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People for the National Theatre of Scotland. Lianne La Havas joins us live in the studio to perform a track from her self-titled Ivor Novello winning album. And Candice Carty Williams, author of the besteller, Queenie, on writing her first novella for young adults, Empress and Aniya.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May

The new 007 film No Time To Die has had its release pushed back and back and back due to Covid. But now it’s finally here with Daniel Craig playing James Bond for the final time. Critical responses have been mixed, what will our reviewers, Charlie Higson -writer of the Young Bond novels – and Naima Khan – who’s never seen a Bond film before – make of it? We’ll also preview Ridley Road a BBC historical drama series written by Sarah Solemani, about a young Jewish woman who fights against an emerging neo-Nazi group in 1960s East London.1971 was an important year in African-American culture. It was the year that saw the cinema release of Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, and Gordon Park’s Shaft. It was also the year that saw the national launch of Soul Train – the music show that featured the big Soul stars of the day, hosted by the avuncular Don Cornelius who encouraged the audience of young African-Americans to dance and celebrate themselves for all to see. Fifty years on, music Journalist,

Widely known as the nicest guy in rock, Dave Grohl has written a memoir ‘The Storyteller’ documenting his life in the rock and roll business, from early days sleeping in the tour van with Scream, to the moment that inspired him to return to music post-Nirvana, to performing at the White House. It is family and music that has kept him grounded, as well as seeing the toll the dark glamour of a rock and roll life can take on a person. Now he is unashamedly earnest about his love of music and love of life. He tells Nick Ahad about how he feels performing in front of thousands, his ‘pinch-me’ moments, and the magic that happens between musicians.As the tenth anniversary of the death of disgraced celebrity Jimmy Savile approaches, there's a slew of dramas and documentaries being prepared for broadcast. Playwright and journalist Jonathan Maitland wrote his own Jimmy Savile drama - An Audience with Jimmy Savile - in 2015. He joins Front Row to discuss how to approach dramatizing Savile.Presented by Nick Ahad Produce

American screenwriter, show-runner, director, and producer David Chase is best known for writing and producing the HBO drama The Sopranos which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2007. He talks to Tom about why he's bringing back Michael Imperioli for The Many Saints Of Newark.Gary Raymond, editor of Wales Art Review, joins us to discuss the unveiling of the statue of the Welsh, black head teacher and heroine, Betty Campbell.Many great playwrights - including William Shakespeare - have written works to be performed at The Globe Theatre on the banks of The Thames. And now 400 years since the venue last had a playwright in residence, there’s a new play, Metamorphoses, written by a team of young writers, making its premiere. We speak with Laura Lomas about creating new work for such an illustrious stage. Also with Simeon Miller, Candle Consultant for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – recreating pre-electric stage lighting for modern productions.And Danish artist Jens Haaning was commissioned to make a work for

Kenyan British Comedian Njambi McGrath’s work focuses on identity politics, Brexit, colonialism, and race. She joins Kirsty to discuss her 2019 show, Accidental Coconut which opens at the Soho Theatre next week, and her new Radio 4 podcast series Njambi McGrath: Becoming Njambi.Controversy always rages over The Turner Prize. This year not a single artist has been shortlisted. Not one! Instead there are five art collectives, from all over the UK, showing work at the Turner Prize Exhibition which opens tomorrow at the Herbert Gallery in Coventry. The critic Zarina Muhammad reviews the show for Front Row. Kenyan British Comedian Njambi McGrath’s work focuses on identity politics, Brexit, colonialism, and race. She joins Kirsty to discuss her 2019 show, Accidental Coconut which opens at the Soho Theatre next week, and her new Radio 4 podcast series Njambi McGrath: Becoming Njambi.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Oliver Jones

Front Row announces this year’s winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction and Samira Ahmed interviews the winner. They are joined by Clarke Award judge Stewart Hotston to discuss the problem of diversity in the science fiction genre.K-pop group BTS opened the UN general debate last week with a speech and performance, which was streamed live by over a million people around the world. What’s the impact of a the biggest band in the world taking this political stage, and what does it say about the music industry? Wim Delvoye’s 2008 artwork, Tim, is an an all-over body tattoo inked on the torso of former Zurich tattoo parlour owner Tim Steiner. The skin of his back, with the tattoo will which join the collection of a German art lover after Steiner's death. This inspired Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania's new film. The Man Who Sold His Skin tells the story of Sam, a Syrian man who agrees to have his back tattooed by one of the world’s most illustrious contemporary artists so he can to travel to E