Front Row

The actress and writer Emily Mortimer discusses her directorial debut The Pursuit of Love, her 3-part adaptation of Nancy Mitford's novel starring Lily James, Emily Beecham and Andrew Scott, which centres on two women born into privilege, trying to seize life and love with both hands but constrained by societal expectations. Today sees the release of Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s second album Life by Misadventure, the follow-up to 2017's Human, which was the decade's fastest-selling album by a male artist. The singer/songwriter, whose real name is Rory Graham, discusses the changes in his life, his new musical approach, and why he went to Nashville to record it.Sarah Crompton discusses the government's new fast track visa system for the winners of elite arts prizes such as Oscars, Tonys and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Jupiter’s Legacy drops on Netflix tonight. Based on Mark Millar’s original comics, this domestic drama looks at the family dynamic as one generation of superheroes attempts to hand over to the next, f

Don Warrington stars as the head of a family, united and divided by grief in Sian Davila’s debut play for Radio 4, Running with Lions. We speak to both Sian and Don about the play and its particular significance now.Last Sunday, the doyenne of radio criticism, Gillian Reynolds CBE, wrote her final column for the Sunday Times. She joins Front Row to discuss a career that dates back to the late 1960s and shares her thoughts on the future of radio.Durham-born novelist Benjamin Myers has made it his mission to explore the places and people of northern England in his fiction. He came to prominence in 2017 with The Gallows Pole, a novel about a band of 17th century Yorkshire money counterfeiters, which won the Walter Scott Prize. He talks to John about his latest release, his debut collection of short stories, Male Tears, a multifaceted exploration of what it means to be a man featuring some very brutal, troubled characters. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Simon Richardson Studio Manager: Sue Maillot

A mother and father struggling to come to terms with their trans child are at the centre of Anna Kerrigan’s new film, Cowboys. She talks to Samira about creating a family drama set in the woodlands of Montana.After Liverpool took part in a Covid recovery pilot scheme testing live events over the weekend - including an open-air film screening, a comedy gig and a club night - we talk to the city's Director of Culture, Claire McColgan, about how the events went and what happens next.Sunjeev Sahota was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his last book - The Runaways and his writing attracted praise from Salman Rushdie. He discusses his new novel, China Room, which tells a dark story from family legend about his great grandmother, and interweaves it with a modern day narrator who returns to his ancestral farm in Punjab to recover from heroin addiction and to escape racism in the UK. Main image: Sasha Knight as Joe (Left) and Steve Zahn as Troy in Cowboys Image credit: Blue Finch Film ReleasingPresenter: Samira Ah

This year sees a number of writers we know primarily as poets or novelists releasing collections of essays - from Jeanette Winterson to Lucy Ellman and Karl Ove Knausgaard. Tom talks to two of them: Kei Miller, whose latest collection is called Things I have Withheld, and Rachel Kushner, whose new collection is called The Hard Crowd.Dreda Say Mitchell reviews new Sky TV series, Bloods. Samson Kayo and Jane Horrocks star in this six-part comedy series as paramedic partners in the South London ambulance service. When tough-acting loner Maleek is paired with over-friendly divorcee Wendy, their partnership looks dead on arrival. But before long they’re acting as each other’s life support. An ensemble comedy, set within the fast-paced, never-ending rush of 999 call-outs, Bloods also stars Adrian Scarborough, Lucy Punch and Julian Barratt. Writer and video games editor Jordan Erica Webber talks us through the long-awaited New Pokemon Snap. The original game came out in 1999 on the Nintendo 64. Now, its release com

The National Covid Memorial Wall on the bank of the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament is an unofficial site of remembrance and reflection for the 150,000 or so individuals who've died from Covid.Artists and writers consider the role and design of memorials in the 21st century, from the poppies at The Tower of London in 2014 which toured the UK, to the recent controversy of the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol, and the proposed memorial to enslaved Africans and their descendants.Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz discusses his new statue 'April is the Cruellest Month' which has just been unveiled in Margate, which he describes as both a memorial and a monument. Anne McElvoy and historian Kate Williams consider the changing culture and significance of memorials. Oku Ekpenyon recounts her struggle to create a new memorial to slaves whose labour brought wealth to the UK, and writer Spencer Bailey considers how architects across the world have responded to recent and historic tragic eve

Adapted from Paul Theroux’s bestselling book, The Mosquito Coast follows a family on the run from the US government and seeking escape in Mexico, where they hope to build a simpler life away from American consumerist culture. Critics Tanya Motie and Kohinoor Sahota join Tom to discuss the new TV series and to share their cultural picks of the week.Royal Blood is a 2 piece rock band from Brighton whose new album - Typhoons - looks set to top the UK charts like their previous two. They’ve toured internationally supporting Iggy Pop and Foo Fighters and played most of the big festivals including Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage. Unusually they’re a drums and bass guitar duo creating catchy funk heavy riffs Tom speaks with Mike Kerr about creativity and the pressures of rock and roll life.As the first nightclub, under the Government’s pilot events scheme, prepares to open its doors in Liverpool this evening, Front Row talks to Andrew Miller, the Government’s first Disability Champion for Arts and Culture, who fears tha

Raoul Peck is a Haitian filmmaker whose documentary I Am Not Your Negro, based on the words of James Baldwin, was Oscar-nominated and won a Bafta in 2018. Now he has made a new documentary series in 4 parts, Exterminate All the Brutes, looking at the impact of colonialism and the development of racist ideas using a mixture of voice-over, dramatisation, animation and Hollywood movies. He talks about the making of it and why he wanted to tell both a personal and a global history. While rug-making may be associated with an older generation, Gen Z have claimed it as their own, making 'tufting' one of the biggest arts and crafts trends on TikTok. Tufting allows artists to 'paint' with yarn, by using a hand-held machine that punches yarn into canvas. It can be used to create rugs, but also clothing and wall hangings. Here to explain the process of tufting is artist Trish Anderson from her studio in Savannah, Georgia. To celebrate International Dance Day, Samira Ahmed speaks to photographer Camilla Greenwell, whose

Today the shortlist for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction is revealed. Chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo joins Front Row to talk through the chosen books and explain why they’re worth their place on the list and literary critic Alex Clark gives her reactions.Citizen Kane has been knocked off the top spot on Rotten Tomatoes as a unfavourable review from 1941 has been found ruining its 100% critics rating. Taking its place is Paddington 2. Critic Jason Solomons digests the news.Jamie MacDonald is a Glaswegian stand-up comedian who lost his sight in his teens due to a degenerative retinal disease. In his new Radio 4 stand-up series Jamie MacDonald: Life on the Blink, he reflects on how he used humour to move from denial to acceptance of his condition. He shares his experience of writing from personal experience, and how he made the unexpected move from banking to comedy. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah RobinsMain image: Bernadine Evaristo Image credit: Sam Holden

We review new Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone. It's being touted as the new Game of Thrones but is it worth the hype? Children's and YA author Katherine Webber Tsang gives her verdict.This weekend the Brighton Festival opens and will be the first UK city festival since lockdown. Last year the guest director Lemn Sissay was ready to launch the festival when Lockdown restrictions meant the whole thing had to be cancelled. This year, he’s back as guest director again with a festival themed around Care – a personal theme to Lemn who spent his childhood in care, but also one that’s acquired unique resonance over the past year – and with over 94 separate events, installations, and performances across a mixture of outdoor, indoor and online platforms.Plus novelist Gwendoline Riley, who tells us about the process of writing her new novel My Phantoms about a mother and daughter's doomed attempts to communicate with oneanother.And last night, 24-year-old Jonathan Gibson became the youngest ever Mastermind champi

Violinist Nicola Benedetti is performing a new concerto by Mark Simpson, who was winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year (as clarinettist) and the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year. Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Mark wrote it specifically with Nicola in mind. We speak with both of them ahead of this Thursday's premiere.Adrian Lukis discusses his one man show, Being Mr Wickham, which imagines Mr Wickham from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice at the age of sixty. Adrian played the young Wickham in the BBC's classic 1995 adaption and is now performing his new play at the country's last remaining Regency theatre, the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. Leila Latif reports on the fallout from last night’s Academy Awards, in which Nomadland won Best Picture and, at the age of 83, Sir Anthony Hopkins became the oldest ever actor to win an Oscar.And Leila reviews Intergalactic, Sky One TV's new science fiction series about a group of female convicts in space who go on the run.Presen

In a wide ranging extended interview, Sir Tom Jones looks back at his life and career, from his coal-mining upbringing in South Wales to global superstardom. He talks about the therapy he underwent to restore his ability to sing after the death of his wife and the two year quarantine he endured as a child because of tuberculosis. He recalls the time he lost his temper with John Lennon, and the singing teacher who urged him to become on operatic tenor. At the age of 80, Tom has recorded a new album of songs that relate to his life, by writers such as Michael Kiwanuka and Bob Dylan, called Surrounded by Time. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Timothy Prosser Studio Engineer: Giles Aspen

Rose Matafeo discusses her new BBC3 comedy Starstruck. It follows Jessie, a millennial living in East London juggling two dead end jobs and navigating the awkward morning-after-the-night-before, when she discovers the complications of accidentally sleeping with a famous film star. She talks about creating a rom-com, diversity and why her comedy hero is the Dude in the Big Lebowski. The composer Isobel Waller-Bridge is known for her eclectic influences and celebrated scores for stage and screen, ranging from Emma to Vita and Virginia and Fleabag. She has composed the score for a new RSC production of The Winter’s Tale, due to have been staged last year but now filmed for BBC Lights Up. She talks about scoring a play that has such shifts of mood, her intimate and detailed working process and the rewards of collaboration.On Earth Day, Folk duo Ninebarrow explain how they're offsetting their carbon footprint in a plan inspired by the story of Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, second-in-command at the Battle

Actor, writer and director Noel Clarke discusses his latest role in the new five-part ITV drama series Viewpoint, in which he plays a surveillance detective tracking the movements of the prime suspect in the disappearance of a young woman.In the interview he looks back over a career which started with his breakthrough role in Kidulthood in 2006, which he wrote and starred in, and his further success in its sequels Adulthood and Brotherhood. His acting roles have included Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, as well as five years on Doctor Who. He's been back on our screens recently in the high-octane thriller Bulletproof with Ashley Walters.Earlier this month Noel was awarded the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema 2021, and in his acceptance speech he chose to highlight the industry’s need to reflect a more diverse representation, both in front of, and behind, the camera.NB: This programme was broadcast before any allegations about Noel Clarke's behaviour came to light.Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome

Kayo Chingonyi is an award-winning poet, producer, DJ and lyricist. Kayo joins Tom to talk about his much anticipated new collection A Blood Condition, exploring family, identity and his Zambian heritage. Plus his new music podcast series Decode, which takes a deep dive into Dave’s Mercury Prize-winning debut album Psychodrama, revealing its musicality and lyricism over 11 episodes. Schubert’s song cycle, Winterreise, is regarded as the pinnacle of German Lied. This musical story of a young man pining for his lost love and drifting into existential despair has long fascinated audiences and scholars. Now mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato has brought a new approach to this composition. She joins Front Row to discuss how a woman’s perspective has created fresh meaning to Schubert’s winter journey.Lucy Holt reviews The Importance of Being Earnest at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield. This digital production transposes the original narrative of Wilde’s classic comedy to the cobbles and stone walls of the n

London Grammar's debut album in 2013 won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song. Their follow up four years later topped the album charts. Singer and songwriter Hannah Reid talks about their latest album Californian Soil, about sexism in the music industry, and using lockdown as a chance to learn to read music.Craig Easton was last week announced as Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards. He discusses his project Bank Top, a photographic celebration of the residents of a mixed community in Blackburn, for which he won the award. Domhnall Gleeson and his brother Brian have paired up for the new Channel 4 sitcom Frank of Ireland - the first episode aired last last week which Brian has described as “a physical, slapstick comedy about an arrogant fantasist called Frank Maron who’s in his thirties at home with his mother.” Comedian and co-host of the Tellybox podcast Emma Doran reviews the new Channel 4 series.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy ProsserMain image: London Grammar Image cred

Director Deborah Warner discusses her new production of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, which opens at the Teatro Real in Madrid on Monday. The staging of this multinational co-production has become significantly more difficult in the wake of Brexit and more recently she has had to adapt to the numerous challenges posed by Covid. The death was announced today at the age of 52 of Helen McCrory, whose credits included Peaky Blinders, The Queen, Harry Potter and many highly-praised stage roles including Medea and The Deep Blue Sea. Theatre critic Susannah Clapp reflects on her contribution to stage and screen. Cybercrime is a lucrative source for fraudsters; companies’ customer accounts, personal bank details, and pension funds, presenting regular targets for the digital criminals. Now it seems that the world of publishing is attracting the online scammers. Heloise Wood, Deputy News Editor of The Bookseller, shares her latest scoop.Mare of Easttown is a new HBO/Sky Atlantic series starring Kate Winslet

Paul Theroux talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his latest novel “Under The Wave At Waimea” set in Hawaii where he now lives. Published just as he’s celebrated his 80th birthday - it uses surfing as an allegory for consideration of ageing, contemplation, writing, reading and reflecting on his professional and personal life. The conversation ranges across Theroux's long and successful career as a writer of fiction and of travel books.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Oliver Jones

Rapper and writer Testament discusses his new work Orpheus in the Record Shop which fuses spoken word and beatboxing with players from the Orchestra of Opera North in an new collaboration that gives the Greek myth of Orpheus a contemporary Yorkshire twist.Festivals this summer are still in doubt as organisers can't secure insurance commercially. Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, CEO of UK Music, discusses how likely it will be that the government will step in to provide an indemnity. British nature writing remains overwhelmingly white, despite its continuing popularity. With the recent establishment of new prizes and literary journals for diversity in nature writing things are starting to change - but slowly. John talks to two authors bucking the trend: Anita Sethi, author of a new memoir called I Belong Here about reclaiming the countryside for people of colour and Paul Mendez, who contributed an essay to the new collection, In the Garden, about the gardens of his Windrush grandparents. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: S

Ammonite tells the story of fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea who develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever. Set in 1840’s England and starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. The British Council's Director of Film, Briony Hanson reviews. In his early 20s, the actor and producer Jack Holden volunteered for the LGBT+ helpline, Switchboard. A decade on, his experiences there form the foundation of his new play, Cruise, which explores the impact of the 1980s AIDS crisis on the gay community in Soho.Poet and performer Mark Gwynne Jones discusses his celebration of the landscape of Britain’s first National Park as it marks its 70th anniversary, in Voices from the Peak, a journey through the Peak District in word and sound, featuring the atmospheres, wildlife and stories of a land rich in contrasts.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser

Leila Latif reviews Too Close, ITV’s new psychological thriller starring Emily Watson and Denise Gough, which will be broadcast on consecutive nights this week.On the day that commercial art galleries are allowed to re-open in England, Rachel Whiteread discusses her new exhibition Internal Objects at the Gagosian gallery in London. The exhibition features new resin sculptures, and the gallery's two main rooms are occupied by two new works - large sheds made of found materials and painted in white household paint. As the BAFTA winners were announced over the weekend, Chloe Zhao’s film Nomadland won four prizes including best film, best actress for star Frances McDormand and best director. Film critic Leila Latif joins Kirsty to tell us more about the exciting young director, and her first feature film Songs My Brothers Taught Me which has just been released for the first time in the UK. Novelist Rosa Rankin Gee joins Kirsty to talk about her new novel, Dreamland, set in a dystopian future where rising tides an