Front Row

To mark the 20th anniversary of her best-selling debut album, Macy Gray performs her smash hit I Try, and talks frankly to Kirsty about the challenges she faced after achieving fame and success. She also sings from her latest album, Ruby. Tomorrow hundreds of Morris dancers will gather outside the Houses of Parliament to protest against the cancellation of next year's early May bank holiday. Gordon Newton, director of the Rochester Sweeps Festival, explains why this decision has so upset traditional dancers, and the impact it will have on events such as the Jack-in-the-Green in Hastings and others, all over the country. After months of protests Essex county council has dropped plans to close 25 libraries. Instead, the council will now invest £3million into the service to make it “fit for the 21st century”. However plans remain in place to hand some branches over to community groups and the results of a public consultation will be made public tomorrow. To discuss what does make a library fit for the 21st ce

Hip hop pioneer and art lover Fred Brathwaite, aka Fab 5 Freddy, hunts for the hidden black figures of Italian Renaissance art in a new BBC2 documentary, A Fresh Guide To Florence. He reveals some of the ground-breaking images he discovered of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society that have slipped through the cracks of art history.Artist Laurie Anderson discusses her new VR artwork To the Moon, currently at the Manchester International Festival.The author of the bestselling Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams, makes her pick of paperbacks to take on holiday as great summer reads.With the release of the trailers for Cats and the new Top Gun film attracting so much attention on social media, Katie Popperwell considers the importance of the film trailer, and what makes a good one.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald

Illuminated River is a major new art project on the River Thames claiming to be the world’s longest artwork. 15 bridges across the river will be lit up by a series of LED displays for the next 10 years. Kirsty talks to director Sarah Gaventa and light artist Leo Villareal.Twenty-five years since Disney’s animated film The Lion King broke records and won Oscars, a new live action version is roaring onto the big screen. Director Jon Favreau talks about what he learned from rebooting The Jungle Book and how he used virtual reality headsets to shoot the film.The shortlist for the 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK's best new building has been announced today. It includes a whisky distillery, a railway station, an opera house, a social housing terrace, a new gallery and an experimental house made of cork. Architectural critic Oliver Wainwright reports. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser

Karina Canellakis will be launching this year's BBC Proms on Friday, conducting Janáček's monumental Glagolitic Mass. She talks to John Wilson about her approach to this daunting task, why she loves the spiritual drama of the piece and how since early childhood her head has been filled with music. Vicky McClure, Gemma Chan and Samantha Morton star in a series of stand alone television dramas focusing on women under pressure. Created with Dominic Savage, each episode of I am... has been improvised with the themes chosen by the lead actors. These include being in a coercive relationship, a single woman in her thirties facing with pressure to have a child and a single mother struggling to provide for her family. Alison Graham from the Radio Times reviews.In the week that the England men’s cricket team won the World Cup, film director Barney Douglas discusses his new documentary The Edge, about the rise in the rankings for the England team from 2009 to 2013, and the psychological and emotional effect the game had

American composer Philip Glass is often cited as one of the most influential composers alive, combining minimalist, spare music with the harmonic tradition of Bach, Schubert and Mozart. Now, for the Manchester International Festival, he's teamed up with British performer and director Phelim McDermott to produce a very personal work with ten new pieces of music and ten meditations on life, death and Taoist wisdom. In the month that Ravelry, a community site for knitters with over 6 million members, bans patterns that support US President Donald Trump, we consider the power of knitting as a political tool with Geraldine Warner, author of Protest Knits and crafter and haberdashery owner Rosie Fletcher.How far has the representation of black women on stage changed in recent years? Martina Laird shares her experiences as an actor and tutor ahead of her talk, Standing on Shoulders, at the National Theatre.A colossal statue of Ed Sheeran, relaxing on a green plinth in tight red shorts and shades, has been unveiled i

Dominic Dromgoole, used to run Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, he tried take a production of Hamlet to every country in the world (and very nearly succeeded), and he brought a year-long season of Oscar Wilde’s work to the West End. and now he's directed is debut feature film, Making Noise Quietly. It began life as stageplay, a triptych of stories, each involving the meeting of strangers and exploring the impact of war on them. Times, we’re told, are tough for the arts, theatre especially. And yet there will soon be at least ten new theatres in London alone. Theatres around the country are being refurbished: the Everyman in Liverpool, Bristol Old Vic, Theatr Clwyd. Why, how, and who's paying for all this? We hear from Tristan Baker of Troubabour Theatres - which is opening two huge new spaces in London this week, Julien Boast - CEO of the Hall for Cornwall in Truro, where a three-tier, 1,300-seat auditorium is under construction, and Dominic Dromgoole. After a momentous weekend in sport with the Cricke

Novelist and screenwriter Deborah Moggach whose eighteen novels include Heartbreak Hotel, Tulip Fever and These Foolish Things - made into the hit film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - talks to Stig Abell about her new novel The Carer, a poignant story about age, sibling rivalry and having to grow up – at last.Stig is joined by Jordan Erica Webber to play a new computer game based on the world of Hamlet. In Elsinore, released later this month, the player takes on the role of Ophelia and quests to save the lives of the characters and change the course of the story. We ask if an attempt to tell the story of the play in an interactive way bears fruit. The acclaimed Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove talks about staging Ayn Rand’s 1943 novel The Fountainhead at Manchester International Festival. The adaptation, like the book, tells the story of Howard Roark, an architect who refuses to compromise on his “perfect” designs. US president Donald Trump is a fan of The Fountainhead and the home secretary Sajid Javi

Oscar winning director Ron Howard has made an in-depth look at the life and career of singer Luciano Pavarotti, featuring interviews with his family and other stars such as Placido Domingo and Angela Gheorghiu. Classical music critic Fiona Maddocks reviews. The latest British Attitudes Survey is published today, but how are attitudes reflected and influenced by the culture we consume? Research Director from the National Centre for Social Research, Miranda Philips, and cultural historian Matthew Sweet discuss.The organisers of Port Eliot Festival have released a statement saying that this year’s festival will be the last for the foreseeable future. In an age when the festival scene - literary or musical - seems to be thriving, what has gone wrong for them? Colin Midson, the Creative Director, explains.Wendell Berry is a farmer and activist, and the great chronicler of rural America with over fifty books. His latest, Stand By Me, is a collection of short stories chronicling the lives of the small farmers of

Peter Gynt is a new version of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt written by David Hare and starring James McArdle in the title role. Susannah Clapp reviews the National Theatre and Edinburgh International Festival's production.How to appreciate opera is the latest in our series of beginners' guides to art forms that are new to us. Stig, who has not spent much time at the opera, asks soprano Danielle de Niese for her top tips.The Left Behind is a hard-hitting BBC drama about a young working class man in South Wales who becomes radicalised by far-right propaganda. Writer Alan Harris and director Joseph Bullman discuss the show.Actor Rip Torn died yesterday aged 88. Most famous for his roles in the American hit TV comedy series The Larry Sanders Show and the Men in Black franchise, Rip Torn’s career spanned 6 decades. Journalist Michael Goldfarb talks about the life and career of the American actor.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Simon Richardson

Cressida Cowell is announced as the new Waterstones Children’s Laureate. We speak to the How to Train Your Dragon writer about her plans for the role which is mainly focused on encouraging primary school age children to read. With recent attempts by the USA to rekindle the Israeli-Palestinian peace process having foundered on the rocks, we talk to Cherie Blair about her role as Executive Producer of a new film about the crisis. The drama is in development and will be directed by John Deery who also joins John in the studio. The film, The Rock Pile, explores the lives of three little boys – a Muslim, an Arab-Christian and a Jew – who meet and play football together on the streets of Jerusalem.Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi won the Man Booker, selling over 3 million copies and was a critically acclaimed Hollywood movie. It’s the story of Pi, a 16 year old boy stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific with a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. Paul Allen reviews a new adaptation at the Crucible Theatre Sheffield and

Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason talks about her love for the music of Clara Schumann, who in the 19th Century was famous as a virtuoso pianist but overshadowed as a composer by her husband Robert Schumann. Isata has recorded Clara's music for her debut album, Romance. Tree, a major production of the Manchester International Festival, is embroiled in controversy. The Festival states that Tree is a new work, based on a concept by Idris Elba with an original script by Kwame Kwei-Armah. But writers Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley say that they spent 4 years working on the project, workshopping and writing drafts, and should be credited. Samira talks to Allen-Martin and Henley about this and why they have set up an organisation to help female playwrights. Jill Halfpenny and Babou Ceesay star in new BBC drama Dark Money as a parents who accept a huge pay off to keep quiet after finding out their child was sexually abused while shooting a film in Hollywood. The Radio Times's David Butcher reviews,Presenter: Samira Ahm

In the week of Pride and following his Glastonbury speech about LGBTQ rights, Olly Alexander of Years & Years talks about writing lyrics that are overtly about gay relationships.Ari Aster's horror film Midsommar starring Florence Pugh has allegedly given its own stars nightmares. Isabel Stevens reviews. 17th century artists Joan Carlile, Mary Beale and Anne Killigrew were the first professional female painters in Britain. Art historian Bendor Grosvenor discusses the work of these trailblazing women showcased in “Bright Souls”: The Forgotten Story of Britain’s First Female Artists at the Lyon & Turnbull Gallery in London.William Feaver marks the life and work of renowned artist Leon Kossoff, known for his lyrical and energetic paintings of London life. His death has been announced at the age of 92.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson

We last saw the work of the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera when she was commissioned for the turbine hall of Tate Modern. She’s known for facing down police interrogation of her work in her native Havana. Now she’s harnessed Manchester’s international community for what she calls a School of Integration. In May, Ibrahim Mahama was one of the six Ghanaian artists chosen to represent the country as it made its debut at the Venice Biennale. Now, he’s come to Manchester to create Parliament of Ghosts – an exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery which reflects both on Ghana’s time under British rule, and the years following the country’s independence. The Mexican-Canadian electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s new work, Atmospheric Memory uses the very latest technology but is rooted in the story of the English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage. We’ll be asking why this very contemporary artist is seeking inspiration in the nineteenth century.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producers: Ekene Akalawu and O

Filmmaker Chanya Button talks about Vita & Virginia, which explores the relationship between Virginia Woolf and fellow writer Vita Sackville-West, the inspiration for the protagonist of Woolf’s novel Orlando. Based on the correspondence between the two women, the film stars Elizabeth Debicki and Gemma Arterton.Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, hailed as one of the funniest plays ever written, was first performed in 1982 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, where a new production has just opened. It’s a farce about a touring production of a farce, in which the Assistant Stage Manager Poppy struggles to control her actors. Front Row talks to Lois Chimimba, who plays Poppy, and her real life counterpart, Caroline Meer.Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, based on an ode by Friedrich Schiller, was adopted by the EU as its anthem. Following the Brexit party’s response to it being played at the opening of the European parliament, Norman Lebrecht discusses why this piece of music has had so much political resonance since its composi

Howard Jacobson is renowned for his comic novels, winning the 2010 Booker Prize for The Finkler Question . Now he’s published a funny but also tender novel about life and love in older age: Live a Little. He talks to Front Row about his trademark wit, insight and irreverence.Othello: Remixed locates Shakespeare’s play into a London boxing club in 2019. Staged by Intermission Theatre Company, their director Darren Raymond discusses this production and explains how their approach of swapping street vocabulary for the Elizabethan slang used in the original text is intended - and has managed - to allow a wider audience to relate to the work.St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff has been shortlisted for Museum of the Year. A £30m extensive refit has changed much of the site. There are new interactive galleries and more reconstructed buildings in their huge outdoor area. 3,000 volunteers helped throughout the redevelopment and continue to do so. Kirsty takes a tour with Director of Learning and Engag

Inkheart writer Cornelia Funke discusses Pan's Labyrinth, her new collaboration with director Guillermo del Toro, who approached her to write an adult novel based on his 2006 dark fantasy film.The filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck discusses his latest work Never Look Away, which has blurred the line between fiction and biography. The Oscar-nominated epic historical drama follows 30 years in the life of a great artist, loosely based on Gerhard Richter, one of the 20th century's most admired visual artists, as it sees him struggling to create meaningful work under Nazism, Socialism and the Avant-Garde. The striking grey exterior of V&A Dundee has been likened to the prow of a ship and to sea cliffs. Inside it houses treasures of Scottish craft. Shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year less than a year after it opened its doors, Director Philip Long talks about the impact of the building, inside and out. Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald

50 years ago, on July 20th 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first people to set foot on the moon. A new film documentary, Apollo 11, charts that historic event using unseen archive footage and some of the 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings. The film’s director Todd Douglas Miller discusses the challenge of bringing NASA’s monumental achievement to the big screen. We conclude our exploration of LGBT literature marking today’s 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The events of 28th June 1969 were a key moment in the birth of the gay rights movement. Dr Erica Gillingham, Bookseller at London’s ‘Gay’s the Word’ bookshop and specialist in LGBT young adult fiction guides us through titles from the last decade.It’s been a big week for memes with Boris Johnson’s image being transposed to the Titanic and an Ikea catalogue. Louis Wise unpicks what makes the best ones so successful and consider what memes tell us about the zeitgeist, how memes act as instant feedback on TV, film or music vide

Kate Atkinson discusses her new novel, Big Sky. For Jackson Brodie fans it’s been a long nine years but finally he’s back. After the first four books in this crime fiction series, the acclaimed writer turned her attention to World War II resulting in two prize-winning novels, Life After Life and A God In Ruins. She explains how almost a decade later she was ready to return to Jackson and why the sixth Jackson book is not so far away.As insults fly, tempers flare, and books are pulled, writer Leo Benedictus, Charlotte Eyre, Children’s Editor at The Bookseller, and Children’s and YA author Patrice Lawrence discuss the impact that online criticism is having on the world of Young Adult fiction.We continue our exploration of LGBT literature which marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York in 1969, a key moment in the birth of the gay rights movement. Today journalist Amelia Abraham, author of the recently published book Queer Intentions: a Personal Journey through LGBTQ+ Culture, guides us thro

A killer dress is on the hunt in Peter Strickland’s new kitsch horror film In Fabric, which stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as an innocent sales shopper. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews. We continue our exploration of LGBT literature marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The events of 28th June 1969 were a key moment in the birth of the gay rights movement. Today novelist and salon host Damian Barr reflects on growing up gay in 1990s Scotland and the queer books he loves from that decadeToday is National Writing Day and Rajan Dator meets Kaoru Akagawa who is keeping alive Kana Shodo, a script developed in 10th century Japan by women, so they could write, and for women, so they could read. Akagawa tells its story and explains how she uses Kana Shodo in her own art.For the third of Front Rows reports from the five museums and galleries shortlisted for the 2019 Art Fund Museum of the Year, we visit HMS Caroline in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast, a First World War naval cruiser, the sole survivor of the B

Tuyen Do has acted at the Royal Court and the National Theatre and now sh'e written a play. Not only is it her first drama, it’s the first by British-Vietnamese writer to have a full professional production in the UK. Summer Rolls is a family saga that centres on Mai, whose parents have escaped war-torn Vietnam, but carry psychological wounds. They are anxious not just for their children to succeed, but that their daughter in particular should not stray from Vietnamese culture and language. But Mai is young, inquisitive and growing up in multicultural Britain. She yearns for the freedom her parents fled to the UK for but which they won’t allow her. Tuyen Do talks to Kirsty Lang about dramatizing dual identity, and the importance of telling such stories.The first retrospective in Britain of the American artist Cindy Sherman opens at the National Portrait Gallery this week, spanning her 40 year career. Best known for her fictionalised photographic self-portraits, Sherman manipulates her own appearance and image