Front Row

The 1983 Scottish film Local Hero was a much-loved comedy drama about an American oil company rep who is sent to a fictional village in Scotland to purchase the town for his company. This film has now been adapted into a stage musical at the Edinburgh Lyceum with all 19 songs composed by Mark Knopfler, who wrote the film soundtrack. So does Local Hero the musical work? Novelist Ian Rankin delivers his verdict.After a two-year build-up, the UK will not be leaving European Union today after all. To reflect the mood of the nation, we investigate the anti-climax in art with film critic Hannah McGill and writer Matt Thorne. Why do writers and film-makers use it, what effect does it have, and what makes an anti-climax poignant or simply frustrating? Legendary film-maker Agnès Varda's death was announced today, at the age of 90. She was one of the key figures in the French New Wave in the 1960s, making films like Cleo from 5 to 7, Le Bonheur and The Creatures. Hannah McGill reflects on the career of the influential

Tash Aw, winner of the Whitbread Award and Commonwealth Book Prize, discusses his new novel We the Survivors, about a man born in a Malaysian fishing village who tries to make his way in a country and society that is transforming. He describes the book as a tribute to those battling to survive in a ruthless, rapidly changing world. As museums such as the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Modern sever ties with the philanthropic Sackler family following controversy over its alleged role in the opioid crisis, what is the wider impact on the ethics of arts sponsorship? How much scrutiny of arts sponsors should there be? Andrea is joined by Heledd Fychan, chair of the Museum Association's Ethics Committee and author and academic Tiffany Jenkins.Dear Lord and Father of Mankind is one of the nation's favourite hymn tunes, yet the tune itself comes from a much bigger work, the oratorio Judith by Hubert Parry, which is about to get its first UK performance in almost one hundred years at the Royal Festival Hall in Lo

Scottish artist Katie Paterson’s exhibition at Turner Contemporary, Margate, explores our relationship with the vastness and mysteries of the universe, as she works with scientists who have pioneered research on the cosmic spectrum. The artist discusses her fascination with the physical world.So many successful TV shows have non-celebrities at their heart, from documentaries to reality programmes like Made in Chelsea and Great British Bake Off. But how do programme-makers find the contributors who will make interesting viewing? Co-director of production company Drummer TV Rachel Drummer Hay and TV critic Emma Bullimore give their perspective on what makes a good cast. The 2018 Ted Hughes Award highlights outstanding contributions made by poets to our cultural life. Front Row talks to the winner of the £5000 prize, live from the award ceremony, minutes after the announcement is made this evening.As a member of The Beat, Ranking Roger was one of the stars of British Ska, bringing his “toasting” skills to many

A history of classical music in 10 minutes. Pianist Jeremy Denk traces seven centuries of Western Classical Music in one recital and album, C.1300 – C.2000, demonstrating at the piano the evolution of harmony from the medieval composer Machaut to Philip Glass. Author Arundhati Roy has agreed to appear at Hay Festival in May following the loss of sponsorship from corporate Tata. Will Gompertz reports on the growing trend for arts organisations to drop significant investment from businesses which artists and audiences see as unethical. Does tragedy still have a place in contemporary British theatre? Playwrights Roy Williams and April De Angelis, and Dr Rosie Wyles, lecturer in classical history and literature at the University of Kent, discuss.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins

Politics and Big Band music :British musician Matthew Herbert has created The State Between Us, a new album made in reaction to the progress of Brexit. It's a work which includes original composition, choral elements and recorded sounds which reflect the triggering of Article 50; there's someone walking the Irish border, someone eating fish and chips and even someone flying a WWII bomber. Matthew Herbert discusses his intentions for the work, recording in Europe, and why he changed the name from The Brexit Big Band to The Great Britain and Gibraltar European Union Membership Referendum Big Band. The album is released on Friday 29th March – Brexit Day - and there are two performances that same day at London's Royal Court Theatre.A new exhibition at Tate Britain brings together the largest group of Van Gogh paintings shown in the UK for nearly a decade. Van Gogh and Britain charts Vincent's years in London between 1873 and 1876 as a young art dealer before he tookup painting. Head curator Carol Jacobi and spe

The recent Pinter season at the Pinter Theatre in London, culminating in the current production of Betrayal starring Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton and Charlie Cox, suggests that Harold Pinter has a durability that other writers of his generation may not be able to claim. What are the qualities that give his work resonance to an audience today? The director Jamie Lloyd, theatre critic and Pinter biographer Michael Billington, and Dr Catriona Fallow, research fellow on the Harold Pinter: Histories and Legacies project, tell Front Row why they think his work endures.In his award-winning play The Believers Are But Brothers, Javaad Alipoor invited audiences to experience the world of young disaffected men online by joining a WhatsApp group. Alipoor talks to Stig Abell about the play which tells four fictional stories - an Islamic State group recruiter, two British recruits and an Alt-Right 'white boy' from California, and has which has now been adapted into a drama BBC Four. Guitarist and songwriter Richard Hawley

Photographer David Bailey has shot some of the most iconic portraits of the last six decades, from the Kray twins to the Queen. He talks about his life and career and how to achieve the perfect portrait shot. Tomorrow the UK’s largest cast bronze sculpture is unveiled in Plymouth. John talks to artist Joseph Hillier, who has been working on the crouching female figure called Messenger for the last two years.Sophie Wright from Magnum considers the different ways photographers have captured the body in a new exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, The Body Observed: Magnum Photos. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Timothy Prosser

Ralph Fiennes' third film as director is The White Crow, the story of how Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev came from a peasant upbringing to be one of the greatest dancers, and how whilst on tour in Paris in 1961 he defected to the West from the Soviet Union. Critic Sarah Crompton reviews.Last week dozens of well-heeled American parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, were charged with involvement in a scheme to fabricate academic and athletic credentials to get their children into prestigious universities. And last week Joshua Harmon’s play ‘Admissions’ opened here. It’s about a woman who, devoted to improving diversity at her elite school, finds herself somewhat challenged when her son doesn’t get into Yale - but his mixed race best friend does. And this week another American play, ‘Downstate’ by Bruce Norris, opens at the National Theatre. This is set in a group home where four men, convicted of sex crimes against children and tagged, live. A man comes to confront his abuser,

Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges discuss their new film Ben is Back, in which a mother faces difficult challenges when her drug-addicted son returns to the family home from rehab unexpectedly for Christmas.We consider the art of internet memes as the World Wide Web turns 30. Elise Bell, co-founder of Tabloid Art History, explains how they make memes that go viral on Twitter and Instagram, and art historian Richard Clay explains where the term comes from, and considers their place in our wider cultural landscape.Actress Jessica Hynes, perhaps best-known for her BAFTA-winning performance as marketing guru Siobhan Sharpe in BBC comedy satires Twenty Twelve and W1A, discusses putting comedy aside to make her film directorial debut. The Fight tells the story of a middle-aged woman who takes up boxing to help her face her family problems, and sees Jessica take on the roles of writer, director, and lead actor, and even take up boxing.Presenter Stig Abell Producer Jerome Weatherald

Jordan Peele talks about Us - his new film about a family terrorised by their doppelgängers. Having upturned the horror genre with his Oscar-winning racial satire Get Out, Jordan takes aim at the American dream in this follow up, starring Lupita Nyong’o.The artist Christian Marclay is best known for The Clock - a 24-hour long film composed of nearly 12 000 clips, taken from films depicting time references across a full day. Critic Sarah Crompton assesses his latest two 'collage' video works on show in a new exhibition about to open at the White Cube Gallery in London. The UK contemporary country music scene has grown rapidly over recent years, and this week Bauer Media announced that they will be launching a new radio station, Country Hits Radio. Next month also sees the release of new film Wild Rose where a Glaswegian singer dreams of becoming a Nashville star. The film writer, Nicole Taylor, and Gary Stein of Bauer Media discuss the rise in popularity of the genre here in the UK.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Prod

Briony Hanson reviews the Golden Globe nominated film, Girl, which tells the story of a trans teenage girl who, training to be a ballerina is struggling to adapt to dancing “on pointe” during her transition from male to female.Two long lost episodes of The Likely Lads have recently been discovered and are coming out on DVD and Blu Ray. Dick Clement who, with Ian La Frenais, wrote the television comedy series tells John Wilson how tapes of what now be considered classic programmes were wiped. He discusses, too, the groundbreaking qualities of these stories about Terry and Bob, two working class Geordie lads, one with aspirations, the other more content with his lot. The Windham-Campbell prize at $165,000 is one of the biggest literary prizes in the world despite being relatively unknown. The prize is judge anonymously and the writers don't even know they’ve been nominated. We announce this year’s winners and speak to two of them. How did they received the news and how they plan to spend their winnings.The

Idris Elba has a new Netflix comedy series: Turn Up Charlie. He plays a struggling DJ and eternal bachelor, who is given a final shot at success when he reluctantly becomes a ‘manny’ to his famous best friend's problem-child daughter, Gabby. Julia Raeside reviews.25 years ago the Fisherman’s Friends were just a crew of friends in Port Isaac, Cornwall. Some of them were fishermen. They sang sang shanties, nautical and Cornish songs, for fun to locals and holidaymakers. In 2010 they signed a record deal and since then the Friends have performed at the Royal Albert Hall, the main stage at Glastonbury and they've had a Top 10 single. Now there's a lightly-fictionalised feature film telling their story. Fisherman’s Friends will sing live in the studio. Also Tuppence Middleton tells us about her role in the film and how it deals with the dilemmas of gentrification, second home ownership in Cornwall, identity, opportunity and loyalty.The cheeky chappy is a staple of TV comedy- Arthur Daley, Del Boy Trotter - a

In 2016 Waitress made history as the first Broadway musical with an all-female creative team. Millie Taylor reviews the new West End production, with music and lyrics by the American singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles. Sadie Jones, author of the Costa-winning The Outcast, discusses her fourth book, The Snakes, which is a tale of power, greed, secrets and shame that ends in tragedy.As the internet turns 30 next week we consider how the world wide web has affected how artists create work by connecting them directly with fans, bypassing traditional gatekeepers and using new platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Gavia Baker Whitelaw considers screen and fan culture, Tom Rasmussen looks at the drag scene and Mik Scarlet discusses the impact on music and disabled artists.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson

Maggie Gyllenhaal discusses her new film The Kindergarten Teacher, in which she plays a teacher who believes one of her students is a child prodigy and begins to pass his poems off as her own. She also talks about having an intimacy director on the set of The Deuce, and her upcoming directorial debut - an adaptation of an Elena Ferrante novel.This week Akwaeke Emezi became the first non-binary author to be long-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Critic Vic Parsons discusses the consequences of this for women's prizes. The BalletBoyz dancers have dispensed with a traditional choreographer to create a new work themselves, called Them. Front Row goes backstage at Sadler's Wells with dancers Matthew Sandiford and Bradley Waller, artistic director Michael Nunn and composer Charlotte Harding. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Timothy Prosser

In ITV’s new psychological thriller Cheat, a university lecturer accuses a student of cheating in her essay, sparking a series of retaliations which threaten to spiral out of control. Film and TV lecturer James Walters reviews the show which stars Katherine Kelly and Molly Windsor.Photographer Richard Billingham, dubbed the 'pioneer of squalid realism', won a Turner Prize nomination for his images of his parents’ alcoholic and troubled life in a Black Country tower block. He discusses his return to those roots with his first feature film Ray & Liz, an unflinching portrait of growing up in poverty and on the margins of society.The late editor and memoirist Diana Athill, who died in January aged 101, agreed to be the subject of a long one-to-one interview, which had the premise of it only being broadcast after her death. Eddie Morgan, the man behind Diana Athill: Final Say - which goes out on Sky Arts tonight - discusses the background to the project.As London club Fabric hits 20 this year, despite other c

The career of Hollywood superstar Samuel L Jackson was recently revealed to have made him the highest-grossing actor of all time. He joins Samira to discuss the new Marvel superhero film, Captain Marvel; in which he reprises the role of Nick Fury... This time around he's playing a Nick Fury who is twenty years younger than before, as the film is set in the 90s. He reveals how he de-aged himself for the part and also talks to Samira about The Oscars, why he chooses “popcorn” films to star in, and which of the 120 films in which he's appeared is his favourite.Amy Ng’s new play, Under the Umbrella, opens tonight at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. The story is about Wei, a Chinese PhD student researching human fertility, enjoying life with her English flatmate in the city. But family pressure to return home and get married grows intense. Her grandmother survived famine, her mother the Cultural Revolution and the one-child policy, so while this is a highly entertaining comedy, it's a dark one, exploring the dil

When The Specials released their new album Encore recently, their first new music with Terry Hall since the classic Ghost Town in 1981, it went straight to Number One. Nearly four decades on from their split, the Coventry band’s lead singer Terry Hall discusses the new album and how he found himself back in the recording studio with his long-term collaborators Lynval Golding and Horace Panter after all these years.This year is the 25th anniversary of the first universal democratic elections in South Africa which resulted in Nelson Mandela becoming President of the new rainbow nation. Athol Fugard’s plays dramatise the injustices of apartheid and were part of the struggle that led to those elections. Now two of his plays are about to open in the UK, 1961’s Blood Knot, and, A Lesson, which was first performed in 1978. Directors Janet Suzman and Matthew Xia discuss the importance of Fugard and how, 25 years after the end of apartheid, his plays speak to us today. As the National Gallery's newly acquired self-

Stephen Merchant has written and directed the feature film Fighting with my Family, which tells the unlikely true story of a young British woman from Norwich who found fame on the women’s wrestling circuit in America. Merchant discusses going in at the deep end and working alongside former champion wrestler and Hollywood star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Arifa Akbar reviews new books by Leila Aboulela (Bird Summons), Oyinkan Braithwaite (My Sister the Serial Killer) and 2015 Man Booker winner Marlon James (Black Leopard, Red Wolf).Theatre company Clean Break has been working with women with experience of the criminal justice system for 40 years. In their anniversary year, Front Row talks to joint artistic director Roisin McBrinn and Clean Break member Jennifer Joseph. Jennifer co-created and stars in the company’s latest show, Inside Bitch, which challenges the portrayal of women’s prisons on our screens.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Timothy Prosser

In his new series After Life, Ricky Gervais plays a local journalist who tries to find humour as he struggles in the wake of his wife’s death, with a dog as his closest companion. Gervais discusses how he copes with people’s reactions and offence at his work and the controversy surrounding historical social media posts and celebrity redemption.Tom Walker, winner of this year’s British Breakthrough Act at the Brits, performs his new single Just You and I live in studio. He describes his music as a mix of “hip hop, a tiny bit of blues, a bit of pop with a splash of reggae” and his debut album, What a Time to be Alive, has seen him collaborate with producers such as Naughty Boy and Steve Mac, who has worked with Ed Sheeran.Critic and broadcaster Norman Lebrecht looks at the life of the late composer, conductor and pianist Andre Previn.With the sales of young adult literature falling by a third in the last year, Charlotte Eyre of the Bookseller and publisher Crystal Mahey-Morgan discuss the reasons for the drop

Charlotte Rampling discusses her new film Hannah, for which she won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival playing a woman shunned by her family and society. She also talks about her five decade career, from Georgy Girl to her recent Oscar-nominated performance in 45 Years. Hector Berlioz died 150 years ago next week. Best-known for his Symphony Fantastique - described by Leonard Bernstein as the first musical work of psychedelia, he wrote the first symphony to feature the viola as a solo instrument, and once ascribed a piece to another composer because he thought the critics would take against it if they knew it was his. Conductor Jeremy Summerly discusses the composers legacy. Folk trio Leveret are about to release their fourth album, Diversions. Fiddle player Sam Sweeney and concertina virtuoso Rob Harbron perform a track from the album and explain how they find their material by delving into old manuscripts, archives and music books to reinvent them in their own style.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: