Front Row

As she turns 80, Germaine Greer reflects on her career as a Shakespeare academic, public intellectual, feminist and provocateur.Germaine Greer discusses her passion for Shakespeare and how reading his comedies influenced her thinking for The Female Eunuch; her work championing the work of female writers and painters; how much things have really changed for women; and she shares her thoughts on censorship and pornography and why being outspoken is the best way to provoke change.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah Robins

Clint Eastwood is the director and star of The Mule, about a cantankerous 90 year-old horticulturist who decides to become a drug mule. Mark Eccleston reviews. The UK's biggest contemporary art prize, the £40,000 Artes Mundi prize, was won last night in Cardiff by Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, known for his dream-like films such as Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. He talks to Front Row.In new novel When All is Said, 84 year-old Maurice Hannigan props up the hotel bar in a small town in Ireland and, by toasting the five people important in his life, he tells of his path from poverty to becoming a rich landowner. Debut novelist Anne Griffin explains her real-life inspiration and how she got into her narrator’s head.There have been calls by Leave campaigners for London's Photographers' Gallery to be stripped of its funding in the wake of their exhibition of a fully functioning office tasked with reversing Brexit. In the continued uncertainty surrounding

Karen Krizanovich explains the appeal of three of the biggest recent hit TV releases still provoking discussion: Bird Box and Sex Education on Netflix, and Bros: After the Screaming Stops on BBC iPlayer.The contemporary video artist Bill Viola has been paired with the Renaissance master Michelangelo in the Royal Academy’s new exhibition, Bill Viola/Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth. It sets out to show the preoccupation of both artists with the nature of human experience and existence. Critic Waldemar Januszczak gives his response to the exhibition and its thesis.The Art Fund, the charity that raises money to acquire art for the nation, has revealed that it is to disband its volunteer network by the end of the year. Its director Stephen Deuchar explains the decision.The death has been announced of the great literary editor and writer Diana Athill. She worked with many celebrated authors including Jean Rhys, Molly Keane and VS Naipaul. In recent decades she became known as a brilliant and unsentimental writ

The nominations for the 91st Academy Awards were announced earlier today with Roma and The Favourite leading the list, with Black Panther the first superhero film to be nominated for best picture. Kirsty Lang is joined by film critics Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Jason Solomons to consider the winners and losers, and assess whether there is a better representation of BAME talent than in previous years.Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Dymphna FlynnMain image: Oscars Photo credit: Getty Images

Nicole Kidman discusses her first lead role for some time as she plays a tortured detective in the grimy LA-set thriller, Destroyer.John Cleland’s 18th century novel Fanny Hill has become known as 'the most famous banned book in the country'. Written in 1749, it tells the story of Frances ‘Fanny’ Hill who, after her parents' death, travels from the countryside to London earning money as a sex worker. As one of the oldest-known copies is set to go under the hammer, literary critic Sarah Ditum discusses if it still has the power to excite and shock us.Netflix's Tidying Up with Marie Kondo has caused a stir for suggesting that we should hang on to only 30 books that ‘spark joy’. Stig visits the author Linda Grant in her living room to ask her about famously culling the book collection that she'd built up from childhood.As Sotheby's prepare their auction The Female Triumphant, a selection of works by female Old Masters from the 16th to 19th centuries, including Artemisia Gentileschi, Sotheby's specialist Chloe St

The Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright MP, who today gave his ‘Value of Culture’ speech, in which he set out the government’s plans for a multi-million-pound investment in the arts and culture in the UK, discusses his plans to ‘unleash creativity across the nation’.This week the BBC radio schedules saw sweeping change with new presenters at the helm of two breakfast shows. Lauren Laverne takes over from Shaun Keaveny at 6 Music, and Zoe Ball fills the shoes of Chris Evans on the UK’s largest breakfast show on Radio 2. Radio critic Susan Jeffreys reviews both shows, as well as BBC Sounds new true crime style drama podcast, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma has followed his Man Booker shortlisted novel, The Fisherman, with an epic story narrated by the central character’s guardian spirit, or Chi. He tells Alex how he wanted An Orchestra of Minorities to explore the Igbo belief system in the way that Milton’s Paradise Lost does for Christianity.Presenter: Alex Clark Producer: Sara

The impact of Brexit on the creative industries. Today a letter from the Business for People’s Vote Campaign, was published in the Times, signed by names including leaders of the creative industries, like Norman Foster, Terence Conran, and the bosses of Aardman Animation and Endemol Shine. We speak to John Kampfner, formerly of the Creative Industries Federation and who helped coordinate the letter, about the impact of proposals on the sector.Bestselling author of The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield, on her third novel, Once Upon A River – a mystery set in the 19th century around the Thames.The Government has created something called the ‘Building Better, Building Beautiful commission’, led by philosopher Roger Scruton. It will be shortly hosting public debates about the aesthetics of architecture. Architectural designer and presenter of Building the Dream, Charlie Luxton, discusses beauty in architecture. Composer, multi-instrumentalist, performance artist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun is one of the

M. Night Shyamalan discusses his new film, Glass, the third in his comic book trilogy with Unbreakable and Split. It stars Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis and James McAvoy. The Sixth Sense director reveals how he storyboards every single shot, how he uses colour to denote character and why it’s so important for him to root his supernatural storylines in the real world.D. H. Lawrence is famous for his novels - The Rainbow, Sons and Lovers, Women in Love and, notoriously, Lady Chatterley's Lover. His poetry is admired and he is even known as a painter. But he also, early in his career, wrote several plays. They didn't enjoy much success in his lifetime - The Daughter-in-Law, which Richard Eyre hails as his masterpiece, wasn't performed until 1967, but there have been a number of productions in recent years. As an acclaimed staging of The Daughter-in-Law returns to the Arcola Theatre, Samira Ahmed discusses the work of D. H. Lawrence, dramatist, with the play's director Jack Gamble and the Lawrence scholar Dr Cat

Academy Award nominee Steve Carell continues his pursuit of more serious roles with his latest film Beautiful Boy. The true story is based on the parallel books by David and Nic Sheff, played by Steve and Timothée Chalamet, chronicling the years in which David tries to help his son, whose drug addiction is spiralling out of control.This weekend 70,000 people attended the festival marking the start of Waltham Forest's year as the inaugural London Borough of Culture. But after recent knife attacks in the area, questions have been raised about whether London's City Hall should be spending the £1 million award on culture rather than policing. Sam Hunt, Creative Director of the Waltham Forest Borough of Culture, and former Deputy Mayor and Executive Director for Culture at King's College London, Munira Mirza discuss.Composer Brian Tyler is best known for blockbuster film scores including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World and The Mummy 3. His most recent hit soundtrack was for Jon M Chu’s Cr

Octavian, the winner of BBC Music’s Sound of 2019 announced on Friday, is a true rags-to-riches story. The French-born rapper discusses how, after a turbulent upbringing which saw him homeless for some of his teenage years, he has gone on to make his mark on the scene and how music has always been a driving force for him.Seven years since TV series The Killing's final episode, its creator, Danish writer Søren Sveistrup, is publishing a crime thriller, The Chestnut Man, his first novel. Søren tells Stig how he moved from the cult detective Sarah Lund to create new detectives for the novel.Minutes after the announcement is made, live from the award ceremony Front Row brings you the first interview with the winner of the £25,000 T. S. Eliot Prize for the best collection of poetry published last year. This is the UK’s most prestigious poetry prize, the one poets aspire to win, the one judged only by other poets. Only Fools -The (Cushty) Dining Experience, is the latest comedy theatre tribute version of the BBC’s

The immortal comedy duo of Laurel and Hardy have been given a second life on screen by John C. Riley and Steve Coogan in the new film Stan & Ollie. The actors have been nominated for their roles at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs respectively, and they discuss the film that tells the story of Laurel and Hardy’s final UK tour in the twilight of their careers.A man wakes up in a forest with no memory. He is told that today a murder will be committed. He will relive the same day eight times, but each morning he’ll wake up in a different body. This lies at the heart of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle which has just won the Costa First Novel Award. Its author Stuart Turton discusses his time-travelling, body-hopping novel.Tomorrow, the partial shutdown of the US government becomes the longest in the country's history, leaving some 800,000 federal employees unpaid. From New York, David D'Arcy of the Art Newspaper explains how the shutdown is impacting on the US's arts and cultural institutions.Presenter Kirs

Hugh Jackman on his film The Front Runner, in which he plays Democratic contender Gary Hart, who in 1987 was ahead in the polls before an alleged affair shot down his chances of becoming US President.The winner of the Costa Biography Award, announced on Front Row this week, is The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es. The author discusses his book which tells the story of a 9-year-old Jewish Dutch girl, Hesseline – or Lien – who was handed by her parents to Bart van Es’s grandparents in 1942 to be fostered and kept safe during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Lien is now 85 and living in Amsterdam, and together they recount a remarkable story of tragedy and survival.As Italy decides not to lend three Leonardo Da Vinci paintings to the Louvre in Paris for their blockbuster exhibition of the old master's work, art journalist Anna Somers Cocks reports on how much loans of this kind are used as symbolic political gestures.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah Robins

The comedian Nish Kumar on why his latest stand up tour is his most political yet, and the challenge of keeping his satirical topical news television show, The Mash Report, fresh in these febrile times.The look of a building has always been an essential element in architectural design, but less conspicuous are its acoustic properties. Specialists in acoustic design are frequently engaged to enhance the aural experience of people in a room or a building. Their work ranges from blocking out unwanted noise, such as from passing trains, to providing the optimal sound for the audience and musicians in a concert hall. Stig Abell visits a virtual sound laboratory, and hears from Trevor Cox, professor of acoustic engineering, about the history and importance of sound in building design.The winner of the 2018 Costa Children’s Book Award is Hilary McKay. She talks to Stig about her novel, The Skylarks’ War. This is set during the First World War and follows three children growing up at a time when girls had to fight fo

Keira Knightley discusses her new film about the celebrated French Belle Epoque author Colette, whose bestselling Claudine novels explored teenage sexuality and were inspired by her own life. Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan return with the BAFTA award-winning comedy series Catastrophe on Channel 4. Since becoming pregnant after a fast-moving romance in the show's first episode, the couple's life together has continued to spiral out of control, culminating at the end of series three with Rob succumbing to his alcoholism and being involved in a drink-driving incident. The pair discuss what it's like to star in and write the dark comedy.Front Row has announced the winners of the Costa Book Awards 2018 this week. J.O. Morgan talks about Assurances, winner of the poetry category, his single long poem which runs through the Cold War, depicting the airborne nuclear deterrent in which his father, an RAF officer, was involved. It features passages in verse and others in what the poet calls not prose but unverse, and it

Charlie Brooker discusses his ground-breaking interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, where the viewer chooses multiple storylines. As Netflix's first adult live action interactive experience, does this herald the start of a new genre for entertainment?Sophie Raworth (Chair of Judges) announces the category winners of the Costa Book Awards (2018) exclusively on Front Row and John talks live to the Best Novel winner. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Timothy Prosser

Forrest Gump, Back to the Future and Castaway director Robert Zemeckis returns with new film Welcome to Marwen. Based on real-life events and starring Academy Award nominee Steve Carell, the film charts the unconventional way one man copes with losing his memory after a violent attack.As Carol Ann Duffy comes to the end of her ten year stint as the Nation’s Poet Laureate - the first woman in its 350 year history - the Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright has convened a panel of experts to select her successor. Poet Helen Mort and Judith Palmer, Director of the Poetry Society look back at Carol Ann Duffy’s tenure and the particular demands placed on the holder of this prestigious royal appointment, whilst also considering the Laureate’s changing role in a society facing political turmoil.In new BBC2 series The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts, six crafters go back to Victorian times to live out William Morris’s utopia of the Arts and Crafts movement. Living as Victorians in an artists’ commune in Wales, they ta

Brexit: The Uncivil War stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Rory Kinnear as the leaders of the Leave and Remain campaigns. Written by James Graham, the one-off Channel 4 drama follows the campaigns as they compete for public attention and votes. TV critic David Butcher reviews.The Catcher in the Rye, narrated by 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, is perhaps the classic coming-of-age text of the 20th Century. Why did the book have such an impact and what are the merits of JD Salinger’s other work? Literary critic Erica Wagner and American cultural commentator Michael Carlson discuss the writing of this hugely talented and complicated man, to mark Salinger's centenary. Tracy-Ann Oberman, perhaps best known as Chrissie Watts in EastEnders, discusses her new roles in the Harold Pinter plays Party Time and Celebration. They are being performed as part of a six month season at the Pinter Theatre in London where they are bringing together all of his one-act productions.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ben Mitchell

Olivia Colman is winning major awards for her portrayal of Queen Anne in The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos’ film about a scandalous love triangle between the monarch, the Duchess of Marlborough and her cousin Abigail Masham. Olivia Colman discusses the difference between playing Queen Anne and her other role as our present Queen Elizabeth in the forthcoming series of The Crown. Luther is back. Dreda Say Mitchell reviews Idris Elba’s return as the maverick police detective as the BBC airs an episode a night this week.Roger Kneebone, Professor of Surgical Education, and embroiderer Fleur Oakes, artist-in-residence in the vascular department of Imperial College London, discuss the role of embroidery and 'thread management' in helping surgeons become more proficient when they perform vascular surgery. Presenter Janina Ramirez Producer Jerome Weatherald

Actress Keeley Hawes has long been a household name and seems to have an uncanny ability to pick parts that place her in the most talked about TV shows of their moment. In this extended interview we look back on her career, considering those key roles including the Home Secretary in the hugely popular Bodyguard, working on cult lesbian drama Tipping the Velvet, MI5 agent Zoe in spy thriller Spooks, playing a cop sent back to the 80s in Ashes to Ashes, a policewoman under investigation in Line of Duty and a mother of four starting a new life on Corfu in The Durrells. We'll also hear how Keeley got started as an actress, how she chooses her roles and what changes she's seen in TV over the last 20 years.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah Robins

How much were you paying attention to arts and culture in 2018? Critics Boyd Hilton, Katie Puckrik and Sarah Crompton, Raifa Rafiq from the Mostly Lit podcast, and actress Maureen Lipman battle it out to see who'll be crowned champion in our cultural quiz of the year. Plus what is your favourite cultural depiction of New Year's Eve? Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins