Front Row

Sarah Perry discusses Melmoth, her eagerly awaited novel after her award-winning The Essex Serpent. Her new novel is about an English translator who, hiding from her past in Prague, uncovers the legend of Melmoth – a woman in black who wanders the world bearing witness to humanity’s worst crimes.BBC1’s new Sunday night drama is a television adaptation of Helen Fitzgerald’s novel The Cry, in which the abduction of a baby leads to the psychological disintegration of a young woman. Emma Bullimore reviews The Cry and considers why child abduction or disappearance is such a recurring theme in contemporary television drama, with series such as Missing, Kiri and Save Me. What is ‘cultural first aid’? And why is it so important to save heritage in the face of natural disaster, fire, flood and conflict emergencies? Biovanni Boccardi of UNESCO alongside Aparna Tandon and Jose Luiz Pedersoli from ICCROM join Samira to discuss, and also to look at how cultural first aid is being used to help the National Museum of Braz

After being appointed director of last year’s opening event for Hull’s year as City of Culture, award-winning and Hull-born filmmaker Sean McAllister decided to make a documentary looking at the impact of the City of Culture on Hullensians by following the work of one man to set up a hip-hop project for disadvantaged kids. He discusses the result, A Northern Soul, and explains his current efforts to challenge the film’s certification.Jamaican-born Poet Tanya Shirley is one of the Hull 18, a selection of poets who have been commissioned to create new work to be premiered in Hull during the Contains Strong Language festival. She joins Jeremy Poynting, founder of Peepal Tree Press, the largest, worldwide publisher of Caribbean and Black British writing to discuss the rise of Caribbean literature.The artist Sean Scully is famous for his distinctively striped oil paintings. As he opens the first exhibition of his sculpture and paintings in the UK, he talks about his love of stripes, his move into sculpture, and

In Theatr Clywd’s new production of William Golding’s classic novel Lord of the Flies, the group of schoolboys stranded on a remote island have all been reimagined as girls. Critic Gary Raymond reviews.Forty playwrights and actors have accused National Theatre Wales of favouring English artists and companies over Welsh ones. In an open letter on the Wales Arts Review website, the Welsh artists also claim that the company is staging too few productions and say that non-Welsh artists and companies should only be engaged to support Welsh or Wales-based artists. Gary Raymond, editor of the Wales Arts Review, and Kully Thiarai, Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales, discuss the issues.From John Cage’s controversial composition 4’33”, a three-act movement where no sound is made, to the Rothko Chapel in Texas, a place for contemplation housing 14 of the artist’s large, dark paintings, silence has had a significant place in culture. Actor and director Simon McBurney, conductor Jeremy Summerly, and art critic Ch

Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie - The Goodies - join Samira to look back at their 1970s cult comedy series. As a complete box set of every episode is released, they reflect on their comedy writing that tackled police brutality, redefined comedy music and introduced television audiences to the little-known Lancastrian martial-art Ecky Thump. This week marks the centenary of the first performance of Gustav Holst's hugely popular orchestral suite The Planets. Composer and pianist David Owen Norris explains our enduring fascination with this work, and composer Samuel Bordoli talks about about his Planets 2018 project which commissioned eight composers to write new work inspired by current planetary science.Grime artist, poet and playwright Debris Stevenson explains how her coming-of-age theatre piece, Poet in Da Corner, sets the story of her own life growing up in a Mormon family in East London to the tracks of Dizzee Rascal’s seminal album Boy in Da Corner.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Edwina P

Oceania at the Royal Academy is the first ever major exhibition in the UK of art from the Pacific. It is very ambitious, showing 200 works from across that vast ocean, from Hawaii to New Zealand, New Guinea to Easter Island. It spans time, too, the earliest piece being about 500 years old, the latest completed last year. A Hawaiian writer, Vanessa Lee Miller, and a western maritime historian, Robert Blyth, assess the exhibition.As the former Britpop band Suede release their eighth studio album, songwriter and lead singer Brett Anderson and bassist Mat Osman discuss The Blue Hour and their exploration of new sounds, including Brett’s own field recordings and the spoken word, as well as working with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.How do crime writers gain knowledge of the police to inform their writing? John speaks to Peter James, author of the Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series of novels, and to crime writer Clare Mackintosh, who worked in the police force for 12 years before becoming an aut

Cary Fukanaga, recently announced director of the next James Bond film, discusses his new Netflix series Maniac. The show explores the minds of two strangers, played by Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, who take part in a mysterious drug trial in the hope of changing their lives for the better.The Royal Opera House has unveiled the results of its £50m, two-and-a-half-year Open Up project. For the first time it will be open to the public daily, with a new programme of free and ticketed events. Royal Opera House CEO Alex Beard explains what’s new and improved about the Covent Garden building.'In one section he’s polishing a scaffolding pole in the most provocative way imaginable' is how director Jacqui Morris describes the previously unseen footage of Rudolph Nureyev she has uncovered. Along with her brother David, the pair have created a new documentary film about the legendary ballet dancer's life through this new archival footage, his own memoirs and a newly-commissioned interpretive dance.Presenter Stig Abell Prod

New documentary Matangi/Maya/MIA about the political rapper MIA, uses self-filmed archive footage of the outspoken and ‘controversial’ Sri Lankan immigrant artist who took up the Tamil cause. So how does the film by director and friend Stephen Loveridge help us understand her life and music? Journalist Kieran Yates reviews.The Man Booker Prize 2018 shortlist of six books has just been announced and features two debuts, the youngest ever writer to make the list, a novel in verse and four women authors. Toby Lichtig of the Times Literary Supplement and critic Arifa Akbar give their thoughts on a list which includes some notable omissions - Sally Rooney and Michael Ondaatje for example.Nell Stevens is the final shortlisted writer for this year’s National Short Story Award. She joins Kirsty to talk about The Minutes, her darkly funny and mysterious tale which follows a group of students captivated by an enigmatic stranger as they protest against the demolition and gentrification taking place in their neighbourhoo

Eileen Atkins talks about her latest stage role in Florian Zeller’s The Height of the Storm, a play about a couple who have been in love for 50 years. The actress, who began her career in the 1950s explains the challenges of Zeller’s writing and her preference for new theatre. 10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, John Kampfner, co-founder of the Creative Industries Federation, and arts journalist Jo Caird discuss the impact of the financial crisis on the arts.Today it was announced that Denis Norden has died. His long career as a comedy writer and performer spanned radio sitcoms in the late 1940s , Hollywood films, and the hugely successful television out-takes show It’ll be Alright on the Night. Dick Fiddy, Archive TV Programmer at the BFI explains his significance.Ingrid Persaud has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with The Sweet Sop. She explains what inspired her story which explores the relationship between a father and his estranged son. Set in Trinidad and told in a di

Director Lenny Abrahamson on his film adaption of Sarah Waters’ novel The Little Stranger, a ghost story set in a dilapidated English manor in the 1940s. Abrahamson, who was Oscar nominated for his previous film Room, explains the how it is more than just a ghost story and talks about the challenges of adapting an unreliable narrator from the book onto screen.As the days get shorter and the light starts to fade, three artists discuss the appeal of darkness and how they use it as a source for their creativity. Artist Sam Winston and photographer Eva Vermandel spend long hours in complete darkness to develop or create their artworks, while TV editor Paulo Pandolpho, whose work includes the recent dramas The Split, Trust Me and Apple Tree Yard, considers the attraction of spending months at a time in a darkened editing suite. Kiare Ladner has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with Van Rensburg’s Card. She discusses her story which is set in South Africa and is about a woman in middle age d

The French musician Christine and the Queens discusses bringing ideas about gender fluidity to the mainstream with a confident new persona, eighties influences, and her second album, named simply Chris, and released in both English and French versions. Writer Anil Gupta and director Iqbal Khan discuss turning Molière’s 17th century French comedy Tartuffe - which turned its fire on the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic hierarchy of the day - into a 21st century Brummie farce with a British Pakistani Muslim family in thrall to a local 'holy man'.Sarah Hall has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with her story Sudden Traveller. The writer discusses her piece about a young woman who’s preparing for her mother’s funeral. The story is broadcast on Radio 4 at 1530 tomorrow and the winner of the BBC NSSA will be announced on Front Row on 2 October.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Emma Wallace

Killing Eve is the next thing to come from the pen of Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It is a thriller, steeped in her stylistic black humour, about a psychopath, played by Jodie Comer, who's pursued by Sandra Oh as an unassuming detective. Audiences in America have loved it, and it's has been nominated for two Emmy Awards, but what will the UK audience make of it? Arts journalist Sophie Wilkinson joins Shahidha to give her verdict.The BBC National Short Story Award is in its 13th year and has a new partner, Cambridge University, along with First Story. Chair of Judges Stig Abell, alongside judge and previous winner KJ Orr, reveal this year's five shortlisted authors in line for the £15,000 prize, ahead of the announcement of the winner in a special edition of Front Row on 2 October. And the first of the shortlisted authors joins Shahidha in the studio.To coincide with the release of his new album, grime star Ghetts is exhibiting a series of artworks to complement each of the record's tracks. Having bee

Touching The Void. Memoir, documentary, now theatre performance - at the Bristol Old Vic. Written by David Greig , it's an adaptation of Joe Simpson's bestselling 1988 mountaineering memoir and the subsequent 2003 docu-drama detailing Simpson's disastrous 1985 attempt to make a first ascent of a mountain in the Andes. Theatre director Tom Morris talks to Kirsty about the challenges of transferring the story to the stage. And as the Bristol Old Vic prepares to re-open after a major refurbishment, he describes how the new design aims to mark the theatre's history and slave trade past and welcome in new audiences.Crazy Rich Asians is a box office hit in the US about a young Chinese-American woman who goes to a wedding in Singapore and encounters the fabulously wealthy Chinese family of her boyfriend. Its star Constance Wu talks to Kirsty about the issues it raises on the difference between Asian and American culture and the tricky question of stereotyping.Crazy Rich Asians is based on a best-selling book Kevin K

Hollywood legend Sir Michael Caine returns to the big screen in King of Thieves, the second cinematic adaptation of the infamous Hatton Garden burglary in 2015. The south London born actor looks back at his varied career, which he has seen him act alongside Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone and even the Muppets and also become synonymous darker criminal roles, in films such as Get Carter, Harry Brown and the Italian Job.When Israel Public Radio recently broadcast part of Wagnar's Gotterdammerung or the Twilight of the Gods, it caused a furore leading the station issued an apology. This is because since 1938 there has been an understanding that, because for his anti-Semitism, Wagner's music is neither performed nor broadcast in Israel. Stig talks to Jonathan Livni, founder of Wagner in Israel, who is in favour of lifting the ban, and Yael Cherniavsky, the conductor and soprano, who used to run the offending radio network, who disagrees. Scotland's first design museum, the £80 million Victorian & Albert Dund

The Irish writer Sally Rooney's second novel Normal People, the story of a relationship between two young people from very different backgrounds, has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and is winning ecstatic reviews. She talks about structure, being true to her characters, and the pleasure and pressure of praise.TV critic David Butcher, reviews Trust, a new drama investigating the true story of the kidnap of the grandson of one of America's wealthiest families, the Getty's. Donald Sutherland stars as oil magnate, John Paul Getty, who after the death of his son looks to his grandson to take over the family business. But after a perceived shame he brings to the family name Sutherland's Getty turns him away, leading to his grandson's eventual kidnap on the streets of Rome.London Fashion Week starts on Friday and Front Row takes a close look at how the catwalk uses music to its advantage, and the close and enduring relationship between music and fashion. John Wilson talks to Jeremy Healy, who puts music on

Nick Payne, the writer of new BBC One series Wanderlust starring Toni Collette and Steven Mackintosh, discusses adapting his play on modern sexual relationships into a sexually upfront series for mainstream TV.In 2015 the Grand Hall of Battersea Arts Centre in London was devastated by fire. It was rebuilt and last week reopened - with the show that was in the space when it was destroyed. The architect Steve Tompkins and artistic director David Jubb show Samira (who used to dance there in her youth) around, and explain how the fire was an opportunity as well as a disaster. As she embarks on a national tour, saxophonist YolanDa Brown discusses her love of reggae, jazz and soul, and performs live.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald.

BONUS EDITION: As part of the Inspire season, Front Row commissioned three artists to create works especially for the programme. Poet Alison Brackenbury was challenged to write a villanelle based on her great uncle, crime-writer Vaseem Khan would pen the first page of his new volume, and rapper and beatboxer Testament would produce a brand new track. This special edition of the Front Row podcast looks back over the five week challenge and reveals the final works.Presenters: Kirsty Lang, Morgan Quaintance, John Wilson and Stig Abell. Producer: Ben Mitchell

As Front Row's Inspire season draws to a close, three artists unveil the artworks they were commissioned to create, and discuss the inspiration behind them.Alison Brackenbury has written a poem based on her Great-Uncle; crime-writer Vaseem Khan, author of the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency novels, reads the first page of his new volume; and rapper and beatboxer Testament performs his new composition.And for the Front Row presenters' challenge, Stig Abell has written his first sonnet, Samira Ahmed has been taught to draw a comic-book character, and John Wilson has painted his first watercolour. Tonight it's Kirsty Lang's turn at the potter's wheel.Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Award winning Doctor Foster writer, Mike Bartlett, discusses his new show Press alongside one of its stars, the Peaky Blinders actor Charlotte Riley. The programme centres around two competing papers, a broadsheet and a tabloid, both struggling to find their place in a changing world of print journalism.Award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, rapper and recording artist Kate Tempest on her new poetry collection Running Upon The Wires - an intimate look at the end of a relationship, the beginning of another, and what happens in between when the heart is pulled both ways at once.As part of our inspire season Front Row presenters have been taking up the creative challenge of having a go and tackling a new art. Today John Wilson joins the Wapping Group of Artists alongside the river banks of Walton-on-Thames to try his hand at a water colour.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

To celebrate her 50th birthday, the composer Roxanna Panufnik discusses her new album Celestial Bird which showcases the variety of her work, from religious choral music to an adaptation of a poem by the Indian polymath Rabindranath Tagore, as well as two major new commissions, one of which - Songs of Darkness, Dreams of Light - will have its world premiere at the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday.Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, discusses his new illustrated book which is a response to seeing the photo of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed up on the beach in Turkey in September 2015.As part of Front Row's Inspire season we'll be concentrating on dreams, and how they have provided inspiration for writers and artists over the centuries. The writer Matthew Sweet considers the influence of dreams on films and literature, neuro-scientist Prof Anil Seth gives us a clinical approach, and the artist Liliane Tomasko discusses the power of dreams and how she depicts them in her wo

As two new productions prepare to take on Shakespeare in fresh and unexpected ways, the women behind them - Jeanie O'Hare, creator of new play Queen Margaret, and Jude Christian creator of OthelloMacbeth - discuss developing new dramas from Shakespeare's canon.Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull is a theatre classic that has been produced in many different ways for stage and screen since its premiere in 1896. Now it's been turned into a film with a stellar cast led by Annette Benning. Critic, broadcaster, and playwright Nick Ahad reviews.Artist Leo Fitzmaurice specialises in creating work that aims to get us to look afresh at everyday objects. He's now curating a portrait exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery with a simple but surprising element. He joins Kirsty to discuss the new show, Leo Fitzmaurice: Between You and Me and Everything Else.The multi-award winning classical musician, Alison Balsom, reveals the inspiration behind her career and her love of the trumpet, as part of Front Row's Inspire season..Prese