Front Row

Actor Sir Antony Sher and director Gregory Doran talk about all-powerful pagan kings and post-Brexit Britain in relation to their RSC production of King Lear.As the Victoria and Albert Museum adds to their archive a collection of Tommy Cooper's props, posters and notebooks, Cooper's daughter Vicky remembers growing up among her father's famous stage props and hearing jokes at the kitchen table. This month has seen two big new releases in the video gaming world: the highly anticipated No Man Sky, which promises an infinite, constantly regenerating universe for players to discover, and the latest instalment in the sci-fi blockbuster franchise Deus Ex, Mankind Divided. From an economic perspective, games have outperformed other creative industries for years, and they're also nurturing the best creative writing talent. So how do writers fit in to this multi-billion pound industry? Novelist and scriptwriter James Swallow, whose game writing credits include Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and No Man's Sky, and scriptwrite

As Casualty, the BBC's medical drama, prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary with a feature-length episode, co-creator, Paul Unwin, and series producer Erika Hossington, discuss how a show about an overstretched, under-resourced emergency department has continued to surprise and challenge its audience.Canadian author Madeleine Thien talks about Do Not Say We Have Nothing her epic novel charting China's revolutionary history, which has earned her a place on the Man Booker long list. Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell star in Bad Moms, the new film from the writers of The Hangover. Film critic Catherine Bray reviews. German director Thomas Ostermeier discusses his Schaubuhne production of Richard III is which is being performed as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

John Wilson talks to writer Daisy Goodwin about Victoria, ITV's new 8-part drama series about the early life of Queen Victoria. 86 year old Scottish photographer Harry Benson, whose subjects have included the Beatles, Robert Kennedy and every US President since Eisenhower. Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan discusses the watery theme of her latest and highly acclaimed album At Swim. And a new project, Books in Nicks, which puts literary books into prison cells.

Olympic silver medallist, super heavyweight boxer Joe Joyce describes his love of art and how painting one of his massive canvases takes as much energy as several rounds in the boxing ring.Conductor Marin Alsop, who made history as the first woman to conduct the last night of the Proms in 2012, talks about bringing a touch of Brazil to the Royal Albert Hall as she conducts the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in two South American themed Proms this week.Hunter Davies is known as "the man who really knew the Beatles". As the band's only authorised biographer, he sat in on recordings of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, witnessed John and Paul collaborate on songs, and collected millions of pounds worth of memorabilia (which is now in the British Museum). His latest book is an encyclopaedia full of facts and (unusually) opinions which may please and irritate fans equally . He explains why.Author, TV critic, and broadcaster Clive James, as well as writing poems and translating Dante, continues to watch televisi

John Wilson talks to music legend Quincy Jones ahead of his BBC Prom. Bafta-winner Noel Clarke on the final instalment of his British crime film trilogy, Brotherhood. Why the International Criminal Court has brought a landmark case against an Islamic militant who admits destroying cultural sites in the ancient city of Timbuktu.

David Walliams and Horrid Henry creator Francesca Simon discuss the role of parents in the work of Roald Dahl. Jack and Harry Williams, the writers behind TV drama The Missing, discuss their new series One of Us, where an inexplicable murder leads to the revelation of secrets within two families. He painted, he sculpted, he made ceramics and prints but did you know that Pablo Picasso also wrote plays? As rarely performed Desire Caught By the Tail is staged in London, its director Cradeux Alexander and critic Richard Cork discuss what we learn about the artist through his theatrical work.After months of speculation about his new album, singer Frank Ocean released an unexpected 'visual album' Endless today. Newsbeat's Jimmy Blake talks about the rise of visual albums in today's music industry.

The film Groundhog Day tells the story of a cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman who is sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in the isolated small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, when he finds himself caught in a time loop, forced to repeat the same day again and again...and again. Now it's been made into a musical by the same team behind Matilda the Musical, including composer and lyricist Tim Minchin. So how successful is the Old Vic's adaptation? Matt Wolf reviews.Samira talks to the Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar, famous for outrageous comedies (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) and female-focused dramas (Volver, All About My Mother), whose latest film, Julieta, is his most serious yet.Charlotte Dujardin won her third Olympic gold earlier this week by retaining her individual dressage title. She performed her latest gold-winning ride to music written especially by composer Tom Hunt for the games in Rio. Tom talks about how he conceived and wrote the music for Charlotte and her hors

With Kirsty Lang at the Edinburgh Festivals.How do shows make the transition from big on the Fringe, to mainstream success? Two talent spotters reveal what they look for when they come to Edinburgh.Scottish folk singer Karine Polwart discusses her award-winning Edinburgh International Festival show Wind Resistance, a love letter to the flora and fauna of her home terrain, Fala Moor just south of Edinburgh.A new play examines what happened during Ukraine's Euro Maidan revolution through an intense immersive experience. Creators, and husband and wife team, Mark and Marichka Marczyk explain why for them theatre was the best way to process what happened.And Viv Groskop reviews US/THEM, a play charting the Beslan siege of 2004 through the eyes of two children who were caught up in the violence.

Kirsty Lang is at the Edinburgh Festivals exploring how comedy, music, theatre and satire can help us navigate turbulent political times.David Brent is back, but this time he is dreaming big and taking his newly formed band Foregone Conclusion on tour in hopes of a record deal. Ricky Gervais and Ben Bailey Smith discuss the film and the accompanying album.The mythical figure of the Angel of Kobane is the subject of Henry Naylor's new play Angel, which has been getting rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe. Henry reflects on tackling challenging material in his plays. Writer and musician Adam Kay explains why he's singing Tom Lehrer songs with a twist at this year's Fringe.And what's the role of comedy when politics feels beyond satire? Comedian and former Labour Special Advisor Ayesha Hazarika and political comedy veteran Rory Bremner discuss.Presenter: Kirsty LangProducer: Ellie Bury.

John Wilson at the Edinburgh Festival, with novelist Philippa Gregory on her latest Tudor novel, Three Sisters, Three Queens. Adura Onashile discusses her play Expensive Sh*t, the story of a woman who works in the toilets of a nightclub, based on Glasgow's Shimmy Club. Sabina Cameron performs an extract of the play.Scottish poet Liz Lochhead talks about the ancient role of the Makar, the Scottish Poet Laureate. The troupe behind the award-winning improv musical Showstopper perform an impromptu song and Pippa Evans and Adam Meggido discuss the value of improvisation to theatre and the growing appetite for it at the Edinburgh Fringe. Producer: Dixi Stewart.

Musician, filmmaker and DJ, Don Letts has curated a season of films about punk for the British Film Institute, in London. He explains how Punk on Film brings together a broad range of documentary, archive footage and feature films that draw attention to the diversity of the punk movement, its lineage, and influence today.A significant aspect of punk was that allowed women to defy the music industry's notions of beauty and sex appeal. Women became performers in their own right, wrote their own songs, played their own instruments, and even became the main protagonist of movies about the music industry - such as Hazel O'Connor in Breaking Glass. We hear about the role of women in punk from Hazel O'Connor, vocalist and guitarist Jess Allanic, and Dr Helen Reddington.Photographers George Quann-Barnett and Marco Grey - from Wot Do You Call It - and Olivia Rose discuss the importance of documenting the grime scene, which they argue is the most unique and significant music subculture to explode in Britain since punk.

Samira heads to the Royal Albert Hall to hear Jamie Cullum in rehearsal for his late night Prom and to talk to the musician about why he's so enthralled by improvisation.Nerve is a new film that revolves around an online game of truth and dare, which Samira is calling the selfie generation's answer to Desperately Seeking Susan. Naomi Alderman reviews.Greek crime writer Petros Markaris discusses writing novels that chart the Greek financial crisis and see killers take on tax evaders and bankers, much to the delight of his readers (and the surprise of the author).And we continue to meet Artists in Residence around the UK who are working in unusual places. Tonight we visit a care home in Gloucestershire where the performance poet in residence helps unlock memories of dementia sufferers.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Rachel Simpson.

This week sees the release of a lot of water in cinemas as surfer Blake Lively does battle with a great white shark in The Shallows, and inhabitants of a small Norwegian town struggle to survive a tsunami in The Wave. Adam Smith comes up for breath to offer his verdict on both. Alexander McCall Smith is back with his 11th instalment of his popular '44 Scotland Street series' with The Bertie Project. He reveals what happens to Bertie next, how the pressure of writing a serialised novel affects his style, and, after more than 80 books, will he ever slow down?To help celebrate the National Youth Theatre turning sixty, two playwrights, Bola Ajbage and James Fritz, have penned plays hoping to fire the imagination of young theatre goers. They join Kirsty to explain why they've put technology and housing centre stage in a bid to speak to generation Z. Seas and rivers have long been a source of poetic inspiration so to continue our series where we find out what artists in residence do, we take a walk up a towpath in

Kevin Legendre reviews Baz Luhrmann's first TV project, The Get Down, a high-octane slice of life chronicling the birth of hip hop in 1970's New York. Kirsty speaks to writer Krys Lee whose debut novel, How I Became A North Korean, is set in one of the most complex and threatening environments in the world - the border between China and the 'hermit nation'. Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Allegro was their third collaboration for the stage following Oklahoma! and Carousel. It opened on Broadway in 1947. With a new production in London, director Thom Southerland and critic Matt Wolf discuss its revival 70 years on. Front Row meets equine painter Elizabeth Armstrong, the artist in residence at Royal Windsor Racecourse. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Jack Soper.

As the BBC celebrates 60 years of the British TV sitcom, Samira Ahmed is joined by Citizen Khan creator and star Adil Ray, comedy producer and director Paul Jackson and the BFI's TV consultant Dick Fiddy.Joyce McMillan reviews an Edinburgh Festival production of Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie, directed by John Tiffany and starring Cherry Jones.The artist Conrad Shawcross on building a vast 50 metre-tall, 20 metre-wide 'architectural intervention' beside a busy main road on the Greenwich Peninsular, encasing a new low-carbon Energy Centre. And this week Front Row meets some of the Artists in Residence around the UK who are working in unusual places, starting in Lincoln Cathedral with Toni Watts, a manuscript illuminator. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser.

Billie Piper stars in Simon Stone's radical reworking of Lorca's Yerma, a play about a woman's increasingly desperate desire to conceive. Sarah Hemming reviews.Provocative film director Todd Solondz on his dark comedy Wiener-Dog, which comprises four short stories linked together by the same dashchund, starring Greta Gerwig and Danny DeVito. As the original version of Tchaikovsky's famous Piano Concerto No.1 gets its UK premiere at the BBC Proms, Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein explains why this dramatically different score has remained hidden for so long. As the Olympics begin, we complete our series of interviews with Brazilian artists with a look at the slam poetry scene in Brazil.Presenter: Clemency Burton-Hill Producer: Ella-mai Robey.

David Bowie, Laura Mvula, Radiohead, and grime stars Kano and Skepta, are among the nominees for this year's Mercury Prize for best album, it was announced today. Music journalist Ruth Barnes rates this year's diverse shortlist. Colin Spencer's Spitting Image - first staged in 1968 when it became the UK's first ever openly gay play - is being revived as part of the King's Head Theatre's Queer Season in London. Meanwhile, Jon Brittain's play about a lesbian couple, Rotterdam, is back in the West End at Trafalgar Studios. Kirsty Lang talks to both writers about writing gay characters but 50 years apart. Continuing her series of interviews with Brazilian artists in the build-up to the Olympics, Kirsty visits sound artist Vivian Caccuri at her studio in an old biscuit factory.Sara Taylor won rave reviews for her debut novel The Shore and she's back on winning form with her second novel The Lauras. It tells the story of a mother running away from an unhappy marriage with her 13 year old child Alex, and how the pai

As Harold Pinter's play No Man's Land sets off on a nationwide tour Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart, along with the play's director Sean Mathias, discuss working together, toilet breaks and Trekkies.Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews the film adaptation of the much loved novella The Little Prince, by Antonie de Saint-Exupery. As a possible sign of things to come, it receives its première online and features voice work by Jeff Bridges and Rachel McAdams.Continuing our series of interviews with Brazilian artists in the run-up to the Olympics, Kirsty meets Jotape, who is one of the leading figures involved in Brazil's latest dance craze - Passinho, and theatre and circus director Renato Rocha who's directed Shakespeare with children from the favelas (Rio's slums).20 years ago today the remix of a Spanish pop song went to no.1 in the charts, stayed there for 14 weeks, and went on to take the dance-craze-world by storm. To mark the occasion, Front Row asks the writer and comedian Danny Robins to ponder the succe

The actor, Brian Cox, joins John Wilson to talk The Carer, a new comedy about a retired Shakespearean actor suffering from a form of Parkinson's disease that has left him frustrated and gloriously grumpy.John travels to Brighton to climb what is now the world's tallest moving observation tower, the British Airways i360. At the top he meets its architects, David Marks and Julia Barfield, who also created the London Eye. Comedian Bob Slayer explains why he is enlisting fellow performers and the general public to help him read the Chilcot Report, all 2.6 million words, from start to finish, at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As we continue our series of interviews with artists working in Rio, today Kirsty Laing visits the visual artist, Ernesto Neto, at his studio where he creates crocheted sculptures inspired by nature.

With the Rio Olympics just a week away, Kirsty Lang travels to the city, and to a country which is undergoing huge political turmoil. With the left wing government under impeachment, the right wing government has taken over, and austerity cuts have ensued with inevitable cuts to the arts. To find out what impact this is having on the Cultural Olympiad she speaks to its Director, and also to the Head of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies as well as artists who've been affected. She visits the Ministry of Culture which is being occupied by artists protesting against the new government, and meets a theatre director who was ostracised by the artistic community for his political views.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.