Front Row

Ellen Page stars in new Netflix film Tallulah as a rootless young woman who spontaneously steals a child from an irresponsible mother. Hannah McGill reviews the film which was written and directed by Sian Heder, who also writes for the TV series Orange is the New Black. John Cale discusses his participation in the David Bowie Prom, which also features Laura Mvula and Marc Almond, in a celebration of the music of the singer who died in January.A production of Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars has just opened at the National Theatre in London, which tells the story of the Easter Rising and the attempt to end British rule in Ireland. O'Casey's daughter Shivaun, historian Dr Heather Jones, and Sean Holmes - director of the Lyric Hammersmith - discuss whether it still has the power to challenge an audience 100 years since the Easter Rising.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Bourne is back. But 14 years since Matt Damon starred in The Bourne Identity, does the franchise still thrill in a world of super-hackers and government surveillance? Antonia Quirke joins John Wilson to review Jason Bourne.The Man Booker prize long list was announced today. Critics Alex Clarke and Toby Lichtig consider this year's runners and riders.The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is celebrating its bicentenary with an exhibition displaying 150 illuminated manuscripts from its collection, ranging from prayer books of European royalty to alchemical scrolls. John travels to Cambridge to find out more. Presidential hopefuls have long known of the power of a good pop tune when it comes to firing up a crowd. So what's scoring the Trump and Clinton rallies, and what does it say about their respective campaigns? American columnist, Katie Puckrik dons her headphones.

Nine years after the last book was published, Harry Potter comes back to life in a brand new stage play by JK Rowling. Henry Hitchings reviews Harry Potter And The Cursed Child.We review listeners' reaction to this morning's debate on the cultural response to Brexit with those who run and fund arts organisations. John Wilson's guests are Victoria Pomery Director of Turner Contemporary in Margate, Fergus Linehan Director of the Edinburgh International Festival, and Councillor Judith Blake Leader of Leeds City Council who are in the process of bidding for European city of culture 2023. Plus, composers Michael Berkeley and Anthony Payne on the world premieres of their large-scale new pieces for the BBC Proms. Presenter : John Wilson Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

John Wilson is joined by cultural figures including Phil Redmond, Val McDermid, Dreda Say Mitchell, Rufus Norris, Wayne Hemingway, Samuel West, Jane and Louise Wilson, George the Poet and Anthony Anaxagorou to discuss how Britain's creative community can and should respond to the divisions in British society exposed by the EU Referendum result. With an audience at The Royal Society of Arts in London, they explore whether Brexit presents an artistic opportunity, if it signals a retreat from European culture, how it will be reflected in the books, films, plays and music of the next few years, and what art can do to help us navigate the realities of post-Brexit BritainProducer: Dixi Stewart.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Mark Rylance, theatre and film actor and former artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, discusses playing the role of The BFG, based on Roald Dahl's The Big Friendly Giant, directed and produced by Steven Spielberg.As Pixie Lott moves from pop star and Strictly Come Dancing contestant to playing the role of socialite Holly Golightly in a new stage version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, she discusses how she's coping with her first major acting role, learning to play guitar to sing Moon River, and what it's like to play a part immortalised by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film.Conductor Alpesh Chauhan is raising a few eyebrows in the world of classical music. The son of a Birmingham lorry driver and aged just 26, he's one of the youngest conductors on the circuit. He speaks to John ahead of his Prom on Saturday, Ten Pieces Choir with the BBC Philharmonic.Presenter John Wilson Producer Ella-mai Robey.

Ethan Hawke stars as the jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker in the new biopic Born to be Blue which covers the musician's comeback in the late 1960s. Jazz pianist and composer Julian Joseph reviews.Conductor Antonello Manacorda on Glyndebourne's new production of Berlioz's comic opera Beatrice et Benedict, based on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The Body Extended: Sculpture and Prosthetics is a new exhibition at the Henry Moore institute in Leeds which explores how artists have responded to developments in prosthetics technology, especially after the First World War. The curator, Lisa Le Feuvre, explains how artists were first involved in making artificial body parts and how that has inspired their art.Shari Lapena's debut crime novel The Couple Next Door begins with the disappearance of a baby whose parents are next door at a dinner party, and the narrative explores all perspectives and everyone is under suspicion. Having previously written literary novels, she reveals why she'll be sticking with th

In the 1960s when only black-and-white photographs were considered 'art', the American photographer William Eggleston changed that perception with his brightly-coloured photographs of the American South. Photographer Eamonn McCabe reviews a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which brings together many of Eggleston's portraits of the people who lived there.Tess Gerritsen, author of the best-selling crime series Rizzoli and Isles, talks to Kirsty about her latest novel, a stand-alone historical thriller, Playing with Fire. In 2012, the art collective Random International made headlines with their work Rain Room which featured a large room filled with pouring rain which visitors could walk through without getting wet. For a new show at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry they've made their first video work, Everything and Nothing, in response to graphene, the world's first two-dimensional material. Co-founder of the collective, Florian Ortkrass, discusses making art out of scientific discove

John Wilson meets the former member of pop band Destiny's Child, Michelle Williams, as she prepares to host and perform at the Late Night Gospel Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. Brexageddon?! is a one-off, 30-minute sitcom satirising the EU referendum and its effect on the nation. Its writers and stars, Jolyon Rubinstein and Heydon Prowse, reveal the pressures of delivering time sensitive laughs. Can bricks and mortar inspire great music? The architect David Adjaye and his brother Peter, the composer aka AJ Kwame, discuss their new project, Dialogues, an album inspired by David's buildings which include the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, London, and the Genesis Pavilion in Miami.And is the Pokemon Go craze a boon or a curse for art galleries and museums? Curator of Videogames at the V&A museum, Marie Foulston considers the popular game's impact.

Samira Ahmed talks to Simon Pegg, writer and star of the film Star Trek: Beyond.Front Row marks the 150th birthday of Beatrix Potter, discussing the darker side of her children's stories with Kathryn Hughes and Sally Gardner.Stalking the Bogeyman is a new play created by David Holthouse and Markus Potter, based on David's own experience of rape as a child and the revenge he plans to reap on his attacker.And should we follow Steven Spielberg's example and bribe our children to watch black and white films? Samira talks to BFI Family Film Programmer Justin Johnson.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser.

Fracked! Or: Please don't use the F-word is a comedy in Chichester about shale extraction. Playwright Alistair Beaton explains how he keeps the play topical in times of fast political change, and how he cast actor James Bolam when he met him demonstrating against a potential fracking site in Sussex. The art of the self-portrait - why do artists portray themselves? From Rembrandt's unflinching treatment of his ageing reflection to Ai Weiwei's politically-charged use of social media, a new exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh sets out to answer that question. Moira Jeffrey reviews Facing the World.Someone Knows My Name is a Canadian historical drama which tells the true story of a West African girl who campaigns for her freedom after she is abducted into slavery in South Carolina. Kevin Le Gendre reviews this TV adaptation.Marcus Harvey first attracted public attention as a YBA with his portrait of the child killer Myra Hindley, created from a small child's handprints. Protestors pi

The BAFTA-winning writer Tony Marchant has adapted Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel The Secret Agent into a three-part TV drama, starring Toby Jones and Vicky McClure. He talks adapting the novel's prescient story of homegrown terrorism, surveillance and betrayal. Samira talks to Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta, who opens the BBC Proms on Friday with the Elgar Cello Concerto. And a new photography exhibition, Made You Look: Dandyism and Black Masculinity, explores the identity of the black dandy in studio and street photography around the world. The group exhibition's curator Ekow Eshun, discusses the photographers and images which capture the dress and flamboyance of black individuals from New York to Bamako.

Stranger Things is a Netflix series starring Winona Ryder which tells the story of a supernatural disappearance of a young boy in 1980s Indiana. Kim Newman reviews.As satirists target a new Prime Minister, Jan Ravens of Radio 4's Dead Ringers discusses her approach to impersonating Theresa May.Poet Alice Oswald discusses Falling Awake, her new poetry collection that explores mortality, and why gardening and the classics lead to poetic inspiration.James Kelman who won the Booker Prize in 1994 for his novel How Late It Was, How Late, discusses his new book Dirt Road, which follows a Scottish teenager and his father on a trip to the American south where they grieve for the teenager's mother and sister who have died of cancer.On his 82nd birthday the Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian playwright and poet reads from his poem, A Vision of Peace.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Matt Smith stars in a new play that was completely conceived in the rehearsal room. In 'Unreachable', written and directed by Anthony Neilson, Smith plays a film director consumed by his attempts to capture the perfect light. We speak to them both about the rehearsal process and the end result. Unreachable is on at the Royal Court in London until the 6th August. Award-winning poet Sean O'Brien talks about his new novel, Once Again Assembled Here. Set in the claustrophobic world of a boys' boarding school in the late 60s, it's a murder story which explores the re-emergence of the far right after World War II. Once Again Assembled Here is published on 14 July.Ruth Mackenzie was the director of the Cultural Olympiad for the London 2012 Olympics. In the run up to Rio 2016, we ask her to assess its legacy four years on.Hannah McGill reviews French film La Belle Saison or Summertime.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Elaine Lester.

Samira Ahmed talks to Alan Ayckbourn about his experimental new work for the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, The Karaoke Theatre Company, which involves audience participation. Briony Hanson reviews Men and Chicken, a Danish comedy film starring Mads Mikkelsen.Crime writer Peter Robinson discusses his 23rd DCI Banks novel When the Music's Over, which features a celebrity at the centre of a historical abuse investigation.

The author and illustrator Judith Kerr, who escaped Hitler's Germany as a child and went on to write more than 30 children's books, has received a lifetime achievement award from the reading charity BookTrust. The creator of the Mog the Cat and The Tiger Who Came to Tea talks to John Wilson about what keeps her drawing and writing at the age of 93.Hadley Freeman reviews a fascinating new fly-on-the-wall film about American politician Anthony Weiner, whose campaign to be Mayor of New York is beset with scandal. Folk rockers Mumford & Sons travelled to South Africa earlier this year to perform a series of concerts. They came back having recorded a mini-album, Johannesburg, with Senegalese singer Baaba Maal, South African rockers Beatenberg and electronic producers The Very Best. Marcus Mumford and Ben Lovett from the group, and Baaba Maal joined John to discuss what attracted them both to the collaboration.And tomorrow thousands of members of the public will be taking to the streets of Hull naked and painte

As the Liverpool Biennial prepares to open, Samira Ahmed talks to Sally Tallant, director of the biennial and the woman charged with turning the Merseyside city into an international contemporary art gallery. She meets three of the artists who have responded to the themes of this year's biennial: Turner Prize winner Mark Leckey meditates on memory in his film Dream English Kid, 1964 - 1999 AD; 78 of Liverpool's youngsters help performance artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd create a film installation - Dogsy Ma Bone - that fuses Bertolt Brecht and Betty Boop; and the American ceramic artist Betty Woodman draws inspiration from Liverpool's architecture for her fountain commission. And the first broadcast interview with the winner of the John Moores Painting Prize, the UK's longest-established painting prize with former winners including David Hockney and Peter Doig.Presenter - Samira Ahmed Producer - Ekene Akalawu.

Playwright and screenwriter (Atonement; Les Liaisons dangereuses) Christopher Hampton on translating the work of Florian Zeller, as his latest play The Truth transfers to London's West End.Maggie's Plan starring Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, and Julianne Moore - and directed by Rebecca Moore - is a romantic comedy with a twist. After Maggie, played by Gerwig, falls for a married man, she decides to try and reunite him with his wife. Film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews.With the announcement of the winner of the 2016 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year being made this evening, Front Row visits the fifth and final shortlisted entry, Arnolfini, a gallery and arts centre on the harbourside in Bristol.Queens of Syria began in Jordan as a project for female Syrian refugees, updating Euripides' The Trojan Women to reflect their own experiences. As the play comes to the UK for a nationwide tour we speak to cast members Sham and Amwar and the director of the UK production Zoe Lafferty.

Best known as Dame Edna Everage, Barry Humphries takes to the stage as himself in a concert celebrating the subversive music of Berlin's Weimar Republic. Barry talks to John Wilson about the show which he has curated and features cabaret star Meow Meow and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.In its 150th anniversary year, the National Museums Scotland prepares to open 10 new galleries, housing more than 3000 objects of decorative art, design, fashion, science and technology. The museum's Director Gordon Rintoul discusses this latest stage in an £80 million redevelopment.Director of Drive Nicholas Winding Refn's new film The Neon Demon is a shocking story set in LA's fashion world, with a palette of neon colour, hyper-real imagery and a dark, electronic sound track. Elle Fanning, who starred in Maleficent, plays an ingénue 16 year old, making her debut on the catwalks, exciting vicious, predatory interest from the established models. Wendy Ide reviews. The award-winning Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami has

Samira Ahmed discusses the work of pioneering American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, as a major retrospective opens at Tate Modern in London. With Andrea Rose. Paul Feig - director of Bridesmaids and Spy - on his reinvention of the film Ghostbusters, with women in the lead roles. American crime writer Laura Lippman, known for her "accidental PI" Tess Monaghan series, returns with a standalone story, Wilde Lake, a modern retelling of To Kill a Mockingbird. And to mark US Independence Day, Front Row looks at the remarkable origins of the American National Anthem, the Star Spangled Banner.