Front Row

Emerging playwright Tim Foley is in the distinctive position of having won a prize for every play of his that has been staged. He joins Front Row to discuss his third play, Electric Rosary – a sci-fi exploration of religion and science in the company of a group of nuns and a robot - which has just opened at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Based on the graphic novel by Alice Oseman, Heart...

The Burnt City is the biggest production to date from the pioneering immersive theatre company Punchdrunk. As the company takes up residence in the former Royal Arsenal buildings of Woolwich, their first permanent space, they draw on the Greek tragedies of Agamemnon and Hecuba to reinterpret the Trojan war as a dystopian future noir. The French comedy drama, Call My Agent, was one of the breakout...

Atlantis (2019) was the Ukrainian entry for that year's Oscars. It now seems incredibly prescient in its depiction of a Ukraine set post-war in 2025. Film critic Laruskha Ivan-Zadeh and historian Kathryn Hughes join Front Row to review it. They'll also be talking about Michael Arditti's novel The Young Pretender. It imagines the life of the real-life child star Master Betty as a young adult attemp...

Chivalry, the new Channel 4 comedy which looks at the making of a Hollywood movie in a post MeToo world, has been co-created by its co-stars – Sarah Solemani, and Steve Coogan. Sarah joins Elle Osili-Wood on Front Row to discuss why MeToo has provided new grounds for comedy. Venezuelan singer Samuel Mariño originally trained as a ballet dancer before embracing his rare vocal range as a male sopran...

Director Robert Eggers discusses his new film The Northman, set in Iceland at the turn of the 10th century. A Nordic prince sets out on a mission of revenge after his father is murdered. The plot, which is an old Nordic story, is allegedly the basis for the plot of Hamlet. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke. The Olivier Awards recently returned...

The Big Jubilee Read is a reading for pleasure campaign by the Reading Agency and the BBC highlighting 70 books from across the Commonwealth published during the decades of the Queen's reign. To mark the launch, Front Row comes from the Studio Theatre at the Library of Birmingham with an audience. Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah talks to Samira about his novel Paradise from 1994 which has been ch...

Our Thursday review critics, Dr. Kirsty Fairclough and poet Joelle Taylor, give their assessment of Paul Verhoeven's film Benedetta and the exhibition Let the Song Hold Us at Liverpool's Fact Gallery. Nick meets Alan Lane, Artistic Director of Slung Low Theatre Company in Leeds, to discuss his 'pandemic memoir', The Club on the Edge of Town. Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu Photo: Daph...

Tom Robinson is the black man wrongly accused of raping a white girl in To Kill a Mocking Bird. In Harper Lee's novel and the film he is at the centre of the story but, defended by the white lawyer, Atticus Finch, almost voiceless. In the acclaimed new stage production now in the West End, the actor playing Tom Robinson, Jude Owusu, discusses his approach to the role and the relevance of the story...

After being announced as the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2022, the Canadian photographer and artist Edward Burtynsky talks to Tom about his 40-year career as a landscape photographer. This year’s Turner Prize is returning to Liverpool for the first time in 15 years. Laura Robertson, a writer, critic and editor based in the cit...

70 years after Sooty first appeared with Harry Corbett on the BBC’s Talent Night, presenter and current owner of The Sooty Show Richard Cadell talks to Samira about Sooty’s enduring appeal, as Sooty’s Magic Show embarks on a new tour and a theme park opens at the end of May. Annilese Miskimmon, Artistic Director of English National Opera, discusses her directorial debut at the ENO. The Handmaid’s...

American playwright Jeremy O.Harris discusses his play Daddy, at London’s Almeida Theatre, which explores the romantic relationship between Franklin, a young black artist, and Andre, a wealthy white collector. Front Row reviews works that are poles apart today; the exhibition Inspiring Walt Disney, which reveals how Disney’s fascination with France, especially Rococo design, animates films such as...

Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese-American poet whose recent works include a best-selling novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and a multi-prize-winning volume of verse, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. He talks about his latest collection of poems, Time Is A Mother, exploring themes of childhood, addiction, sexuality and the death of his mother. The third film in the Fantastic Beasts series, The Secrets...

The playwright Mike Bartlett is busy. The 47th, his dark comedy about the next presidential race, with Bertie Carvel giving an uncanny performance as Donald Trump is about to open at the Old Vic in London. So too is Scandaltown, his modern day Restoration comedy about social ambition, featuring characters with names such as Hannah Tweetwell and Freddie Peripheral. And he has another play, a love t...

Rae Morris discusses her latest single, ‘No Woman is An Island,’ ahead of the release of her new album. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney joins us to discuss the highlights from last night’s Grammy Awards. Novelist Ashley Hickson Lovence talks about his new novel, Your Show, about Uriah Rennie, one of the first black referees to officiate games in the Football League, a story of one man's pioneering efforts t...

Critics Sarah Crompton and Abir Mukherjee review Slow Horses, the brand new series from Apple TV+ starring Gary Oldman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Olivia Cooke, Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves and Jonathan Pryce. Slow Horses is based on the novel of the same name by Mick Herron, which is part of the author's Slough House series. It tells the story of a team of British intelligence agents who have all commit...

Presented by Kate Molleson from Glasgow. As the Burrell Collection reopens in Glasgow after a £68 million refit, Sunday Post art critic Jan Patience discusses the significance of the gallery, which includes rare Persian carpets, Chinese ceramics and sculptures by Rodin. Director Cora Bissett talks about Orphans – the new musical from the National Theatre of Scotland, adapted from Peter Mullan’s 19...

We look at how audience figures are recovering after two years of shutdown and pandemic restrictions. Carolyn Atkinson reports on the business of seat-filling companies and on new models being considered for ticket sales. We announce the winner of the 2022 Windham Campbell Prizes. The awards recognise eight writers annually for literary achievement across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, at...

Artist Sonia Boyce discusses her new video work, the product of being embedded with social services in Barking and Dagenham, which addresses domestic violence. She also reveals her process as she prepares to represent the UK at the Venice Biennale. After a dramatic Oscars ceremony, film critics Anna Smith and Tim Robey join us to discuss the Academy Award winning films, the success enjoyed by Brit...

Critics Viv Groskop and Hanna Flint review The Hermit of Treig, a documetary film made by Lizzie Mackenzie who follows Ken Smith, a man who has spent the past four decades living in a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as 'the lonely loch' – an intimate and warm picture of a man whose choice of the hermit life becomes more challenging as he ages. Anne Tyler’s latest novel, French Braid, is s...

Bridgerton is based on Julia Quinn's best-selling novels, set in the competitive world of Regency era London's ton during the season. The series follows the eight close-knit Bridgerton siblings as they navigate London high society in search of love. Produced by Shonda Rhimes, the showrunner is Chris van Dusen and he joins Front Row to talk about its success. Acclaimed choreographer Ivan Michael Bl...

Director Joachim Trier has been nominated for the Best Original Screenplay and Best International Film Oscars for The Worst Person in the World. If the title refers to his protagonist that’s rather harsh. Julie is, after all, only trying to navigate relationships and career and find happiness and meaning in her life in contemporary Oslo. Trier talks to Nick Ahad about using a novelistic form – pro...

The latest in Tate Britain’s series of annual commissions is an installation by the artist Hew Locke. It’s called The Procession and is comprised of approximately 150 life-size figures - adults, children, animals - arranged in a hundred-yard-long parade. Each one is unique, dressed in colourful fabrics, many specially printed, and wearing masks. It evokes carnival parades, protest marches and fune...

Multi award winning actor Mark Rylance on his latest film The Phantom of the Open, a warm hearted comedy about Maurice Flitcroft, a crane operator at the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness who managed to gain entry to the 1976 British Open qualifying, despite never playing a round of golf before. The Phantom of the Open is in cinemas from March 18th. Mark also talks to Samira about reprising his celebr...

The playwright David Hare talks about the resonances of his new play at the Bridge in London, Straight Line Crazy. It's a drama about Robert Moses, a civil planner who was a powerful and divisive figure in mid-twentieth century New York. Jenny McCartney reviews Olga, a Swiss film that follows a Ukrainian gymnast who is forced to flee her country during the Euromaidan protests of 2013 because of he...

Over the past 60 years Liv Ullmann has worked in film and throughout April the BFI celebrates her contribution to the medium as actor, writer and director with Liv Ullmann: Face to Face. The season coincides with the Norwegian cinema legend receiving an Honorary Academy Award for her exceptional contribution to the art of film. Liv Ullmann joins us to talk about her award-winning career in film an...