Front Row

The subtitle of Sebastian Faulks' latest book is "Ten Essays in Place of a Memoir". Fires Which Burned Brightly tells of his childhood, schooldays, drinking, mental stress, his parents' lives, family, being a touring author and much more. British ambient pop trio St Etienne play live in the studio, to mark their final release - International - three and a half decades after they began. With the re...

Critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Medieval English Literature lecturer Dr Eleanor Parker join Samira Ahmed to discuss the BBC’s historical epic King and Conqueror starring James Norton. They’ve also read Boudicca’s Daughter by Elodie Harper, and watched Young Mothers by the award-winning filmmakers the Dardenne Brothers. Plus Samira talks to artistic director Seán Doran about the Arts Over Borders pr...

Theatre producer Nica Burns, who has run the Edinburgh Comedy Awards since 1984, and judge Ashley Davies discuss the acts shortlisted for this year's prize, the most prestigious annual award for comedy in the UK, which has previously been won by the likes of Steve Coogan, Jenny Eclair, The League of Gentlemen and Tim Minchin. The founder of theatre company Complicité, Simon McBurney, who himself w...

Tom Hiddleston on becoming a dancing accountant in new Stephen King inspired film, The Life of Chuck. Sir Anish Kapoor on making a protest artwork in the North Sea with Greenpeace. A report from Bradford as artist Luke Jerram works with local communities to create a giant ball of yarn for new work, A Good Yarn, which celebrates the region's textile heritage. Michael Frayn's play Noises Off is a la...

As the National Theatre’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest transfers to the West End with Stephen Fry taking the role of Lady Bracknell, but do older actresses lose out when men are cast in women’s roles? Nikolai Foster, Artistic Director of the Leicester Curve Theatre and Nicky Clark, founder of the Acting Your Age Campaign discuss. The bestselling author of Yellowface, R.K. Kuang, d...

A revival of Brigadoon at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre; is it Scottish cultural cringe or a tartan triumph? The Bitter Water of the Lake by Italian novelist Giulia Caminito, tells a story about poverty and anger from the point of view of a young woman in Rome in the noughties Norwegian film Love, directed by Dag Johan Haugerud, is part of The Oslo Trilogy - Dreams Love and Sex. Taiwanese TV seri...

Scottish Ballet's new production Mary, Queen of Scots is a punk inspired production which tells the story of the ill-fated queen through the imagination and memories of her cousin, Elizabeth I, who authorised her execution. And a Fringe production Mary Queen of Rock portrays Mary as a rock star in a world in which rock and roll is banned. We discuss why her story continues to inspire so many produ...

Norwich Castle has reopened to the public after a major revamp. Historian Alice Loxton joins Tom to discuss what has been done to bring the 900 year old site up to 21st century tourist expectations At 21 years old, Aigul Akhmetshina was the youngest singer to perform Carmen at the Royal Opera House. She'd already come a long way from home, a rural village in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan....

Peter Sellers was a comic genius who changed British comedy forever. With this year marking his centenary, Samira is joined by Dick Fiddy, curator of an new season of his films at the BFI, and comedy historian Robert Ross to discuss his films and legacy. The Edinburgh International Book Festival got underway at the weekend. The theme is repair, but the festival has to navigate a fractious cultural...

Noah Hawley talks about creating Alien: Earth which is the first ever TV series based on the blockbuster Alien films created by Ridley Scott. Film critic Rhianna Dhillon and poet and editor Tristram Fane Saunders join Tom Sutcliffe to review the series. They also review Celine Song's new romantic comedy-drama Materialists starring Dakota Johnson as a New York Matchmaker. And John Burnside's final...

A special edition of the programme recorded in front of an audience at the Edinburgh Festivals earlier this week. Emmy and Olivier Award-winning actor Brian Cox discusses his role as the ghost of economist Adam Smith in James Graham's satirical play Make It Happen. The National Theatre of Scotland production at the Edinburgh International Festival chronicles the rise and downfall (in 2008) of the...

Tom Sutcliffe speaks to Sean Hayes, best known for his role as Jack in Will and Grace. Now he's playing pianist Oscar Levant in Broadway hit Good Night Oscar, which has just opened at the Barbican in London. Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No 5 under massive pressure, having been denounced by Stalin the year before during the great purge of 1936. The success of Symphony No 5 saved his caree...

Freakier Friday is an update on the 2003 hit body-swap movie, and it features the return of the original stars - Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan. Samira, with film critic Larushka Ivan-Zedah and Jesse Green, the chief New York Times' theatre critic, look at the legacy and impact of the book on which the films were based. Auction house Sotheby's is returning a set of sacred jewels believed to be...

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by reviewers Ekow Eshun and Hanna Flint to discuss Liam Neeson in a sequel to the beloved Naked Gun comedy film series, new Amazon Prime action TV series The Assassin which stars Keeley Hawes as a hitwoman, a new covers album from Paul Weller called Find El Dorado and the long-awaited Ray of Light remix album Veronica Electronica, from Madonna. Plus, conductor Sofi Jeannin...

Artist Andy Goldsworthy on his retrospective exhibition, which spans a five decade career. Best known for his work in the landscape, this exhibition sees the artist create dramatic large scale works for the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh - including an avenue of oak branches, a room of reeds suspended from the ceiling, and a room full of stones gathered from graveyards in Galloway, as well as...

Motherland writer Helen Serafinowicz on putting Wayne and Coleen Rooney at the heart of her debut play - The Legend of Rooney's Ring - which has just opened at the Royal Court in Liverpool. Literary critic Alex Clark examines the Booker Prize longlist which was announced today. Love Forms by Claire Adam The South by Tash Aw Universality by Natasha Brown One Boat by Jonathan Buckley Flashlight by S...

Richard Stilgoe pays tribute to the great American humorist and songwriter Tom Lehrer, who has died at the age of 97. Samira discusses newly released and previously unheard songs by Nick Drake. Petra Volpe talks about her acclaimed film Late Shift, which tells the story of nurse's night shift in a Swiss hospital. Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer: Harry Graham

Tom is joined by poet and writer Nii Ayikwei Parkes and dance critic Lyndsey Winship to review the latest big screen to stage musical adaptation Burlesque the Musical, Matthias Glasner's German-language family drama Dying, and Disney Plus series Washington Black based on the hit book by Esi Edugyan. Plus, as the UK government announces an overhaul of water regulation, an installation at the Folkes...

A new stage production that's been inspired by the writer's own experience as an inmate. Academy Award winning playwright and director Terry George served a sentence in Long Kesh jail near Lisburn in the 1970s and his time there - when a number of successful and unsuccessful escape attempts were made. These inspire The Tunnel, a play which is being staged in Ireland for the first time, at the Lyri...

Jimmy McGovern on his challenging new BBC drama, Unforgivable, about a convicted child abuser. The Fantastic Four changed comics forever in 1961 by making superheroes more human, but on screen the team has struggled. Now Marvel is rebooting their First Family for the third time. Author and journalist Hannah Strong and journalist and co-host of the Fade to Black film podcast Amon Warmann reveal if...

Samira talks to Mark Gatiss about his new detective series, Bookish. Playwright Suzie Miller discusses her new courtroom drama Inter Alia, about a Crown Court Judge facing a family crisis. We explore the impact of President Trump's cuts to US public media and consider the legacy of British cinema of the 80s. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Simon Richardson

Tom Sutcliffe with reviewers Bidisha and Caroline Frost discuss the TV adaptation of Richard Flanagan's Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the cringe comedy film Friendship, starring Paul Rudd, and the wedding comedy Till The Stars Come Down, which has transferred from The National to London's West End. Also the latest advance in AI; beyond the uncanny valley

As a new exhibition of Ikea textiles opens, we discuss the impact of Scandinavian design concepts on our homes, with curator Anna Sandberg Falk of the Ikea Museum in Sweden and designer Anna Campbell Jones. Bestselling author John Niven talks about his latest novel The Fathers, an exploration of contemporary fatherhood and masculinity which is set in Glasgow. And we hear how social media influence...

Former footballer Edgar Davids and artist Paul Pfeiffer on creating a new work for the Manchester International Festival. As four new twenty minute operas are premiered at the Buxton International Festival, Helen Goodman, artistic manager at the festival, and Hannah Ellis Ryan, artistic director of theatre company, HER Productions, discuss how short plays and operas can lead the way for change. Jo...

We mark Bastille Day with a dive into President Macron’s cultural policy for France. And we revisit the dark heart of filmmaking with two people who were there during the making of Apocalypse Now and Fitzcarraldo. Documentaries made about both films have been re-released - Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse, about Apocalypse Now is in cinemas, and Burden of Dreams about Fitzcarraldo is st...