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Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
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Poet, playwright and curator Inua Ellams and film critic Hanna Flint join Tom Sutcliffe for this week's reviews. Riding high after the huge success of the Wicked films, actor Cynthia Erivo returns to the London stage for a one-woman production of Bram Stoker's Dracula, in which she plays all the parts. Last summer was dubbed 'brat summer' by the press, with the word 'brat' entering the dictionary as an adjective - all in response to the pop album Brat by singer Charli XCX. In a new mockumentary, The Moment, Charli considers how to follow up on Brat, and how to deal with fame. And Kleber Mendonça Filho's new film The Secret Agent follows a man caught in the turmoil of the Brazilian military dictatorship. With four Oscar nominations and two BAFTA nominations, it's widely tipped to be one of the big winners in this year's awards season. Plus authors Hallie Rubenhold and Jason Sanford tell Tom about a new and troubling marketing scam aimed at authors which promise good reviews and then resort to threats when authors do not respond.Producer: Tim Bano
Director Mona Fastvold and actor Amanda Seyfried discuss their film The Testament of Ann Lee, a musical history about the life of the founder of The Shakers, a mystic who moved from Manchester to the United States in the 18th century and founded a religious community, and who advocated for celibacy, communal living, and gender equality.As a new production of George Bernard Shaw's St Joan opens, director Stewart Laing and theologian and art historian Ayla Lepine discuss how the 15th-century French religious martyr who led France to victory in the Hundred Years War against England but who was burned at the stake after being found guilty of heresy has influenced culture, and why her story is particularly relevant today.In her new book Fashioning the Crown, journalist and author Justine Picardie explores how the women of The Windsors have used clothing to communicate messaging to the public. She speaks about her research in the Royal Archives and about how symbolic royal dress has been over the past century.Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan
In 1986 Jim Cartwright's debut play, Road, was the theatrical sensation of the year and its reputation has only grown in the decades that have followed. As a new production to mark its 40th anniversary opens at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, Jim Cartwright joins Front Row to reflect on why the play has had such an enduring impact."How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.” So exclaimed Van Gogh in a letter. Now an exhibition, 'Yellow: Beyond Van Gogh's Colour', at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam explores why the artist and his contemporaries loved yellow so much. Art historians Martin Bailey and Kirsty Sinclair Dootson discuss the significance of yellow in art, and the long history of the colour.American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir on her new Oscar-nominated documentary, The Perfect Neighbour, which looks at a 2023 shooting incident in Florida when white female, Susan Louise Lorincz, fatally shot her black female neighbour, Ajike Owens.Dr Jasmine Allen, Director of the Stained Glass Museum, on the "nation's favourite" stained glass window at Carlisle Cathedral.Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Baz Luhrman's newest film is recently rediscovered footage showing Elvis Presley, live in concert at the height of his fame. We speak with Baz about his continuing love for The King.75 years of The Archers; Emma Freud and Archer's editor Jeremy Howe discuss the world's longest running soap opera and how the programme has dealt with the attack on George Grundy.London's Royal Court Theatre is famous for productions that caused stir – Look Back in Anger, Saved, Blasted, The Rocky Horror Show. Its work may still be angry, but the theatre is no longer young, and its new director, David Byrne, has recently announced its 70th Anniversary Season. He talks to Samira Ahmed about his vision for this ‘writers’ theatre’, and its latest production, which might cause a stir, too - The Shitheads.Peter Bradshaw reports from the Berlin Film Festival - what's good, what's not-so-good, and what's making headlines.Presenter: Samira Ahmed
1Anne Brontë biographer Samantha Ellis and writer Stephanie Merritt join Tom to discuss Emerald Fennell's racy adaptation of Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie.They also review Adolescence co-writer Jack Thorne's BBC adaptation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies.After a 35 year campaign, the South Bank Centre has secured Grade II listing. Former Artistic Director Jude Kelly and architecture historian Barnabas Calder talk about whether we're learning to love Brutalism.Finally, Samantha, Stephanie and Tom have read James Meek's book Your Life Without Me, which is concerned with the competing claims of the old and the new, in both architecture and life. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet
LIsa McGee on her fresh spin on the murder mystery genre How To Get to Heaven from Belfast, and on the impact of the Derry Girls phenomenon. At this month's Grammy Awards, Olivia Dean, Lola Young and FKA Twigs - all alumni of The Brit School in Croydon - walked off with prizes. We speak to the school's Principal, Stuart Worden, about how the school prepares students for a career in the music industry. And as the world premiere of The Great Wave, a new opera inspired by Hokusai's iconic print, takes place, composer Dai Fujikura talks to us about the man behind the art, and writer Fi Leith discusses the cultural love affair between Scotland and Japan. Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan
The creator of Yes Minister - Jonathan Lynn - on his new play I’m Sorry Prime Minister. Griff Rhys Jones plays Jim Hacker, the octogenarian former Prime Minister. Clive Francis plays civil servant Sir Humphrey in this elegiac comedy which draws the saga to a close.Inside Aardman is a new exhibition opening at the Young V&A this week to mark the 50th anniversary of the creative company who have brought plasticine stop-motion animation to a global stage in the form of Wallace and Gromit. Tom is joined by stop-motion animator and director Joseph Wallace and Jez Stewart, curator of animation for the BFI National Archive to discuss the exhibition and the state of stop-motion animation today. And director Amy Berg talks about her archive rich documentary It's Never Over about the late singer Jeff Buckley.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Hollywood star Kristen Stewart talks about her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, which is a searing portrait of childhood abuse and redemption that’s based on the life story of author Lidia Yuknavitch.Seurat and the Sea is a new exhibition opening at London’s Courtauld Gallery.
It features 26 paintings and sketches - many of which haven’t been seen together since they were created - that show the pointillist painter’s love for depicting the coast of northern France.Bad Bunny has made headlines in the last week for his outspoken political comments following his victory at the Grammys, as well as his historical performance at last weekend’s Super Bowl. Radio 1xtra’ s Fee Mak explains what it is about Bad Bunny’s music that makes him Spotify’s most streamed artist in the world.Here There are Blueberries is a play inspired by the discovery of an album of snaps of workers relaxing and enjoying time off. But these are the staff of Auschwitz. Writer and director Moises Kaufman explains why and how he and co-writer Amanda Gronich created their extraordinary and timely drama. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian May
Tom is joined by reviewers Tristram Fane Saunders and Natalie Jamieson to discuss...
Mark (The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time) Haddon's autobiography Leaving Home.
The dark comedy film Twinless about two men who lost their respective twin brothers and develop a growing friendship after meeting in a support group.
And Mackenzie Crook's new TV series Small Prophets, which stars Michael Palin.
Also Saturday Night Live has announced its UK line-up, and the return of The Muppets. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Folk musician Martin Carthy speaks about his long career and about his recent decision to retire from live performance following a diagnosis of late-onset Alzheimer's Disease; As a major retrospective of the work of Gwen John goes on display at National Museum Cardiff, the exhibition's curator Lucy Wood and historian of visual culture Becca Voelcker discuss this formidable and fascinating modernist. 77-year-old curator Alison Luchs of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC has gone viral with her social media videos in which she speaks to Gen Z in their own language. She speaks to Front Row about slaying as an online phenomenon. And ENO's new Music Director Designate, German conductor André de Ridder, speaks to us about his plans for the opera company and about the forthcoming production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht, a piece which he has described as "frighteningly relevant". Presenter: Kate Molleson
Producer: Mark Crossan
Jared Bush, head of Walt Disney Animation Studios, on his record-breaking film Zootropolis 2.Alex Tadros, owner of Mars Tapes, the last cassette shop in the UK, and culture writer Sian Pattenden on the resurgence of the cassette tape.Oliver Royds, co-founder and joint CEO of Troubadour Theatres, on his company's plans to create London's biggest theatre venue in Greenwich.Debris Stevenson on her new play My Brother's a Genius, and how rap battles helped her to co-create the RSC's new production of Cyrano de Bergerac which will be heading to London's West End.Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Author Rachel Rachel Joyce and musician Passenger discuss the new musical based on Rachel's hit book The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation has been republished after 25 years as a Penguin Classic. Samira Ahmed talks to the author about the impact of the book.Emily Itami and comedian Iszi Lawrence review the British Museum's new exhibition "Samurai".Critic Tim Robey on the work of Catherine O'Hara, following news of her death.
Tom Sutcliffe and guests Viv Groskop and Dorian Lynskey, review Bradley Cooper's film Is This Thing On? - about a marriage in crisis and a comedian on the rise.
Guess How Much I Love You? is the new play by Luke Norris at London's Royal Court Theatre, which deals with starting a family, enduring love and impossible choices
And George Saunders' new book, Vigil, set in the living world and the world of the dead and the in-between.
Also how successful is British soft power in China?Presenter Tom Sutcliffe
John Carter Cash on how the lives of his famous parents - Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash - have inspired a stage musical which tells the story of the couple's long love story but also tackles addiction head on. As a long-lost portrait of poet Robert Burns by the acclaimed artist Henry Raeburn goes on display, art historian Bendor Grosvenor and art journalist Melanie Gerlis discuss how experts go about attributing a painting to a great artist. While technology can show us detail far beyond the paint on the canvas, will human expertise and discernment always be necessary in cases such as this? And author Benjamin Wood talks about his atmospheric novel Seascraper, which centres the story of a young shrimper in a coastal town in the north of England who dreams of becoming a folk singer, and which has won the Nero prize for fiction. Presenter: Kate Molleson
Producer: Mark Crossan
Michael Sheen on the first production of his newly-formed Welsh National Theatre, Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town seen through a Welsh lens. Film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reacts to the Bafta nominations announced today and how they compare with last week's Oscar's list. 100 years since Laurel and Hardy united for their first film, Neil Brand discusses the comedy duo with film historian Pamela Hutchinson.And writer Patrick Charnley discusses his Cornwall-set novel This My Second Life, which came out of his experience being clinically dead for forty minutes, and his subsequent recovery from a life changing brain injury.Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Lucy Collingwood
Richard Linklater speaks to Samira Ahmed about his new film Nouvelle Vague.Robbie Williams has beaten the Beatles' record for the most UK album chart number ones - we ask former Spotify exec Will Page how he's done it.Daughters of Donbas is a musical project, created by Ukrainian musicians to bring the world’s attention to the kidnapping by Russian authorities of Ukrainian children. Samira speaks with two of its members - Marichka and Liza – about what they hope it could achieveWhy is there a wave of children’s authors turning to writing fiction for adults? We talk to Francesca Simon MBE - bestselling author of the Horrid Henry Books and now the Welsh-myth inspired Salka - as well as Liz Flanagan who has written her first historical novel for older readers, When We Were Divided.Presenter Samira Ahmed
Producer Harry Graham
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and novelist Lawrence Norfolk to review:Korean auteur Park Chan-Wook's redundancy revenge thriller No Other Choice.Julian Barnes' Departure(s) which he's said will be his last book.Oliver Hermanus' film The History of Sound starring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor in a folk music love story.And they discuss the Oscar nominations which were announced today.And the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have announced that they will be investing £1.5 billion in cultural organisations, but is it enough and is it going to the right place. Georgia Luckhurst, news editor with Art Professional magazine, is on to discuss.
Actor Claire Foy on her role as a grieving academic who finds solace in falconry in the film adaptation of Helen Macdonald's award-winning memoir H Is For Hawk. As it goes on display for a period of three months, Chris Cassells of the National Library of Scotland, Ashleigh Hibbins of Perth Museum and playwright and poet Liz Lochhead discuss the cultural significance of the last letter of Mary Queen of Scots, written hours before her execution in 1587. Two of the creative team behind Trolleydarity, a National Theatre of Scotland-backed project which transports hospital patients and staff on multi-sensory micro-adventures talk about their innovative approach to taking art and theatre into NHS settings. And as the Music Venue Trust publishes a report about the fragile ecology of small music venues around the UK, we hear whether there might be hope on the horizon. Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan
Comedian John Bishop on how his life story inspired Bradley Cooper's new movie, Is This Thing On? starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern. Hull Truck Theatre has just won the Innovation prize at the Stage Awards for their new training scheme for GPs. Associate Director Tom Saunders and GP Dr Eman Shamsaee discuss why drama classes are helping doctors treat patients.Writer Jamila Gavin on winning the Children's Fiction category of the Nero Book Awards with her World War One-set novel My Soul, A Shining Tree.Poet Karen Solie discusses scooping this year's TS Eliot Prize - at £25,000 it's the biggest prize in the British poetry world.Presenter: NIck Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Artist Beryl Cook would have been 100 this year - famed for her cheeky paintings of large ladies and people having fun, there's a new exhibition opening in Plymouth.
Cole Escola is the man behind the stage musical sensation, Oh Mary, which has been hailed in some circles at The Next Hamilton.Washington National Opera is leaving their base for more than half a century. They have cited a slump in ticket sales since Donald Trump became chair of the Trump Kennedy Center in America's capital, as well as "shattered" donor confidence.The Voice of Hind Rajab is a harrowing film from Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, based around a real emergency call from a 5 year old Palestinian girl under fire in Gaza. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Oliver Jones
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