Front Row

42:01

Remembering Dolly Parton, Meg Mason and Notting Hill...

Front Row ·

2026/08/25

Samira Ahmed spoke to Dolly Parton in 2023. As her death is announced Front Row pays tribute to the star of country music who sold more than 100 million records and wrote over 3,000 songs in a career that spanned six decades. A chance to hear Meg Mason, the bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss, about her new novel, Sophie Standing There, which deals with celebrity obsession and the publishing industry. A new film looks at the story of the Second World War through General De Gaulle’s eyes. We

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42:14

Review Show: Rachel Cusk's new novel and the return...

Front Row ·

2026/08/20

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and William Lee Adams join Tom Sutcliffe to review:The Life of M - the new novel from Rachel Cusk. The book centres on a writer’s attempt to chronicle the life of a globally famous film star, and explores the strangeness of celebrity.Stop! That! Train! - a comedy disaster movie featuring many of the stars from RuPaul's Drag Race.Coyote vs Acme - after a lengthy and tumultuous journey, including being shelved by its studio, the much anticipated Looney Tunes film finally reaches

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41:49

From the Edinburgh Festivals: Ann Droid and...

Front Row ·

2026/08/19

Ann Droid and Motherland star Paul Ready on his debut one man show Little Animals, a powerful piece of writing on climate, consumerism and the anxieties of being a Dad in today's world. The founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales on his book The Seven Rules of Trust, an optimistic view of how technology can impact on our lives. Comedian and actor Rosie Holt on her two shows at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Churchill's Urinal and The Illegal Aliens Have Landed. And Senegalese musician Senny Camara

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42:27

The Light opens in Durham, and Iain Stirling on the...

Front Row ·

2026/08/18

As contemporary art venue, The Light, prepares to open in Durham, its artistic director Tony Guillan, and the art critic Louisa Buck, discuss the new building and its opening exhibition, Victory Over the Sun: Encounters with Light.Comedian Iain Stirling is known to many for narrating Love Island. He's stepped out from behind the scenes to front new reality tv show Race Against The Tide where participants compete against each other and the shoreline to create sandcastle art.As her latest novel,

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42:24

Joe Lycett on his first solo exhibition, Everything...

Front Row ·

2026/08/17

The comedian Joe Lycett has long dabbled in art, but it's a serious business now as his first ever solo exhibition ‘Everything Must Go’ has just opened at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. He talks about how this show came together and why its most eye-catching piece is a giant pink and blue woolly mammoth called Martin.Charlotte Higgins talks to Samira Ahmed about her book Ukrainian Lessons, and the role artist's play in the cultural identity of the country. With poetry sales at an all time

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42:49

Review Show: Tony, film about the early life of chef...

Front Row ·

2026/08/13

Academic and critic Maria Delgado and writer and producer Jake Cunningham join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the film Tony, a film about the early career of food writer Anthony Bourdain, who is played by Dominic Sessa. The film also stars Antonio Banderas, who becomes an unexpected mentor for the young chef.They also talk about Death Note: The Musical. Based on the best-selling Manga series of the same name, the Barbican show tells the story of a student who discovers a notebook which gives him the power

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42:27

The best theatre at this year's Edinburgh Festivals

Front Row ·

2026/08/12

Australian writer and performer Hannah Reilly talks to us about her much-anticipated one woman show about sex, power and authenticity, Roleplay, which is produced by the team behind Fleabag and Baby Reindeer and which has sold out in Edinburgh but is heading to London for a run in the autumn. Critic Fergus Morgan talks us through the other shows which are making a splash at this year's Edinburgh Festivals - from a radical sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, which stars Golden

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42:18

Steph McGovern on how to buy art

Front Row ·

2026/08/11

Steph McGovern, presenter of new BBC show The Big Deal, is joined by Marie Le Conte to discuss how to buy art.Fleabag actor Sian Clifford on her lead role in "Lady", a new mockumentary film about a fading aristocrat.Why has a new show at Edinburgh about Amanda Knox been so controversial? Tristram Fane Saunders gives his assessment live from the Fringe Festival.And Colin Thubron, both a travel writer and novelist, has a new book which journeys into Egypt and the human mind - literally. He talks about

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42:17

Game of Thrones at the RSC first night review

Front Row ·

2026/08/10

What's the Royal Shakespeare Company's much anticipated stage adaptation of Game of Thrones like? Critics Boyd Hilton and Kate Maltby give their verdict. Conductor Marin Alsop on what makes American classical music sound American, ahead of her American Classics Prom on 24 August. TS Eliot Prize-winning poet Anthony Joseph discusses his new collection, Haunting the Black Air, which journeys from the Trinidad of his childhood to the dancefloors of New York.And following the news of the death of the

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42:15

Review Show: Irvine Welsh's new novel and Glenn...

Front Row ·

2026/08/06

Suzi Feay and John-Paul Stonard join Samira to review:Can Nothing Save Us?, the new novel from Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, a state-of-the-nation thriller set in the US.The Summer Book, a new film starring Glenn Close and based on the beloved novel by Moomins creator Tove Jansson. And Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam at the Royal Academy, featuring paintings by the 19th century painter who specialised in pictures of fairies, killed his own father and spent the rest of his life in Bethlem and then

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42:11

Live from the Edinburgh Festivals: Stockard Channing...

Front Row ·

2026/08/05

In the first of our special programmes from the Edinburgh Festivals, actress Stockard Channing - star of Grease, Six Degrees of Separation and Practical Magic - joins us alongside her friend, actor David Westhead, to discuss their production of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, in which a cynical and disillusioned older man reflects on his early life as an ambitious and idealistic writer.Jeff Whitty, Tony Award winning creator of the hit musical Avenue Q, which is currently running until 2027 in

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42:18

John Hannah on his new comedy crime drama set in...

Front Row ·

2026/08/04

John Hannah plays a washed-up former detective who has moved to Spain to run a pub in the new Channel 5 comedy drama Benidorm is Murder. He discusses the appeal of television crime series, and why working-class settings are underrepresented on the small screen.Hull Maritime Museum reopens after a £20 million refurbishment. Director Gillian Osgerby on why this museum is such an important feature of Hull's cultural landscape.Critic Benji Wilson, author of Rate This Book: How Star Ratings Took Over

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42:15

Magic live in the studio

Front Row ·

2026/08/03

Samira is joined by two magicians live in the studio, from the stage show "Now You See Me Live". And then she takes part in a trick and is bamboozled!Jacqueline Crooks' latest novel Sky City follows a young woman and her friends in 1990s London, as they struggle to carve out lives for themselves in the shadow of their pasts. Jacqueline explains why literature is the perfect place to discuss difficult themes.We look at the French government's multi-million euro national security plan to beef up

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42:13

Review show: Childhood in War, Children of Wolves and...

Front Row ·

2026/07/30

Rhianna Dhillon and Sarfraz Manzoor join Tom Sutcliffe to review:Childhood in War, an exhibition at the Imperial War Musuem exploring how children have experienced conflict from 1914 to the present day. Ish, the debut feature film from multimedia artist Imran Perretta which follows two boys in Luton as they navigate childhood against a backdrop of political tension and personal loss.And Children of Wolves, the new novel from Lawrence Osborne (Ballad of a Small Player), about a private investigator

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42:25

How the opiod crisis inspired an opera

Front Row ·

2026/07/29

Composer Missy Mazzoli discusses her opera The Galloping Cure, which fuses a live orchestra with electronic beats and features a charismatic antihero and talking dogs. An allegory for a crisis which has become a worldwide epidemic, the production by Opera Ventures Productions and Scottish Opera receives its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival and is a reimagining of a story by Franz Kafka. Artist Joyce W Cairns is one of Scotland's most renowned painters, and in 2018 she was

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42:12

Mary Beard reveals the Booker Prize longlist, plus...

Front Row ·

2026/07/28

Professor Dame Mary Beard reveals the 2026 Booker longlist and how she has found the process of being Chair of the judges.British contemporary pop artist Philip Colbert’s latest installation has just been unveiled amidst the historic ruins of Pompeii. Philip talks to Samira Ahmed about being inspired by an ancient mosaic featuring a lobster, a symbol he frequently includes in his work, and how he adapted his process for the UNESCO heritage site.Hollywood actor Bill Pullman, known as the fictional

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42:20

Bill Oddie, remembered by his friend Graeme Garden

Front Row ·

2026/07/27

Graeme Garden remembers his friend and Goodies colleague, Bill Oddie.Frank Miller reimagined Batman as a tougher, grittier sort of comic book hero: The Dark Knight. He has written a memoir and a guide for fans.The new Children's Laureate, writer Patrice Lawrence tells us about taking on such a prestigious role.And 850 years of the Eisteddfod - Archdruid Mererid Hopwood and Marc Rees discuss the importance of this centuries-old Welsh celebration of music, poetry, art literature.Presenter: Samira

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42:16

Review Show: Trainspotting the Musical, Colson...

Front Row ·

2026/07/23

Hanna Flint and Chris Power join Tom Sutcliffe to review:The new stage musical adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting, featuring famous songs from the 1996 Danny Boyle film as well as new compositions to bring Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud to life.On the Sea, a film by novelist and director Helen Walsh about a mussel fisherman in northern Wales and the romance that he kindles with a new itinerant worker called Daniel. Cool Machine, the final part of Colson Whitehead's Harlem trilogy,

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42:23

Andrew Ridgeley on Wham in China

Front Row ·

2026/07/22

In 1985, Wham were the first Western pop group to perform in communist China, and the tour changed people's lives. As a new documentary about this landmark moment in pop lands in cinemas - and screens on BBC Two next month - Andrew Ridgeley tells the story.From Merchant Ivory period dramas to Peaky Blinders, the art of costume making is celebrated in a new exhibition - Costume Couture - at Edinburgh's Dovecot Studios. We're joined by John Bright, the founder of Cosprop, the pre-eminent costume

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42:21

Ruth Madeley on new TV drama The Rapture, Nadine Shah...

Front Row ·

2026/07/21

Actor Ruth Madeley on starring in new TV drama The Rapture - a psychological thriller where the competing interests of an oil company, a religious cult, a protest group and a disturbed young woman convicted of murdering her mother, are set against a backdrop of climate change. Singer Nadine Shah on her homecoming BBC Prom in Gateshead.After a three year standoff, Northern Ballet reaches an agreement with the Musicians' Union. Naomi Pohl, General Secretary of the Musicians' Union on the

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