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Front Row

BBC Radio 4

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

society & culture

All Episodes

42:24

Review: Alien Earth series plus Rom-Com Materialists

Front Row ·

2025/08/07

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 collection of poetry, The Empire of Forgetting. Presenter: Tom SutcliffeProducer: Claire Bartleet

42:03

Special edition from the Edinburgh Festivals with...

Front Row ·

2025/08/06

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 world's biggest bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and also features an actor playing the role of the

42:36

Sean Hayes, from Will & Grace, on his Tony...

Front Row ·

2025/08/05

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 career, and now it's being performed from memory by the Aurora Orchestra for the BBC Proms. Nicholas Collon,

42:26

Freakier Friday

Front Row ·

2025/08/04

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 linked to the Buddha's remains, to India - William Dalrymple joins Front Row to discuss the gems'

42:22

Review Show: The Naked Gun, Madonna, Paul Weller, The...

Front Row ·

2025/07/31

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 talks to Tom about preparing to conduct John Tavener's eight-hour piece The Veil of the Temple,

42:40

Artist Andy Goldsworthy on his five-decade...

Front Row ·

2025/07/30

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 films and photography of his ephemeral works made with ice and snow. New on the auction of a

42:21

Motherland writer Helen Serafinowicz on making her...

Front Row ·

2025/07/29

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 AdamThe South by Tash Aw Universality by Natasha Brown One Boat by Jonathan Buckley Flashlight by Susan Choi The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai Audition by Katie Kitamura The Rest of Our

42:22

Tom Lehrer remembered, plus Nick Drake's unreleased...

Front Row ·

2025/07/28

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

42:20

Review Show: Burlesque the Musical

Front Row ·

2025/07/24

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 Folkestone Triennial called Ministry of Sewers allows people to air their grievances about the state of the

42:23

Prison-themed stage productions, Tribute to Ozzy...

Front Row ·

2025/07/23

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 Lyric Theatre Belfast. Neil McCormick pays tribute to co-founder of Black Sabbath and 'Prince of

42:36

Has Marvel cracked the superhero reboot?

Front Row ·

2025/07/22

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 with a big budget spectacular starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Author and journalist Hannah Strong and journalist and co-host of the Fade to Black film podcast Amon Warmann reveal if they've finally stuck the landing.

42:23

Mark Gatiss on Bookish

Front Row ·

2025/07/21

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 AhmedProducer: Simon Richardson

42:19

Review: The Narrow Road to the Deep North TV Series

Front Row ·

2025/07/17

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

42:28

How Scandinavian design has influenced our homes

Front Row ·

2025/07/16

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 influencers are shaking up the world of art criticism. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

42:20

Football and Art - united in a new work created by...

Front Row ·

2025/07/15

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 Callaghan has an AI detective at the centre of her Kat and Lock crime fiction series. Ajay Chowdhury

42:23

Gruelling film productions - stories from the sets of...

Front Row ·

2025/07/14

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 streaming. Kasim Ali on his new novel about young British Pakistani men and gang culture. And Errolyn

42:52

Review Show: Wet Leg's new album and Johnny Depp's...

Front Row ·

2025/07/10

Nancy Durrant and Boyd Hilton join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Moisturizer, the second album from the female English indie rock duo Wet Leg. Their self-titled debut reached number one on the UK charts. They also assess Modigliani – Three Days on the Wing of Madness, directed by Hollywood star Johnny Depp. The film is Depp's first since 1997 and it covers 72 hours in the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, played by Riccardo Scamarcio. Plus they have been to see More than Human at the Design

42:41

Kat Sadler, creator of BAFTA-winning sitcom Such...

Front Row ·

2025/07/09

Bestselling novelist Kate Mosse - much of whose historical fiction is set in medieval France - reacts to the news that the Bayeux Tapestry is to go on display at the British Museum in London next year. Comedian and actor Kat Sadler on her BAFTA-winning sitcom Such Brave Girls, which is set in a dysfunctional single parent family.Sitar virtuoso Nishat Khan tells us about his debut opera Taj Mahal which is being performed at Grange Park Opera this week. And artist Lindsey Mendick whose work often

42:59

Superman is back on the big screen

Front Row ·

2025/07/08

Superman is back on the big screen for the first time in nearly a decade, we speak with director James Gunn.We preview a season of films at the BFI, starring pioneering black film star Dorothy Dandridge. Best known for Carmen Jones, (her performance made her the first African American to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar) she died aged just 42 Cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe on Hercules, the newest Disney stage musical, inspired by his drawingsPresenter Samira Ahmed

42:25

Oasis comeback tour reviewed

Front Row ·

2025/07/07

Author Raynor Winn is accused of fabricating parts of her memoir The Salt Path, which she denies. We ask Alexandra Pringle, former Editor in Chief at Bloomsbury, how publishers respond when a book's authenticity is called into question. Oasis are performing together for the first time in 16 years, kicking off in Cardiff at the weekend. Music journalist Ted Kessler was there. Sadler's Well has team up with Pete Townshend to turn Quadrophenia into "A Mod Ballet". Director Rob Ashford talks about

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