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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

42:29

Benedict Cumberbatch on The Thing with Feathers

Front Row ·

2025/11/05

Benedict Cumberbatch speaks to Kate Molleson about the new film adaptation of Max Porter's Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, an exploration of loss and berievement.On Tuesday night, the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 was announced. They join Kate to dicuss their work, and the significance of taking home the prize. 100 years ago, one of the best viola players of her generation – Rebecca Clarke – gave a sold-out concert at London’s Wigmore Hall. All of the music on the

42:18

Sarah Snook, Riz Ahmed and return of Play for Today

Front Row ·

2025/11/04

Riz Ahmed is one of his generation’s great British actors. He starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, before landing roles in big budget films from Jason Bourne to Rogue One. For his latest role, Ahmed has teamed up with director David McKenzie to play a man who works as a broker between whistleblowers and the companies who want their secrets returned.As Shiv in Succession, the scheming daughter of the Logan Roy dynasty, Sarah Snook was an integral part of one of the most critically

42:15

Zadie Smith and Brenda Blethyn live in studio

Front Row ·

2025/11/03

Zadie Smith talks about the art of the essay, as she publishes a non-fiction collection, Dead and Alive. Brenda Blethyn discusses her new film Dragonfly, for which she's just been nominated for Best Joint Performance at the British Independent Film Awards along with her co-star Andrea Riseborough. In the last of Front Row's interviews with the authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Samira talks to Andrew Miller about his novel The Land in Winter, set in the Big Freeze of I962-3. Film scholar Ian

42:24

Review Show: Bugonia, Salman Rushdie stories, The...

Front Row ·

2025/10/30

Tahmima Anam and Tristram Fane Saunders join Tom Sutcliffe to review The Eleventh Hour, a collection of five short stories from Salman Rushdie in his first return to fiction since he was attacked in 2022. Director of Poor Things and The Favourite Yorgos Lanthimos brings more strangeness to cinema screens with Bugonia, a thriller with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. And Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize-winning novel The Line of Beauty is adapted for the stage by Jack Holden. Plus they discuss

42:28

Live from Derry: two of the stars of police drama...

Front Row ·

2025/10/29

Live from Derry. As the climax of the current series approaches, actors Dearbháile McKinney and Martin McCann, two of the cast of hit police series Blue Lights, talk about their roles. Writer John Morton talks to us about his play Denouement, a darkly comic tale set in the run-up to apocalyptic events in 2048 and which is receiving its world premiere at the Belfast International Arts Festival. And as Europe's largest Halloween Festival opens in Derry, writer Jan Carson and Kate Byrne, who teaches

42:27

Prunella Scales, Palestine 36 film, Making...

Front Row ·

2025/10/28

In tribute to Prunella Scales, whose death was announced today, Front Row rebroadcasts an interview with the Fawlty Towers star from 2012, recorded on the eve of her 80th birthday. Samira talks to two documentary makers who gained extraordinary access to world leaders for their films. Tommy Gulliksen followed Nato Chief Jens Stoltenberg for his film Facing War, and Petra Costa followed several Brazilian Presidents for her films Apocalypse in the Tropics and The Edge of Democracy. Annemarie Jacir

42:06

Reese Witherspoon on her novel and Colin Farrell on...

Front Row ·

2025/10/27

Actor Reese Witherspoon on why she's teamed up with thriller writer Harlan Coben to write a novel called Gone Before Goodbye, about a struck-off army surgeon who uncovers a global conspiracy. Colin Farrell discusses his new film Ballad of a Small Player, about a gambler on the verge of losing everything, which is directed by Oscar winner Edward Berger. What is the best amount of time to look at a work of art? Professor Jennifer Roberts from Harvard University has the answer. Today University

42:14

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere - Tom and guests...

Front Row ·

2025/10/23

Tom Sutcliffe and guests review the Bruce Springsteen film, Deliver Me From Nowhere, which tells the story of his recording of the album NebraskaAlso there's a new book from the late Harper Lee: The Land of Sweet Forever, comprising newly discovered short stories and previously-published essays and magazine pieces. Is it a posthumous intellectual property trawl or does it offer an insight that can increase our appreciation of her undisputed masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. And Nick Payne's new

42:29

John Grisham on his new thriller, The Widow

Front Row ·

2025/10/22

Bestselling thriller writer John Grisham on his latest book, The Widow, in which a smalltown lawyer from Virginia finds himself accused of a serious crime after he develops a professional relationship with a wealthy woman who may not be all that she seems. We hear from writer-director Kelly Reichardt and from actor Josh O'Connor who plays an art thief in her latest film The Mastermind. Dutch art historian and detective Arthur Brand gives an update on the real-life robbery of France's crown jewels

42:16

Steve Martin and Alison Brown talk bluegrass and banjos

Front Row ·

2025/10/21

Comedy giant Steve Martin on making new bluegrass music with pioneering banjo player Alison Brown with their new album, Safe, Sensible, and Sane. Filmmaker Nia DaCosta on her cinematic retelling of Ibsen's classic play, Hedda Gabbler.Sharon Heal, Director of the Museums Association on British industrial heritage emerging from the cultural shadows.Senior curator at the Horniman Museum, Heba Abd el Gawad, and Egyptologist Dr Campbell Price on the enduring influence of Egyptology on culture.Presenter:

42:20

Cathy Tyson on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Front Row ·

2025/10/20

Cathy Tyson stars in the Leicester Curve Theatre production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. She talks about the demanding, drunken role of Martha.Jewellery expert Joanna Hardy discusses the robbery of France's Crown Jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris. As AI becomes an increasingly powerful tool, we speak to two artists who are experimenting with technology in music production, Todd Rundgren and Holly Herndon. And Samira talks to the Booker shortisted author David Szalay about

42:04

Guillermo Del Toro discusses his new Frankenstein film

Front Row ·

2025/10/16

Guillermo Del Toro talks about his new Frankenstein film and our critics deliver their verdict. Julia Roberts plays a college professor whose career becomes entangled in campus sexual politics, in Luca Guadanino's After The Hunt. Hollie McNish's poetry collection "Virgin" unpicks the meaning of the word and the man-made concept beneath it.Presenter Samira Ahmed Reviewers: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Lindsay Johns

42:00

Richard Ashcroft on his new album

Front Row ·

2025/10/15

Singer songwriter Richard Ashcroft - former frontman of The Verve - talks about the material on his new album Lovin You., and about touring with Oasis this summer. A play without a script which questions the impact of AI on our lives and celebrates the ingenuity of human actors: Writer Nathan Ellis and actor Roisin Gallagher join us live to talk about Instructions, which is being performed next week at the Belfast International Arts Festival. As an exhibition of work by the daredevil pilot and

42:25

Sam Ryder performs live

Front Row ·

2025/10/14

Sam Ryder talks to Samira about his career, gaining Eurovision success with Space Man and he performs the song Armour live, a track from his forthcoming album Heartland.With chart topping songs and a global smash hit animated film, directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans talk about creating the phenomenon that is KPop Demon Hunters.The Pulitzer prize winning African American writer Hilton Als and biographer Miranda Seymour discuss author Jean Rhys.Presenter: Samira AhmedProducer: Claire

42:16

Lang Lang plays in studio

Front Row ·

2025/10/13

Pianist Lang Lang's 2019 album Piano Book was one of the best selling classical albums that year, with over a billion streams and counting. He’s now followed it up with Piano Book 2, an eclectic selection of 32 short works from both classical and contemporary composers. He came into the studio to talk to us about the album and to play for us.Diane Keaton passed away on Saturday, at the age of 79. She spoke to Front Row in 2017, where she discussed her philosophy around style and fashion. The Booker

42:11

Review Show: I Swear film and The Poems of Seamus Heaney

Front Row ·

2025/10/09

Alexander Larman and Susannah Clapp join Tom to discuss I Swear, a film which tells the life story of John Davidson MBE who was diagnosed with Tourette's age 15.They also talk about Thomas Pynchon's new novel Shadow Ticket.Booker shortlisted novelist Tibor Fischer assesses the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai who has won the Nobel Prize in Literature.As the complete works of Seamus Heaney is published, Owen McDonnell reads the previously unpublished poem Swallow.Plus, Tom and guests discuss

42:38

Tamsin Greig on her role in Sally Wainwright's Riot...

Front Row ·

2025/10/08

Actor Tamsin Greig discusses her role in Sally Wainwright's latest drama series, Riot Women, in which a group of middle-aged women in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, form a band of anarchist rock musicians. Booker Prize-shortlisted author Susan Choi tells us about her sprawling historical epic, Flashlight, set against the backdrop of the shared history of America, Japan and Korea. Conservation specialist Will Palin on the historic refurbishment of a series of magnificent murals by the great artist

42:11

Marina Abramović on her dream creation - Balkan...

Front Row ·

2025/10/07

Artist Marina Abramović on the world premiere of her largest-scale performance artwork - Balkan Erotic Epic - at Aviva Studios in Manchester. BBC Culture reporter Noor Nanji on the Riyadh Comedy Festival which has divided the comedy world.Poets Max Wallis and Dr Anna Percy on poetry and mental health as their new poetry magazine, The Aftershock Review, makes an impressive debut.Clare Wood, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the British Ceramics Biennial on the festival's new international

42:14

Kathryn Bigelow and Kiran Desai

Front Row ·

2025/10/06

Film director Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker. She discusses her new film A House of Dynamite, which also looks at war, with Samira Booker-winner Kiran Desai has been nominated for her new novel - 2 decades in the writing; The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Islam Issa and Ben Luke join Samira to discuss 'what are the humanities for and where are they headed'? And we pay tribute to Dame Jilly Cooper who has died at the age of 88. We speak to

42:28

Review Show: The Smashing Machine film and Ben...

Front Row ·

2025/10/02

The Smashing Machine director Benny Safdie talks to Tom Sutcliffe about making his biographical drama about the life of mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr. Tom is also joined by critics Boyd Hilton and Natalie Jamieson to review Safdie’s film – which stars wrestler turned actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Emily Blunt. They also discuss a major retrospective of photographer Lee Miller at Tate Britain. Plus they talk about Ben Elton’s autobiography What Have I Done?Presenter: Tom

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