Podcast
Front Row
Hosted by BBC Radio 4 · EN
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
97episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman
3d ago00:42:29Tap to summarizeThe coming-of-age series Heartstopper has been a phenomenon with young readers and viewers in recent years. Its creator Alice Oseman joins us as the film Heartstopper Forever lands on Netflix, and as the final graphic novel in her series is published. JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is one of the all-time greats of American literature and has inspired many writers including George Saunders, Dave Eggers and Sally Rooney. On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the book's publication, the author's son Matt Salinger talks to us about the universal appeal of the novel, the protagonist Holden Caulfield and his father's reputation as a recluse. And prog rock gets the Proms treatment! As a Prom this Saturday evening at the Royal Albert Hall sees work by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Mike Oldfield and Renaissance performed by a full-scale orchestra, Stuart Maconie, who is hosting the concert, and founder member of ELP Carl Palmer discuss prog rock's significance and legacy. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
Transcribe →Christopher Nolan on his film The Odyssey, Little House on the Prairie, novelist Candice Carty-Williams
4d ago00:42:23Tap to summarizeBritish director Christopher Nolan discusses his biggest cinematic blockbuster yet: The Odyssey, which stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and more, in his retelling of Homer’s epic poem about the warrior Odysseus’s battles with ancient Greek monsters like the Cyclops, Circe and the Sirens on his quest to return to his family after the Trojan War.We talk with Tom Kiehl, CEO of the industry body UK Music, about the government’s recent announcement of plans ‘to turn up the music business,’ with new powers and investment. Is it something new or a rehash of old ideas? A new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder has just been released on Netflix. Samira is joined by author Tracy Chevalier and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s biographer Pamela Smith-Hill to discuss the series and the enduring appeal of the stories.Candice Carty-Williams' breakthrough 2019 novel Queenie became a bestseller, made the publishing industry sit up and was adapted into series for Channel 4. Now she is back with her trademark blend of comedy and politics with Queenie is Working on It, a sequel which explores topics of fertility, sex and body image for a young black woman in contemporary Britain. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd
Transcribe →Diane Morgan on playing a robot in TV comedy Ann Droid.
5d ago00:42:23Tap to summarizeDiane Morgan on her BBC TV comedy series Ann Droid, in which she stars as the eponymous robot helper to Sue Johnston. We pay tribute to actor Sam Neill, who has died at the age of 78. His screen work stretched from blockbusters like Jurassic Park to small independent New Zealand releases.Anna Reynolds, Surveyor of the King's Pictures, on the rehang of Buckingham Palace Picture Gallery. Reopened recently, it has doubled the number of stunning works on display to the public; from Vermeer to Stubbs to Canaletto.Saxophonist Emma Rawicz won UK Jazz Act of the Year at 2026 Jazz FM Awards. She's currently touring with a range of projects, which includes her 20-piece Jazz Orchestra, which she manages as well as composing and arranging original music.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Transcribe →Review Show: The Rolling Stones album Foreign Tongues
1w ago00:42:18Tap to summarizeCritic and columnist Dr Kate Maltby and author Michael Donkor join Tom Sutcliffe to review Robota, the inaugural large-scale production at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Oxford. The production explores what happens to humanity when the line between human and machine blurs. They also discuss Country People by Pulitzer Prize nominated author Daniel Mason. The novel explores a year in the life of a family as they strike out into the unknown. And talk about Foreign Tongues the 25th studio album by the Rolling Stones. Plus, as the 2016 global hit Moana is turned into a live action film, critic Larushka Ivan- Zadeh assesses why Disney remakes films and whether they are any good.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet
Transcribe →Lynval Golding of The Specials on the band's swansong album
1w ago00:41:58Tap to summarizeLynval Golding of two-tone and ska legends The Specials , on the band’s final album, Live from the Cathedral, which was recorded in Coventry Cathedral. and which pays tribute to the band's late frontman Terry Hall. Photographers Tish Murtha and Sandra George, whose work represented disadvantaged and marginalised communities in Newcastle and Edinburgh respectively, were not given the recognition they deserved in their lifetimes. Now with major exhibitions at Baltic Gateshead and City Art Centre in Edinburgh, we discuss the significance of their work. David Thomson is renowned as the doyen of film criticism, but his latest book - A Sudden Flicker of Light - is billed as a revisionist history of the movies and asks us whether the film industry has given us false expectations of life. He speaks to us from California. And we're joined live in the studio by the artist who's won an international competition to create a permanent memorial to author Dame Muriel Spark in Edinburgh, the city of her birth. Presenter : Kirsty Wark Producer : Mark Crossan
Transcribe →Ai Weiwei in Manchester
2w ago00:42:25Tap to summarizeChinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has just created his largest site-specific exhibition - Ai Weiwei: Button Up! - which has now opened at Aviva Studios in Manchester. Xiaowen Zhu, Director of esea contemporary art gallery, has been to see the monumental works on show and shares her thoughts on whether in this case bigger is truly better. Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour on his ground-breaking play, White Rabbit Red Rabbit. He's joined by the actor Lucian Msamati who has taken on one of the performances in the latest run of the play in which neither the actor or the audience know what the play is about until the actor opens an envelope on stage.Journalist Stephen Armstrong reflects on the Jackass phenomenon as Jackass: Best and Last, the final film in the franchise, is released. As Discofoot, a fusion of dance and football, premieres in the US as part of the country's World Cup celebrations, visual artist Alina Akbar, winner of this year's Football Art Prize with her video piece - Footwork - discusses why football and dance make great partners.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Transcribe →Madonna's Confessions II album, Daphne du Maurier, Sky buying ITV
2w ago00:42:17Tap to summarizeConfessions II is Madonna's first album in 7 years. Novelist Matt Cain and journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer discuss going back to the dancefloor.Sky TV has offered £1.6 bn pounds for ITV's free to air channel and its streaming platform ITVX. Jake Kanter, journalist for the screen industry website Deadline, considers what it will mean for British television. With a new play about Daphne du Maurier - Daphne, The Secret Lives of Daphne Du Maurier - at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, the playwright Rosie Race joins Samira Ahmed, along with Helen Taylor, author of a detailed biographical guide to her work, The Daphne du Maurier Companion to discuss her life and work. And with last weekend’s 4th of July celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of US independence from Britain, actor and filmmaker Tara Gadomski looks at the impact of the cultural events taking place across the country.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd
Transcribe →Review Show: Penélope Cruz in The Invite, Pride the Musical
2w ago00:42:28Tap to summarizeTom Sutcliffe is joined by critics Bidisha and David Benedict to review:The Invite, a new film directed by Olivia Wilde about two couples who join each other for dinner, starring Seth Rogan and Olivia Wilde as hosts and Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz as their guests.Pride the Musical, created by the same team as the hit 2014 film, which tells the true story of a group of LGBT activists who support a Welsh mining community during the 1980's miners' strikes. And the novel Trouble Was by Charlotte Edwardes which is told from the perspective of young schoolboy Frank whose family leaves their home to move in with their aunt in her farmhouse, during the 1976 heatwave.Tom also talks to journalist William Lee Adams about the news that Canada is joining Eurovision.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Lucy Collingwood
Transcribe →Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro on his passion for films featuring trains
2w ago00:42:06Tap to summarizeThe acclaimed novelist Kazuo Ishiguro talks about how he went about curating a season of films featuring trains for the BFI - from classics such as Shanghai Express by Josef von Sternberg and Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express to lesser known gems - and about how trains have inspired his own work - including songs, and his forthcoming novel, Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger. Actresses Maureen Beattie and Tracy-Ann Oberman discuss why they've changed the gender of popular roles for stage productions which are opening soon - Lear at Pitlochry Festival Theatre which sees one of Shakespeare's greatest tragic figures portrayed as a matriarch in decline, and at the Theatre Royal Bath, Garry Essendine in Noel Coward's comedy about the perils of celebrity Present Laughter is now Gerri Essendine, an ageing actress desperately clinging on to her youthful beauty. Author Stuart Cosgrove hails Village People frontman Victor Willis (whose death has just been announced) as one of the finest soul voices of his generation, whose talents were perhaps overlooked due to the novelty reputation which came to be associated with the group. And Dr Sonke Prigge tells us why - and how - he has preserved the sound of the clattering mill, traditionally used in Germany to scare away birds from cherry orchards, for the British Library's sound archive. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
Transcribe →Dave Eggers on his new novel Contrapposto and Supergirl director Craig Gillespie
3w ago00:41:44Tap to summarizeAuthor of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and The Circle, Dave Eggers is back with a new novel about a young aspiring artist. Contrapposto follows Cricket, an insular smalltown boy, enchanted by drawing, as well as an older girl, and in part draws on Eggers’ on experiences of the art world. Visiting the UK for the first time in over a decade, he speaks to Samira Ahmed in a rare interview.As an officially licensed AI Michael Caine narrated audiobook The Odyssey has recently been released, Media and AI lawyer Kelsey Farish and Guardian Film Editor Catherine Shoard discuss why a number of high profile actors, or their estates, have signed up to have their images and voices cloned for use by AI and what it means for the future of the industry.Jamir Nazir has won this year's Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Called The Serpent in the Grove, he explains how his childhood observations of rural life in his native Trinidad inspired the story, and describes the impact of winning on him and his family.Craig Gillespie talks about his new film Supergirl, a space adventure starring The House of Dragon actress Milly Alcock as Superman's mighty cousin. The I, Tonya and Cruella director reveals how this movies was inspired by the western True Grit and why he wanted to make the last daughter of Krypton a more complex and flawed character than has been shown on screen before.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd
Transcribe →