Front Row

A year ago, the writer, poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen was rushed to hospital with Covid. Put into an induced coma in intensive care for 48 days, he underwent weeks of convalescence as he learned to walk again.Following his recovery he wrote a new book, Many Different Kinds of Love: A Story of Life, Death and the NHS, featuring letters written to him by the medical staff who cared for him, as well as a series of poems about his months in hospital. Michael Rosen discusses his near-death experience and his desire to pay tribute to the NHS workers who saved his life.Presenter Elle Osili-Wood Producer Jerome Weatherald

Tonight's Font Row is a blue odyssey led by John Wilson as he talks to:Dr Narayan Khandekar, Director of the Forbes Pigment Collection and one of the first people in the world to recognise the significance of the accidental creation of new pigment, YInMn Blue;Artist Idris Khan is known for the use of blue in his work. He accepted Front Row's invitation to play with the newest blue pigment on the block. Idris Khan's work can be seen online as part of a group show at Victoria Miro, themed around the colour blue. The exhibition is called The Sky Was Blue the Sea Was Blue and the Boy Was Blue and runs until the end of April. Idris’s solo show, The Seasons Turn, will mark the reopening of the Victoria Miro gallery to the public, on April 13. His show runs until 15 May;Science journalist Kai Kupferschmidt who has written a new book, Blue: In Search of Nature's Rarest Colour which will be published in the UK in June;Architect Huang Wenjing who has designed a new blue building - the Pinghe Bibliotheater - in Shanghai;Saxophonist and composer Branford Marsalis who has written the blues soundtrack for the new film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom which can be seen on Netflix;and Colourist Jodie Davidson on the significance of blue when telling stories on the big and small screen.Presenter: John Wilson Studio Manager: Sue Maillot Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Minari tells the story of a Korean family who move to a farm in Arkansas in pursuit of the American Dream. The film’s director, Lee Isaac Chung, explains how his own family story inspired events in the film, and the impact Awards nominations have on his career as a director.Pianist and musicologist Samantha Ege has launched an album of piano music from the often overlooked African-American composer, Florence Price. She discusses the revival of Price's music, and why it is important her work is remembered today.With news that Paul Simon has joined a high-profile group of singer/songwriters - including Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Stevie Nicks – who’ve recently sold the entirety of their musical output, comedian and singer Amy Webber muses on the 50 Ways to Monetize Your Back Catalogue. Professor John Mullan has been celebrating the pleasures of reading, and re-reading, the novels of Jane Austen during lockdown for Front Row. For the final novel he recommends Persuasion, with its depiction of a thwarted love, and reflects on the series.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Jerome Weatherald Studio Manager: Emma Harth

Andrew Miller, the Government’s first Disability Champion for Arts and Culture, is stepping down after three years in the post. He discusses the challenges facing disabled people in the creative industries and his hopes for the future. Jenny Sealey is Artistic Director of deaf and disabled theatre company Graeae and Robert Softley Gale is Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise, Scotland’s first touring theatre company employing disabled and non-disabled actors. They discuss the impact of the pandemic on disabled theatre makers.The London Symphony Orchestra has announced that Sir Antonio Pappano will be their next Chief Conductor, starting in September 2024. He takes over from Sir Simon Rattle who made a surprise announcement in January that he would be returning to conduct in Germany. Norman Lebrecht - author of The Maestro Myth - discusses the significance of this appointment for classical music in the UK. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy ProsserMain image: Graeae Theatre Company's 2018 tribute to wounded British veterans, This is Not For You Image credit: Dawn McNamara

Novelist Nadifa Mohamed and translator Maureen Freely review the just-announced longlist for the International Booker Prize 2021.Author Joanne Harris talks to her Italian translator Laura Grandi, her collaborator of 22 years, about their special partnership.Plus writer and artist Khairani Barokka and Maureen Freely explore the question of how to choose who is the best person to translate each text, in light of the recent departure of several translators from the project of translating the work of Black US inauguration poet Amanda Gorman. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Simon Richardson Studio Engineer: Donald MacDonald

Kevin Macdonald’s new film The Mauritanian is based on the true story of a prisoner held in Guantánamo Bay for 14 years but never charged. The French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim, recently seen in the TV drama series The Serpent, discusses the challenges of playing Mohamedou Slahi, who was shackled, beaten and waterboarded by the US authorities.The Lip depicts a hidden Cornwall, the one we rarely see. Its author, Charlie Carroll discusses writing about the second poorest region in all of Europe and how he included mental health issues within his work.Ready for a new radio soap opera? Greenborne launched this month and this new audio drama aims to reflect the real world we live in. Ella Watts reviews.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Oliver Jones

For our Friday Review, critics Jacqueline Springer and Sophie Harris give their verdict on two new documentaries, Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil and Tina. Both detail each of the star’s respective troubles with abuse and drug addiction while in the limelight, and our reviewers discuss their candid telling of trauma.The Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition winner was announced this Thursday in a virtual ceremony. The first prize, and the £5000 that came with it, was awarded to Marvin Thompson, a London-born poet of Jamaican heritage who now lives in mountainous south Wales. He explains what winning the prize means to him and how he explores his identity through his poetry.Dean Koontz is an extraordinarily successful author. His books have sold over 500m copies and been translated into 38 languages with many of them also being turned into screenplays. His first was published more than half a century ago in 1968 and his latest - The Other Emily – has just been published. He joins me from his home in California.Hypha Studios is a new organisation which seeks to regenerate Britain's high streets - 14 percent of whose shops are empty - and meet the needs of the thousands of artists across the UK in need of studio space. Kirsty Lang talks to its founder Camilla Cole about the process, and to its first beneficiary, artist Molly Stredwick whose temporary studio space is now a shop front in Eastbourne.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson Studio Manager: Matilda MacariImage: Tina Turner in 'Tina' (2021) © Marc Gruninger

Emerald Fennell is the director and writer of Promising Young Woman, a darkly comic revenge thriller starring Carey Mulligan. The film is nominated for five Academy Awards and six BAFTAs. Emerald is also a successful actress, most recently starring as the then-Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown as well as a cameo in the movie. We hear about what sparked the film, reactions to it and what it’s like to combine direction, writing and acting. The Humboldt Forum in Berlin is currently planning to return its entire collection of Benin bronzes to Nigeria, looted in the late 19th century in the era of European colonial expansion, and Aberdeen University has just announced it is going to be the first UK institution to return its own Benin bronze sculpture to the country. Alice Procter, author of the new book The Whole Picture: The Colonial Story of the Art in our Museums discusses the significance of these two examples of restitution.One of the most published Chinese poets in English Yang Lian, has won the inaugural Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation along with his long time translator Brian Holton. He talks to Samira Ahmed from his home in exile in Berlin about his prize winning anthology Anniversary Snow as well as how his mother’s sudden death whilst he was being “re-educated” during China’s Cultural Revolution led to him becoming a poetPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May Studio Engineer: Emma Harth

The playwright Mark Ravenhill joins us to talk about his new play Angela. It is a tender portrait of his parents; his mother, Angela, who died in 2019, and of his father, Ted. Angela had dementia and the play is about the memories that make us, and how time is more fluid than we might think. Ravenhill began Angela as a play for the stage that he was going to act - and even dance - himself. But Covid restirctions made that impossible so it became an audio play, starring Pam Ferris (Harry Potter, Call the Midwife) as Angela and Toby Jones (Detectorists, Uncle Vanya ) as Ted.Melanie Abbott joins us to update on the select committee concerning the future of UK music festivals. We also hear about a test festival that took place this weekend in The Netherlands, organised by Fieldlab.The winner of the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize is announced today and Front Row we will have the first interview.

Orlando Bloom talks to Samira Ahmed about taking on a very different kind of role in his intense and visceral film Retaliation, and the new career challenges he’s excited about.As the delayed Liverpool Biennial gets underway – showing only online and outdoor work for the moment because of the restrictions on galleries opening – art critic and editor of The Double Negative cultural website Mike Pinnington considers how the commissioned artists have responded to the theme of ‘the body’, and how the city is preparing to re-open its doors.Best selling New Zealand writer Elizabeth Knox discusses her new novel The Absolute Book, an apocalyptic fantasy novel which explores contemporary issues including climate change through a fusion of ancient myths, other worlds and a murder mystery in a spell binding story.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Simon RichardsonImage: Retaliation (2017) Credit: Zee Studios International