Front Row

Novelist Oana Aristide discusses her debut novel Under the Blue, about a reclusive artist forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. It has been described as eco-fiction and it explores themes of environmental destruction, the melting of the polar ice, eco-terrorism, all within a suspenseful story of three survivors on a terrifying road trip.The British poet Stevie Smith, best known for her work “Not Waving, But Drowning” died 50 years ago today. We speak with her biographer Frances Spalding, the editor of her collected poems and drawings Will May and we’re joined by the actor Juliet Stevenson to look at Smith’s life and works and consider her legacy.Kings of Leon have made their new album available as a form of cryptocurrency, and last week Grimes sold a digital collection of artworks in a similar way for almost $6m. Aleks Krotoski explains the growing craze for ‘non-fungible tokens’ or NFTs.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Oliver JonesMain image: Oana Aristide Image credit: Nikos Karanikolas

David Mamet's latest play, The Christopher Boy’s Communion is about a couple in New York whose son is facing trial charged with an appalling crime. First performed on the stage in Los Angeles last year, it’s premiers in the UK in the form of a radio play next week. He discusses the tricky issues it deals with and how he adapted a lengthier stage play it for radio (BBC Radio 4, Monday 8 March 8, 1415) In this week’s Friday Review, critics Karen Krizanovich and Jan Asante discuss two films with different perspectives on feminism: The Glorias, written and directed by Julie Taymor and starring Alicia Vikander and Julianne Moore, which focuses on the life of the American feminist, writer and activist Gloria Steinem, and the US high school drama Moxie, directed by and starring Amy Poehler. American writer Danielle Evans talks to Kirsty about her second short story collection, The Office of Historical Corrections, which offers a kaleidoscopic exploration of what it is to be African American in the modern USA and uses the short story form to meditate on themes of history and memory. Our occasional series dedicated to moments of joy returns with games writer Jordan Erica Webber, who argues that even at the end of the universe one can find peace and happiness as in the game Outer Wilds. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Jerome Weatherald

As World Book Day we’re speaking to teacher turned rapper turned internet sensation MC Grammar. He's created lots of videos setting information about grammar to a rap beat. He joins us to explain why it succeeds with school children and we hear the song he's composed specially for the day. Since the arrival of Amazon and online bookselling, independent bookshops have been facing an existential crisis, one that has only accelerated under Coronavirus. Going online to sell books feels like a natural way to boost profits and in November a new service, Bookshop.org, arrived in the UK promising to help bookshops get online and give them a bigger cut of profits. Bookshop.org has announced it has generated £1 million for independent bookshops - could the service be the saviour of independent bookshops and what is the future for ethical book buying online? Nicole Vanderbilt, Managing Director at Bookshop.org UK and Zool Verjee, head of marketing and publicity at Blackwells join us to discuss.And we hear about the potential impact of proposed changes, including restructuring and cutting some posts, at the V&A in London. Guy Baxter, formerly of the V&A, joins Front Row to discuss. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Sarah Johnson

Pat Metheny has won 20 Grammy Awards, predominantly for his work as a jazz guitarist, but also for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and Best Instrumental Composition. His latest work is as a composer. The album Road to the Sun has two major works for classical guitar. Four Paths of Light is a four movement suite for a solo instrument, played by Jason Vieaux, and Road to the Sun, a piece in six parts, performed by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Metheny himself plays his arrangement of Arvo Pärt's piano piece Für Alina, on an extraordinary 42 string instrument. Pat Metheny tells John Wilson about this ambitious work.We've reaction to today's Budget Statement from the Chancellor. Rishi Sunak has added £300m to the £1.57bn Cultural Recovery Fund, £90m more for museums, and £18m for cultural community projects but will the newly announced extension to the Government's Self Employment Income Support scheme really help struggling arts freelancers? And how can the festivals industry plan for the summer without the government-backed insurance scheme many were calling for? Chairman of the DCMS parliamentary select committee, Julian Knight MP and Paule Constable from the Freelancers Make Theatre Work campaign join us to discuss.And Poet Amanda Gorman became famous around the world when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s Inauguration, and now her work is due to be translated into multiple languages. Publishers Meulenhoff have been criticised for appointing a white writer, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, to translate Gorman’s poetry into Dutch, and now Rijneveld has stepped down amid the furore. Activist Janice Deul explains why she was so disappointed with the publisher’s original choice, and writer and translator Khairani Barokka describes the complicated relationship between writers and translators.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Julian MayMain image: Pat Metheny, credit: John Peden

Your Honour is a new Showtime miniseries starring Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston as a respected New Orleans judge whose son is involved in a hit-and-run. He faces a series of impossible choices questioning how far a Father will go to go to save a son's life. Developed by British Peter Moffat it's a remake of the hit Israeli show Kvodo. Novelist and journalist Lionel Shriver reviews. Stories To Get You Through is a new podcast performed by the people of Doncaster as part of the National Theatre's Public Acts programme. Participants developed their stories remotely on Zoom, over the phone, and through postal packs with creative writing activities, and recorded the stories at home with professional audio recording equipment. The podcast series consists of five episodes exploring themes of imagination, change, fear, friendship and heroes. Nick is joined by James Blakey, Associate Director of Public Acts at the National Theatre, and Lyn Sweeting, who took part. Singer songwriter Catherine Anne Davies makes music as The Anchoress. Her second album The Art of Losing is the follow up to her critically acclaimed album. 'Confessions of a Romantic Novelist'. Written and produced by Davies, the new album deals with mutiple losses and trauma that she has faced over the last few years - including the loss of her father and several miscarriages and is firmly concerned with how to find purpose in the midst of grief. She discusses how creativity can come from loss. Plus reactions to the news that the Chancellor is set announce four hundred million pounds of help for the arts sector in the budget tomorrow. Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Helen Roberts

Kazuo Ishiguro has just published his eighth novel, the first to be written since he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017 and was knighted. Klara and the Sun is about an Artificial Friend, a robot whose role is to be a companion to the teenage Josie, though it becomes apparent that more may be expected of Klara. With resonances of two of his previous novels Never Let Me Go and of The Remains of the Day, it is a much-anticipated addition to Ishiguro’s body of work. Sameer Rahim, books editor at Prospect magazine, joins us to review.The kind of systemic violence that led to the death of George Floyd is the concern of the composer and producer Adrian Younge in The American Negro, his multimedia project for Black History Month in the US. It comprises an album of music and spoken word, a four part podcast series, Invisible Blackness, and a short film. Live from Los Angeles Adrian Younge talks to us about this ambitious and unapologetic critique of the malevolent psychology that afflicts people of colour in America today. Poet Alison Brackenbury considers poetic responses to the arrival of Spring, from the familiar to the over-familiiar. And our occasional series dedicated to Moments of Joy continues with games writer Jordan Erica Webber, who finds peace and happiness at the end of the universe in the game Outer Wilds.Presenter : Tom Sutcliffe Producer : Simon RichardsonMain image: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro Image credit: Howard Sooley

We review a new biopic of jazz singer Billie Holiday, directed by Lee Daniels, which tells the story of the FBI’s campaign against her. They were afraid that performing her most famous song Strange Fruit, about the lynching of Black Americans, would incite unrest. Andra Day stars as Holiday. Barb Jungr and Be Manzini give their verdict, comment on the week's arts news and give recommendations for what they've been enjoying recently.A True Born Englishman, a monologue written 30 years ago for Radio 3 by Peter Barnes but never broadcast, is now available online as part of Barnes' People, a collection of the writer's monologues, produced by Original Theatre Company. It imagines the story of a long-serving footman at Buckingham Palace. We talk to actor Adrian Scarborough about the role and why it wasn't broadcast at the time.We mark the passing of the much loved actor of stage and screen Ronald Pickup. Praised as a great character actor, he also played many lead roles. He found global fame with The Crown and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel following a prolific and acclaimed career. Theatre critic Michael Billington discusses Pickup’s career and interrogates the label of character actor.Joanna Pocock is the winner of the Arts Foundation Futures Award for Environmental Writing. Her book Surrender is a long-form essay blending reportage, memoir, and nature writing focusing on the ecological crisis in the American West and beyond. Joanna discusses the future of environmental writing in an environment with an uncertain future.And another Moment of Pleasure as Max Liu celebrates a scene from Annie Baker's play The Flick, an homage to the power of celluloid and the cinema.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah Johnson Studio manager: Duncan Hannant

Artists Gilbert & George open a new exhibition at the White Cube next week. The pair first met in 1967 whilst studying sculpture at Central St Martin’s art college. They’ve lived and worked together in East London for fifty years. The show - New Normal Pictures - consists of twenty-six new pictures which feature the pair in gritty London landscapes including bin bags, bus shelters and graffiti. It was first due to exhibit in April last year. They join John Wilson to discuss how they’ve been more industrious than ever in lockdown and how they hope their fans will experience their art online. First staged in 2019, Typical is a play based on the true-life story of the last night of Christopher Alder, a 37-year-old Black father of two, computer trainee and former paratrooper. That night out in Hull in 1998 would end with his death in police custody. Playwright Ryan Calais Cameron joins Front Row to talk about the Soho Theatre streaming of his play, a one man show performed by Richard Blackwood and co-produced by Nouveau Riche. In today’s #FrontRowGetCreative challenge Painter Jadé Fadojutimi gives us her advice on how to start turning an idea into a piece of art. It can be a new idea, or one you’ve had for a while, the important thing is to get yourself into a space where you can start to make something creative. Jadé invites us into her studio at 1:30 in the morning and shows us how she starts a painting.And we reflect on the life of renowned art detective Charley Hill whose investigative work led to the recovery of one of the world's most iconic paintings Edvard Munch's The Scream, stolen in Oslo in 1984. Charley Hill died earlier this week aged 73.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Julian May

As she is awarded one of British crime writing’s top accolades, the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger, Samira talks to crime novelist Martina Cole. Hailed as the Queen of Crime Drama, Cole has written 25 novels and sold 10 million books since records began but her work is rarely reviewed - so what’s her secret?Under the road map unveiled by Boris Johnson on Monday public museums and galleries in England will be allowed to reopen no earlier than 17 May, along with other indoor venues such as cinemas and soft play areas, whilst commercial galleries, public libraries, community centres and gyms are allowed to open from 12 April. Sharon Heal, director of the Museums Association talks to Samira Ahmed about the impact the continued classification of museums as "indoor entertainment venues" will have on the sector and whether there might be a shift on behalf of the government.Folk musician Sam Lee has collaborated with English Heritage on a project called Songs of England, a series of online films of sites from Stonehenge and Tintagel to Hadrian’s Wall and Whitby Abbey accompanied by traditional folksongs performed by members of Sam’s Nest Collective. He talks about the connection between music and location and sings John Barleycorn especially for Front Row. Sam also tells Samira about his fascination with the nightingale which he has turned into a compendium of ornithology, verse, legends and illustration and his plans for open-air concerts where nightingales will sing with the musicians.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser SM: John Boland

John Keats was just 25 when he died in Rome 200 years ago. To mark the anniversary The Poetry Society has commissioned new work from award-winning contemporary poets responding to Keats’s work, and two of them – Rachael Boast and Will Harris – join us to share their poems and discuss why Keats is still important to contemporary writers 200 hundred years after his death.“The Best Is Yet To Come” is Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler’s 18th studio album. Pushed back by the pandemic, it’s a return to the bombastic full-figured 80s sound that characterised Total Eclipse of the Heart and some of her other greatest hits. At the age of 69, does the rock veteran feel like the best is yet to come? Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden summoned 25 heads of England's Museums and heritage organisations to a summit today to discuss the issue of contested history and the government policy of "retain and explain". Duncan Wilson, Chief Exec of Historic England, reports on the meeting. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Hilary Dunn Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant