Front Row

Laurie Sansom, the new Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides on his vision for the theatre company and what British theatre can learn from a small drama company operating across the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.Yesterday in Colorado, President Trump expressed his dismay at the success of the film Parasite at this year's Oscars. Instead he would have preferred the revival of films such Gone With The Wind and Sunset Boulevard. Professor Diane Roberts, a specialist in Southern culture, and the presenter of a Radio 4 Archive on 4 edition on Gone With The Wind, analyses the President's choices.In 1970, acclaimed composer and sitar player Ravi Shankar was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra to write what would be his first concerto for sitar and orchestra. Fifty years on, as Jasdeep Singh Degun prepares for the premiere of his first concerto for sitar and orchestra, he discusses the appeal of bringing together different musical traditions. Living from the proceeds of one’s art is the dream of many artists but there’s a rising number of artists looking to create new business models for sustaining their careers. Jon Wakeman, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of East Street Arts discusses why artists are getting into the hotel business.Presenter: Katie Popperwell Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist of Wicked and Godspell, on his spectacular new stage musical about Moses, The Prince of Egypt, based on the 1998 DreamWorks animation and featuring his hit song When You Believe. Leading costume designer and three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell joins us in the studio. Not content with merely garnering BAFTA and Oscar nominations for her work this year on Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Powell spent both ceremonies asking fellow nominees to sign her outfit, part of a fundraising campaign to help preserve Derek Jarman’s cottage in Dungeness. Powell worked with the director, writer and artist on several films and the suit she wore to the ceremonies will be auctioned as part of the appeal.Acclaimed Irish folk singer song writer Lisa O’Neill talks to John Wilson about the importance of traditional songs, storytelling and politics to her music, as she performs this week at “Imagining Ireland” at the Barbican in London, an event celebrating the groundswell of women’s voices in Irish literature, music and poetry.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Simon Richardson

George Mackay, star of BAFTA winning film 1917, talks about his latest, The True History of the Kelly Gang, inspired by Peter Carey's novel about Australia's most infamous outlaw, Ned Kelly. Iranian artist Shirin Neshat discusses her new exhibition Land of Dreams, which explores the experience of minorities in Trump’s America, and the fractious relationship between Iran and the US through photography and film. Earlier this month, Front Row announced our Risk List – the top ten riskiest artworks of the 21st Century. Jerry Springer - The Opera ranked 5th for its outrageous combination of trash TV with opera that garnered over 55,000 complaints when it was broadcast. Creator Richard Thomas talks about how attitudes to offence have changed since 2000, when the opera was first staged. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser

Al Pacino and Logan Lerman discuss their roles in the new TV drama series Hunters. 'Inspired by true events' it's about a group of individuals in New York in the 1970s who tracked down a number of high-ranking former Nazi officials to bring them to justice.Pass Over is a new play which concentrates on the lives of two African-American men who live in constant fear of violence, not least at the hands of white police officers. New York-based playwright Antoinette Nwandu discusses the influence Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot had on her and the research into slavery which informed her play.End of the Century is an Argentinian film about two men who hook up with each other in Barcelona and then realise they have already met twenty years previously. The debut feature from Argentinian director Lucio Castro, it’s already been hailed by some as the best gay film of the year. Tim Robey reviews.Coronavirus has affected many individuals around the world. And the arts world is also subject to its consequences. Major arts events and vast international tours are being cancelled, postponed or rerouted to avoid the Far East. We explore the issues.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Oliver Jones

This week the Sistine Chapel is unveiling ten tapestries by Raphael, to mark the 500th anniversary of artist’s death and now, for the first time since the 16th century, visitors can see them as they were intended to be displayed. Anna Somers Cocks, founding editor of The Art Newspaper, reports on their significance. In light of controversial decisions by the Turner and Booker Prize judges to split their awards among multiple entrants, alongside recent protests around representation at the Baftas and Oscars, the resignation of the French Cesar Academy board and the #MeToo scandal that forced the cancellation of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, we ask what’s going wrong with modern arts prizes? Is there a crisis of authority in who is allowed to say what’s good or bad? Have we lost the ability to unite around a shared idea of excellence? To consider the issues Stig is joined by book critic Alex Clark and Karen Simecek, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Warwick University. 24 Hour Party People director Michael Winterbottom discusses his new film Greed, starring Steve Coogan as a narcissistic British billionaire and fashion tycoon Sir Richard ‘Greedy’ McCreadie, whose star and power is fading.And, after Radio 4's A History of the World in 100 Objects Front Row presents The History of Art in 100 Limericks. Angus Reid, who wrote them, performs some.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Julian May

Eleanor Catton, who in 2013 became the youngest writer to win the Booker Prize for her monumental novel The Luminaries, talks about her screenplay for the new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, She tells Nikki Bedi why she thinks Emma is such a fascinatingly flawed heroine. After falling from favour in the last decade, the Rom-Com is on the rebound. It's Valentine's Day and Rachael Siggie looks at how the updated genre has a new generation of film – and streaming – audiences falling for its charms.In 1978 Roman Polanski fled the US for France before being sentenced for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. His latest film, An Officer and a Spy, about the Dreyfus Affair - a notorious anti-semitic injustice - has received 12 nominations in the Césars. In response the entire board of the César Academy, which distributes France's equivalent of the Oscars, has resigned. Olivia Salazar- Winspear of news channel France 24 explains what is going on.The great singer songwriter James Taylor, whose work includes You've Got a Friend, Fire and Rain and Carolina in my Mind, has recorded American Standard, an album of songs from shows and films including Moon River, Ol' Man River, Pennies From Heaven and even The Surrey with the Fringe on Top. He tell Nikki Bedi about the influence they have on him and how he has reinterpreted these wonderful songs. Presenter: Nikki Bedi Producer: Julian MayMain image: Anya Taylor-Joy Photo credit: NBC Universal

Comedian David Mitchell discusses his West End debut playing William Shakespeare in Ben Elton’s stage adaptation of the BBC TV sitcom, Upstart Crow. The play, which also stars Gemma Whelan and Mark Heap, explores the realities of life for the man behind the drama as he attempts to resurrect his career and save London theatre form the puritans.Leading soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn has, over the last 10 years, won many plaudits for her voice that’s been described as distinctive and unforgettable. She discusses taking on the title role in a production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller at ENO – the first time the opera, dating from the middle of Verdi’s career, has been performed at the Coliseum. Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights is a 19th century classic with its tempestuous love story between spirited Catherine Earnshaw and brooding Heathcliff becoming a shorthand for obsessive passion. Conventionally, it’s been seen as book for girls but that hasn’t deterred playwrights Andrew Sheridan and Ben Lewis who join Stig to discuss their respective new stage adaptations of Brontë’s gothic tale. Presenter Stig Abell Producer Jerome Weatherald

Geeta Pendse presents Front Row from Leicester, home of the Leicester Comedy Festival, which is currently taking place in over ninety venues across the city. Comedians Eshaan Akbar and Ishi Khan talk about why Leicester is where they try out new material in Work in Progress shows. Geoff Rowe, who founded the festival 27 years ago, on what makes it unique. Last year the first UK Kids Comedy Festival was launched in Leicester. We talk to the UK's youngest comedy double-act, Samson and Mabel, and their father Howard Read. We hear about the school that has just won the title "Funniest School in Leicestershire", talking to Mayflower Primary School Deputy Head, Hannah Boydon. Plus Sam Hewitt from Leicester band Easy Life. Championed by BBC Introducing, Easy Life recently came second in the BBC Sound of 2020 poll, and tonight are up for three prizes at the NME Awards, including Best New Act in the World. Presenter: Geeta Pendse Producer: Timothy ProsserMain image: Eshaan Akbar

Leopoldstadt is the area of Vienna where poor Jews lived, and the title of Tom Stoppard’s new play. It’s about a family who come from there but, cultured, clever, successful and assimilated, no longer live there when the play begins. It follows their story from 1899 to 1955, from fin de siècle optimism to the aftermath of the Holocaust. Talking to John Wilson in the theatre, Sir Tom Stoppard speaks about how, in the 1990s, he came to appreciate his own Jewishness and how, now in his 80s, he came to write what might be his last play, about a family whose tragic story parallels that of his own.After the unprecedented success of South Korean film Parasite, which was the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars on Sunday, Hyun Jin Cho, film curator at the Korean Cultural Centre, offers a guide for fans of the film of what to watch next. Oscar-winning film director Sir Steve McQueen discusses the first survey of his art in the UK for over 20 years. The show at Tate Modern sees the Turner Prize-winning artist revisit works which include film, photography and sculpture, that he’s created in the last two decades. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Simon RichardsonImage: Tom Stoppard Image credit: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard discusses his new play, Leopoldstadt, in an extended interview.Leopoldstadt is the area of Vienna where poor Jews lived, and the title of Tom Stoppard’s new play. It’s about a family who come from there but, cultured, clever, successful and assimilated, no longer live there when the play begins. It follows their story from 1899 to 1955, from fin de siècle optimism to the aftermath of the Holocaust. Talking to John Wilson in the theatre, Stoppard speaks about how, in the 1990s, he came to appreciate his own Jewishness and how now, in his 80s, he came to write what might be his last play, about a family whose tragic story parallels that of his own.