Front Row

The trauma of child abuse lies at the heart of two new memoirs - Louise Allen's Thrown Away Child, and The Only Girl in the World by the French writer Maude Julien. As they look back over their years of mistreatment by the adults in their lives, they explain how they found solace in art and literature - which provided both a lifeline, and an escape from pain and deprivation that was being inflicted on them from a very early age. Presenter Stig Abell Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Actor Ruth Wilson talks about starring in Clio Barnard's new film Dark River, a powerful psychological drama about a sheep farming family in Yorkshire. She also discusses the BBC TV drama she is making about her grandfather, a novelist who she recently discovered was also a spy with several wives. A new report, commissioned by the Art Fund, has called for greater investment in museum collections as museums and galleries in Britain struggle to keep up with the international art market. Cultural policy expert and honorary fellow at University of Edinburgh, Tiffany Jenkins responds.Cal McCrystal, the physical comedy expert brought in to add laughs to the National Theatre's hit One Man, Two Guvnors and the Paddington films, is now directing the new English National Opera production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe and explains how he makes Gilbert and Sullivan funny to a contemporary audience.Creative Scotland, Scotland's public arts funding body, is in the firing line over its recent funding decisions, and its leaders have now been called to appear before the Scottish Parliament's Culture Committee. Robert Softly Gale and David Leddy, two artistic directors, discuss how their organisations have been caught up in the funding storm. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Greta Gerwig recently made history as the first woman to be Oscar-nominated for her directorial debut, Lady Bird. She tells Kirsty why she wrote a coming of age drama about a confused teenage girl growing up in her own hometown of Sacramento, and why she is now keen to write a play or act on the West End stage.Writer Benjamin Markovits was shortlisted for the BBC's National Short Story Award last year. This year he is one of the judges alongside television presenter Mel Giedroyc, poet Sarah Howe, BBC Books editor Di Speirs and last year's winner KJ Orr. Benjamin Markovits discusses the significance of the award now in its 13th year.Recent episodes of BBC One's Silent Witness have drawn praise from critics and audiences especially for Liz Carr role as forensic scientist Clarissa Mullery. The disabled actress has been in the series for 5 years, but this storyline put her at the heart of the drama as well as tackling the issue of abuse of disabled residents in a care home. Silent Witness writer Tim Prager tells us about creating the storyline and the reaction to the episodes, and we also talk to broadcaster Mik Scarlet and deaf actress Genevieve Barr about current opportunities for disabled actors across TV, theatre and film.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Kate Bullivant.

The Shape of Water leads this year's Oscars race with 13 nominations. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, it's an other-worldly fairy tale about a mute cleaner (Sally Hawkins) who falls in love with an alien-like creature imprisoned at the high-security laboratory where she works. Mark Eccleston reviews. As a blockbuster exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors opens at the World Museum in Liverpool, featuring objects from the burial ground of China's First Emperor never before seen in this country, Samira is joined by Fiona Philpott, Director of Exhibitions and Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology magazine.Samira is joined by another Samira Ahmed, an American writer whose latest book - Love, Hate & Other Filters - is a coming of age novel about an Muslim teenager coping with Islamophobia in her small town. As the latest series gathers momentum, Louis Wise explores the television phenomenon that is RuPaul's Drag Race, the American reality show where drag queens compete against each other to win the crown, Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser.

Musician and campaigner Bob Geldof discusses A Fanatic Heart, his feature length documentary about poet W B Yeats. He explains how he came to love the poetry of Yeats and why he considers the Nobel prize-winning poet to be one of the founders of modern Ireland.As Fifty Shades Freed, the third and final instalment of the Fifty Shades franchise is released in cinemas this week, literary critic Alex Clark and Clare Binns, director of programming and acquisitions for Picturehouse Cinemas discuss the cultural impact of the Fifty Shades phenomenon.The bandoneon is a traditional Argentinian squeezebox and a key component in tango music. Virtuoso Julian Rowlands performs on the instrument alongside the Santiago Quartet and gives Stig Abell a lesson in how to play it.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Chadwick Boseman discusses taking on the role of Black Panther, the first black mainstream comic book hero, and talks about the responsibility he feels in taking on the first black lead in a superhero film. Following the release of Black Panther, critic Dreda Say Mitchell, and comic book writer, Kieron Gillen, review the film, and consider whether the time of the black superhero has finally arrived.When and how should we be introducing children to Shakespeare? Is it better to start with the stories and move onto the complexity of the language or do we miss out on something vital by not starting with the text? Purni Morell, Artistic Director of the Unicorn Theatre and Erica Whyman, Deputy artistic director of the RSC, discuss.Today is Dydd Miwsig Cymru - Welsh Music Day, which celebrates not just Welsh music, but music in Welsh. Through the programme Stig Abell samples the variety of contemporary music performed in the Welsh language today.Presenter: Stig AbellProducer: Julian May.

Playwright David Hare talks to Samira about his latest television drama Collateral, a series that begins like a police procedural but drifts into a state-of-the-nation thriller. Carey Mulligan stars as a police detective whose investigation into the shooting of a pizza delivery man has spiraling repercussions. Carmen is opera's greatest femme fatale, the sexually liberated cigarette factory worker killed by her spurned lover. Opera critic Alexandra Coghlan and opera historian Flora Willson discuss how we view Carmen in the 21st Century, as two new productions - at the Royal Opera House and in Florence - re-interpret this mythic heroine. John Burningham, author and illustrator of Mr Gumpy's Outing, and Helen Oxenbury, the illustrator of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, have been announced as the joint winners of the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award. Their books are family friends to many children - and adults. They talk about how they work, their distinctive styles and the secrets of their long marriage.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Edwina Pitman

Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz on their new film The Mercy, which tells the true story of the ill-fated attempt in 1968 by the amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst to become the first person to sail solo, non-stop, around the world.Vaseem Khan discusses his latest Inspector Chopra novel, about an Indian detective with a baby elephant as his sidekick, which he has written as a Quick Read.As Irish and Northern Irish women poets campaign for greater recognition in their home country, we discuss the gender battle currently taking place in Irish literature, with campaign co-founder Mary O'Donnell, playwright Rosemary Jenkinson and novelist John Boyne. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser.

As artists back photographer Nan Goldin's call to hold arts patrons the Sackler family to account over the US opioid crisis, we discuss the ethics of funding the arts. Soul singer Mica Paris talks about her current projects exploring the life and work of legendary jazz pioneer Ella Fitzgerald, and performs live in the studio.Jim Crace has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. He talks to John about his new novel The Melody. Set in an unnamed town on the Mediterranean, its main character is a composer facing loneliness as a recent widower. The novel, Jim Crace says, has its roots in seeing child foragers on a rubbish dump in India. And to mark the centenary of some women being granted the vote in 1918 we hear the poem Suffragette written by Jan Dean. It's from the anthology Reaching the Stars which contains poems about extraordinary women and girls.Presenter : John Wilson Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

Mike Bartlett, the writer of Doctor Foster and Charles III, on his new three-part TV drama Trauma, in which Adrian Lester stars as a surgeon accused of negligence by a patient's father, played by John Simm. Last week a new prize was launched for thriller novels that do not include any violence against women. Since that announcement the Staunch Book Prize has been both lauded as much needed, and criticised for being censorial. We discuss the prize with its founder Bridget Lawless and crime-writer Val McDermid. Cornelia Parker was the official artist for the 2017 election. As her resulting work goes on display in the Palace of Westminster, she discusses her approach and the challenges she faced in maintaining impartiality.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald.