

Front Row
BBC Radio 4
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 2, 2024 • 42min
Reopening of Notre-Dame, Jacob Collier, Marshall Brickman, King Winter's Birthday
In 2019 fire destroyed the much of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. As the restoration is completed, Agnes Poirier describes the work of skilled artisans that she has watched over the past five years. Her documentary series for the World Service In the Studio programmes can be heard on BBC Sounds. Jacob Collier discusses and plays from his new Grammy nominated album, Djesse, Volume 4. The novelist Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz was interned as an "enemy alien" on the Isle of Man during World War Two, where he wrote a children's story recently unearthed in archive 80 years later. Writer Jonathan Freedland and illustrator Emily Sutton discuss breathing new life into King Winter's Birthday. And we remember the late screenwriter, Marshall Brickman, who worked with Woody Allen on Annie Hall. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts

Nov 29, 2024 • 42min
Review: Beatles 64, Electric Dreams @ Tate Modern, The Agency
Samira Ahmed's joined by this week's critics - Louisa Buck and Matt Everitt - to review Beatles '64, documenting the fab four's first trip to America with previously unseen footage shot by pioneering brothers Albert and David Maysles. They've also been to see Tate Modern's new exhibition Electric Dreams, exploring how artists were inspired to use machines and algorithms to create mind-binding art before the internet. Plus the star-studded new TV spy drama The Agency - starring Michael Fassbender, written by Jez Butterworth and produced by George Clooney - and we hear about this year's Deep Time music festival, taking it's inspiration from an imagined meeting between Jean-Michel Basquiat and John Cage in Edinburgh. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths

Nov 27, 2024 • 42min
Donny Osmond, Orhan Pamuk, Puccini's centenary
Nobel Prize winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk talks about the publication of his illustrated journals, Memories of Distant Mountains. As he takes on the role of Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh, Donny Osmond talks about his career in music. And in the week that marks the centenary of his death, artistic director of English National Opera Annilese Miskimmon and music critic and broadcaster Flora Willson discuss the perennially popular - but somewhat problematic - composer Giacomo Puccini. Presenter: Kate Molleson
Producer: Mark Crossan

Nov 26, 2024 • 42min
Edward Berger on Conclave, Ganavya performs, Tim Robey on film flops
Director Edward Berger joins Tom Sutcliffe to talk about his thriller Conclave, staring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, which focuses on the election of a new pope. Berger's previous film All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars - this success contrasts with a century of film flops which critic Tim Robey wrote about in his book Box Office Poison and discusses with Signature Entertainment's Ben Jacques. We also have New York born and Tamil Nadu raised singer and musician Ganavya who performs and speaks about her musical style and influences.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet

Nov 25, 2024 • 42min
Sigourney Weaver & Selina Cadell, Art forgery on the rise? Nitin Sawhney
Friends for fifty years, Sigourney Weaver and Selina Cadell discuss acting together in the Jamie Lloyd Company's new production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. As part of the BBC's Scam Safe week, we examine whether art fraud is on the rise with Georgina Adam from the Art Newspaper and and the lawyer Amanda Gray, a specialist from the firm Mishcon De Reya. And, musician Nitin Sawhney talks about his two new works Heart Suite, about by his recent heart attack, and Orbital, which is inspired by this year's Booker prize winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts

Nov 21, 2024 • 42min
Review: Wicked, Cher's memoir, Maddaddam ballet
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Natalie Jamieson and Matt Cain to review:Cher, The Memoir, Part one - the pop icon and Oscar winning actor tells the story of her childhood and early success.The film version of Wicked is the long awaited film adaptation which is also the first of two parts, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and telling the story of the Witches of Oz. Maddaddam: renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor has brought Margaret Atwood’s trilogy of sci fi novels to the stage with a ballet, new to London's Royal Opera House.And a look at how a new play, The Fight, about boxer Cuthbert Taylor has ignited primary school children in Wales to start a campaign. We talk to the play's author, Geinor Styles. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Corinna Jones

Nov 20, 2024 • 42min
Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Celebrity Children's Books and the Art and Writing of Maud Sulter
Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream speaks about Come Ahead, the band's first new album in eight years. We discuss how the publication of books for children by celebrities affects the wider industry and reading trends. And as an exhibition of work by Maud Sulter opens in Glasgow, the curators talk about the widespread influence of this artist, poet, photographer and gallerist, who died in 2008. Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan

Nov 19, 2024 • 43min
Kathryn Tickell, Liverpool's carbon neutral gigs, drag queen romance film Layla
Kathryn Tickell talks about her new album Return to Kielderside, which reinterprets and updates the tunes and themes of her debut album, On Kielderside, which she released 40 years ago at the age of sixteen. Nihal is joined by Amrou Al-Kadhi, whose directorial debut feature film Layla tells the story of a British-Palestinian drag queen navigating life and love in London. As Massive Attack prepares to headline in Liverpool this month, Robert Del Naja, aka 3D, discusses the band's attempts to become carbon neutral with Mark Donne, organiser of their forthcoming Act 1.5 gigs, and Professor Carly McLachlan, who researches the environmental impact of music tours and festivals. Presenter: Nihal Arthanayake
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Nov 18, 2024 • 42min
Malala Yousafzai, The art of writing recipes, Rebecca Hall
Malala Yousafzai talks to Front Row about her new film Bread & Roses, which documents the fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, alongside the director Sahra Mani.We hear from actress Rebecca Hall about haunting new BBC drama The Listeners. And what are the ingredients for writing about food? Is it an exact science or a literary art form? Food writer Bee Wilson and head chef of Quo Vadis Jeremy Lee chew over writers’ recipes.Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths

Nov 14, 2024 • 43min
Paul Mescal on Gladiator II, Murakami's latest novel, Test Tube baby drama Joy
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Paul Mescal about slipping into Russell Crowe’s sandals in Gladiator 2 – as well as reviewing the film itself with classically-trained Guardian journalist Charlotte Higgins and film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. They also talk about Haruki Murakami's first new book for six years, The City and Its Uncertain Walls and the Netflix drama Joy, about how beginnings of IVF. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Paula McGrath


