Pianist Mitsuko Uchida, Bolton Octagon reopens, Ghazal poetry, Anne Boleyn reviewed

The pianist Mitsuko Uchida returns to the Wigmore Hall in London next week where she’ll be marking five decades since she first performed there. She discusses her love for the Schubert Impromptus that she’ll be playing, and how she’s enjoyed exploring new compositions during lockdown.

Earlier this week Bolton found itself at the epicentre of the pandemic in England. Bolton is among the areas hardest hit by the Indian variant of the virus - although today the numbers appear to be levelling out and vaccination efforts have been ramped up. At the same time The Bolton Octagon is welcoming back audiences, opening with a new play called See You At the Octagon based on the stories of people in the town during the lockdown. We talk to Artistic Director Lotte Wakeham.

Our Friday review this week is the new Channel 5 drama, Anne Boleyn. Tanya Motie and Anna Whitelock discuss its diverse casting, as well as whether it is an accurate portrayal of Anne herself.

Form in poetry, like clogs on feet, is fashionable again. A new Radio 4 series, On Form is investigating the way poets now are writing modern work using venerable poetic structures - the sonnet, the villanelle and the ghazal. The poet Aviva Dautch and Syima Aslam, director of the Bradford Literature Festival, explain what the ghazal is, why it is so attractive and how it can be a vehicle for the discussion of philosophical, political and religious ideas.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson