Front Row

Journalist Yana Leushnefskaya, critic Kate Maltby and literary scholar John Mullen explore Nina Raine’s six-hour Middlemarch, Agatha Christie’s revealing British Library exhibition and Maria Kreutzer’s morally unsettling film Gentle Monster. They also examine Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s literary infrastructure, plus cultural recommendations spanning T. S. Eliot, Noël Coward and Elizabeth Taylor.

Ashley Walters, actor and filmmaker, discusses his harrowing directorial debut, Animal, shaped by his experience of prison and youth crime. Daniel Foxx, comedian and author, and Michelle Anya Anjirbag, a fairy-tale scholar, explore queer, comic and politically subversive retellings. Booker-shortlisted novelist Elizabeth Strout reflects on marriage, secrets and class in The Things We Never Say. Theatre closures across the UK also come under scrutiny.

John Malkovich, acclaimed actor and director, and Sam Rockwell, Oscar-winning actor, discuss Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, from CIA guilt and moral exhaustion to provocative dialogue and filming on Rapa Nui. Booker winner Marlon James explores disappearing identities, Jamaica’s homophobic past, and rage in fiction. Aylwyn Walsh examines managing culture-war conflict, while Luis Fajardo charts Colombia’s battle over museums and national history.

Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, discusses her long-awaited sequel, time travel, fate and an anti-fascist future. Nick Groom, literary scholar and vampire expert, traces bloodsuckers before Dracula and their links to sexuality and politics. Kyle MacLachlan, celebrated for Twin Peaks and David Lynch films, recalls Dale Cooper and his creative partnership with Lynch. Gilles Mentré introduces France’s experimental AI literature prize.

Sir Phil Redmond, the television creator and cultural planner, discusses Blackpool, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Wrexham’s City of Culture 2029 bid. Critics Alexander Larman and Bidisha explore class tension and sexual menace in Possible Love, Pawel Pawlikowski’s postwar drama Fatherland, and the shortened revival of Martin Guerre. They also consider Cliff Richard’s unlikely resurgence and recommend gothic reading and cinema.

Sofia Coppola, acclaimed filmmaker of Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, discusses completing her late mother Eleanor’s intimate documentary about the film’s lavish production. Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer-winning author of Trust, explores his leap into dystopian fiction, underground music, stolen electricity and societies rebuilding amid collapse. They also examine creativity, family, power and the future of art.

Catherine Ostler, journalist and author of The Renoir Girls, explores Renoir’s art, nudes and enduring influence. Poet Don Paterson remembers Douglas Dunn’s mentorship and legacy, while Luke Kennard, poet and novelist, discusses his Booker-shortlisted novel Black Bag, artistic identity and anxious masculinity. Hollie Piff and Jane Riordan reveal why Winnie-the-Pooh’s friendship, imagination and timeless appeal continue to enchant readers.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi discusses transforming Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun into a retro-futurist film about artificial companionship, gene editing and human worth. Theatre critic Susannah Clapp explores Caryl Churchill’s compressed political play Triumph. New Directions editor Declan Spring reveals how the small press found 14 Nobel laureates. Tony-winning actor Jonathan Groff talks Shakespeare, Rosalind and As You Like It.

Muriel Zagha, a French-American arts critic, and David Benedict, a theatre critic and author, review Kristin Scott Thomas in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, adapted by Conor McPherson. They explore its comic tragedy and vivid ensemble. They dive into Whalefall’s whale-bound survival nightmare and debate its suspense and sentimentality. Plus, Elif Shafak’s ambitious Flaubert novel faces scrutiny.

Leo Reich, British comedian and creator of Channel 4’s It Gets Worse, discusses dysfunctional university friendships, generational anxiety and shock comedy. Olivia Whitting of the Art Loss Register and art adviser James McNott investigate nearly 100,000 missing Scottish museum objects. Serendipity Institute director Paulette Brooks explores the visibility of Black arts. Big Telly’s Zoe Seaton previews an immersive comedy about an AI wedding and human connection.