Front Row

Werner Herzog has made over 70 films, from the ambitious feature film Fitzcarraldo to the documentary Grizzly Man. From Los Angeles he discusses his latest project, Family Romance LLC, a fictional film set in Tokyo about a real company that loans out actors to impersonate family members or imitation friends ‘to create illusions to make clients’ lives better’.The town of Watford is joining together to form a huge book club, reading Katharine McMahon’s novel The Hour of Separation, which is set in the town, for the One Town, One Book initiative. We speak to Watford resident and reader Helen Nicell about why she’s taking part and Katharine McMahon about why Watford was the perfect setting for her book and how she’s feeling about getting feedback from local residents.NT At Home's latest free production is the 2016 staging of Les Blancs, Lorraine Hansbury’s posthumous play about one man’s place in an African country struggling for independence from British colonialism. Hansbury was the first black female playwright to have a play on Broadway. We speak to Danny Sapani who plays Tshembe.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Simon Richardson Studio Manager: Tim HefferMain Image: Werner Herzog Image credit: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Are the arts facing an existential crisis in the UK? Sir Simon Rattle, conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, on the imminent threat to orchestras and other arts organisations unless the government provides signficant financial support. The state of UK Theatre is discussed by Royal Shakespeare Company Executive Director, Catherine Mallyon, Actors’ Touring Company Artistic Director Matthew Xia, and Indhu Rubasingham, Artistic Director of London's Kiln Theatre.Today the National Gallery announced they will be the first major museum to reopen next week. John is joined by the Director of the National Gallery, Gabriele Finaldi and Jenny Waldman, Director of the Art Fund to explore the situation facing galleries and museums. John is also joined by Guardian Chief Culture Writer Charlotte Higgins. Presenter: John Wilson Producers: Ekene Akalawu and Timothy ProsserMain image: Sir Simon Rattle Image credit: Mark Allan

Kevin Kwan, author of the Crazy Rich Asians novels, which was adapted into the hit film of 2018, talks about his new book Sex and Vanity, a satire set in the worlds of uber-rich New York and Capri, and is an homage to EM Forster’s A Room with a View.Annilese Miskimmon, the new Artistic Director of English National Opera, discusses her first project, ENO Drive & Live, a series of live opera performances that audiences can safely drive to and stay in their cars for the experience.As demonstrations for Black Trans Lives take place in the UK and the USA, Caitlin Benedict talks to creator of the Black Trans Archive, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, about how a video game can archive the experiences of black transgender people. Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, discusses how the institution has chosen to focus on younger people and those from the local area, rather than the usual international visitors, since re-opening post-coronavirus. Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Hannah Robins Main image: Kevin Kwan Image credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for HFA

Michael Palin on staging a version of Beckett’s Waiting For Godot to raise money for The Royal Theatre Fund - and what else he’s been doing during lockdown.We round up the week's big arts stories. The Last of Us Part II is one of the most highly anticipated games for a generation. Part I was an unexpected hit, praised for bringing the storytelling qualities of films to gaming. Elle Osili-Wood and Aoife Wilson review Part II which has a lesbian love story at its heart. They discuss the BBC’s announcement that from April 20% of commissions must be given to diverse productions, and Elle visits a bookshop in Independent Bookshops Week to see if the experience is as special as it was before social distancing. Plus, Aoife, Elle and Samira give their cultural recommendations.Anthony Thwaite is 90 this week and joins Front Row to read two of his poems. He published his first in 1957 and his last (he thinks) in 2017. He talks about his work including his sojourns in Japan and Libya, and producing at the BBC where he shared an office with Louis MacNeice and broadcast poems by the then little-known Philip Larkin. Nicola Triscott is Director of FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology). For BBC Radio 4’s Rethink she argues that given how important internet access to art has been in lockdown, we should value and invest in it.Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has announced a five stage roadmap for the reopening of the performing arts. It comes without dates or a financial support package, so what is included, how helpful is it, what’s been the reaction, and what more needs to be done to save a sector in crisis? Front Row talks to Matt Hemley, News Editor of The Stage.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald Studio manager: Matilda Macari

Redundancies at the Theatre Royal Plymouth - over 100 jobs have been announced at risk as income falls by over 90 per cent due to the pandemic. We hear about the devastating impact on staff and the region, the threat to the theatre’s existence, and the warning bell it sounds to the future of theatre across the country.Stuart Evers on his new novel, The Blind Light – a story of two families from across the class divide and across the decades, living in the shadow of nuclear fear and political events of the past 60 years.The statue of Edward Colston - now it's been fished out of Bristol harbour, what is happening to it now? Fran Coles is the conservationist in charge of preserving the statue, and the graffiti which is also part of its story. She tells Samira Ahmed about this work, and the important discovery found tucked in the bronze fold of Colston’s frock.Eurovision, the film - a new film comedy, starring Will Ferrell and set at the Eurovision Song Contest looks affectionately at the glorious ridiculousness of the annual kitschfest. Eurovision veteran, the BBC’s Paddy O’Connell, has been to every one since 2004 and joins us to review the new Netflix film.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Emma Wallace Studio Manager: Tim Heffer

The Holberg Prize is awarded annually to a scholar who has made outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law or theology. This year the 6 million Norwegian kroner prize (approximately £500,000) has been awarded to the British-Canadian art historian Professor Griselda Pollock who the judges described as “the foremost feminist art historian working in the world today”.In the month when she would have travelled to Norway to receive the prize, she joins Front Row to discuss why art history is too important a subject to be left to art historians.Presenter: Katie Popperwell Producer: Ekene Akalawu Studio Managers: Phil Booth and Mike Smith

The arts world is facing a “cultural catastrophe” with the impact of Covid-19 leading to the loss of an annual revenue of £74 billion according to one report along with warnings of 400,000 jobs lost. But does this terrible crisis also provide an opportunity to rethink the arts world? Frances Morris, Director of Tate Modern, Amanda Parker, Editor of Arts Professional and Director of Inc Arts, David Jubb, theatre producer and former Director of Battersea Arts Centre, and Music Writer Alexandra Coughlan share their ideas for positive change. Radio 4's Rethink week is exploring ways in which the world should be rethought after the pandemic. Main Image: Luke Jerram's coronavirus - Covid 19 - glass sculpturePresenter: John Wilson Producer: Ekene Akalawu Producer: Tim Prosser Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads have been remade for television decades after the original series. Alongside two brand new monologues, ten episodes have been re-created with actors including Jodie Comer, Sarah Lancashire and Lucian Msamati. Theatre critic Sam Marlowe reviews these socially distanced dramas, and actor Lisa Dwan joins her to discuss the art of the monologue.The pandemic has changed all of our lives, but could there be a way to change society for the better as we re-build after coronavirus. As part of BBC Radio's Re-think season, musician and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker makes the case for creating space for nature.Thomas Clay discusses his new film Fanny Lye Deliver’d, which he wrote, directed and composed the music for, and which he describes as a ‘Puritan western’. Maxine Peak and Charles Dance star as a married couple on a remote Shropshire farm in the wake of the English Civil War, whose lives change forever following the unexpected arrival of a young couple in need.Main image above: Tamsin Greig in BBC One's Talking Heads Image credit: BBC/London Theatre Company Productions/Zac NicholsonPresenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Hannah Robins

Rebel Wilson discusses her new TV series Last One Laughing, where ten comedians are locked in room and if they laugh they get kicked out. The last one standing wins a big cash prize. The death was announced today of the actor Sir Ian Holm. Theatre critic Michael Billington pays tribute.Bob Dylan has just released a new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways. For our Friday Review, music journalist Laura Barton and commentator Michael Carlson give their verdict on whether this is vintage Dylan. And they discuss The Luminaries, a new BBC drama based on the Booker-winning novel by Eleanor Catton set during New Zealand’s Gold Rush in 1866. Unemployed theatre professionals in Minneapolis have been putting their skills to good use, protecting businesses during recent Black Lives Matter protests in the city where George Floyd lived and was killed. As the protests subside, Daisuke Kawachi discusses the University Rebuild project that she's been working on.Alison Brackenbury has been Front Row’s poet-in-residence this week, reading one of her Museums Unlocked poems every evening. Alison travels about the country to give poetry readings. She makes a point, wherever she goes, of visiting the museum or art gallery. With most now closed, Alison has written new poems about some of the museums she has visited. Her final poem is inspired by a letter she came across in Charles Dickens’ house.During the lockdown author Rebecca Stott has re-read Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year, a fictional account of the bubonic epidemic of 1665; Rebecca tells Kirsty Lang how the book resonates during Covid-19.Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Sarah Johnson Studio Manager Matilda Macari

We mark the passing of Dame Vera Lynn, the Forces' Sweetheart, whose songs helped raise morale in World War Two. After Dame Vera's death, aged 103, was announced today, composer and author Neil Brand explores her unique musical gifts. Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe's critically acclaimed work brings a new approach to the classical guitar by experimenting with instruments and repertoire. His new album Bach: Pour La Luth Ò Cembal, featuring works written for the lute but played on guitar, is number one in the Official Specialist Classical Chart. PlacePrints is a series of audio plays by David Rudkin invoking the hidden stories imprinted on ten different locations around the UK, and spanning time from the Stone Age to the present day. Jack McNamara, director of theatre company New Perspectives, has been recording these vignettes over four years with actors including Josie Lawrence, Toby Jones, Stephen Rea, Juliet Stevenson and Michael Pennington. Theatre critic Susannah Clapp reviews this ambitious endeavour. Alison Brackenbury is Front Row’s poet-in-residence this week taking inspiration from her travels around the country. Wherever she goes Alison visits museums and galleries. Their current closure this has inspired her to write new poems about some of the museums she has visited, and so, imaginatively, open them up. Today she takes us back to the 16th century and to Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Here Mary, Queen of Scots, witnessed her husband murder her secretary, and confronted John Knox who objected to rule by ‘the monstrous regiment of women’.Presenter: John Wilson Studio Manager: Matilda Macari Producer: Simon RichardsonMain image: Dame Vera Lynn