Front Row

Front Row is featuring interviews with all the shortlisted authors for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. Tonight, Maggie O'Farrell, whose novel Hamnet is about the son of William Shakespeare who died aged 11, an event thought to be the inspiration for Hamlet. In her novel, Maggie O’Farrell imagines the family life and tragedy of one of our greatest playwrights, about whom so little is known.Group singing has been severely affected by government advice on restricting the spread of Coronavirus as inhaling microscopic droplets expelled by fellow singers is a high risk activity. But choirs serve functions beyond singing together. We speak to Katherine Dienes Williams, Master of The Choristers at Guildford Cathedral and to Martin Trotman, director of The Wellbeing Choirs which aim to promote and maintain good mental and physical health through singing.This week we’ve been hearing from artists and creators who’ve been telling us about their Lockdown Discoveries, a cultural find that has given them pleasure in the dark months of isolation. Today crime writer Mark Billingham reveals his unexpected rediscovery…jigsaws!Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson

Qatari-American artist, writer, and filmmaker Sophia Al-Maria discusses her screenplay for the latest big release from Sky Atlantic. Inspired by Anaïs Nin’s collection of erotic stories, Little Birds is set in the famous 'international zone' of Tangier. New York heiress Lucy Savage (Juno Temple) is fresh off the transatlantic steamer and ready for love and marriage in exotic climes. But when her husband Hugo (Hugh Skinner) does not receive her in the way she expected, she spins off into a new surprising, diverse and sexually liberated world.Poet Laureate Simon Armitage responds to today's decision by Ofqual, the exams regulator, that students taking English Literature GCSE next year will not be required to study any poetry. They will be assessed on a Shakespeare play, but have the option to cover a 19th century novel or a post-1914 work of British fiction or drama, or poetry. This summer, many of us are holidaying at home so rather than recommending books to take on holiday, tonight we're recommending books about holidays or set in holiday locations. Clare Allfree, books editor at The Metro Newspaper, guides us through her selection of vacation-themed literature.All this week on Front Row, creative individuals from the arts are choosing one Lockdown Discovery, a cultural find that gave them pleasure in the dark months being stuck at home. Today it’s the turn of the architect Tara Gbolade, whose lockdown was significantly improved by accidentally stumbling upon a book which captured her architectural imagination: Vernacular Architecture of West Africa: A World in Dwelling.Presenter Tom Sutcliffe Producer Simon Richardson

Barbara Kingsolver talks about her new book, How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) which is only her second collection of poetry. As well as offering practical advice (on knitting, getting divorced, doing nothing) the poems are about family, and making peace with life and death. Barbara also reflects on the redemptive power of art and poetry itself and celebrates the natural world whilst mourning its desecration.All this week on Front Row, creative individuals from the arts are choosing one Lockdown Discovery, a cultural find that has given them pleasure in the dark months of Covid-19. We start today with production designer Es Devlin, who tells us about her discovery - The Tempest by Creation Theatre. Sculptor Thomas J Price will unveil his statue Reaching Out this Wednesday. Depicting an anonymous everywoman absorbed in silent communication, the statue stands at 9 feet tall and will be one of only three public sculptures of Black women in the whole of the UK. Norman Lebrecht discusses the extraordinary career of the American concert pianist Leon Fleisher, who has just died at the age of 92. Fleisher lost the use of his right hand and performed left-handed for several decades, before regaining the ability to play with both hands later in life. Presenter : Kirsty Lang Producer : Julian May Production Co-ordinator : Hilary BuchananMain image: Barbara Kingsolver Image credit: Steven L. Hopp

Film director Alan Parker is remembered by Dick Clements and Ian La Frenais, who wrote The Commitments.Disney Producer Don Hahn (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) joins Samira Ahmed to discuss his new documentary about the legendary lyricist Howard Ashman, who wrote Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and part of Aladdin, before dying of Aids in 1991 at the age of forty, before Beauty and the Beast was released. Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, writers of comedy classics such as The Likely Lads and Porridge pay tribute to their colleague, the Bafta-winning director and producer Sydney Lotterby, who has died aged 93. In a long career, which he put down to luck, Lotterby made Porridge, Last Of The Summer Wine, Yes Minister, Butterflies, May To December and Open All Hours.The producer and founder of Black Ticket Project Tobi Kyeremateng and award winning crime writer Denise Mina join Samira Ahmed to review some of the week's most striking works - Prodigal Son starring Michael Sheen in a Silence of the Lambs style television drama series and Beyonce’s visual ablum Black is King, released today. Denise, Tobi and Samira also give choices of their own.Natasha Trethewey has twice been the US poet laureate. She talks to Samira Ahmed about her new book Memorial Drive, a prose memoir about growing up the daughter of a white father and a black mother. That marriage, when she was born in 1966, was illegal in Mississippi. It foundered and Natasha moved away with her mother who married a black Vietnam veteran. He battered her mother and, when Natasha was 19 and away at college, shot her dead.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald

Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee discusses her new TV series - psychological thriller, The Deceived. In the drama, inspired by Hitchcock’s Rebecca, Dial M for Murder and other classic films of that time, a student falls for her married tutor and after a shocking death finds herself doubting her own mind.Sculptor Heather Phillipson on putting whipped cream and a cherry on Trafalagar Square’s Fourth Plinth. This morning she unveiled her sculpture, The End - a giant swirl of cream, a cherry, a fly, and a drone that transmits a live feed of the square. It is the thirteenth commission for The Fourth Plinth since the programme began in 1998, and it is also the tallest to date - measuring 9.4m and weighing nine tonnes. The artist joins Kirsty to discuss her vast physical and digital sculpture.Avni Doshi’s debut novel Burnt Sugar has just been longlisted for the Booker Prize, two days before it’s UK publication date. Avni discusses her work about a fractious mother-daughter relationship, set in and around Pune in India – in an ashram, a club, and the streets. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Emma Wallace

In the run-up to the announcement of the winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction on the 9th of September, Front Row will be hearing from each of the six novelists on this year’s shortlist. We begin today with Hilary Mantel, whose novel The Mirror and the Light is the conclusion of her wildly acclaimed Thomas Cromwell series, which began with Wolf Hall in 2009. Ai Wei Wei’s latest work has opened to the public. The Chinese-born, Europe-based artist has created a piece for London’s Imperial War Museum which takes over the entire floorspace of the atrium, depicting The History of Bombs We heard this morning that theatres will have to wait until November to be told whey can re-open without social distancing. That will be too late to plan the lucrative pantomime season. We talk to Julian Bird of UK Theatre about what this means.Electronic at the Design Museum. Design Museum director Tim Marlow on recreating the thumping atmosphere of a nightclub for their new exhibition about electronic music, from Kraftwerk to The Chemical Brothers

Shawanda Corbett, a ceramic artist and performer whose performances combine dance with music, prose and poetry, is the latest in our series of interviews with artists awarded a £10,000 Tate bursary in place of this year's Turner Prize. She was born with one arm and without legs and has developed a unique throwing technique in order to make pottery. Shawanda bases her vessels on people, referenced journeys out of slavery on the Underground Railroad as well as her own personal history of rehabilitation. Literary critics Sarah Shaffi and Toby Lichtig dissect the longlist of the 2020 Booker Prize. For the full list see below. Writer-director Claire Oakley discusses her acclaimed debut feature film Make Up, a coming-of-age psycho-sexual thriller set in a Cornish caravan park.And we salute Peter Green, guitarist and founder member of Fleetwood Mac, who died on Saturday. He wrote some of the most memorable melodies and riffs of the late '60s and '70s, including the evocative instrumental, Albatross.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Julian May

Nigerian British writer Irenosen Okojie has been announced as the winner of this year’s £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing. It was awarded for her story Grace Jones from her recent collection Nudibranch. We speak to her about the story.Kit de Waal discusses Supporting Cast, her new collection of short stories featuring characters from two of her earlier novels - the international bestseller My Name is Leon and The Trick to Time.Shirley Collins is regarded by many as England’s greatest living traditional folk singer. She was a pivotal figure in the English folk song revival of the 60’s and ’70’s but lost her voice to a broken heart and fell silent for 38 years. In 2016, in her eighties, she returned to music with her album Lodestar, and now discusses her latest release - Heart’s Ease. Star of Hollywood's Golden Age Olivia de Havilland has died aged 104. Cultural historian Matthew Sweet celebrates her indomitable spirit, as a person as well as a performer. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Hannah Robins

Film director Mira Nair on A Suitable Boy - her six part BBC One adaptation of Vikram Seth's huge novel. Set in 1951 in newly independent, post-partition India, its cast of more than a hundred is entirely of Indian origin - the BBC’s first historical drama with no white characters. The book inspired Nair's film Monsoon Wedding, and she has long nursed an ambition to film it. How to Build a Girl is the film of Caitlin Moran’s autobiographical novel. We review it alongside Taylor Swift’s surprise album Folklore, released late last night. Film critic Hannah McGill and poet Be Manzini discuss both, and look at the week's arts news: the delay of big summer film releases and the introduction of an specialist afrobeats chart. McGill reports too on what’s happening in her home city, Edinburgh, which should now be busy preparing for the International, Fringe and the film festivals.In our series of interviews with the 10 artists who’ve each been awarded a £10,000 Tate bursary in place of this year’s Turner Prize, we hear from Glasgow-based Alberta Whittle. She has a Caribbean background and is in Barbados, from where she describes how her film, performance and collage work focuses on post-colonial power, battling anti-blackness, and the effects of climate devastation, something she witnesses first-hand in the hurricane season.Yesterday Andrew Lloyd Webber ran an experimental socially distanced performance in the London Palladium and made a speech saying, "Give us a date, mate." Matt Hemley of The Stage was there. He explains the experience, considers when that date for theatres to open - without social distancing - might be, and the precarious state of things...do Chinese developers have their eyes on the West End?Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Julian May

In July 2005 Anthony Walker an 18 year old black man was killed in a racist attack in Huyton, Merseyside. Jimmy McGovern’s new BBC drama Anthony - inspired by conversations with Gee Walker, Anthony's mother – is a 90 minute film looking at what his life might have been like had he lived. The story works backwards from him imagined at age 25 – married, a father and on his way to a successful career as a lawyer - to the night of his death. Adrian McKinty almost gave up writing but was persuaded to give another shot with a storyline that had been bubbling away in his head for several years, and now the book he wrote has won the UK's most prestigious prize for crime fiction. His psychological thriller The Chain has been named as the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year. The closure of theatres and performance venues during the pandemic has affected many artists, but for dancers it’s been particularly hard. The future is uncertain especially for those young dancers about to embark on a career in the industry. Sharon Watson is the CEO and Principal of the Northern School of contemporary Dance in Leeds. How has the college continued to prepare its students for the future, and what now for those young dancers looking for work in an arts industry struggling to survive? 25-year-old Tyler Mitchell has quickly and suddenly become one of the most in-demand photographers in the world. In 2018, his portrait of Beyoncé on the front of American Vogue made him the first black photographer—and one of the youngest people ever - to create a cover in the magazine’s 125-year history. His new book, I Can make You Feel Good presents his vision of what he calls Black utopia .