Front Row

Hilary Mantel's novel The Mirror and The Light is published tomorrow. In the Front Row readers' panel, three of our listeners - Deborah Stuart, Sasha Simic, and Laura Helen Back - gather to discuss the first two novels in the Cromwell trilogy, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, and to express their hopes and fears for the final instalment.Shay D, a UK hip hop artist, is curating a national tour of women-only artists, to redress the balance of the male-dominated world. She joins Stig along with journalist J’na Jefferson from New York to talk about how women are cutting through the hip hop and rap world. How does isolation or solitude breed creativity? As the likelihood of self-isolation increases with the coronavirus situation, what can we learn from artists about the creative properties of solitude, loneliness and even boredom? We discuss with composer and musician Errollyn Wallen, who composes from a remote lighthouse in Scotland, and poet and author Andrew Greig, who divides his time living in Edinburgh and the Orkney Islands.Presenter Stig Abell Producer Jerome Weatherald

Koby Adom on directing Malorie Blackman's best-selling young adult novel Noughts + Crosses for BBC1, creating an alternative world where Europe has been colonised by Africa, the ruling class are black and the white population are slaves.As Korean film Parasite dominates the box office, have theatre, film and TV audiences become more accepting of subtitles? Declan Donnellan, artistic director of theatre company Cheek by Jowl, who is directing Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy on stage in Italian with English surtitles, discusses with Film and TV critic Hannah McGill.The Broadway production of Pretty Woman The Musical, based on the 1990s classic rom-com, has transferred to London, featuring new songs co-written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, and a book based on the original film script. Liz Carr, actor and fan of the film, reviews.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy ProsserMain Image: Sephy Hadley (Masali Baduza) and Callum McGregor (Jack Rowan) in Noughts + Crosses. Credit: BBC / Mammoth Screen / Ilze Kitshoff

Director Francis Annan discusses his film Escape from Pretoria. Daniel Radcliffe and Ian Hart star in the true story of the imprisonment of white anti-apartheid campaigners in the 1970s and their incredible escape from South Africa’s maximum-security Pretoria prison. Did you know that amateur dramatics is the third most popular pastime in the UK after fishing and football? Michael Coveney has been a theatre reviewer for four decades and in his new book Questors, Jesters and Renegades he tells the story of Britain’s amateur theatrical companies. He is joined by Clare Greer from the Bangor Drama Club in Northern Ireland, established in 1935.Denise Mina is acclaimed for her award-winning crime fiction, and now she’s turned her hand to crime of a different nature. Bertolt Brecht famously said 'What is robbing a bank compared with founding a bank?'. Denise discusses Mrs Puntila and her Man Matti, her new gender-swapping adaptation of a Brecht play which seeks to show how the law is always on the side of the wealthy.Main image: Daniel Radcliffe as Tim Jenkins in Escape from Pretoria Image credit: Signature EntertainmentPresenter: John Wilson Producer: Oliver Jones

Elisabeth Moss talks about her new film The Invisible Man, a 21st century reboot of the HG Wells story. Told from the victim’s point of view, Elisabeth plays Cecilia who fears for her safety after escaping an abusive relationship. But when she discovers her ex has killed himself, she fears something far worse: that he’s not dead and has found a way to make himself invisible.Booker winning novelist Aravind Adiga on his latest novel Amnesty, a novel set Sydney, Australia over 24 hours that follows Danny, an illegal immigrant, who gets unwittingly involved in a murder.Twenty years ago this month, the video game The Sims was launched and went on to become one of the most successful games to date with millions of players worldwide. Games critic Jordan Erica Webber, and Dr Jo Twist, CEO of Ukie, discuss the ground-breaking impact of The Sims and how the games industry has changed in the last two decades.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hilary Dunn

French director Céline Sciamma on her BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, about an 18th Century artist who falls in love with the woman she is painting. Critics have hailed it as a manifesto for the female gaze.André J. Thomas, composer and conductor of gospel music and spirituals, discusses the African-American musical tradition and his forthcoming event, Symphonic Gospel Spirit with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in London this weekend.In a year which has seen two novels published called Queenie, joining the swelling ranks of books that have the same titles from Possession to Joyland, from Life After Life to Twilight – writer and international trade lawyer Petina Gappah joins art critic Richard Cork to discuss what’s in a name across the arts.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome WeatheraldMain image above: Noémie Merlant (Left) as Marianne and Adèle Haenel as Héloïse in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Image credit: Lilies Films

Ballerina Viviana Durante discusses her evening of dance celebrating Isadora Duncan, whose radical barefoot dancing shocked and enthralled European audiences in the early 1900s, before she was killed in a freak accident when her scarf got caught in the wheels of a car.Life is beginning to imitate art for a British film crew in northern Italy. Director Nicholas Hulbert discusses the challenges they’re facing from the coronavirus outbreak as they film The Decameron, the 14th century Italian collection of novellas about a small group of young people sheltering in a secluded villa to escape the Black Death. Deborah Annetts, Chief Executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, on the impact of the recently announced proposed changes to the immigration system to musicians and others working in the creative industries.Booker shortlisted author Jeet Thayil discusses his new novel Low, which follows one man’s weekend of self-destructive grief in Mumbai. It's a black comedy, a tender portrayal of depression and drug addiction, a love letter to Mumbai and a biting satire of contemporary Indian society.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah RobinsMain image: Viviana Durante Company performing Dance of the Furies in Isadora Now Image credit: David Scheinmann

Authors Zadie Smith and Francine Prose join Front Row to consider how authors read, as the shortlist for the Rathbones Folio Prize, largely chosen by authors, is announced. Is it with the same eyes as any other reader or are they more aware of the scaffolding as well as the building? How do they judge writing, and how does what they read inform their own work?British Surrealism at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is the first major exhibition to explore the origins of surrealist art in Britain, positioning it as a fundamental movement in the history of art, with roots in the work of writers such as William Blake and Lewis Carroll. The show also features the significant contribution made by female artists to surrealism, including Eileen Agar, Leonora Carrington and Ithell Colquhoun. Art critic Louisa Buck reviews.Jingan Young is a Hong Kong born playwright, best known for Filth: Failed in London, Try Hong Kong. She talks to Stig Abell about her new play, Life and Death of a Journalist. Set against the backdrop of the Hong Kong protests, it tells the tale of a reporter for a Chinese-owned newspaper in Britain asked to compromise her coverage to appease a powerful investor.And Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times Literary Editor, talks about the publicity surrounding Hilary Mantel's much anticipated novel The Mirror and the Light. How does the book's marketing and launch compare with the hoopla - as one newspaper described it- surrounding the last major campaign in the books world, for Margaret Atwood's The Testaments?Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Dymphna Flynn

Film director Todd Haynes talks to Samira about his latest film Dark Waters. Starring Tim Robbins, it's a tale of environmental catastrophe, corporate greed and an attempt to harness the power of the law to seek redress. Are libararies good for our health? Bradford City Council thinks so and are diverting a tranche of their wellbeing budget to ensure libraries can stay open for the benefit of local people. Flesh and Blood is a new crime drama set in a coastal town. It centres on a widowed mother-of-three as she begins a new relationship and stars Francesca Annis. Writer Sarah Williams discusses the family dynamics that inspired her to write the script, and about putting older women in leading roles.Murder 24/7 is a new BBC documentary series which follows real murder investigations as they evolve. Viewers get to see all the behind the scenes detective work and procedures of Essex Police, from the critical first day to through to arrest and conviction. Julia Raeside reviews.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Oliver Jones

Laurie Sansom, the new Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides on his vision for the theatre company and what British theatre can learn from a small drama company operating across the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.Yesterday in Colorado, President Trump expressed his dismay at the success of the film Parasite at this year's Oscars. Instead he would have preferred the revival of films such Gone With The Wind and Sunset Boulevard. Professor Diane Roberts, a specialist in Southern culture, and the presenter of a Radio 4 Archive on 4 edition on Gone With The Wind, analyses the President's choices.In 1970, acclaimed composer and sitar player Ravi Shankar was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra to write what would be his first concerto for sitar and orchestra. Fifty years on, as Jasdeep Singh Degun prepares for the premiere of his first concerto for sitar and orchestra, he discusses the appeal of bringing together different musical traditions. Living from the proceeds of one’s art is the dream of many artists but there’s a rising number of artists looking to create new business models for sustaining their careers. Jon Wakeman, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of East Street Arts discusses why artists are getting into the hotel business.Presenter: Katie Popperwell Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist of Wicked and Godspell, on his spectacular new stage musical about Moses, The Prince of Egypt, based on the 1998 DreamWorks animation and featuring his hit song When You Believe. Leading costume designer and three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell joins us in the studio. Not content with merely garnering BAFTA and Oscar nominations for her work this year on Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Powell spent both ceremonies asking fellow nominees to sign her outfit, part of a fundraising campaign to help preserve Derek Jarman’s cottage in Dungeness. Powell worked with the director, writer and artist on several films and the suit she wore to the ceremonies will be auctioned as part of the appeal.Acclaimed Irish folk singer song writer Lisa O’Neill talks to John Wilson about the importance of traditional songs, storytelling and politics to her music, as she performs this week at “Imagining Ireland” at the Barbican in London, an event celebrating the groundswell of women’s voices in Irish literature, music and poetry.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Simon Richardson