Front Row

Debbie Harry is one of the defining musical artists of her age, known of course for her work with Blondie crafting and performing hits such as Heart of Glass, Dreaming and One Way or Another. As her memoir Face It is published, she talks to Front Row about the highs and lows of her professional and personal life, from writing her most successful lyrics to the double-edged sword of her looks, and her experience of drugs and sexual violence. The first-ever exhibition devoted to the portraits of Paul Gauguin opens at the National Gallery this week. Waldemar Januszczak reviews the show, which focuses on how the artist used portraiture primarily to express himself and his ideas about art, from the years he spent in Brittany and then French Polynesia towards the end of his life.And at a time when, despite the gravity of the situation, politics in the UK and the US has become more entertaining than ever, Caroline Crampton recommends some of the best political podcasts offering alternative takes on the news.

Director Rupert Goold discusses his new film Judy. Starring Renée Zellweger as legendary singer Judy Garland, the movie examines the final year of the star's life when, despite struggling with ill health, she was forced to take a demanding five week gig at a London nightclub in order to pay her debts. Kara Walker’s 13 metre high statue is unveiled in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall today. Critic Asana Greenstreet reviews Fons Americanus which comments on British responsibility for slavery.Bernardine Evaristo is the latest of our listener book groups where readers meet each of the authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019. Evaristo's novel Girl, Woman, Other is told in a poetic form with little punctuation and follows 12 characters, most of them black British women. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins

Five authors have been shortlisted for the 2019 BBC National Short Story Award and the Young Writers' Award, the winners of which will be announced in front of a live audience in the BBC Radio Theatre.Lucy Caldwell, Lynda Clark, Jacqueline Crooks, Tamsin Grey and Jo Lloyd are competing for the NSSA whose former winners include Lionel Shriver, Sarah Hall and Kate Clanchy.John Wilson is joined by judges of both awards, as well as the Chair of the NSSA Judges, Nikki Bedi.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald

Helen Mirren discusses taking on the role of notorious Russian empress Catherine the Great, Russia’s longest-ruling female leader for a new TV miniseries. She talks about the preparation for the role, her habit of binge-watching TV and why she admires Madonna.Joker, the new film exploring the origins of DC comic book villain The Joker, Batman’s nemesis, is proving controversial before it’s even opened. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Todd Phillips, the movie has already been deemed ‘problematic’ by some. Critics Isabel Stevens and Mark Eccleston discuss whether a backstory for a villainous character excuses or explains them.Mary Shelley takes centre stage in a new production of Frankenstein where the action of the Gothic masterpiece unfolds around its creator. Playwright Rona Munro explains why she wanted to foreground the 18-year-old Shelley who was totally in control of her creative powers.Presenter: Nikki Bedi Producer: Timothy Prosser

Stig Abell talks to John Godber, one of the most-performed playwrights in the English language and somebody who has been interpreting the city of Hull in his plays for over thirty years, from Bouncers to Up and Under. His latest work This Isn’t Right tells the story of Holly Parker who is rediscovering Hull after three years at University in London. When a young woman disappears her already over-protective Dad goes into over-drive. Earlier this year the poet and performer Zena Edwards wore a grass coat to Tate Modern to mark the launch of a movement drawing attention to climate change - Culture Declares An Emergency. For Contains Strong Language she’s performing a newly commissioned piece called Rallying Cry. She'll perform and talk to Stig Abell about putting the joy into the poetry of protest. We'll hear a world premiere performance of a Jodie Langford poem specially commissioned by BBC Humberside. She's a rising star of the spoken word scene and one of 12 poets chosen by BBC local radio stations to “challenge the outdated clichés and celebrate all that is regionally distinctive about the North”. And playwright Mark Ravenhill on translating Bertholt Brecht's The Mother with original score by Hanns Eisler which will be recorded at the festival for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Maxine Peake plays Pelagea Vlassova, the woman who acts to protect her son from prison and becomes an accidental revolutionary.Presenter Stig Abell Producer Olive Clancy

Front Row begins a series of unique book groups with each of the authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019. Today novelist Lucy Ellmann, whose epic 1000 page novel Ducks, Newburyport is told in a stream of consciousness. Ellmann is joined by a group of Front Row listeners who get to quiz her on her book. Waldemar Januszczak discusses the work of painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, whose oil portraits depicting black figures are on show at the Corvi-Mora gallery in London and who will be the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain next year. Derek Paravicini, a blind autistic savant pianist with an extraordinary ability to play by ear and improvise, performs for us ahead of his concert at the Tetbury Music Festival in Gloucestershire. We also hear from his teacher Adam Ockelford. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Timothy Prosser

Brittany Howard is the frontwoman for the phenomenally successful American blues rock band Alabama Shakes. She joins us to discuss her first solo album, Jaime, which is dedicated to her sister who died at a young age. Brittany talks about the inspirations behind the album: from her sister’s memory to an appalling racist attack that happened to her family when she was only a few weeks old. Malory Towers, Enid Blyton's series of novels about the boarding school her own daughter attended, was published 70 years ago, but how accurate is its portrayal of boarding school life? Novelists William Boyd and Robin Stevens - both of whom went to boarding school and have written stories set in them - talk to Stig Abell about the way boarding schools have been presented in literature and in film. On Bear Ridge is a new play set in the Welsh mountains near Swansea, where an old butcher and his wife struggle to survive after some kind of catastrophe has affected the wider world. Its a co-production between National Theatre Wales and the Royal Court. Stig talks to writer Ed Thomas, whose previous work includes the hit Welsh TV police series Hinterland.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hilary Dunn

Antony Gormley’s new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London features a series of new artworks which are monumental in size, scale and weight, from a 5000kg suspended piece of iron to a gallery flooded with 33,000 litres of seawater, weighing 56 tons. Idoya Beitia, the Royal Academy’s Head of Exhibitions Management, discusses the greatest logistical challenge the gallery’s ever faced.From Ryan Murphy, the creator of Glee, Nip/Tuck and Pose, now comes The Politician. Karen Krizanovich reviews the Netflix drama, set in a super-rich California, which follows Payton Hobart in his ambition to become US President, but first he must win his High School election where all the candidates will do anything to win. The show stars Dear Evan Hansen’s Ben Platt alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Bette Midler.Actor and writer Dolly Wells discusses directing her first feature film Good Posture, and working with her long-time collaborator and best friend Emily Mortimer, with whom she also made the hit HBO TV series Doll & Em.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald

Writer Peter Bowker discusses his epic new drama World On Fire, which follows the first year of World War II told through the intertwining fates of ordinary people drawn from Britain, Poland, France, Germany and the United States as they grapple with the effect of the war on their everyday lives. The BBC One Sunday night series stars Sean Bean, Helen Hunt and Lesley Manville.It was another great night for the British television industry at last night's Emmy Awards. The streaming giants Netflix and Amazon have pushed the industry to produce ever more brilliant dramas and comedies. But as Apple, Disney and NBC prepare to join the market what are the unintended consequences on the industry here? Radio Times TV critic David Butcher examines the changing television landscape.Today is the autumn equinox, the point of the year when the hours of daylight and darkness are the same before the days get shorter. BBC Radio 4 is marking the occasion with broadcasts of poetry with a seasonal theme throughout the day, and poet Amina Atiq performs her specially-commissioned poem for Front Row.Each month, poet and Daily Telegraph critic Tristram Fane-Saunders endeavours to read every volume of verse published in Britain. He chooses some of his favourite new poetry releases for Front Row: Nobody by Alice Oswald, Frolic and Detour by Paul Muldoon and Kei Miller’s new collection In Nearby Bushes.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Edwina Pitman

The Farewell, a film about an American family who return to China to visit their dying grandmother, has been a surprise box office hit in the US and is winning critical acclaim. John talks to the writer and director Lulu Wang, who based it on her own family story.Jessie Burton, author of the best-selling novel The Miniaturist, discusses her latest book The Confession – an exploration of childhood abandonment and the search for a missing mother. And Kevin Le Gendre discusses the music of Dave, the rapper who last night won this year's Mercury Prize.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Timothy Prosser