Front Row

Oscar winning director Ron Howard has made an in-depth look at the life and career of singer Luciano Pavarotti, featuring interviews with his family and other stars such as Placido Domingo and Angela Gheorghiu. Classical music critic Fiona Maddocks reviews. The latest British Attitudes Survey is published today, but how are attitudes reflected and influenced by the culture we consume? Research Director from the National Centre for Social Research, Miranda Philips, and cultural historian Matthew Sweet discuss.The organisers of Port Eliot Festival have released a statement saying that this year’s festival will be the last for the foreseeable future. In an age when the festival scene - literary or musical - seems to be thriving, what has gone wrong for them? Colin Midson, the Creative Director, explains.Wendell Berry is a farmer and activist, and the great chronicler of rural America with over fifty books. His latest, Stand By Me, is a collection of short stories chronicling the lives of the small farmers of Port William, Kentucky, their relationships with each other and the place: the fields and woods, animals and birds, and the soil itself. He talks to Samira Ahmed about how the stories connect and span a century.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah Robins

Peter Gynt is a new version of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt written by David Hare and starring James McArdle in the title role. Susannah Clapp reviews the National Theatre and Edinburgh International Festival's production.How to appreciate opera is the latest in our series of beginners' guides to art forms that are new to us. Stig, who has not spent much time at the opera, asks soprano Danielle de Niese for her top tips.The Left Behind is a hard-hitting BBC drama about a young working class man in South Wales who becomes radicalised by far-right propaganda. Writer Alan Harris and director Joseph Bullman discuss the show.Actor Rip Torn died yesterday aged 88. Most famous for his roles in the American hit TV comedy series The Larry Sanders Show and the Men in Black franchise, Rip Torn’s career spanned 6 decades. Journalist Michael Goldfarb talks about the life and career of the American actor.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Simon Richardson

Cressida Cowell is announced as the new Waterstones Children’s Laureate. We speak to the How to Train Your Dragon writer about her plans for the role which is mainly focused on encouraging primary school age children to read. With recent attempts by the USA to rekindle the Israeli-Palestinian peace process having foundered on the rocks, we talk to Cherie Blair about her role as Executive Producer of a new film about the crisis. The drama is in development and will be directed by John Deery who also joins John in the studio. The film, The Rock Pile, explores the lives of three little boys – a Muslim, an Arab-Christian and a Jew – who meet and play football together on the streets of Jerusalem.Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi won the Man Booker, selling over 3 million copies and was a critically acclaimed Hollywood movie. It’s the story of Pi, a 16 year old boy stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific with a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. Paul Allen reviews a new adaptation at the Crucible Theatre Sheffield and discusses the challenges of bringing the story to the stage. Presenter : John Wilson Producer : Dymphna Flynn

Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason talks about her love for the music of Clara Schumann, who in the 19th Century was famous as a virtuoso pianist but overshadowed as a composer by her husband Robert Schumann. Isata has recorded Clara's music for her debut album, Romance. Tree, a major production of the Manchester International Festival, is embroiled in controversy. The Festival states that Tree is a new work, based on a concept by Idris Elba with an original script by Kwame Kwei-Armah. But writers Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley say that they spent 4 years working on the project, workshopping and writing drafts, and should be credited. Samira talks to Allen-Martin and Henley about this and why they have set up an organisation to help female playwrights. Jill Halfpenny and Babou Ceesay star in new BBC drama Dark Money as a parents who accept a huge pay off to keep quiet after finding out their child was sexually abused while shooting a film in Hollywood. The Radio Times's David Butcher reviews,Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser

In the week of Pride and following his Glastonbury speech about LGBTQ rights, Olly Alexander of Years & Years talks about writing lyrics that are overtly about gay relationships.Ari Aster's horror film Midsommar starring Florence Pugh has allegedly given its own stars nightmares. Isabel Stevens reviews. 17th century artists Joan Carlile, Mary Beale and Anne Killigrew were the first professional female painters in Britain. Art historian Bendor Grosvenor discusses the work of these trailblazing women showcased in “Bright Souls”: The Forgotten Story of Britain’s First Female Artists at the Lyon & Turnbull Gallery in London.William Feaver marks the life and work of renowned artist Leon Kossoff, known for his lyrical and energetic paintings of London life. His death has been announced at the age of 92.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson

We last saw the work of the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera when she was commissioned for the turbine hall of Tate Modern. She’s known for facing down police interrogation of her work in her native Havana. Now she’s harnessed Manchester’s international community for what she calls a School of Integration. In May, Ibrahim Mahama was one of the six Ghanaian artists chosen to represent the country as it made its debut at the Venice Biennale. Now, he’s come to Manchester to create Parliament of Ghosts – an exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery which reflects both on Ghana’s time under British rule, and the years following the country’s independence. The Mexican-Canadian electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s new work, Atmospheric Memory uses the very latest technology but is rooted in the story of the English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage. We’ll be asking why this very contemporary artist is seeking inspiration in the nineteenth century.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producers: Ekene Akalawu and Olive Clancy

Filmmaker Chanya Button talks about Vita & Virginia, which explores the relationship between Virginia Woolf and fellow writer Vita Sackville-West, the inspiration for the protagonist of Woolf’s novel Orlando. Based on the correspondence between the two women, the film stars Elizabeth Debicki and Gemma Arterton.Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, hailed as one of the funniest plays ever written, was first performed in 1982 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, where a new production has just opened. It’s a farce about a touring production of a farce, in which the Assistant Stage Manager Poppy struggles to control her actors. Front Row talks to Lois Chimimba, who plays Poppy, and her real life counterpart, Caroline Meer.Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, based on an ode by Friedrich Schiller, was adopted by the EU as its anthem. Following the Brexit party’s response to it being played at the opening of the European parliament, Norman Lebrecht discusses why this piece of music has had so much political resonance since its composition in 1824. Once upon a time, computer games - like much of the media - perpetuated negative stereotypes about mental health. Now they’re at the forefront of moves to tackle the stigma sometimes associated with conditions like depression and anxiety. Jordan Erica explains why the rise of the independent gaming sector and the mental health backgrounds of many developers makes modern gaming the perfect forum in which to boost empathy between sufferers and non-sufferers.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Rebecca Armstrong and Simon Richardson

Howard Jacobson is renowned for his comic novels, winning the 2010 Booker Prize for The Finkler Question . Now he’s published a funny but also tender novel about life and love in older age: Live a Little. He talks to Front Row about his trademark wit, insight and irreverence.Othello: Remixed locates Shakespeare’s play into a London boxing club in 2019. Staged by Intermission Theatre Company, their director Darren Raymond discusses this production and explains how their approach of swapping street vocabulary for the Elizabethan slang used in the original text is intended - and has managed - to allow a wider audience to relate to the work.St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff has been shortlisted for Museum of the Year. A £30m extensive refit has changed much of the site. There are new interactive galleries and more reconstructed buildings in their huge outdoor area. 3,000 volunteers helped throughout the redevelopment and continue to do so. Kirsty takes a tour with Director of Learning and Engagement Nia Williams and meets some of the volunteers. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Oliver Jones

Inkheart writer Cornelia Funke discusses Pan's Labyrinth, her new collaboration with director Guillermo del Toro, who approached her to write an adult novel based on his 2006 dark fantasy film.The filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck discusses his latest work Never Look Away, which has blurred the line between fiction and biography. The Oscar-nominated epic historical drama follows 30 years in the life of a great artist, loosely based on Gerhard Richter, one of the 20th century's most admired visual artists, as it sees him struggling to create meaningful work under Nazism, Socialism and the Avant-Garde. The striking grey exterior of V&A Dundee has been likened to the prow of a ship and to sea cliffs. Inside it houses treasures of Scottish craft. Shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year less than a year after it opened its doors, Director Philip Long talks about the impact of the building, inside and out. Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald

50 years ago, on July 20th 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first people to set foot on the moon. A new film documentary, Apollo 11, charts that historic event using unseen archive footage and some of the 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings. The film’s director Todd Douglas Miller discusses the challenge of bringing NASA’s monumental achievement to the big screen. We conclude our exploration of LGBT literature marking today’s 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The events of 28th June 1969 were a key moment in the birth of the gay rights movement. Dr Erica Gillingham, Bookseller at London’s ‘Gay’s the Word’ bookshop and specialist in LGBT young adult fiction guides us through titles from the last decade.It’s been a big week for memes with Boris Johnson’s image being transposed to the Titanic and an Ikea catalogue. Louis Wise unpicks what makes the best ones so successful and consider what memes tell us about the zeitgeist, how memes act as instant feedback on TV, film or music videos, and how far memes undermine, or proliferate, celebrity culture.Presenter: Shahidha Bari Producer: Edwina Pitman