Front Row

The death of Andrea Levy earlier this year adds a poignancy to the National Theatre's staging of her prizewinning 2004 novel Small Island, the story of the Windrush generation and their reception in Britain. Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff reviews. Screenwriter Craig Mazin on his Sky/HBO drama series Chernobyl, about the nuclear plant disaster of 1986 and the people who sacrificed themselves to save Europe from even greater catastrophe. Carol Ann Duffy’s time as Poet Laureate ended this week but her successor has not yet been named. Tristram Fane Saunders on who is likely to be the next Poet Laureate and why is it taking so long to be announced.Barack and Michelle Obama, who last year launched a production company to make TV and films, have announced their first slate of programmes in partnership with Netflix, including a fashion drama and food programme. Boyd Hilton reports. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser

Ben Lewis talks about his book The Last Leonardo, about the world's most expensive work of art, the painting Salvator Mundi. Authenticated as a Leonardo in 2011, he examines its journey from Leonardo’s workshop in Milan through to the present day and explains why he has doubts about its authenticity.Art critic Waldemar Januszczak and editor of The Art Newspaper Alison Cole assess Leonardo's extraordinary art and legacy, from the Mona Lisa to The Last Supper.One of the UK’s foremost vocal ensembles I Fagiolini talk about and perform live from their new album, Leonardo - Shaping the Invisible, in which they have matched Leonardo da Vinci's artworks with vocal masterworks, illuminating his images through the prism of music. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Edwina Pitman

JRR Tolkien’s literary canon has inspired some of the highest-grossing films ever, now a biopic about his life is being released to cinemas. Tolkien stars Nicholas Hoult as The Lord of the Rings author and looks at his formative years at school and during World War One. But last week the family of Tolkien have issued a rare public statement disavowing the film. Fantasy author and Tolkien fan Samantha Shannon gives her verdict on the film and the disapproval from the Tolkien estate. John Singleton directed Boyz n the Hood when he was 24, becoming the youngest director, and the first African-American to be Oscar nominated. He also worked with rap artists such as Ice Cube, Tupac and Snoop Dogg as well as making the music video to Michael Jackson’s hit Remember the Time which starred Eddy Murphy and Iman. Music journalist Jacqueline Springer considers his legacy.For the first time in its 14 year history, the Afghanistani TV talent competition Afghan Star, has been won by a woman. Journalist Sahar Zand discusses the status of music and women in a country still recovering from the authoritarian rule of the Taliban which banned music and severely restricted women's rights. It's the topic of her new documentary The Art of Now: Afghan Stars which is on Radio 4 next week. Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and Dr Erik Scherder, Professor in Clinical Neuropsychology, talk about their series of concerts exploring the influence of music on the brain. They demonstrate how music is experienced by brains in different states such as a developing brain, an adult brain, or a vulnerable brain affected by diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah Robins

Front Row pays tribute to Les Murray, Australia’s foremost contemporary poet, who died today aged 80. Unlike famous compatriots such as Germaine Greer and Clive James, Murray stayed in Australia and spent his last years on the farm in Bunyah, New South Wales, that had been his family’s home. Murray reacted against modernism, believing poetry should be accessible. He wrote poems about Australian people, animals and landscape in plain, lively and demotic language and so became known as the country’s Australia’s bush-bard. His books were always dedicated ‘to the glory of God’. Louis de Berniere’s best-selling novel, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin has been adapted for the stage and will be touring the UK. Sam Marlowe joins Samira to review the play and discuss how it compares with the book (and the film).The shortlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 has been announced.Critics Sarah Shaffi and Toby Lichtig comment on the six novels that made it through from the longlist of 16.A major new exhibition celebrating the life and work of one of the most significant figures in the history of British film - director Stanley Kubrick - has just opened at the Design Museum in London. Samira is joined by the show’s co-curator and director of the Design Museum, Deyan Sudjic, as well as Kubrick’s daughter Katharina who worked on several of the director’s projectsPresenter: Samira Ahmed, Producer: Oliver Jones

Avengers: Endgame marks the culmination of 10 years of interlinking Marvel movies. After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War, and the loss of some of the world’s biggest heroes, the remaining Avengers re-assemble to try and undo Thanos's actions and restore order to the universe. Critic Gavia Baker-Whitelaw reviews.Linda Grant discusses her new novel, A Stranger City, a detailed portrait of contemporary, Brexit-scarred London, told through its myriad people living disparate yet interconnected lives, and exploring current-day ideas of home and belonging.Henrik Ibsen wrote plays about domestic difficulties and social hypocrisy in 19th century small-town Norway. But they clearly speak to 21st-century Britain. With new adaptations soon to be staged across the UK, and Rosmersholm on in the West End and a new production of Ghosts in Northampton, John Wilson talks to Lucy Bailey, director of Ghosts, and Duncan MacMillan, who has adapted Rosmersholm, about the contemporary relevance of Ibsen’s drama and how they mould his work for the stage today.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald

We announce the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019 shortlist. Chair of the Judges and Director of the Art Fund Stephen Deuchar explains why these museums are in contention for the £100,000 prize.A recent report commissioned by President Macron has recommended that France should return all of its African artefacts unless they can prove that they legitimately acquired them, marking a significant shift away from the status quo in how museums deal with contested objects. As the debate about cultural repatriation and restitution intensifies we consider what impact it'll have on the way museums operate in practice. Subhadra Das, Curator at the UCL Collections, and Neil Curtis, Head of Museums and Special Collections at Aberdeen University, reflect on this complex issue. The Cranberries were in the process of recording their eighth album in 2018 when lead singer, Dolores O’Riordan, tragically died. The remaining band members decided to finish the album and on tonight’s Front Row, Noel Hogan, guitarist and co-songwriter with the group, reveals why they made the decision to continue with the album and what that process has been like.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins

Adeel Akhtar, who stars in the new BBC1 series Back to Life, talks about his acting career – from Four Lions to becoming the first non-white male to win a Best Actor BAFTA for the TV drama Murdered By My Father.Doris Hatt (1890-1969) was a painter, feminist, socialist and pioneer of British Modernism. Her work spanning five decades is the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton near where she lived. Curator Sarah Cox and historian Denys Wilcox discuss the life and art of Doris Hatt. It's fifty years since Joe Orton's play What the Butler Saw shocked audiences with its black comedy. Orton cultivated his image as a doyen of 60s counterculture but new research into his record collection reveals a surprising taste in music. Emma Parker has been listening to Orton's LPs. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser

We consider the connection between the public house and the arts. Why do pubs make such great settings, provide so much inspiration and serve as great venues for the arts? Al Murray ponders the longevity of his pub landlord and what this character allows him to explore about Britishness, as literary journalist Suzi Feay considers the representation of pubs in books and TV. Musician Eliza Carthy remembers her first ever public performance in The Bay Hotel in Robin Hood’s Bay, where she was a regular at the folk club there, while crime novelist David Mark tells us how he finds inspiration from the host of intriguing characters he meets down his local, the Samson Inn in Gilsland, Cumbria.But, as pubs continue to be in decline – 25% of pubs have closed since 2001 - we consider how some hostelries are reinventing themselves as cultural destinations. Dawn Badland runs The Inn Crowd, a project which supports rural pubs to host spoken word performances, and Adam Lacey is manager of The Old Joint Stock, a Birmingham pub with its own 100 seater theatre. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah Robins

Liz Pichon on her creation Tom Gates, the hugely popular series of books for young readers now on stage.Zanib Mian is the author of a new book about a Muslim family, Planet Omar - Accidental Trouble Magnet. Last year a report found that only 1% of children's books featured a main protagonist of colour. Alongside commentator and blogger Darren Chetty she considers whether that picture is changing - and whether any change will last.One in three books sold is aimed at children. Is this a golden age for children's books? Celebrity authors such as David Walliams are clocking up huge sales but what is the range and quality of all the books on offer? Children's book experts Dawn Finch and Imogen Russell Williams discuss.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson

The saxophonist Jess Gillam was a finalist in the BBC Young Musician award in 2016 and went on to take the Last Night of the Proms by storm last year. She plays live in the studio and talks to Samira about her beginnings in a carnival band in Cumbria and how she wants to expand the repertoire for sax players in classical music. The influential graphic designer Abram Games, who created The Festival of Britain 1951 poster and the BBC’s first television logo, first came to prominence as the 'Official War Poster Artist' during the Second World War. Over 100 of the posters he created while employed by the War Office are on display at new exhibition at the National Army Museum in London. Curator Emma Mawdsley discusses the significance of the artist and his work. Tayari Jones’s novel, An American Marriage, tells the story of a young African-American couple whose lives are torn apart when the husband is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Tayari Jones discusses the inspiration for her the book which has been championed by Oprah and picked by Barack Obama as one of his favourite summer reads of 2018.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Harry Parker