Front Row

When Guy Chambers teamed up with Robbie Williams in 1997, they created one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in British pop history. Now Guy has released his debut solo album called Go Gentle into the Light, performing hits such as Angels and Millennium on the piano. Writer Nina Stibbe has been announced as the winner of the 2019 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction for her novel, Reasons to be Cheerful. She discusses the art of comic writing.Even a small amount of creativity can help you cope with modern life - so says new research by BBC Arts and University College London. The BBC Arts Great British Creativity Test surveyed almost 50,000 people to explore links between arts activities and wellbeing. Dr Daisy Fancourt, UCL Senior Research Fellow shares the key findings.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Edwina Pitman

Director Amma Asante on her new film Where Hands Touch, which follows Leyna, an Afro-German girl, living under the increasingly dangerous and racist Nazi regime during World War II. Asante discusses her approach, used in this film and in A United Kingdom and Belle, of shining a light on little known histories often involving black characters to tell us something about the world today. Years and Years is BBC One's new drama series created by Russell T Davies. Set in an imagined near future, it stars Emma Thompson as an outspoken celebrity turned political figure whose controversial opinions divide the nation. Katie Popperwell reviews. Aretha Franklin's legendary 1972 album Amazing Grace saw the singer returning to her soul routes after commercial success. The record went on to be the biggest seller of Franklin's 50 year career. Far less well known is the accompanying concert film directed by Sydney Pollack which captured the recording in raw detail, but was subsequently shelved. Forty-seven years later as the film is finally released in cinemas, record producer Joe Boyd tells the story of its long gestation. Deirdre Falvey, arts journalist for the Irish Times, on the ongoing uproar at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin which has seen over 400 theatre professionals in Ireland sign an open letter to the Minister for Culture, Josepha Madigan, expressing their "deep concern and dissatisfaction" with Ireland's national theatre under its current directors.Presenter : Samira Ahmed Producer : Dymphna Flynn

Among the designs of the leading British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye OBE are the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, which opened in 2016 in a ceremony led by the then US President Barack Obama, and the planned UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre next to the Palace of Westminster in London.David Adjaye is in Venice ahead of the opening of his Ghana Pavilion for this year's Biennale, and in a rare interview the architect discusses the role of architecture and the importance of anthropology and ethnography in his designs.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald

The Malian singer Rokia Traoré is celebrated for her extraordinary voice, her collaborations with musicians and writers such as Damon Albarn and Toni Morrison, and her efforts to give opportunities to other artists in Mali. These qualities and interests are reflected in her choices as Guest Director of this year’s Brighton Festival. She talks about the work she and others will be performing.In Germany, the far-right party AfD - Alternative fur Deutschland – are using the nineteenth century painting Slave Market by Jean-Leon Gerome in their posters for the upcoming European elections. The French artist is seen as a leading proponent of Orientalism, and this work depicts a nude fair-skinned enslaved woman paraded for sale and examined by Middle Eastern or North African men. One has his fingers in her mouth, as if she were a horse whose teeth he is checking. BBC Correspondent Damien McGuiness and art critic Fisun Guner discuss the use of this provocative work in a political campaign.Granta, the literary magazine was launched in 1979 by a group of Cambridge University students and went on to become an influential force in the literary world, publishing heavyweights like Angela Carter, Raymond Carver and Philip Roth. Its "Under 40" list of emerging writers was influential and at its height it enjoyed a readership of 135,000. As the magazine turns 40 co-founder and former editor Bill Buford considers its history and place in today's literary world. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Kate Bullivant

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