Front Row

Hollywood legend Robert De Niro explains why he's starring in his first ever TV series Zero Day, where he plays a former US President out to find the culprits behind a deadly cyber-attack on America. He's joined by the show's screenwriter Eric Newman. With the British Council facing financial pressures it is considering the sale of its art collection, we hear from Jenny Waldman, Director of the Art Fund about what this might mean. Mark Anthony Turnage and Lee Hall talk about their new opera Festen, based on the Danish film by Thomas Vinterberg, which explores the impact of a dark family secret revealed at a birthday party. And, curator Anna Villi and author Elodie Harper discuss the British Museum and Colchester and Ipswich Museum's Gladiators of Britain exhibition. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ruth Watts

Tom is joined by the writer and broadcaster Octavia Bright and the Observer's theatre critic Susannah Clapp to review another version of the Greek classic Oedipus, this time at the Old Vic in London and starring Rami Malek.Also reviewed: The Last Showgirl, which has Pamela Anderson starring as Shelley with Jamie Lee Curtis as her good friend. Shelley's Vegas cabaret show is closing and the imminent change forces her to confront her life choices. And: We Do Not Part, the new novel by Nobel Prize for Literature winner, the Korean writer Han Kang. We also hear about the Japanese collaborative SANAA, founded by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, which has won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal for architecture, from Professor Sadie Morgan. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Corinna Jones

Writer Holly Walsh and actor Lucy Punch on the Motherland spin-off series, Amandaland which also stars Joanna Lumley Director, screenwriter and producer of September 5, Tim Fehlbaum about his new film that explores what happened at the 1972 Munich Olympics from the perspective of the sports journalists who found themselves broadcasting the story As the Slapstick Festival returns to Bristol for its 20th anniversary, we look at the history of this enduring form of comedyPresenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Fiona McLellan

Front Row continues to look at how culture has changed in the first 25 years of the century with an edition focusing on film and TV.Samira is joined by Radio 4's Screenshot presenters Mark Kermode and Ellen E. Jones, Jane Tranter, who relaunched Doctor Who in 2005 and co-founded Bad Wolf productions and Boyd Hilton, the Entertainment Director of Heat magazine. From reality TV to superhero franchises and the rise of binge-watching, the panel discuss how transformations have changed what we watch, how we watch it and who makes it.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Claire Bartleet

Coralie Fargeat has been nominated as best director for her film The Substance which stars Demi Moore. She tells Samira about her inspiration for the satirical horror about a Hollywood star who takes a dangerous drug to create a younger version of herself. Josephine Baker’s memoir has been translated into English for the first time, fifty years after the death of the iconic performer. Cultural historian Dr Adjoa Osei and translator Anam Zafar discuss Baker's incredible life and legacy. The story of Greek heroine Electra has been written in play form by Sophocles, was made into an opera by Richard Straus and inspired Marvel comics and films. A new production, based on Sophocles' Electra which was translated by Canadian poet Anne Carson has just hit London’s West End starring Brie Larson and Stockard Channing. Anne joins Samira to talk about the translation.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Paula McGrath

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer Dreda Say Mitchell and critic Scott Bryan to assess the week's cultural releases, including a new stage version of the hit TV series Inside Number 9. They've also been watching Mike Leigh's first film in 6 years, Hard Truths, which has reunited him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste who was nominated for an Oscar in his hit film Secrets and Lies. Finally they review Saturday Night, the new film about the beginnings of the cult TV series Saturday Night Live which launched the careers of many comedians including Tina Fey. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

As new BBC One drama adaptation, Miss Austen, shines fresh light on Jane Austen's sister Cassandra, Gill Hornby, who wrote the eponymous novel on which Miss Austen is based, and Claire Harman, author of Jane's Fame, How Jane Austen Conquered The World, discuss how perceptions of Cassandra's burning of her sister's letters have been changing.Paris-based journalist and cultural critic Agnès Poirier reports on President Macron's announcement at the Louvre.Artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman reflects on weaving together personal, historical, and social stories in her exhibition , Chila Welcomes You, at Imperial War Museum North in Manchester.Alex Allison and George Harrison on their new novels which centre on football. Alex's Greatest of All Time is a tender gay love story set among a fictional premiership team in the North East while George Harrison's Season is a cross generational tale of two dedicated football fans that stretches over a season.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Front Row looks at how culture has changed in the first 25 years of this century, starting with Music. Samira is joined by Radio 4's Add to Playlist hosts Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe, music journalist Kitty Empire and former Spotify exec Will Page. They discuss how transformations in technology have impacted what we listen to and what music is being written, and what genres of music have come to the forefront in the last 25 years. Pete Waterman, one of the judges on the original Pop Idol, talks about the explosion of TV music competitions. And the Master of the Kings Music, composer Errollyn Wallen, explores how classical music has changed and evolved. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Corinna Jones

Rowan Pelling, journalist and founding editor of the Erotic Review, and the film critic Tim Robey join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the Oscar nominations and review Edmund White's The Loves of My Life, Steven Soderbergh's supernatural horror thriller Presence and Brazil! Brazil! a major exhibition featuring 20th century artists at the Royal Academy in London. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Writer James Graham on his Channel 4 drama Brian & Maggie, which stars Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter, and which tells the story of a hard-hitting interview between broadcaster Brian Walden and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which helped precipitate Thatcher's downfall in the early 1990s, John Douglas Thompson talks about playing Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice as a black actor, in a production by Theatre for a New Audience which is at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre, And live music from Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart, who have collaborated with Mary Chapin Carpenter on a new album, Looking for the Thread. Presenter: Kate Molleson Producer: Mark Crossan