
Front Row
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Latest episodes

Sep 18, 2024 • 42min
A Very Royal Scandal, Glasgow Cathedral Festival & crime writer Peter May.
Screenwriter Jeremy Brock discusses Amazon's A Very Royal Scandal, the second dramatisation this year of Emily Maitlis' 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, which stars Michael Sheen and Ruth Wilson. Mezzo-soprano Rowan Hellier and pianist Jonathan Ware perform from the opening event of the Glasgow Cathedral Festival, an exploration of sexuality and seduction inspired by art from the 1920s. And crime writer Peter May talks about the inspirations behind his latest thriller set on the Outer Hebrides, The Black Loch. Plus an interview with writer Vee Walker, who is shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan

Sep 17, 2024 • 43min
David Peace, new plays crisis, Booker Prize 2024 shortlist
David Peace on his new novel, Munichs, about the plane crash that transformed Manchester United.
Katie Posner, Co-Artistic Director of Paines Plough theatre company and Daniel Evans, Co-Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company discuss the new plays crisis in theatre.
Matt Hemley, Deputy Editor of The Stage, reports on the cancellation of a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
Artist and author Edmund De Waal, chair of judges for the Booker Prize 2024, reflects on this year's shortlist.
Manish Chauhan on his shortlisted story, Pieces, for this year's National Short Story Award.Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Sep 16, 2024 • 42min
Edward Enninful, Lady Blackbird performs, Booker prize shortlist
Edward Enninful, Vogue Global Creative and Cultural advisor has just made a documentary series, In Vogue: The 90s. He discusses the decade that changed fashion forever. Sue Prideaux has just written the first biography of French post impressionist artist, Gauguin, in over thirty years. She argues it is time to reappraise the way we look at the man and his work. American singer Lady Blackbird has been called 'the Grace Jones of jazz' and she discusses her recent rise to fame and plays a song from her new album Slang Spirituals. And, Will Boast is one of five a finalists for this year's BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University and joins Samira to discuss his entry.Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts

Sep 12, 2024 • 42min
REVIEW: Film: The Critic, Exhibition: Van Gogh, Book: Garth Greenwell's Small Rain
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by David Benedict and Catherine McCormack to review Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, the first exhibition the National Gallery has dedicated to the artist. They also discuss The Critic, which stars Ian McKellen as a fearsomely ruthless drama critic and Small Rain by Garth Greenwell, which focuses on the narrator's time and treatment in hospital after experiencing a sudden piercing pain.Chair of Judges Paddy O'Connell reveals the shortlisted authors for the BBC National Short Story Award 2024 with Cambridge University. The list includes Lucy Caldwell who talks about her short story Hamlet, a love story.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet

Sep 11, 2024 • 42min
Jacqueline Wilson, JRR Tolkien poetry, BBC TV thriller Nightsleeper
Dame Jacqueline Wilson talks about Think Again, the long-awaited adult novel which is the sequel to her much-loved Girls series of books. Actors Alexandra Roach and Joe Cole discuss their roles in BBC One's latest Sunday night drama series Nightsleeper, a thriller in which a night train from Glasgow to London is 'hackjacked'. And on the eve of the publication of The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, the book's two editors talk about dozens of previously unpublished poems.Presenter: Kate Molleson
Producer: Mark Crossan

Sep 10, 2024 • 42min
Australian Front Row with Paul Kelly, Simon Armitage, Jazz Money and Shankari Chandran
The BBC's Contains Strong Language festival has left British shores for the first time - and Australian arts and culture presenter Michael Cathcart hosts a special Front Row recorded on Gadigal land in Sydney in partnership with ABC and Red Room Poetry. Known as the Aussie Bob Dylan, singer Paul Kelly performs Going To The River With Dad from his forthcoming album Fever Longing Still. First nations poet Jazz Money reads from her latest collection Mark the Dawn - inspired by the stories of her Wiradjuri ancestors and her feelings of respect for the country around her. As Australia prepares to appoint a Poet Laureate, the British poet laureate Simon Armitage reads a sonnet which describes his childhood desire to dig all the way to Australia from his Yorkshire garden. And lawyer Shankari Chandran - whose novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens won Australia's most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award - reflects on how she draws on her Sri Lankan Tamil heritage to describe the trauma of war and detention of those seeking asylum. Presenter: Michael Cathcart
Producer: Paula McGrath

Sep 9, 2024 • 42min
Richard O'Brien & Jason Donovan on 50 years of Rocky Horror, Bella Mackie
Richard O'Brien and Jason Donovan on 50 years of the Rocky Horror Show, Bella Mackie on her new novel which follows the success her hit book How to Kill Your Family, a look at Chromatica, a new privately funded orchestra and the life and work of lyricist Will Jennings, who died last weekend.Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Corinna Jones

Sep 5, 2024 • 43min
REVIEW: Film: Firebrand; BOOK: Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake; TV: Kaos
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by academic and critic John Mullan and Elodie Harper, the bestselling author of The Wolf Den Trilogy for the Front Row review show. They discuss Jeff Goldblum as a modern-day Zeus in the series Kaos, Rachel Kushner’s thriller Creation Lake, which has been longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, and the historical drama Firebrand, staring Jude Law as Henry VIII and Alicia Vikander as his 6th wife Catherine Parr. Plus Jason Solomons reveals his top picks from the Venice Film Festival.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet

Sep 4, 2024 • 42min
Jeremy Denk, Scottish Arts Crisis, Harry Mould
Members of Scotland's cultural community discuss the controversy around a cut to vital funding. Ahead of his third year performing at the Lammermuir Festival of classical music, leading American pianist Jeremy Denk talks about his passion for musical maverick Charles Ives, whose 150th birthday he is celebrating with a special concert and a new album of his sonatas. And debut playwright Harry Mould discusses their production The Brenda Line, which inspired by the volunteers who responded to obscene phone calls made to The Samaritans in the 1970s and 80s. The Brenda Line is on at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan

Sep 3, 2024 • 42min
TV: Colin from Accounts; Musical: Why Am I So Single? Hak Baker performs
Following the international success of SIX the Musical, writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss are in the studio to discuss their new work Why Am I So Single? They discuss maintaining their creative momentum after writing a global phenomenon.We hear from the creators of the award winning Australian comedy Colin From Accounts. Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall discuss writing and starring in the hit show as it returns to BBC Two and iPlayer for a second series.And, singer-songwriter Hak Baker performs from his new album, EP Death Act Nostalgia EP Act 1. He discusses his music which he describes as G-Folk, featuring tales of London life and honest lyrics suffused with poetic lyricism.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Ruth Watts