Front Row

Olivier Award-winning actress Denise Gough talks about taking on the title role in the TV drama Paula, and how she wants to help change the types of stories being told about women on the small screen. On Saturday Fairport Convention will give a concert 50 years to the minute since their very first. Founding member Simon Nicol, and newcomer Dave Pegg - he joined in 1969 - talk about the early days of the band that launched the careers of Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson and Ashley Hutchings, and discuss their latest album 50:50@50.The identity of Leonardo da Vinci's mother has remained a mystery - long after the identity of his most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, was finally discovered - until now. Previously there have been several theories and a possible first name of Caterina, but nearly six centuries on, Martin Kemp - one of the leading authorities on da Vinci - says he can now reveal who Leonardo's mother was, and argues that it is time to finally cut through the myths that still surround the Mona Lisa and Da Vinci himself. Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald.

When Clive James published his collection of poems Sentenced to Life in 2014, it was expected to be his last because he has terminal leukaemia. Now, three years later, he's publishing a new collection with the apt title of Injury Time. In his sunlit, book-lined studio, James talks to John Wilson about his urgent impulse to write, as he faces death, his meticulously crafted poems about life. Netflix's film Okja was booed at the Cannes Film Festival today as the row over Netflix's place at the festival continues. For the first time, two Netflix films are competing for the Palme d'Or this year. The critic Jason Solomons reports from Cannes on the controversy, and is joined by Simon Chinn, Oscar-winning producer of documentaries Man on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man, whose latest film LA 92 was funded by TV and on-demand channel National Geographic. Early last month Damien Hirst revealed his latest ambitious work Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable at two large venues in Venice. The show's Italian curator Elena Geuna, who has worked with Damien on the project for the last five years, discusses the secrecy surrounding the decade-long planning of the exhibition. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Rachel Simpson.

50 years since his hit single 'Release Me', veteran singer Engelbert Humperdinck discusses his long career and his new album, which combines his greatest hits with two new tracks. We visit the London studio of Michaël Dudok de Wit, the award winning Dutch animator, to see him in action and talk about his feature film debut The Red Turtle. Produced by Japan's Studio Ghibli and created by a team of French animators lead by Dudok de Wit, The Red Turtle was the only 2-D animated feature to be Oscar nominated at this year's Academy Awards.Here's a rare thing, a new opera - in Welsh. Y Twr (The Tower) has it's world premier on Friday. Front Row drops in on a rehearsal to talk to the composer Guto Puw and librettist Gwyneth Glyn about their adaptation of one the most important Welsh plays of the 20th century. And Caryl Hughes and Gwion Thomas speak of their delight at having the opportunity, at last, of singing an opera in their mother tongue. Plus, following on from the success of F-rating films, seven events at the Bath Literary Festival use the F-rating in their brochure for the first time. Festival Director Alex Clark explains the thinking behind promoting cultural events that celebrate the female experience.

Kat and Alfie Moon, Eastenders' loveable couple travel to an Irish village in search of Kat's long-lost son. Redwater is directed by Jesper Nielsen, who worked on Danish political drama Borgen, and written by Eastenders' alumni including Life On Mars creator Matthew Graham. Culture journalist Rebecca Nicholson reviews Redwater and considers the art of the TV spin-off. Highly acclaimed true crime dramas won major awards at Baftas this week. Murdered by my Father is about a so-called honour killing. Damilola, Our Loved Boy recounts the terrible story of the schoolboy stabbed on his way home from school. Three Girls takes on the very difficult topic of the Rochdale sexual grooming gangs. Samira Ahmed talks to Lois Wise about the public fascination for true crime stories, and the dilemmas involved.Director Guy Ritchie's latest film is an epic action adventure, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. It stars Charlie Hunnam in the title role, with Jude Law, fetching in assorted leather-wear, as his scheming uncle King Vortigen. Ritchie talks about how he works with actors on set - including here David Beckham, who has a cameo role, and how the folkloric tradition of storytelling influenced the film's narrative. From Shore to Shore is a new play inspired by the lives and little-known stories of people from the Chinese communities in Leeds and West Yorkshire. Playwright Mary Cooper and writer Mimi Webster discuss how the play came about and why it's being presented in unusual venues - Chinese restaurants.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer:Julian May.Image credit: Daniel Smith/ Warner Bros.

Nicole Taylor, the writer of Three Girls, a BBC1 drama based on the Rochdale 'grooming' and sex abuse cases which first came to trial 5 years ago, talks about how she adapted the distressing stories of the exploited girls for this three part serial. Three Girls stars Maxine Peake as Sara Rowbotham, the whistle blower who exposed the girls' plight and brought it to the attention of the public.The controversial and acclaimed US artist Mark Bradford is representing his country in the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which has just opened. Bradford was born in South Los Angeles and his interest in social and political issues lie at the heart of his work. The artist discusses his new exhibition Tomorrow is Another Day, and to what extent the election of Donald Trump is reflected in his art.BAFTA-winning director Joe Wright - whose films include Atonement and Pride and Prejudice - returns to the theatre with Bertolt Brecht's 20th century masterpiece Life of Galileo. Wright joins Tom Rowlands, one half of the electronic music duo The Chemical Brothers, to talk about working together on this new production at London's Young Vic. The play is about the 17th century scientist Galileo Galilei and his discoveries about the solar system which challenged the prevailing 17th century worldview - a struggle which still resonates strongly today.

Conn Iggulden is one of the most successful authors of historical fiction, writing about the Wars of the Roses, Genghis Khan and Julius Caesar; as well as his hugely popular manual Dangerous Book for Boys. He now turns to St Dunstan, who was Archbishop of Canterbury and lived through the reigns of seven kings in the tenth century. Conn talks to Samira about how Dunstan became a saint, and his legacy. Royal drama The Crown was made by Netflix when they outbid the BBC for the rights. The £100m series was expected to pick up the top awards at the BAFTAs after it led the shortlist with five nominations. But on the night, it missed out entirely. TV writer Andrew Collins discusses what the fate of The Crown reveals about the BAFTAs. Playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker has won many awards for her stage plays Our Country's Good, Three Birds Alighting on A Field, and most recently Jefferson's Garden; as well as praise for her radio adaptations of War and Peace and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet. Her new play, premiering at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, looks at a group of women attempting to block the development of a big hotel on Winter Hill. Front Row spoke to Timberlake on the hill outside Bolton that inspired the drama. Quake is Radio 4's experimental new drama set after a deadly earthquake. As well as the audio drama, there is a virtual reality video to accompany the first episode and graphic novel style animations for the remaining eleven. Quake is also non-linear so apart for the first and last, the episodes can be listened to in any order. Critic Pete Naughton reviews. Presenter : Samira Ahmed Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

As the six-month-long 57th International Art Exhibition - otherwise known as the Venice Biennale - opens its doors to the world, John Wilson reports from the Italian city. The artist selected for the British Pavilion in the Giardini this year is 73-year-old Phyllida Barlow, following in the footsteps of Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Barbara Hepworth, Howard Hodgkin and Rachel Whiteread. Phyllida Barlow describes the new large-scale sculptures made of concrete, wood, cloth and polystyrene that she has created for her show Folly, and discusses the challenge of representing Britain in an age of global political unrest.Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald.

The 1992 Hull Festival provided the launch pad for Northern Broadsides with the company presenting a new production of Richard III distinguished by its use of the northern voice. Twenty five years on, Northern Broadsides are back in Hull for its UK city of culture celebrations with Mat Fraser as Richard III. Director Barrie Rutter and Mat, who has thalidomide-induced phocomelia, discuss what casting a disabled actor in the role of theatre's most high profile disabled villain has brought to this anniversary production.Anne with an E is a new adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic novel, Anne of Green Gables. Meg Rosoff reviews the Netflix series which tells the story of Anne Shirley, a precocious orphan placed in the care of uptight Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew on a farm on Prince Edward Island, Canada.Amy Schumer talks to Kirsty about her new film Snatched, where she and her mother, played by Goldie Hawn, are abducted whilst on holiday in Ecuador.Tony Kushner discusses his musical Caroline, Or Change, which is on in Chichester, and also reveals that he's adapting West Side Story for a new film directed by Stephen Speilberg.

We speak to director John Madden about his new political thriller Miss Sloane, where Jessica Chastain stars as a ruthless lobbyist taking on the might of the gun lobby. The film was released in the USA two days after Trump was elected and John discusses the effect this had on both on the American box office takings and on how the he now views the film.It is a controversy that has caused thousands of complaints to the BBC and debate in the House of Lords. Last week even saw Judi Dench became involved when she criticised young performers about it. Actors 'mumbling' their dialogue, especially on TV drama, has become a common complaint of modern audiences. The director of RADA Edward Kemp and voice coach Barbara Berkery comes in to tell us why actors are struggling to be heard by viewers - and what can be done to improve their diction. Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Ford discusses his first non-fiction book, Between Them, a two-part memoir of his parents, Edna and Parker Ford, who lived an itinerant life during the depression until their son's birth in 1944.(Photo: Richard Ford, Jackson, Mississipi, 1947. Credit: Richard Ford).

As a controversial play about a Windsor power struggle hits the small screen, we talk to writer Mike Bartlett and director Rupert Goold about adapting King Charles III for TV; complete with constitutional crisis, the Queen's funeral, Diana's ghost, blank verse and the late great Tim Piggott-Smith.Radio 4's Poet in Residence Daljit Nagra begins the first in series of appearances where he takes us through what currently interests and inspires him from the world of poetry.After the success of the David Bowie exhibition The Victoria & Albert Museum in London has mounted another rock based show, this time on the long and varied career of Pink Floyd. The curator Victoria Broakes shows Emma round exhibits that range from psychedelia to synthesisers via flying pigs.Presenter: Emma Dabiri Producer: Ella-mai Robey.