Front Row

Joan Collins discusses her memoir My Unapologetic Diaries.Tales of the City author and activist Armistead Maupin on his national tour and why he has moved from his beloved San Francisco to live in the UK.Engineering Value - Scenes from the Grenfell Inquiry is a new play every word of which has been taken from what was said at that public inquiry. Directors Nick Kent and Nadia Fall consider the ethics of verbatim theatre and the different ways of creating it. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Olivia Skinner

Cush Jumbo’s long-awaited performance as Hamlet and debbie tucker green’s film ear for eye come under the critical gaze of Ekow Eshun, Vanessa Kisuule and Sarah Crompton.Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has won this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. He joins Front Row to discuss his work and how he feels about winning. The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage on his fresh and contemporary new translation of the classic poem The Owl and the Nightingale.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah JohnsonPhoto Credit: Helen Murray

Broadcaster Huw Stephens sends an audio postcard from Aberystwyth, the small seaside town with the big arts centre mounting exhibitions and concerts, the National Library of Wales, the country's oldest University, a thriving bilingual music scene, one of the UK's leading comedy festivals and now - a film industry. The true story of one family’s journey from Afghanistan to Wales twenty one years ago is told on stage at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre this month. Tom hears from the writer of The Boy With Two Hearts, Hamed Amiri and musician Elaha Soroor about finding refuge and the freedom to make music.The British amateur golfer Maurice Flitcroft entertained fans globally and became the scourge of the golfing establishment when he passed himself off as a professional and entered the British Open in 1976. Now Welsh director Craig Roberts has made a new film about his life, starring Mark Rylance and Sally Philips. He explains why he wanted to make a film about a lovable sporting underdog.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Laura Northedge Production Co-ordinator: Lizzie Harris

Wole Soyinka, the first African writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells Samira Ahmed about what impelled him to write his first new novel in five decades, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth.As theatres re-open across the UK and audiences return, are some theatre fans being left behind? We hear from Jamie Hale, an award-winning theatre director and playwright with a disability, and Richard Misek from the University of Kent, who is investigating the impact of digital arts on audiences.Film director Michael Winterbottom shares insights from his conversations with fellow filmmakers, from Ken Loach to Andrea Arnold and from Lynn Ramsay to Steve McQueen, about the challenges British directors face in getting independent British films made. Michael is joined by the debut feature filmmaker Cathy Brady to discuss what it takes to get a film on the big or small screen.PRESENTER: Samira Ahmed PRODUCER: Simon RichardsonPhoto: Wole Soyinka Photo credit: Mr TAIWO OLUSOLA-JOHNSON (TOJ Concepts)

In tonight's new look, 45 minute long Front Row...Hilary Mantel talks about turning her 874 page novel, The Mirror and the Light, the third volume in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, into a play of just a couple of hours. Kieran Hurley on The Enemy, his adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People for the National Theatre of Scotland. Lianne La Havas joins us live in the studio to perform a track from her self-titled Ivor Novello winning album. And Candice Carty Williams, author of the besteller, Queenie, on writing her first novella for young adults, Empress and Aniya.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May

The new 007 film No Time To Die has had its release pushed back and back and back due to Covid. But now it’s finally here with Daniel Craig playing James Bond for the final time. Critical responses have been mixed, what will our reviewers, Charlie Higson -writer of the Young Bond novels – and Naima Khan – who’s never seen a Bond film before – make of it? We’ll also preview Ridley Road a BBC historical drama series written by Sarah Solemani, about a young Jewish woman who fights against an emerging neo-Nazi group in 1960s East London.1971 was an important year in African-American culture. It was the year that saw the cinema release of Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, and Gordon Park’s Shaft. It was also the year that saw the national launch of Soul Train – the music show that featured the big Soul stars of the day, hosted by the avuncular Don Cornelius who encouraged the audience of young African-Americans to dance and celebrate themselves for all to see. Fifty years on, music Journalist, Jacqueline Springer, assesses the significance of Soul Train.Best selling Norwegian writer of My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgaard talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his new novel The Morning Star. During one long summer’s night in August, nine people are leading their usual live, when a huge star appears in the Norwegian sky above them.

Widely known as the nicest guy in rock, Dave Grohl has written a memoir ‘The Storyteller’ documenting his life in the rock and roll business, from early days sleeping in the tour van with Scream, to the moment that inspired him to return to music post-Nirvana, to performing at the White House. It is family and music that has kept him grounded, as well as seeing the toll the dark glamour of a rock and roll life can take on a person. Now he is unashamedly earnest about his love of music and love of life. He tells Nick Ahad about how he feels performing in front of thousands, his ‘pinch-me’ moments, and the magic that happens between musicians.As the tenth anniversary of the death of disgraced celebrity Jimmy Savile approaches, there's a slew of dramas and documentaries being prepared for broadcast. Playwright and journalist Jonathan Maitland wrote his own Jimmy Savile drama - An Audience with Jimmy Savile - in 2015. He joins Front Row to discuss how to approach dramatizing Savile.Presented by Nick Ahad Produced by Ekene Akalawu Studio Engineer - Carwyn Griffith Production Co-ordinator - Caroline Dey

American screenwriter, show-runner, director, and producer David Chase is best known for writing and producing the HBO drama The Sopranos which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2007. He talks to Tom about why he's bringing back Michael Imperioli for The Many Saints Of Newark.Gary Raymond, editor of Wales Art Review, joins us to discuss the unveiling of the statue of the Welsh, black head teacher and heroine, Betty Campbell.Many great playwrights - including William Shakespeare - have written works to be performed at The Globe Theatre on the banks of The Thames. And now 400 years since the venue last had a playwright in residence, there’s a new play, Metamorphoses, written by a team of young writers, making its premiere. We speak with Laura Lomas about creating new work for such an illustrious stage. Also with Simeon Miller, Candle Consultant for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – recreating pre-electric stage lighting for modern productions.And Danish artist Jens Haaning was commissioned to make a work for the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, and was paid. He as delivered an empty picture frame as says this is a conceptual art word titled Take the Money and Run. How does this latest scam compare with other examples of audacious art? Tom Sutcliffe talks to art critic Louisa Buck.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Julian MayMain image: Michael Gandolfini (Left) as the young Tony Soprano with Alessandro Nivolo as his "uncle" Dickie Moltisanti . Image credit: Barry Wetcher/ © 2021 Warner Bros Entertainment Inc

Kenyan British Comedian Njambi McGrath’s work focuses on identity politics, Brexit, colonialism, and race. She joins Kirsty to discuss her 2019 show, Accidental Coconut which opens at the Soho Theatre next week, and her new Radio 4 podcast series Njambi McGrath: Becoming Njambi.Controversy always rages over The Turner Prize. This year not a single artist has been shortlisted. Not one! Instead there are five art collectives, from all over the UK, showing work at the Turner Prize Exhibition which opens tomorrow at the Herbert Gallery in Coventry. The critic Zarina Muhammad reviews the show for Front Row. Kenyan British Comedian Njambi McGrath’s work focuses on identity politics, Brexit, colonialism, and race. She joins Kirsty to discuss her 2019 show, Accidental Coconut which opens at the Soho Theatre next week, and her new Radio 4 podcast series Njambi McGrath: Becoming Njambi.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Oliver Jones

Front Row announces this year’s winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction and Samira Ahmed interviews the winner. They are joined by Clarke Award judge Stewart Hotston to discuss the problem of diversity in the science fiction genre.K-pop group BTS opened the UN general debate last week with a speech and performance, which was streamed live by over a million people around the world. What’s the impact of a the biggest band in the world taking this political stage, and what does it say about the music industry? Wim Delvoye’s 2008 artwork, Tim, is an an all-over body tattoo inked on the torso of former Zurich tattoo parlour owner Tim Steiner. The skin of his back, with the tattoo will which join the collection of a German art lover after Steiner's death. This inspired Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania's new film. The Man Who Sold His Skin tells the story of Sam, a Syrian man who agrees to have his back tattooed by one of the world’s most illustrious contemporary artists so he can to travel to Europe and reconnect with his past love, Abeer. Leila Latif joins Samira to review the film.Main image: BTS at BBC R1.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Harry Parker