Front Row

Laura Mvula’s first two albums were Mercury-Prize nominated, and now 5 years later she has returned with ‘Pink Noise’, an 80’s-inpsired-synth-inflected album full that’s perfect for dancing to. She explains the inspiration behind the music, and how this is the album she always wanted to make.Since he posted his first Room Next Door video in 2019, comedian Michael Spicer has had over 60m views. Spicer discusses the origin of the idea where he acts as an adviser feeding lines to a politician’s imaginary earpiece and intercuts his feed with the politician’s answers.The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko is a new opera opening for a limited run at Grange Park Opera in Surrey. It tells the story of the former KGB officer who was poisoned in the UK by Russian secret agents. We speak with its composer (former financier) Anthony Bolton about why this story deserves operatic treatment.

British director Ola Ince discusses her new stage production of Romeo & Juliet, currently on at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Ince has given it a contemporary setting, but she doesn’t shy away from showing the play’s relevance to current societal struggles. The degree of harassment and bullying in the acting profession has been brought into the spotlight by #metoo and the recent Noel Clarke case. Radio 4's File on 4 reviewed the current situation and looked at measures being taken within the industry to combat the problem. The Cannes Film Festival opened yesterday with five films funded by the British Film Institute selected for screening. Ben Roberts was appointed the BFI’s Chief Executive just before the lockdown. He talks to Kirsty Lang about the role of the BFI, and how it has supported - and challenged - the industry in times troubled not just by the pandemic but revelations of bullying, abuse and lack of diversity. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Oliver JonesMain image: Alfred Enoch (Romeo) and Rebekah Murrell (Juliet) in The Globe's Romeo & Juliet Image credit: Marc Brenner

With her new sound and light installation, Arcadia, Theatre and Opera director Deborah Warner has brought the feel of the field into The Factory – the new home for MIF. The Factory is still very much a building site open to the elements, but for one weekend only the festival is providing an opportunity for visitors, to see the new construction from the inside. And once inside the concrete shell, they will enter Arcadia, Deborah’s subversive and challenging artwork to Manchester’s spirit of progress. Deborah talks to Nick about the appeal of making an installation in an unfinished venue.One of Pakistan’s most celebrated artists has used his MIF commission to explore his concept of Eart - his term to describe ways of thinking, being and acting creatively in real life. Under the title, A Manifesto of Possibilities, Rana presents an exhibition which interrogates new ways of living, and he makes real one of his ideas with the creation of his version of the essential corner shop. Nick Ahad pops in to the pop-up store to talk to producer Shanaz Gulzar about why ordering produce and stocking shelves is a new art frontier.The death of her father last June prompted the novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche to write a emotional essay, Notes On Grief, for the New Yorker. The essay expanded into a book earlier this year, and now courtesy of MIF it has been adapted for the stage. Nicky Byrne, Head of Clinical Services at Willow Wood Hospice and Nick Ahad attended the preview and discuss a play that meets a moment when many around the country are dealing with their own grief.Hayley Finn, aka Skyliner, has been leading what has been described as “anti-tours” around Manchester for almost a decade. Her urban tours not only seek to reveal new things about the city to its inhabitants as well as its visitors, but to empower those on her tours with a sense that a city is a place created by those who live and work within it and that they too can and should contribute to the never-ending project that is improving the city. Nick meets Hayley to discuss one of the tours she’s leading for MIF, There Was A Bench Here Once.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

The largest ever UK retrospective of the Portuguese-born artist Paula Rego opens at Tate Britain this week. Featuring over 100 works, many not seen before, the show spans Rego’s early work from the 1950s which responds to the socio-political context of Portugal at the time, to her more recent, richly-layered paintings. Critic Jacky Klein gives her response to the show.Black Widow is the long-awaited new Marvel movie starring Scarlett Johansson. Director Cate Shortland talks to Front Row about putting Johansson centre frame, her on-screen chemistry with Florence Pugh and building on the conventions of superhero and spy movies to tell a different story about female power.The £1.57 billion Cultural Recovery Fund was initiated exactly one year ago to shore up arts and cultural organisations against financial devastation caused by the loss of audiences during the pandemic. In England distribution of the cash is managed by Arts Council England and its chair Sir Nicholas Serota explains how the money has been shared out, who has benefited and what will happen to another £300 million soon to be made available.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome WeatheraldMain Image: Paula Rego Image credit: (c) Nick Willing

Actor Giles Terera tells us about his new book Hamilton and Me: an Actor’s Journal, his inside account of preparing for, rehearsing and performing in the West End production of the smash hit musical, Hamilton, in which Terera played Hamilton’s rival and, ultimately, killer Aaron Burr.George Bridgetower was a mixed-race violin virtuoso, patronised by royalty, a pupil of Haydn and friend of Beethoven - who was so inspired by Bridgetower that he wrote one of his greatest pieces for him - the Sonata Op.47, which is now known as the Kreutzer Sonata. In a new documentary, Chi-chi Nwanoku, finds out more about Bridgetower's life, and campaigns to rename Beethoven's work to the Bridgetower Sonata.In June Shona McCarthy, the Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, spoke to Kirsty Lang on Front Row about the prospects for the Fringe in this pandemic year. Tickets went on sale yesterday and Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman newspaper’s theatre critic and political columnist, is Kirsty’s guest to explain what is on offer, what help the Fringe has had from the Scottish Government and the adjustments it has made so it remains a vital cultural celebration in these difficult times.Film critics Tim Robey and Amon Warmann join us to review the Danish film Another Round, the winner of this year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg and starring Mads Mikkelsen it’s about four teachers who decide to test a theory that maintaining a constant blood alcohol level will improve their lives. In the beginning it makes them more gregarious and seems to enhance their personal and professional lives but their subsequent decision to go beyond moderate inebriation makes everything far more complicated.

We speak with Bobby Gillespie, front man of Primal Scream who has released a new album, Utopian Ashes, comprised of duets with French singer Jehnny Beth from Savages. Themed around a disintegrating marriage, it’s a richly orchestrated album that doesn’t necessarily fit into fans’ expectations for either singer. After Public Health Scotland revealed yesterday that over 1,000 people who attended Euro 2020 matches went on to contract COVID 19, throwing the success of the Government’s Events Research Programme (of which the matches were a part) into doubt, Anne Torreggiani, CEO of The Audience Agency, joins us to explore just how confident the public are about returning to mass entertainment events, if government plans to remove all restrictions go ahead on July 19th. A recent survey conducted by The Audience Agency found that only a third of theatre audiences would be “happy to attend”. More concerningly, this was only a 2% increase on the response to an equivalent question asked in late February.Karla Black, the Glasgow-based, Turner Prize-nominated artist, discusses her new exhibition in Edinburgh, which reopens the city’s Fruitmarket Gallery after a two-year, £4.3m expansion and refurbishment.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Simon Richardson

Composer and Arsenal fan Mark-Anthony Turnage will be setting a football game to music. Not just any game, but Arsenal’s title-winning 1989 final game of the season. He tells fellow fan John Wilson how he’ll be capturing the game in his piece Up for Grabs, which has its world premiere at the Barbican in London in November.As the V&A announce their plans for V&A East - two major new developments in the former London Olympic Park – which will open in 2024, its director Gus Casely-Hayford explains what they’re setting out to create and his vision for the role of museums in the 21st century.Patricia Lockwood is the latest of our Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlisted authors – we’re talking to them all in the run up to the prize which will now be awarded on 8 September, when we’ll hear from the winner. Lockwood's novel, No One Is Talking About This, has been described as furiously original. It’s an exploration of our relationship with the online world and what happens when events in real life take over in the most moving way. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Jerome WeatheraldMain image: Mark-Anthony Turnage Image credit: Philip Gatward

Later in his career Dickens toured the country doing hugely popular dramatic readings of his works. For his last tour he added in the scene where Bill Sykes murders Nancy but had concerns about how harrowing the passage was. As an exhibition opens at the Charles Dickens Museum we speak to the curator about how the reading affected both the audience and the author himself.Technology has transformed the way we consume art and culture – from films to music to art, we use our tech in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few decades ago. After a pandemic year which has seen the work of many terribly impacted, today more than a hundred artists have signed a public letter calling for a Smart Fund which would support artists and creatives for their work through an additional fee on the sale of technology and gadgets. Kirsty is joined by Gilane Tawadross, Chief Executive of the Design and Artists Copyright Society who have proposed and championed this idea.Randall Goosby is a 24-year-old American violin virtuoso, and his first album was released last week on Decca records. He tells Kirsty about growing up with a violin on his arm, and why he’s chosen the music of African-American composers for his first CD.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Simon Richardson

Simon Russell Beale was a choral scholar and the actor remains a serious musician who can play a Bach fugue. Now he is taking the role of Johann Sebastian in Nina Raine’s new play Bach and Sons and he talks to Samira Ahmed about his relationship with the composer. Does being able to play Bach help him to play Bach?French Exit stars Michelle Pfeiffer as a Manhattan heiress who has to downsize to Paris with her son and cat when her money runs out after her husband’s death. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the comedy drama directed by Azazel Jacobs, adapted by Patrick deWitt from his own novel. Hannah McGill reviews.Lisa Taddeo came to prominence in 2019 for her nonfiction book Three Women, a chronicle of her subjects' sex lives. Over the course of eight years, the writer not only interviewed the titular three women but also immersed herself in their worlds. The result was one of the hits of the year. Now she returns with Animal, a raw and intense debut novel about sexual trauma and female rage. She tells Samira about the process of writing it and her hope that women who have suffered similar experiences will feel less alone after reading it.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May Studio Engineer: Sue Maillot

It’s third time lucky for the National Theatre: it tried to re-open the Olivier, its largest auditorium, with The Death of England – Delroy in October. The first night was a triumph but, because of the lockdown, it was also the last night. Dick Whittington, the panto, was cancelled a fortnight before Christmas. But the Olivier sprang to life again this week with Under Milk Wood; Michael Sheen leading an almost entirely Welsh cast in Dylan Thomas’s much-loved play for voices - the voices of the townsfolk of Llaregub, a small port by the fishingboatbobbing sea, as they dream and remember through the bible-black night. But in the NT’s new production not all the words are provided by Dylan Thomas. There is additional material by playwright Siân Owen, which suggests director Lyndsey Turner is taking an original approach to this almost sacred text. John Wilson talks to Siân Owen to find out what she has added, and why.Film director Nick Broomfield discusses Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac, the sequel to his 2002 film Biggie and Tupac, which considered the background to the murder of two celebrated hip-hop artists and the rumoured involvement of the LAPD.Black TikTok creators are currently protesting the lack of credit they receive for the dance crazes they’ve generated by going on strike. Music journalist Jacqueline Springer explains why Black TikTokers are keeping their moves to themselves.Negative stereotypes of Essex man and Essex girls have been around since the Thatcher era but what do they mean today? We speak to Michael Landy about his new exhibition Welcome to Essex at Firstsite gallery in Colchester and Southend playwright Sadie Hasler about how they’ve been challenging Essex stereotypes in their work.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson