Front Row

Breeders is a highly successful TV comedy series that looks honestly and unflinchingly at the difficulties (and rewards) of parenting. It’s just about to return for a second series and we speak with director and co-creator Chris Addison whose own work includes stand-up, acting and directing shows such as The Thick of It, In The Loop, Veep and many many more.Novelist Nadifa Mohamed tells us about the 17 year journey to publishing her novel The Fortune Men, the true story of the wrongful conviction of a Somali sailor in Cardiff's Tiger Bay in 1952.With the launch of the BBC Proms 2021 Season, Front Row gathers three artists who will be making their Proms debuts this year: composer Grace-Evangeline Mason who was commissioned to create a new work – The Imagined Forest - to mark the Albert Hall’s 150th anniversary. Musician Adam Szabo who will be joined in making his Proms debut with 19 members of his Manchester Collective; and Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson who joined Front Row regularly during the early months of the first lockdown in 2020. They talk to Tom about what the Proms mean to them.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Oliver Jones

Disney’s much-anticipated 101 Dalmatians prequel Cruella is the visually stunning origin story of the woman who becomes the puppy-stealing force of evil from Dodie Smith’s original 1956 story. Starring Emma Stone and Emma Thompson and directed by I, Tonya’s Craig Gillespie, it is set in late '70s London and channels much of punk’s dark energy and aesthetic. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh joins Front Row to assess whether it makes for compelling viewing – and for what age group.2 Tone: Lives & Legacies is the first major exhibition dedicated to the music, the message, and the memorabilia of the ska movement. As it opens at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum to mark the start of Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture 2021, Pauline Black, founding member and lead singer of The Selecter, talks to Samira about the impact 2 Tone had on her and British culture.“Why shouldn’t God send a miracle to Merthyr?” asks Carys, the 16-year-old girl in The Merthyr Stigmatist. She claims to have the wounds of Christ, bleeding from her hands and feet every Friday evening. Her teacher, Siân, isn’t convinced; she thinks Carys should keep quiet, get out of the Merthyr Tydfil and go to university. But why should she have to leave to lead a fulfilling life? Lisa Parry’s talks about her new play, in which faith, reason, class, fame and language all collide.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian MayMain image: 2 Tone band The Selecter's lead singer Pauline Black in 1979

As the Rijkmuseum in Amsterdam opens a landmark exhibition, Slavery, exploring the Netherlands’ 250 years involvement in the trade of human beings, the Director, Taco Dibbits, joins Front Row to explain why this history must be embraced. British hip hop, grime and, more recently, drill are all musical subgenres that have emerged and thrived in London. But Mancunian artist Bugzy Malone is leading a wave of rappers with northern accents. Born Aaron Davis, Bugzy Malone grew up amid poverty and crime. Stories of gangland life and emotional trauma have been channelled into much of his work, and his new album The Resurrection continues in the confessional vein. He talks about the motorcycle accident that nearly killed him, his recovery and how the process was the inspiration behind the new album.The high fashion brand Loewe has created a €50,000 prize for craft with international submissions from across many different practices. We speak to Loewe's creative designer Jonathan Anderson about why he set up the prize and also to Patricia Lovett, Chair of the Heritage Crafts Association about why some traditional crafts in the UK are in perilous decline. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hilary Dunn

David Weil is the showrunner for Hunters, a TV series which imagined the work of Nazi hunters in 1970s New York . The large cast included Al Pacino in his first ever TV lead role. When Covid closed down largescale productions, David Weil turned his hand to a much more intimate sort of show. Solos is a new 7-part fantasy series which is essentially monologues from the likes of Helen Mirren, Anne Hathaway and Morgan Freeman.Brit Bennett is the first shortlisted nominee for The Women’s Prize for Fiction to join us. Her book, The Vanishing Half, follows identical twins who, after running away from home at 16, adopt different racial identities. Brit discusses how her mother’s upbringing inspired the story, and why she wanted to write about colourism. As BBC Four launches its Great British Photography Challenge, photographer Maryam Wahid offers some handy hints to help you get the best possible shot with your mobile phone camera.Composer, singer and choral conductor Bob Chilcott discusses the government's guidance issued on the 18th May which says that amateur choirs can only rehearse indoors in groups of a maximum of six, which led to many of the 42,000 choirs across the country having to change rehearsal and performance schedules planned after restrictions on public performances were lifted on 17th May. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald

Front Row joins Radio 4's celebration of Bob Dylan, who will be 80 on Monday. John Wilson joined by Bob Geldof, to consider the art and influence of Bob, on Bob. Ann Powers, music critic for National Public Radio joins from somewhere on the Nashville Skyline. On Bob Dylan's first trip to Britain, in the winter of 1962, he and the great English folk singer Martin Carthy, met, became friends and performed together in small clubs such as the Troubadour (still going!). Bob Dylan acknowledges the influence of Carthy, whose versions of Scarborough Fair and Lord Franklin, for instance, inform songs of his such as Bob Dylan's Dream and Girl From the North Country. It will be Martin's 80th birthday on Friday, he's three days older than Dylan. Front Row drags him away from his celebration (and a rehearsal - Carthy, like Dylan, is still a hardworking musician) to remember those early days, and a winter so cold he and Bob chopped up an old piano for firewood.Kerry Shale stars with Richard Curtis, Lucas Hare and Eileen Atkins in Dinner with Dylan, the afternoon drama on Radio 4 on Saturday. Shale,a famously versatile voice actor, is intrigued by Dylan's voice and how it has changed or, rather, he has changed it. Using songs recorded over decades Kerry analyses how folky young Bob becomes hip, sneery Bob, then mellow country Bob, dangerous angry Bob finally exhausted Ancient Mariner Bob. 'I Contain Multitudes', Dylan says, using the famous phrase of Walt Whitman as the title of one of his songs. Poet Caroline Bird does some close reading of 'Visions of Johanna' and the writer Fred D'Aguiar, esonance of Dylan's early work in the wake of the murder of George Floyd Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Julian May

Eleanor Clayton is the curator of the largest publlc exhbition of the work of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth since her death in 1975. She's also written a new biography about the sculptor called Barbara Hepworth Art and Life. She talks to Nick about Hepworth's passion for making sculpture and how her insistence on the best way her work should be presented to the public has influenced the new show at The Hepworth Wakefield.The secretary of state for culture, The Rt Hon Oliver Dowden wants museum trustee boards to have greater regional representation, but is he taking the right approach to achieve this? Lord Smith of Finsbury who, as Chris Smith MP, was culture secretary in Tony Blair's goverment has concerns. He joins Front Row to explain why he thinks the present culture secretary needs to keep at arms length from our cultural institutions.The National Youth Theatre is about to premiere a new production of Othello at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton. The play is set in a hedonistic 90s club, and Othello is now a black woman played by rising star Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. She reflects on the appeal of playing the tragic hero and the joy, after months of lockdown, of creating a club on stage.Can theatre keep you healthy? As UK Theatre and the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) release new research about the financial savings that theatre brings to the NHS, Jon Gilchrist, executive director and deputy chief executive of Home in Manchester, explains how theatre can be part of a healthy way of life.Presenter: Nick Ahad Studio Managers: Owain Williams and Jonathan Esp Production Coordinator: Caroline Dey Producer: Ekene Akalawu

The new album of compositions by Roxanna Panufnik performed by the Saconni Quartet features a surprising range of subject material; letters written home during the First World War, Ashkenazi Jewish cantorial chant, Aung San Suu Kyi’s musings on Burma, a celebration of Poland’s EU presidency, a 14th century love story and the heartbeat of a Bulgarian dancing bear. We talk to her about the stories behind Heartfelt.Following their residency at Cern, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, the Brighton-based artist duo Semiconductor have created a multisensory installation Halo, showing as part of the Brighton Festival. Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt discuss their immersive artwork of sound and light, which takes the form of an intricate mechanical structure containing a 360-degree projection of scientific data and 380 resonating taut piano wires. Eileen Agar: Angel of Anarchy is a major retrospective of the Cubist and Surrealist artist (1899-1991) at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. Louisa Buck joins us to discuss the show and gives us her own selection of exhibitions across the UK that she’s looking forward to, which can finally now open. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Oliver Jones Studio Manager: John BolandMain image: Albie the bear, whose recorded heartbeat was used on one of Heartfelt's tracks. Image credit: Jordan jones/Wild Place Project,

The actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, best known for Coronation Street and Broadchurch on TV, returns to the theatre for the opening night of her new play at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Modestly titled The Greatest Play in the History of the World… it is not only the first night of the tour but the first night the theatre has been open since last year. Julie takes a break from rehearsals to talk to Samira about how she is looking forward to being onstage again and the importance of theatre to regional towns. Lie Down and Listen is the idea behind a new series of classical music concerts being led by the pianist Christina McMaster. She talks to Samira about how lying down helps both the mind and body listen to music.A new photographic exhibition opening at The Serpentine Gallery in London shows the work of 91-year-old photographer James Barnor. He’s been working for 6 decades, first in his native Ghana where he captured the country’s move to independence, before coming to the UK in the 60s where he worked for Drum magazine, taking photos of the African diaspora. In the 70s he returned to Ghana as a pioneer of colour photography.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Simon Richardson

Barry Jenkins, the director of the 2017 Oscar-winning film Moonlight, discusses his new ten-part TV adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad.The drama series follows two young slaves as they escape their cotton plantation in Georgia and go in search of the fabled railway which they hope will transport them north in their quest for freedom.The director discusses shooting the drama - which contains harrowing scenes of violence - on the site of former plantations in Georgia where slaves worked and died, and how the experience affected him as an African-American. Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome WeatheraldMain image: Showrunner, writer and Director Barry Jenkins on The Underground Railroad shoot in Georgia, USA. Image credit: Kyle Caplan/Amazon Studios

Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, which recently won best film at both the Oscars and Baftas, is leading the pack as cinemas reopen next week. Film critic Tim Robey and Chinese arts journalist Yuan Ren discuss Nomadland and what else we have to look forward to.St Vincent’s latest album Daddy’s Home is inspired in part by her father’s release from 10 years in prison. The artist discusses getting personal for her sixth record, returning to the sound of the '70s and the female artists that paved the way for her.A lack of commercial and government-backed insurance has led to the cancellation of many festivals this year with more cancellations expected if things don’t change. Marina Blake, co-founder and creative director of Brainchild Festival, has a plan to ensure her festival goes ahead. She talks to John about asking ticketholders to share the costs of the risk.Author Maylis de Kerangal discusses Painting Time, her coming-of-age novel set in the world of decorative painting, following a young woman who finds herself discovering the world and herself through the art of trompe l’oeuil.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Jerome Weatherald