Front Row

Raoul Peck is a Haitian filmmaker whose documentary I Am Not Your Negro, based on the words of James Baldwin, was Oscar-nominated and won a Bafta in 2018. Now he has made a new documentary series in 4 parts, Exterminate All the Brutes, looking at the impact of colonialism and the development of racist ideas using a mixture of voice-over, dramatisation, animation and Hollywood movies. He talks about the making of it and why he wanted to tell both a personal and a global history. While rug-making may be associated with an older generation, Gen Z have claimed it as their own, making 'tufting' one of the biggest arts and crafts trends on TikTok. Tufting allows artists to 'paint' with yarn, by using a hand-held machine that punches yarn into canvas. It can be used to create rugs, but also clothing and wall hangings. Here to explain the process of tufting is artist Trish Anderson from her studio in Savannah, Georgia. To celebrate International Dance Day, Samira Ahmed speaks to photographer Camilla Greenwell, whose exhibition of dance photographs, Movement in Still Form is launched by Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage. The exhibition is presented online at Google Arts and Culture and invites audiences to see moments of the creative process where artists come together to make the dance we eventually see in performance. Greenwell’s images capture unique rehearsal moments not usually seen by the public, and she speaks about the intimacy of photographing dancers at work.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Oliver Jones

Today the shortlist for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction is revealed. Chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo joins Front Row to talk through the chosen books and explain why they’re worth their place on the list and literary critic Alex Clark gives her reactions.Citizen Kane has been knocked off the top spot on Rotten Tomatoes as a unfavourable review from 1941 has been found ruining its 100% critics rating. Taking its place is Paddington 2. Critic Jason Solomons digests the news.Jamie MacDonald is a Glaswegian stand-up comedian who lost his sight in his teens due to a degenerative retinal disease. In his new Radio 4 stand-up series Jamie MacDonald: Life on the Blink, he reflects on how he used humour to move from denial to acceptance of his condition. He shares his experience of writing from personal experience, and how he made the unexpected move from banking to comedy. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah RobinsMain image: Bernadine Evaristo Image credit: Sam Holden

We review new Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone. It's being touted as the new Game of Thrones but is it worth the hype? Children's and YA author Katherine Webber Tsang gives her verdict.This weekend the Brighton Festival opens and will be the first UK city festival since lockdown. Last year the guest director Lemn Sissay was ready to launch the festival when Lockdown restrictions meant the whole thing had to be cancelled. This year, he’s back as guest director again with a festival themed around Care – a personal theme to Lemn who spent his childhood in care, but also one that’s acquired unique resonance over the past year – and with over 94 separate events, installations, and performances across a mixture of outdoor, indoor and online platforms.Plus novelist Gwendoline Riley, who tells us about the process of writing her new novel My Phantoms about a mother and daughter's doomed attempts to communicate with oneanother.And last night, 24-year-old Jonathan Gibson became the youngest ever Mastermind champion, winning with his incomparable knowledge of the songs of Flanders and Swann. He shares his passion for this pioneering comic duo, and tells us why their music deserves to be better known.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Simon Richardson

Violinist Nicola Benedetti is performing a new concerto by Mark Simpson, who was winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year (as clarinettist) and the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year. Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Mark wrote it specifically with Nicola in mind. We speak with both of them ahead of this Thursday's premiere.Adrian Lukis discusses his one man show, Being Mr Wickham, which imagines Mr Wickham from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice at the age of sixty. Adrian played the young Wickham in the BBC's classic 1995 adaption and is now performing his new play at the country's last remaining Regency theatre, the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. Leila Latif reports on the fallout from last night’s Academy Awards, in which Nomadland won Best Picture and, at the age of 83, Sir Anthony Hopkins became the oldest ever actor to win an Oscar.And Leila reviews Intergalactic, Sky One TV's new science fiction series about a group of female convicts in space who go on the run.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy ProsserMain image: Nicola Benedetti Image credit: Andy Gotts

In a wide ranging extended interview, Sir Tom Jones looks back at his life and career, from his coal-mining upbringing in South Wales to global superstardom. He talks about the therapy he underwent to restore his ability to sing after the death of his wife and the two year quarantine he endured as a child because of tuberculosis. He recalls the time he lost his temper with John Lennon, and the singing teacher who urged him to become on operatic tenor. At the age of 80, Tom has recorded a new album of songs that relate to his life, by writers such as Michael Kiwanuka and Bob Dylan, called Surrounded by Time. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Timothy Prosser Studio Engineer: Giles Aspen

Rose Matafeo discusses her new BBC3 comedy Starstruck. It follows Jessie, a millennial living in East London juggling two dead end jobs and navigating the awkward morning-after-the-night-before, when she discovers the complications of accidentally sleeping with a famous film star. She talks about creating a rom-com, diversity and why her comedy hero is the Dude in the Big Lebowski. The composer Isobel Waller-Bridge is known for her eclectic influences and celebrated scores for stage and screen, ranging from Emma to Vita and Virginia and Fleabag. She has composed the score for a new RSC production of The Winter’s Tale, due to have been staged last year but now filmed for BBC Lights Up. She talks about scoring a play that has such shifts of mood, her intimate and detailed working process and the rewards of collaboration.On Earth Day, Folk duo Ninebarrow explain how they're offsetting their carbon footprint in a plan inspired by the story of Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, second-in-command at the Battle of Trafalgar, who planted acorns as recompense for the great oaks that were being chopped down for ship building. Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere from the band explain how this story also inspired their new album, A Pocketful of Acorns. Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Jerome Weatherald

Actor, writer and director Noel Clarke discusses his latest role in the new five-part ITV drama series Viewpoint, in which he plays a surveillance detective tracking the movements of the prime suspect in the disappearance of a young woman.In the interview he looks back over a career which started with his breakthrough role in Kidulthood in 2006, which he wrote and starred in, and his further success in its sequels Adulthood and Brotherhood. His acting roles have included Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, as well as five years on Doctor Who. He's been back on our screens recently in the high-octane thriller Bulletproof with Ashley Walters.Earlier this month Noel was awarded the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema 2021, and in his acceptance speech he chose to highlight the industry’s need to reflect a more diverse representation, both in front of, and behind, the camera.NB: This programme was broadcast before any allegations about Noel Clarke's behaviour came to light.Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome WeatheraldMain image: Noel Clarke as DC Martin Young in Viewpoint Image credit: ITV.com

Kayo Chingonyi is an award-winning poet, producer, DJ and lyricist. Kayo joins Tom to talk about his much anticipated new collection A Blood Condition, exploring family, identity and his Zambian heritage. Plus his new music podcast series Decode, which takes a deep dive into Dave’s Mercury Prize-winning debut album Psychodrama, revealing its musicality and lyricism over 11 episodes. Schubert’s song cycle, Winterreise, is regarded as the pinnacle of German Lied. This musical story of a young man pining for his lost love and drifting into existential despair has long fascinated audiences and scholars. Now mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato has brought a new approach to this composition. She joins Front Row to discuss how a woman’s perspective has created fresh meaning to Schubert’s winter journey.Lucy Holt reviews The Importance of Being Earnest at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield. This digital production transposes the original narrative of Wilde’s classic comedy to the cobbles and stone walls of the north of England. The updated narrative follows the story of struggling actor Jamil and rom-com star Algy, who come together in the pursuit of love, being true to yourself and Nando’s. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Oliver Jones

London Grammar's debut album in 2013 won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song. Their follow up four years later topped the album charts. Singer and songwriter Hannah Reid talks about their latest album Californian Soil, about sexism in the music industry, and using lockdown as a chance to learn to read music.Craig Easton was last week announced as Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards. He discusses his project Bank Top, a photographic celebration of the residents of a mixed community in Blackburn, for which he won the award. Domhnall Gleeson and his brother Brian have paired up for the new Channel 4 sitcom Frank of Ireland - the first episode aired last last week which Brian has described as “a physical, slapstick comedy about an arrogant fantasist called Frank Maron who’s in his thirties at home with his mother.” Comedian and co-host of the Tellybox podcast Emma Doran reviews the new Channel 4 series.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy ProsserMain image: London Grammar Image credit: Alex Waespi

Director Deborah Warner discusses her new production of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, which opens at the Teatro Real in Madrid on Monday. The staging of this multinational co-production has become significantly more difficult in the wake of Brexit and more recently she has had to adapt to the numerous challenges posed by Covid. The death was announced today at the age of 52 of Helen McCrory, whose credits included Peaky Blinders, The Queen, Harry Potter and many highly-praised stage roles including Medea and The Deep Blue Sea. Theatre critic Susannah Clapp reflects on her contribution to stage and screen. Cybercrime is a lucrative source for fraudsters; companies’ customer accounts, personal bank details, and pension funds, presenting regular targets for the digital criminals. Now it seems that the world of publishing is attracting the online scammers. Heloise Wood, Deputy News Editor of The Bookseller, shares her latest scoop.Mare of Easttown is a new HBO/Sky Atlantic series starring Kate Winslet as a small-town Pennsylvanian detective investigating a local murder as life crumbles around her. Lanre Bakare (Guardian arts and culture correspondent) and Jen Chaney (New York Magazine’s Vulture TV critic) discuss the drama with KirstyPresenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Jerome Weatherald