
Front Row
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Latest episodes

Jan 21, 2025 • 42min
Anora director Sean Baker, Caryl Phillips's new novel, Somerset House exhibition on Soil
Anora is one of the leading contenders in the current film awards season - and its star Mikey Madison looks likely to get an Oscar nomination too. Its director Sean Baker explains how he uses both violence and comedy to explore the story of a son of a Russian oligarch who becomes entangled in the world of a sex worker in New York. Caryl Phillips talks about his new novel, Another Man in the Street about a young Caribbean man's search for a new home in 1960s London and the other people, all migrants in different ways, who become part of his life there.And Soil is more than dirt - co-curators Claire Catterall and May Rosenthal Sloan explain how a new exhibition at Somerset House in London sheds light on how the ground under our feet has played a crucial role in human civilisation, with 50 artists in the show using sculpture, painting, tapestry and video to explore its qualities. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paula McGrath

Jan 20, 2025 • 42min
The Brutalist director Brady Corbet and star Adrien Brody, Sidney Poitier season at BFI
The Brutalist's director Brady Corbet and star Adrien Brody talk about making the hotly anticipated film. With a season of Sidney Poitier's films underway at the British Film Institute and a play about a key moment in his early, Retrograde, transferring to London's West End in March we discuss the legacy of the great actor with - writer, Ryan Calais Cameron and programmer, Jonathan Ali. Natalie Andrews of the Wall Street Journal discusses the cultural elements of the 47th President's inauguration ceremony. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts

Jan 16, 2025 • 42min
Review: Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, TS Eliot prize poetry, Italian wartime film Vermiglio
Lemn Sissay and Rhianna Dhillon review the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalamet, the TS Eliot Prize-winning poetry collection Fierce Elegy by Peter Gizzi and the Italian language film, Vermiglio set in a remote Alpine village during World War Two.We pay homage to David Lynch, director of Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. Plus Mark Savage gives the latest on the feud between rappers Kendrick Lamar and DrakePresenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Jan 15, 2025 • 43min
Franz Ferdinand play in the studio, Richard Price on his new novel Lazarus Man, verdict on BAFTA nominations
Franz Ferdinand play live from their new album The Human Fear, eleven songs which explore deep-set human anxieties and how overcoming and accepting them drives and defines our lives. Richard Price - the author of Clockers, and a writer on The Wire, talks about his latest novel, Lazarus Man, a chronicle of New York life set in the aftermath of a destructive explosion. Plus a response to this year's BAFTA nominations, which were announced today, from film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan

Jan 14, 2025 • 43min
Vivaldi's Four Seasons reimagined, impact of L.A. fires on culture, Leigh Whannell's new horror film, Dead Ink Books
Sir Michael Morpurgo and violinist Daniel Pioro discusss reimagining Vivaldi's Four Seasons for a recording with the Manchester Camerata featuring new poetry by Sir Michael and improvisations by Daniel.Pat Saperstein, Deputy Editor of Variety, and Peter Bowes, BBC Correspondent in Los Angeles reflect on the impact of the L. A fires on the film, television, music and visual arts worlds.Leigh Whannell, the co-creator of the blockbuster Saw horror film franchise, talks about his new film Wolf Man, which is the follow-up to his hit 2020 film The Invisible Man, bringing yet another of Universal's iconic monsters back to the big screen.Dead Ink Books, a small independent publisher in Liverpool began life in a bedroom but now it's winning major literary prizes. MD Nathan Connnolly discusses its success and its latest prize-winner.Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Jan 13, 2025 • 42min
Michael Sheen, Matthew Bourne on Oliver! and ghostwriting
Actor Michael Sheen explains how he was rehearsing his role as the creator of the NHS, Nye Bevan when he heard about the demise of National Theatre Wales and decided to make plans for a new organisation, using some of his own money. Matthew Bourne talks about his new stage production of the musical Oliver! and the 30th anniversary tour of his groundbreaking version of the ballet Swan Lake. The society of authors has asked for Ghostwriters to be recognised, particularly when celebrities are involved. We speak to two ghostwriters about this potentially secretive process. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts

Jan 9, 2025 • 43min
Review: Angelina Jolie's Maria, AL Kennedy's novel Alive in the Merciful Country, Architecton documentary
Viv Groskop and David Benedict join Tom Sutcliffe to talk about Maria, the Maria Callas biopic staring Angelina Jolie. They also review Alive in the Merciful Country by A.L. Kennedy and Architecton, a study of concrete and stone from the Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky. Plus Jeremy Treglown, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, who talks about the changes that are happening within the organisation.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet

Jan 8, 2025 • 42min
Asif Kapadia's dystopian film 2073, anthology comic marks 25 years since armed forces "gay ban" lifted, Nick Frost in Get Away
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Fiona MacLellan

Jan 7, 2025 • 43min
Jesse Eisenberg & Kieran Culkin on their film A Real Pain, improving visual literacy in school, how Jerry Springer changed TV
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin about their new film A Real Pain - in which they play mis-matched cousins touring Poland to honour their grandmother. Can you teach someone to look at art intelligently? Oxford University is about to start a 3 year study on visual literacy – assessing how much looking at art can impact young people’s social and academic outcomes. Art historian Alison Cole, specialist primary school art teacher Mandy Barret and Professor Robert Klassen who’ll be working on the study discuss how strong the case is to include it on the school curriculum. Jerry Springer brought shock and sleaze into our living rooms between 1991 and 2018. As a new documentary, ‘Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action’ airs, we talk to its director Luke Sewell about what kind of impact the show had on our culture. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Paula McGrath

Jan 6, 2025 • 42min
Nicole Kidman on Babygirl, Brian Eno on art and Herod
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson talk about their award-winning new film Babygirl, where she plays a married mum and high powered tech CEO who begins an affair with a young intern at her company after he realises she has sexual desires that she's not been able to embrace before.Novelist Tayari Jones and literary scholar Dr Deborah G. Plant discuss The Life of Herod the Great by Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston. Published for the first time, the manuscript was saved from being burnt after Hurston’s death and challenges the idea of Herod as a murderous tryant.Brian Eno, musician, song writer, record producer and visual artist has two new projects – he's written a book about what art does, and endorsed and taken part in a film about his life and work. He joins Samira.Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Corinna Jones