Alison Moyet joins us in the studio to talk about her career, from Yazoo to going solo and a new album. Fashion renegades of the 1980s via Leigh Bowery, Taboo and the Blitz nightclub, we take a look at a new exhibition with Pam Hogg and Sue Tilley. War Horse composer Adrian Sutton on going back to his classical roots with his latest composition, a …

Actor Rupert Everett on his debut collection of stories, The American No. Carla J Easton talks about her music documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland's Girl Bands. And Lung Leg perform in the studio. And artist Everlyn Nicodemus on her belief that "art is resurrection" at her first retrospective, at the National Galleries of Scot…

Jodie Whittaker talks to Tom Sutcliffe about returning to the stage for the first time in over a decade to star in an updated version of John Webster's 17th-century revenge tragedy The Duchess [of Malfi]. The super-realism of Japanese food replicas is on show in London exhibition Looks Delicious! Curator Simon Wright and Japanese food expert Akemi …

Forty years ago Bronski Beat released Age of Consent, a record so loud and proud that it become an era-defining moment of gay liberation. We look back at the record's music, legacy and politics with novelist Matt Cain and Laurie Belgrave, who has produced the new 'The Age of Consent 40' concert at the Southbank Centre. Samira talks to Percival Ever…

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests journalist Stephen Bush and theatre critic Kate Maltby review the latest cultural releases. These include Apple TV's thriller Disclaimer which stars Cate Blanchett and Sacha Baron Cohen, Alice Lowe's comedy sci-fi film Timestalker and Alexander Zeldin's modern reworking of Antigone at the National Theatre, The Other Pla…

Booker Prize-shortlisted author Charlotte Wood talks about her novel Stone Yard Devotional. In the month that marks 100 years since the publication of poet André Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism, artist Gavin Turk and art historian Professor Alyce Mahon discuss the significance and impact of surrealism on art over the past century. And playwright T…

Rick Astley on his new autobiography, Never, which reflects on hitting the big time twice courtesy of his debut hit single, Never Gonna Give You Up. The West Wing is 25 - television critic Scott Bryan and columnist Sonia Sodha discuss why the glossy American political drama series continues to inspire politicians worldwide. Artist Barbara Walker on…

This week's big cinema release Joker: Folie a Deux is under scrutiny from Tom Sutcliffe's reviewers, broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika and film critic Tim Robey. They have also read Alan Hollinghurst's new novel Our Evenings. Gramophone Artist of the Year soprano Carolyn Sampson performs in the Front Row studio - and on National Poetry Day Tom and the cr…

Bestselling writer Paula Hawkins, whose book The Girl on the Train was a publishing phenomenon back in 2015, discusses her latest novel, The Blue Hour, a thriller set in the contemporary art world. As a new book of photographs of America by Magnum photographers is published, two photographers discuss the role of photojournalism in the contemporary …

Tom presents live from The Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House the BBC National Short Story Award and the Young Writers' Award, now in it's tenth year. Chair of NSSA judges and presenter of Broadcasting House Paddy O'Connell, and chair of the YWA, Radio 1's Katie Thistleton tell us about this year's entries and announce the winners.We discuss the a…

David Oyelowo talks about playing Coriolanus in the National Theatre's new production. He explains why it's the role he's always wanted to take on - encompassing tragedy, politics and the challenge of stage combat. Dame Eileen Atkins talks about her late friend, the great actress Dame Maggie Smith. We visit the studio of cartoonist Ralph Steadman a…

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Charlotte Mullins and Ryan Gilbey to review Sally Rooney's novel Intermezzo about two grieving brothers and the people they love. The first UK exhibition dedicated to Monet's impressionist paintings of London at The Courtauld Gallery and Francis Ford Coppola's futuristic sci-fi film Megalopolis. Plus Joe Lycett talks abou…

Poet Kathleen Jamie, whose tenure as Scotland's Makar, or National Poet, recently came to an end, talks about her new collection of poems written in Scots, The Keelie Hawk. Composer Helen Grime, soprano Claire Booth and author Zoe Gilbert chat about the world premiere of Folk, an orchestral song cycle inspired by Gilbert's book of the same name. An…

Classically trained pianist and rapper Chilly Gonzales performs from his new album Gonzo, ahead of his Royal Albert Hall gig, As Hard Times kicks off Radio 4's season of Dickens dramas - what makes a good adaptation? Writer Graham White and Dickens expert Professor Juliet John discuss how the characters and issues like social inequality help to kee…

John Boorman talks to Samira about his 1974 science-fiction, fantasy film Zardoz as it is screened on its fiftieth anniversary at the BFI and his novel on which it is based is republished. He discusses the craft of film making and reflects on the film he wishes he'd made with Elvis. British artist Anya Gallaccio welcomes us into her London studio a…

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Bidisha Mamata and Ben Luke who will be offering their verdicts on body horror film The Substance staring Demi Moore, a major new Michael Craig-Martin exhibition at the Royal Academy in London and The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Nobel prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk. Plus BBC National Short Story Award s…

Screenwriter Jeremy Brock discusses Amazon's A Very Royal Scandal, the second dramatisation this year of Emily Maitlis' 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, which stars Michael Sheen and Ruth Wilson. Mezzo-soprano Rowan Hellier and pianist Jonathan Ware perform from the opening event of the Glasgow Cathedral Festival, an exploration of sexu…

David Peace on his new novel, Munichs, about the plane crash that transformed Manchester United.Katie Posner, Co-Artistic Director of Paines Plough theatre company and Daniel Evans, Co-Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company discuss the new plays crisis in theatre.Matt Hemley, Deputy Editor of The Stage, reports on the cancellation of a …

Edward Enninful, Vogue Global Creative and Cultural advisor has just made a documentary series, In Vogue: The 90s. He discusses the decade that changed fashion forever. Sue Prideaux has just written the first biography of French post impressionist artist, Gauguin, in over thirty years. She argues it is time to reappraise the way we look at the man …

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by David Benedict and Catherine McCormack to review Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, the first exhibition the National Gallery has dedicated to the artist. They also discuss The Critic, which stars Ian McKellen as a fearsomely ruthless drama critic and Small Rain by Garth Greenwell, which focuses on the narrator's time and treatm…

Dame Jacqueline Wilson talks about Think Again, the long-awaited adult novel which is the sequel to her much-loved Girls series of books. Actors Alexandra Roach and Joe Cole discuss their roles in BBC One's latest Sunday night drama series Nightsleeper, a thriller in which a night train from Glasgow to London is 'hackjacked'. And on the eve of the …

The BBC's Contains Strong Language festival has left British shores for the first time - and Australian arts and culture presenter Michael Cathcart hosts a special Front Row recorded on Gadigal land in Sydney in partnership with ABC and Red Room Poetry. Known as the Aussie Bob Dylan, singer Paul Kelly performs Going To The River With Dad from his f…

Richard O'Brien and Jason Donovan on 50 years of the Rocky Horror Show, Bella Mackie on her new novel which follows the success her hit book How to Kill Your Family, a look at Chromatica, a new privately funded orchestra and the life and work of lyricist Will Jennings, who died last weekend. Presenter: Samira AhmedProducer: Corinna Jones…

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by academic and critic John Mullan and Elodie Harper, the bestselling author of The Wolf Den Trilogy for the Front Row review show. They discuss Jeff Goldblum as a modern-day Zeus in the series Kaos, Rachel Kushner’s thriller Creation Lake, which has been longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, and the historical drama Fire…

Members of Scotland's cultural community discuss the controversy around a cut to vital funding. Ahead of his third year performing at the Lammermuir Festival of classical music, leading American pianist Jeremy Denk talks about his passion for musical maverick Charles Ives, whose 150th birthday he is celebrating with a special concert and a new albu…

Following the international success of SIX the Musical, writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss are in the studio to discuss their new work Why Am I So Single? They discuss maintaining their creative momentum after writing a global phenomenon. We hear from the creators of the award winning Australian comedy Colin From Accounts. Harriet Dyer and Patrick B…

Michael Keaton on his new film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, coming over 35 years after the original film and which reunites him with director Tim Burton. Tim Minchin, the comedian, actor, musician, and songwriter behind the musicals Matilda and Groundhog Day, talks about how his experiences have shaped his first non-fiction book You Don’t Have To Have …

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Leila Latif and Dorian Lynskey to review Kneecap, a debut film from Rich Peppiatt about a trio of Irish language rappers from West Belfast, Ootlin, a memoir from author and poet Jenni Fagan recounting her traumatic childhood in care and Bad Monkey, a television comedy cop drama set in Florida starring Vince Vaughn. George…

Sherwood writer James Graham argues that TV has a problem with working class representation, both in front of and behind the screen, as he delivers this year's MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival. Sherwood Series 2 starts on BBC1 on Sunday. Alexander McCall Smith, best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, on his new stan…

Fran Healy, lead singer of indie-rock band Travis, on why their tenth album LA Times is the most personal since their breakthrough album, The Man Who, and why Los Angeles is a good place to be an artist. As Equity calls for better guidelines for how the video games industry treats actors and performers, Rebecca Yeo, a member of the union's Video Ga…

Samira Ahmed talks to Pat Barker about the final part of her Troy trilogy, The Voyage Home. Alain Delon has died at the age of 88 - President Macron called him a French monument. Film critic Ginette Vincendeau assesses his impact on French film. At the Proms two orchestras are set to play works by Beethoven and Mozart from memory - conductor Nichol…

Kirsty Wark reviews highlights from the Edinburgh Festival, joined by critics Ian Rankin, Chitra Ramaswamy and Dominic Maxwell. They discuss two adaptations of Amy Liptrot's bestselling memoir about addiction, The Outrun. The film version opens the Edinburgh Film Festival tonight and stars Saoirse Ronan in the lead. The stage play The Outrun is a R…

David Morrissey stars as a hapless father in the new BBC comedy Daddy Issues - alongside Sex Education's Aimee Lou Wood as his pregnant daughter. Samira Ahmed asks him about playing for laughs - as well as reprising his role in James Graham's Sherwood, which is about to return to BBC1, featuring local gangs in Nottinghamshire and a proposed new coa…

This programme has been edited since broadcast. Kirsty Wark launches Front Row's regular Scottish editions with a live show from the Edinburgh Festival. Kirsty's guests are the comedians Rose Matafeo and Nish Kumar, Miriam Margolyes performs Dickens, and the Scottish band Teenage Fanclub play a song from their latest album. Plus Charlene Boyd perfo…

This year’s WorldCon - the World Science Fiction Convention - took place in Glasgow and pop culture critic Gavia Baker-Whitelaw reports on the international gathering where the winners of the Hugo Awards 2024 were announced last night. Emily Tesh on winning the Best Novel prize at this year’s Hugo Awards with her debut novel, Some Desperate Glory. …

Critics Susannah Clapp and Tim Robey join Tom to review a new RSC production at Stratford of one Shakespeare’s less performed plays Pericles, the pregnancy comedy film Babes directed by Pamela Adlon and Michael Longley’s retrospective collection of poems, The Ash Keys.Presenter: Tom SutcliffeProducers: Harry Parker and Natasha Mardikar…

Ex-Wife, a 1929 novel by Ursula Parrott, about the failure of a young couple’s marriage and the subsequent promiscuous partying of the wife in New York, was a huge bestseller when it came out. For many years it was out of print but has now been re-issued. Novelist and screenwriter Monica Heisey and American literature professor Sarah Churchwell jud…

Joan Baez on her poetry collection inspired by her diagnosis of multiple personality disorder, called When You See My Mother Ask Her to Dance. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London has a new bilingual production of Antony and Cleopatra in English and British Sign Language. Tom talks to Blanche McIntyre, the director and Charlotte Arrowsmith, actor …

Directors Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry on Kinsuke's Kingdom, their hand-drawn animated film which features a shipwrecked boy who learns about the natural world from a Japanese soldier who's been living secretly on an island since the end of World War II. How closely do we watch trailers when deciding which film to watch next? Film critic Larushka Iva…

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Rhianna Dhillon and Viv Groskop to review novel Echoes by Evie Wyld, which focuses on Max, a ghost who, stuck in the flat they had shared, watches his girlfriend grieving and discovers secrets about her. Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor talks about his upcoming performance of the longest concerto ever written, the Piano Concert…

Labour MPs are having a moment on the stage with Jennie Lee, the UK's first Arts Minister, the subject of Lindsay Rodden's eponymous new play for Mikron Theatre, and Education Minister Ellen Wilkinson the focus of Paul Unwin's new play, The Promise, about the 1945 Labour Government. Lindsay and Paul join Front Row to discuss dramatizing parliamenta…

A new production of The Grapes of Wrath opens at the National Theatre with Cherry Jones taking on the role of matriarch Ma Joad. She joins Samira to talk about Steinbeck's tale of poverty and the hostility the poor face in America - plus her thoughts on art, violence and America today. Deadpool & Wolverine is the new Marvel film, its director Shawn…

A new production of The Grapes of Wrath opens at the National Theatre with Cherry Jones taking on the role of matriarch Ma Joad. She joins Samira to talk about Steinbeck's tale of poverty and the hostility the poor face in America - plus her thoughts on art, violence and America today. Deadpool & Wolverine is the new Marvel film, its director Shawn…

Colm Toibin, Bonnie Greer and Mendez join Samira Ahmed to celebrate the life and work of the American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, author of the landmark gay novel Giovanni's Room, as part of a series of programmes on BBC Radio 4 and 3 marking the 100th anniversary of his birth. Colm Toibin is author of the book On James BaldwinB…

Novelist Stephanie Merritt and literary editor of the Spectator Sam Leith are Tom Sutcliffe's guest reviewers. They give their verdict on the new production of Hello Dolly at London's Palladium starring Imelda Staunton, Netflix's The Decameron - which depicts the haves and the have-nots in plague-ridden 14th century Florence - and the 3 hour long T…

Hollywood star Keanu Reeves and award-winning author China Miéville have joined forces for The Book of Elsewhere, which is based on Keanu's hit comic book series BRZRKR and tells the story of an immortal warrior and his journey through time. As Paris prepares to welcome the world for the Olympic and Paralympic Games this week, the writer and broadc…

Samira discusses the perilous situation facing arts sponsorship in the UK, amid growing protests and campaigns, with leading figures from the worlds of arts and finance. As literary and music festivals have been engulfed in sponsorship rows this summer, resulting in many severing ties with major donors such as the investment firm Baillie Gifford. w…

Tom talks to the creators of the hit Australian musical Fangirls, Yve Blake and Paige Rattray, as it opens in London. Countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski makes his Proms debut tomorrow night, and talks about combining his career as a top international soloist with breakdancing and modelling. Actor Samuel West discusses a new report from Campaign for …

Jason Solomons and Kate Maltby join Tom to review Those About to Die, the new 10-part ‘sword and sandal’ series from Amazon Prime, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Anthony Hopkins. The film Thelma which follows an elderly grandmother who turns action hero to track down her scammer, inspired by her favourite film series – Mission Impossible.…

Writer actor Ryan Sampson and actor Danny Dyer on their new sky comedy series Mr Bigstuff which explores the relationship between two brothers and masculinity . Pete Bellotte is one of the world’s greatest songwriters. With a catalogue of over 500 songs he is best known for his work with Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder. Earlier this year he won a …