Front Row

In 1985, Wham were the first Western pop group to perform in communist China, and the tour changed people's lives. As a new documentary about this landmark moment in pop lands in cinemas, Andrew Ridgeley tells the story.
From Merchant Ivory period dramas to Peaky Blinders, the art of costume making is celebrated in a new exhibition - Costume Couture - at Edinburgh's Dovecot Studios. We're joined by John Bright, the founder of Cosprop, the pre-eminent costume making company in the UK and by historian Jade Halbert, whose new book about 250 years of costume making is Britain is soon published, to hear about how costume helps actors inhabit roles, and to hear about the history of this often neglected craft.
Fleabag premiered ten years ago this week on BBC 3. In the highly acclaimed dark comedy, writer and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge frequently spoke directly to the audience and created an unapologetically flawed protagonist. BBC New Generation Thinker, and Salford University lecturer, Dr Laura Minor, and journalist and broadcaster Julia Raeside talk about the impact Fleabag has had on TV since.
Plus, 8 years since the second devastating fire struck architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh's masterpiece, Glasgow School of Art, an update on its future has just been announced, but is a full restoration now looking less likely? We discuss.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan

Actor Ruth Madeley on starring in new TV drama The Rapture - a psychological thriller where the competing interests of an oil company, a religious cult, a protest group and a disturbed young woman convicted of murdering her mother, are set against a backdrop of climate change.
Singer Nadine Shah on her homecoming BBC Prom in Gateshead.
After a three year standoff, Northern Ballet reaches an agreement with the Musicians' Union. Naomi Pohl, General Secretary of the Musicians' Union on the significance of the new deal.
Abandoned in 1929, the film Queen Kelly became the most infamous unfinished film in cinema history. Film historian Pamela Hutchinson on its torrid scenes on and off the screen.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Trent Park, the House of Secrets is a new museum in north London which explores the story of the secret listeners who eavesdropped on the conversations of German senior military prisoners of war. Samira is joined by Helen Lederer, whose grandfather who served as a WW2 secret listener, and the Chairman of Trent Park, Jason Charalambous.
As Andy Burnham becomes the first Prime Minister to study English Literature at University, Samira talks to his former English Professor at Cambridge, John Mullan.
Broadway star Ben Platt discusses his new musical at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, Midnight at the Never Get, where he plays a crooner in a New York dive-bar in the mid-60s who begins a decades long relationship with his male pianist.

Playstation has made headlines with its new announcement that it would end making physical discs in 2028. Video game writer and broadcaster Jordan Erica Webber joins to discuss what this means for the culture of gaming and why gamers have responded to it so badly.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by film critic Tim Robey and classicist Edith Hall to discuss:
Christopher Nolan's much anticipated film version of Homer's epic The Odyssey, shot with IMAX cameras and with a stellar cast which includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Samantha Morton.
A new production of The Oresteia directed by acclaimed Australian director Simon Stone at the Bridge Theatre, London. Updated to the contemporary world, the play stars David Morrissey and Mary-Louise Parker.
Booker-shortlisted for her novel Burnt Sugar, author Avni Doshi's new book The First House focuses on the impact of a disintegrating marriage.
Also, theatre critic Matt Wolf talks to Tom about the state of Broadway musicals after Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats: The Jellicle Ball announced it will be closing early.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Lucy Collingwood

The coming-of-age series Heartstopper has been a phenomenon with young readers and viewers in recent years. Its creator Alice Oseman joins us as the film Heartstopper Forever lands on Netflix, and as the final graphic novel in her series is published.
JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is one of the all-time greats of American literature and has inspired many writers including George Saunders, Dave Eggers and Sally Rooney. On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the book's publication, the author's son Matt Salinger talks to us about the universal appeal of the novel, the protagonist Holden Caulfield and his father's reputation as a recluse.
And prog rock gets the Proms treatment! As a Prom this Saturday evening at the Royal Albert Hall sees work by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Mike Oldfield and Renaissance performed by a full-scale orchestra, Stuart Maconie, who is hosting the concert, and founder member of ELP Carl Palmer discuss prog rock's significance and legacy.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan