Front Row

The multi-award winning stage designer and artist Es Devlin talks to Samira as a retrospective of her work opens at the Design Museum in London. Devlin has created sets for theatre and opera and also for stadium concerts, fashion shows, and the Olympics opening ceremony. This is her first UK museum show and her first retrospective in Europe, and it celebrates her 30-year creative practice across stage design, art installations, sculpture and music.
The music played in the exhibition and briefly on our programme was composed by Polyphonia.

Sebastian Faulks, one of the country’s most acclaimed novelists, imagines the life of an ex-soldier stationed in 1946 Palestine at the end of the British Mandate in his new book Farewell to Eden. He talks to Samira about why this troubled period of history has drawn him in.
The technology giant Apple has helped transform the way we listen to music through its devices and platforms, and is now opening its own 600-capacity concert venue at Battersea Power Station in London, with Elton John headlining its first show. Samira speaks to Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services and Health, about the company’s ambitions for Apple Music Hall and its role in the music industry.
Jonathan Jones reviews the work of the nominees for this year’s Turner Prize.
Producer: Eliane Glaser

A special edition of Front Row from the BBC's poetry and performance festival - Contains Strong Language
Since self-publishing a poetry pamphlet in 2020, Donna Ashworth has gone on to become the UK's bestselling living poet of the decade. She talks about her new book, The Art of Being Easily Pleased: Words To Unlock A Wonderful life, and shares some of her new poems.
The phenomenally successful musical, Operation Mincemeat, which looks at a WW2 deception operation, began life as a 15 minute performance at The Lowry as part of the art centre's artist development programme. Natasha Hodgson and David Cumming, two of the original members of the team that created the show, discuss one of the musical's best loved songs, Dear Bill, and there'll be a special performance of it.
Anthony Almeida is directing a new production of Othello, set in 1980s Britain which draws parallels between the political and military turmoil of that time with those of Shakespeare's 16th century setting in Venice and Cyprus. He talks about the play's language of leadership in challenging times.
The TS Eliot Prize-winning poet Joelle Taylor set her collection, Maryville, in a butch bar to explore the lives of four butch lesbians and the underground landscape of queer culture. She discusses the new performance version of these poems that she'll be presenting at the Contains Strong Language festival.
Presenter - Samira Ahmed
Producer - Ekene Akalawu

In this week's Review Show, our guest critics Hannah McGill and Fergus Morgan join Kirsty Wark to discuss three dystopian thrillers:
Bestselling novelist Emily St John Mandel's latest work of speculative fiction, Exit Party, chronicles how a range of characters respond to a complete collapse in society - in America, where Texas and California are now republics, and militia roam the streets, and in Paris, where a giant dome has been constructed to protect elites.
An alien invasion in the heart stopping South Korean sci-fi action thriller Hope, by writer, director and producer Na Hong-jin, which received an enthusiastic ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to become a smash box office hit.
And a new adaptation of George Orwell's seminal 1984, in which a couple's love affair is an act of rebellion against a totalitarian regime, which is touring Scottish theatres between now and November.
Producer: Mark Crossan

Comedian Russell Kane tells us about playing an older Romeo in a new take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.
Author Samantha Ellis gives her verdict on the new film adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility starring Daisy Edgar-Jones.
This week marks 100 years since the birth of John Coltrane. Saxophonist Soweto Kinch and Grammy award winning music historian Ashley Khan discuss Coltrane’s significance and legacy.
And we reveal this year’s Booker Prize shortlist live on air. Literary critic and journalist Alex Clark joins Tom to discuss the six shortlisted titles.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet.

Roger Taylor has been a driving force behind Queen, one of the most successful bands in history. The songwriter, drummer and singer talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his 7th solo album Violence Insane in a Beautiful World.
Stars Wars legend George Lucas has long sought to fulfil his dream to open a museum for his vast art collection, which includes everything from the comics of R. Crumb and Moebius to the art of Frida Kahlo, Banksy and Norman Rockwell. Art critic Jocelyn Silver joins to tell us about what fans can see when the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts opens in Los Angeles tomorrow.
Imagine a scenario where Russia attacks the UK and the decisions about how the country responds are down to you. That's the task taken on by ex-politicians from across the political parties in a new TV series called The Wargame. Tom talks to ex MP Jim Murphy, who took part as the Foreign Secretary, and one of the Executive Producers Nicola Brown.
As the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has announced a new committee to look into Eurovision, journalist and Eurovision expert William Lee Adams explains why we don’t have the best track record with song success and what the committee could learn from other countries.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Andrea Kidd