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by BBC Radio 4
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
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- 2 days ago42 min
Review: Steven Spielberg's alien film Disclosure Day
Film producer Jason Solomons and Guardian columnist Zoe Williams join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day – a film which looks at whether aliens are really out there. John D. MacDonald’s psychological thriller The Executioners has inspired two Cape Fear films and now there’s a 10-part TV series starring Amy Adams and Javier Bardem. Jason and Zoe give their verdicts. They also talk about M. C. Escher’s major exhibition at Somerset House. Famous for drawing optical illusions, impossible buildings, and endless patterns, the Dutch artist’s work has inspired film scenes in Labyrinth and Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Plus we will be revealing the winners of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and Non-Fiction.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet
- 2 days ago42 min
Scotland's National Poet Peter Mackay honours the country's football team
Scotland's Makar Peter Mackay on his poems honouring Scotland's football team as they head to the FIFA World Cup - one, his own work, the other curated from lines submitted by members of the public. Can they help propel the team to victory in their first tournament in many years? Crime writer Denise Mina tells us about the extraordinary true crime case that inspired her book The Last Drop, now adapted into a theatre production at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre. Outdoor theatre takes place across the summer, around the UK. But what are the challenges it presents, given our 'unpredictable' climate? Gordon Barr of Bard in the Botanics in Glasgow and James Pidgeon of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London discuss. And as Pope Leo celebrates mass in architect Antoni Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, we speak to the author of a new biography of Gaudi, Peter Stanford about the building's cultural and religious significance, and turbulent history. Presenter: Kate Molleson Producer: Mark Crossan
- 4 days ago42 min
Barry Manilow brings the Manilow magic to Front Row
Barry Manilow on maintaining his musical curiosity as he releases his 33rd studio album, What A Time, and what it's like to have one of his biggest hits, Copacabana, sung by Sabrina Carpenter.With the start of the World Cup this week, sports photographer Tom Jenkins, and Tim Marlow, Director of The Design Museum and one of the judges for this year's Football Art Prize at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield, discuss the art of making art out football.As the Rambert dance company turns 100, Amanda Britton, one of its former leading dancers and now Principal and Artistic Director of Rambert School, reflects on the company's distinctive approach to dance.For 400 years the largest collection of notes - the Codex Atlanticus - by Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci have remained divided with those deemed artistic kept in the UK in the Royal Collection, and those with a scientific focus retained in Italy. Leading authority on all matters Leonardo, Professor Martin Kemp on the new digital platform, the Leonardotheka, which has just reunited the notes and made them publicly accessible.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu
- 5 days ago42 min
Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, Pan African art and John Taverner's opera Krishna
Samira Ahmed talks to Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter about their new album MirageEkow Eshun, writer and broadcaster, and Polly Savage, Lecturer in the Art History of Africa at SOAS, University of London, discuss an exhibition of Pan African art at the Barbican, Project a Black PlanetFront Row introduces its AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker for 2026, Genevieve Robyn Arkle, who is a Lecturer in Music History at King's College LondonAnd Opera director David Pountney on John Taverner's last opera Krishna, performed as a world premiere at Grange Park OperaProducer: Eliane Glaser
- 1 weeks ago42 min
Review: High Society and film Savage House
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer Alexander Larman and critic Arifa Akbar to discuss:A new production of High Society, Cole Porter's musical showcase at London's Barbican, starring Call the Midwife's Helen George in the role of the amorously vexed Long Island socialite Tracy Lord who finds her heart pulled in every which direction. Also starring Freddie Fox and Felicity Kendal.The film Savage House starring Richard E. Grant and Claire Foy, a dark satire telling a cautionary tale of greed and social climbing, set against the backdrop of 18th century England, a Pox outbreak and Jacobite Uprising. And Fiona Mozley's new book about memory, Awake Awake, in which protagonist Mary is struggling to decipher whether her recollections are fact or fiction. We also speak to the CEO of Arts Council England about their new direction.
- 1 weeks ago42 min
Live from the Belfast Book Festival
As the Belfast Book Festival opens Kirsty Wark is joined by a range of guests at the Crescent Arts Centre. She'll be discussing reading and freedom of expression with Hilary McCollum, whose new book As A Lover is inspired by the scandal which followed the publication of Radclyffe Hall's story of lesbian love The Well of Loneliness in 1928, and by novelist and short story writer Lucy Caldwell whose work often examines what were once taboo subjects. Head of Cuba Pictures Dixie Linder, who's made TV adaptations of work by Marian Keyes, MIsha Glenny and Susanna Clarke talks about her approach to adapting much-loved books, and Andrew Reid of Northern Ireland Screen will explain how the Game of Thrones effect has made an enormous cultural and economic impact on the local industry. The director and one of the cast of Bold Girls - Rona Munro's play about how women held families together during The Troubles - also join us live, as does Donegal-based poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin, who will be reading live from her latest collection Hymn To All the Restless Girls. Producer: Mark Crossan
- 1 weeks ago42 min
Rivals writer Sophie Goodhart on new TV series Alice and Steve; depictions of dogs in art
Award winning jazz saxophonist and broadcaster Soweto Kinch and writer and director of new film Köln 75, Ido Fluk, join Tom to explore the importance of Keith Jarrett’s seminal performance at the Cologne Opera House in 1975, and its subsequent album, which became the bestselling solo album in jazz history.Sex Education and Rivals writer Sophie Goodhart on her award-winning comedy-drama Alice and Steve, starring Nicola Walker and Jemaine Clement. It’s about best friends turned enemies, after Steve starts dating Alice’s 26-year-old daughter.Cultural historian Thomas W. Laqueur talks about depictions of dogs in art, as he publishes his new book The Dog's Gaze.Critic Clarisse Loughrey talks about how small screen directors and creators on YouTube have made the leap to Hollywood's big leagues, with films like Obsession and Backrooms breaking box office records and driving Gen Z to the cinemas.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Presenter: Claire Bartleet
- 1 weeks ago42 min
Marilyn Monroe at 100
On what would have been her 100th birthday, we look at the enduring popularity of Marilyn Monroe, with film journalist and fan Kim Morgan and reviewer Angie Errigo Sathnam Sanghera talks about the meaning of George Michael.Jazz legend and saxophonist Courtney Pine talks about his career, forty years after his seminal debut album Journey to the Urge Within.And poet Joelle Taylor, author of Maryville and TS Eliot Prize-winning collection C+nto & Othered Poems, pays tribute to writer and activist Maureen Duffy - one of the first publicly "out" lesbian women, who has died aged 92.Presenter: Samira Ahmed
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