Front Row

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 Lander, who's made TV adaptations of work by Marian Keyes, Nick Hornby 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

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

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

Rachel Lloyd, Deputy Culture Editor of The Economist, and writer Lawrence Norfolk join Tom to discuss Channel 4's new queer drama Tip Toe, which is the latest series by Russell T Davies and stars Alan Cumming as a gay bar owner in Manchester and David Morrissey as his long-standing neighbour whose previously friendly relationship takes a dark turn.
They also talk about Paul McCartney’s 18th studio album The Boys of Dungeon Lane which was 5 years in the making and includes tracks where Paul reflects on his pre-fame world in Liverpool.
And they assess Land by Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell. This multi-generational epic novel is about families, mapping and connections to land.
Plus, Roger McGough talks about his latest role as an ambassador for A Poet In Every Port, and reads a new poem. The project is a key part of the Southbank Centre's 75th anniversary national programme.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet

Nashville-based novelist Ann Patchett tells us about her tenth novel, Whistler, in which a chance encounter between a woman and her stepfather after many years leads to unexpected revelations.
As a new publisher - Conduit Books - launches with the intention of promoting work by male authors, we discuss why this might be needed, with its founder, the writer Jude Cook, and with Ellah Wakatama, Editor-at-Large at Canongate Books, who has worked in the publishing industry for many years.
Pioneering photographer Wendy McMurdo's exhibition The Digital Mirror opens at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh this weekend, and shows a body of work which responds to how digital technology such as computers, tablets and gaming has impacted on children's lives since the mid 1990s. She joins us live in the studio.
And a new survey by the organisation Age Without Limits has found that hit movies are four times more likely to feature a talking animal than a female actor aged over 60. We ask why that might be, and how representation of older women on screen might be improved.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan