Front Row

Director Mona Fastvold and actor Amanda Seyfried discuss their film The Testament of Ann Lee, a musical history about the life of the founder of The Shakers, a mystic who moved from Manchester to the United States in the 18th century and founded a religious community, and who advocated for celibacy, communal living, and gender equality.
As a new production of George Bernard Shaw's St Joan opens, director Stewart Laing and theologian and art historian Ayla Lepine discuss how the 15th-century French religious martyr who led France to victory in the Hundred Years War against England but who was burned at the stake after being found guilty of heresy has influenced culture, and why her story is particularly relevant today.
In her new book Fashioning the Crown, journalist and author Justine Picardie explores how the women of The Windsors have used clothing to communicate messaging to the public. She speaks about her research in the Royal Archives and about how symbolic royal dress has been over the past century.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan

In 1986 Jim Cartwright's debut play, Road, was the theatrical sensation of the year and its reputation has only grown in the decades that have followed. As a new production to mark its 40th anniversary opens at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, Jim Cartwright joins Front Row to reflect on why the play has had such an enduring impact.
"How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.” So exclaimed Van Gogh in a letter. Now an exhibition, 'Yellow: Beyond Van Gogh's Colour', at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam explores why the artist and his contemporaries loved yellow so much. Art historians Martin Bailey and Kirsty Sinclair Dootson discuss the significance of yellow in art, and the long history of the colour.
American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir on her new Oscar-nominated documentary, The Perfect Neighbour, which looks at a 2023 shooting incident in Florida when white female, Susan Louise Lorincz, fatally shot her black female neighbour, Ajike Owens.
Dr Jasmine Allen, Director of the Stained Glass Museum, on the "nation's favourite" stained glass window at Carlisle Cathedral.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Baz Luhrman's newest film is recently rediscovered footage showing Elvis Presley, live in concert at the height of his fame. We speak with Baz about his continuing love for The King.
75 years of The Archers; Emma Freud and Archer's editor Jeremy Howe discuss the world's longest running soap opera and how the programme has dealt with the attack on George Grundy.
London's Royal Court Theatre is famous for productions that caused stir – Look Back in Anger, Saved, Blasted, The Rocky Horror Show. Its work may still be angry, but the theatre is no longer young, and its new director, David Byrne, has recently announced its 70th Anniversary Season. He talks to Samira Ahmed about his vision for this ‘writers’ theatre’, and its latest production, which might cause a stir, too - The Shitheads.
Peter Bradshaw reports from the Berlin Film Festival - what's good, what's not-so-good, and what's making headlines.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Anne Brontë biographer Samantha Ellis and writer Stephanie Merritt join Tom to discuss Emerald Fennell's racy adaptation of Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie.
They also review Adolescence co-writer Jack Thorne's BBC adaptation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies.
After a 35 year campaign, the South Bank Centre has secured Grade II listing. Former Artistic Director Jude Kelly and architecture historian Barnabas Calder talk about whether we're learning to love Brutalism.
Finally, Samantha, Stephanie and Tom have read James Meek's book Your Life Without Me, which is concerned with the competing claims of the old and the new, in both architecture and life.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet

LIsa McGee on her fresh spin on the murder mystery genre How To Get to Heaven from Belfast, and on the impact of the Derry Girls phenomenon.
At this month's Grammy Awards, Olivia Dean, Lola Young and FKA Twigs - all alumni of The Brit School in Croydon - walked off with prizes. We speak to the school's Principal, Stuart Worden, about how the school prepares students for a career in the music industry.
And as the world premiere of The Great Wave, a new opera inspired by Hokusai's iconic print, takes place, composer Dai Fujikura talks to us about the man behind the art, and writer Fi Leith discusses the cultural love affair between Scotland and Japan.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan