Front Row

Tom Sutcliffe speaks to Sean Hayes, best known for his role as Jack in Will and Grace. Now he's playing pianist Oscar Levant in Broadway hit Good Night Oscar, which has just opened at the Barbican in London.Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No 5 under massive pressure, having been denounced by Stalin the year before during the great purge of 1936. The success of Symphony No 5 saved his career, and now it's being performed from memory by the Aurora Orchestra for the BBC Proms. Nicholas Collon, Conductor of the Aurora Orchestra and Professor Marina Frolovo-Walker discuss.K-Pop Demon Hunters has just become the most successful animation ever on Netflix, and the show's music, by a fictional band, has made it to number one in charts both sides of the Atlantic. The BBC's Julie Yoonnyung Lee tells us about the surprising trend of 2025.Two playwrights on the Edinburgh fringe are putting white supremacy under the spotlight: Priyanka Shetty's #Charlottesville, and Gabriel Jason Dean's play Rift. Both draw on the personal experiences of their writers. Priyanka and Gabriel join us on the line from Edinburgh.

Freakier Friday is an update on the 2003 hit body-swap movie, and it features the return of the original stars - Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan. Samira, with film critic Larushka Ivan-Zedah and Jesse Green, the chief New York Times' theatre critic, look at the legacy and impact of the book on which the films were based. Auction house Sotheby's is returning a set of sacred jewels believed to be linked to the Buddha's remains, to India - William Dalrymple joins Front Row to discuss the gems' remarkable history. The BFI is launching a season of films starring an Italian screen icon. Sophia Loren: Hollywood Style, Neapolitan Spirit. Now 90 years old, she has 7 decades of film work under her belt. How and why did she become such an astonishing global cinema titan. Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by reviewers Ekow Eshun and Hanna Flint to discuss Liam Neeson in a sequel to the beloved Naked Gun comedy film series, new Amazon Prime action TV series The Assassin which stars Keeley Hawes as a hitwoman, a new covers album from Paul Weller called Find El Dorado and the long-awaited Ray of Light remix album Veronica Electronica, from Madonna. Plus, conductor Sofi Jeannin talks to Tom about preparing to conduct John Tavener's eight-hour piece The Veil of the Temple, involving several choirs and orchestras, which opens the Edinburgh International Festival on August 2nd. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Tim Bano

Artist Andy Goldsworthy on his retrospective exhibition, which spans a five decade career. Best known for his work in the landscape, this exhibition sees the artist create dramatic large scale works for the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh - including an avenue of oak branches, a room of reeds suspended from the ceiling, and a room full of stones gathered from graveyards in Galloway, as well as films and photography of his ephemeral works made with ice and snow. New on the auction of a masterpiece of modernist architecture in the Scottish Borders. A coalition of heritage organisations has formed to save and restore the dilapidated Bernat Klein Studio, where the celebrated textile designer and his wife Margaret produced work for international design houses. But were they successful at the sale earlier today? We hear from two novelists whose books centre on motherhood and adoption: Yrsa Dailey Ward and Claire Adam. And we pay tribute to Sylvia Young, whose Theatre School in central London helped to launch the careers of generations of performers - including Billie Piper, Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa and Nicholas Hoult, and whose death was announced today. Presenter: KIrsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Motherland writer Helen Serafinowicz on putting Wayne and Coleen Rooney at the heart of her debut play - The Legend of Rooney's Ring - which has just opened at the Royal Court in Liverpool.Literary critic Alex Clark examines the Booker Prize longlist which was announced today.Love Forms by Claire Adam The South by Tash Aw Universality by Natasha Brown One Boat by Jonathan Buckley Flashlight by Susan Choi The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai Audition by Katie Kitamura The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller Endling by Maria Reva Flesh by David Szalay Seascraper by Benjamin Wood Misinterpretation by Ledia XhogaThis month the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford presented the final stage in its £6.8 million redevelopment with the opening of its new Sound and Vision Galleries. The museum's director, Jo Quinton-Tulloch discusses how the redevelopment has changed what the museum now offers.The artist William Kentridge, known for his charcoal drawings, animations, and films, is presenting his first major sculpture show in the UK - The Pull Of Gravity at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Jo Sperryn-Jones, a Fine Art assistant professor and sculptor reviews.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Richard Stilgoe pays tribute to the great American humorist and songwriter Tom Lehrer, who has died at the age of 97. Samira discusses newly released and previously unheard songs by Nick Drake. Petra Volpe talks about her acclaimed film Late Shift, which tells the story of nurse's night shift in a Swiss hospital. Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer: Harry Graham

Tom is joined by poet and writer Nii Ayikwei Parkes and dance critic Lyndsey Winship to review the latest big screen to stage musical adaptation Burlesque the Musical, Matthias Glasner's German-language family drama Dying, and Disney Plus series Washington Black based on the hit book by Esi Edugyan.Plus, as the UK government announces an overhaul of water regulation, an installation at the Folkestone Triennial called Ministry of Sewers allows people to air their grievances about the state of the country's waterways. Co-creator Daniel Fernandez Pascual joins Tom to discuss.And what is UNESCO? Following the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the UN organisation, journalist Mara Hvistendahl explains what the organisation does, and what this news means for its future. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Tim Bano

A new stage production that's been inspired by the writer's own experience as an inmate. Academy Award winning playwright and director Terry George served a sentence in Long Kesh jail near Lisburn in the 1970s and his time there - when a number of successful and unsuccessful escape attempts were made. These inspire The Tunnel, a play which is being staged in Ireland for the first time, at the Lyric Theatre Belfast. Neil McCormick pays tribute to co-founder of Black Sabbath and 'Prince of Darkness' Ozzy Osbourne, discussing his musical legacy, and his final concert which raised £140 million for charity.Composer Jay Capperauld tells us about the 19th century Austrian composer Anton Bruckner's fascination with death and death masks, which has inspired his own work Bruckner's Skull, which is being performed at The Proms this Friday. And what can museums and galleries do to curb the accidental damage being done to priceless artworks by visitors who want to take selfies? Melanie Gerlis of The Art Newspaper and Robert Read, Head of Art and Private Clients at Hiscox Insurance discuss. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

The Fantastic Four changed comics forever in 1961 by making superheroes more human, but on screen the team has struggled. Now Marvel is rebooting their First Family for the third time with a big budget spectacular starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Author and journalist Hannah Strong and journalist and co-host of the Fade to Black film podcast Amon Warmann reveal if they've finally stuck the landing.

Samira talks to Mark Gatiss about his new detective series, Bookish. Playwright Suzie Miller discusses her new courtroom drama Inter Alia, about a Crown Court Judge facing a family crisis. We explore the impact of President Trump's cuts to US public media and consider the legacy of British cinema of the 80s.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Simon Richardson

Tom Sutcliffe with reviewers Bidisha and Caroline Frost discuss the TV adaptation of Richard Flanagan's Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the cringe comedy film Friendship, starring Paul Rudd, and the wedding comedy Till The Stars Come Down, which has transferred from The National to London's West End. Also the latest advance in AI; beyond the uncanny valley

As a new exhibition of Ikea textiles opens, we discuss the impact of Scandinavian design concepts on our homes, with curator Anna Sandberg Falk of the Ikea Museum in Sweden and designer Anna Campbell Jones. Bestselling author John Niven talks about his latest novel The Fathers, an exploration of contemporary fatherhood and masculinity which is set in Glasgow. And we hear how social media influencers are shaking up the world of art criticism. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Former footballer Edgar Davids and artist Paul Pfeiffer on creating a new work for the Manchester International Festival. As four new twenty minute operas are premiered at the Buxton International Festival, Helen Goodman, artistic manager at the festival, and Hannah Ellis Ryan, artistic director of theatre company, HER Productions, discuss how short plays and operas can lead the way for change.Jo Callaghan has an AI detective at the centre of her Kat and Lock crime fiction series. Ajay Chowdhury uses digital technology in his crime fiction. They discuss the impact developments in the tech world are having on their genre.Presented by Nick Ahad Produced by Ekene Akalawu

We mark Bastille Day with a dive into President Macron's cultural policy for France. And we revisit the dark heart of filmmaking with two people who were there during the making of Apocalypse Now and Fitzcarraldo. Documentaries made about both films have been re-released - Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse, about Apocalypse Now is in cinemas, and Burden of Dreams about Fitzcarraldo is streaming. Kasim Ali on his new novel about young British Pakistani men and gang culture. And Errolyn Wallen on composing for the First Night of the Proms.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Harry Graham

Nancy Durrant and Boyd Hilton join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Moisturizer, the second album from the female English indie rock duo Wet Leg. Their self-titled debut reached number one on the UK charts. They also assess Modigliani – Three Days on the Wing of Madness, directed by Hollywood star Johnny Depp. The film is Depp's first since 1997 and it covers 72 hours in the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, played by Riccardo Scamarcio. Plus they have been to see More than Human at the Design Museum in London - an exhibition which explores how to design with, and better understand, the living world.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Bestselling novelist Kate Mosse - much of whose historical fiction is set in medieval France - reacts to the news that the Bayeux Tapestry is to go on display at the British Museum in London next year. Comedian and actor Kat Sadler on her BAFTA-winning sitcom Such Brave Girls, which is set in a dysfunctional single parent family.Sitar virtuoso Nishat Khan tells us about his debut opera Taj Mahal which is being performed at Grange Park Opera this week. And artist Lindsey Mendick whose work often focuses on powerful historic women, tells us about Wicked Game, her installation at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, which commemorates a historic visit by Elizabeth I 450 years ago and which takes the form of a fragmented chess board. Presenter: Nihal Arthanayake Producer: Mark Crossan

Superman is back on the big screen for the first time in nearly a decade, we speak with director James Gunn. We preview a season of films at the BFI, starring pioneering black film star Dorothy Dandridge. Best known for Carmen Jones, (her performance made her the first African American to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar) she died aged just 42 Cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe on Hercules, the newest Disney stage musical, inspired by his drawingsPresenter Samira Ahmed

Author Raynor Winn is accused of fabricating parts of her memoir The Salt Path, which she denies. We ask Alexandra Pringle, former Editor in Chief at Bloomsbury, how publishers respond when a book's authenticity is called into question. Oasis are performing together for the first time in 16 years, kicking off in Cardiff at the weekend. Music journalist Ted Kessler was there. Sadler's Well has team up with Pete Townshend to turn Quadrophenia into "A Mod Ballet". Director Rob Ashford talks about bringing this story, complete with stylish suits designed by Paul Smith, to a new generation."It's the 80th anniversary of An Inspector Calls. Critic Michael Billington and cultural Historian Irene Lofthouse discuss J. B. Priestley's cultural legacy.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Harry Graham

Tom is joined by reviewers Kate Maltby and Stephanie Merritt to discuss Laura Wade's adaptation for the RSC of Somerset Maugham's comedy The Constant Wife. Also Wendy Erskine's Belfast -set novel; The Benefactors. A polyphonic telling of a teenage girl's assault and its aftermath. And Rebecca Lenkiewicz's directorial debut Hot Milk. Based on Deborah Levy's novel, it stars Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey. And we discuss the impact on music festivals and live broadcasts of last weekend's Glastonbury incident

As the jury in the trial of music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs delivers its verdicts, author and cultural critic Mikki Kendall discusses how Americans will react. On the eve of the 40th anniversary of its release, The Independent's chief film critic Clarisse Loughrey and Dan O'Brien of the University of Essex discuss Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's influential film Back to the Future.Egyptian artist Wael Shawky talks about his operatic films which reframe Middle Eastern history from an Arab perspective. And we bring you news of the Grand Egyptian Museum a vast, state-of-the-art space close to the Pyramids in Giza, which is home to 100,000 artefacts. 60% of the museum is now open to the public, but the official opening ceremony this week has been postponed due to tensions between Israel and Iran.Also, we hear about a new collection, Nature Matters: Vital Poems from the Global Majority, from the editor Karen McCarthy Woolf and the featured poet Nick Makoha, who will be talking about his own collection The New Carthaginians at this year's Ledbury Poetry Festival.Presenter: Nihal Arthanayake Producer: Mark Crossan

Comedian and poet Tim Key on writing and starring in The Ballad of Wallis Island which has become one of the surprise film hits of the year.Novelists Saima Mir and Marcia Hutchinson on setting their stories in Bradford.Playwright Ntombizodwa Nyoni on reimagining the 5th Pan African Congress which took place in Manchester in 1945 for her new play, Liberation.As the Japanese art form, Manga, makes its presence felt at this year's Bradford Literature Festival, writer and comic specialist Paul Gravett who has curated the exhibition, Make Mine Manga, and Manga artist, Eira Richards, discuss the visual vocabulary of this distinctive art genre.Presented by Nick Ahad Produced by Ekene Akalawu

British director Gareth Edwards talks to Samira Ahmed about how his love of the films of Steven Spielberg inspired his new film Jurassic Park Rebirth, the latest chapter in the blockbuster dinosaur film franchise. He also talks about the making of his film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is gaining even more acclaim after the huge success of the hit prequel series Andor.The EU has brought in new anti-terror laws aimed at stopping groups like so-called Islamic State from profiting from the trade of antiquities. But art dealers are worried the new red tape will hit their legitimate trade too. Art world analyst Ivan Macquisten and investigative journalist Riah Pryor discuss the situation. Lena Dunham's latest series Too Much is a Rom-Com, inspired by her own life, moving to London and unexpectedly finding love with an indie musician, Luis Felber. The Oscar-winning film and TV composer Lalo Schifrin died recently. He wrote hundreds of theme tunes and scores including Bullit, Enter The Dragon, THX 1138 and Dirty Harry. Also on TV: Starsky and Hutch, Planet of the Apes. His most famous work came in 1966 with the theme tune for Mission: Impossible. Neil Brand pays tributePresenter Samira Ahmed Producer Harry Graham

Charlotte Mullins and Katja Hoyer are with Tom Sutcliffe to review The Royal Academy of Arts' Kiefer/Van Gogh exhibition, Nell Stevens novel The Original, and German language film From Hilde, with Love. And Sarfraz Manzoor is on to discuss a new Bruce Springsteen compilation – Tracks II: The Lost AlbumsPresenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

UK Culture Secretary LIsa Nandy talks us through the Government's new Creative Industries Sector Plan which aims to unlock growth and opportunity in culture, media and sport.Last week 27-year-old Scottish author Margaret McDonald become the youngest ever winner of the Carnegie medal for children's writing, for her debut novel Glasgow Boys, a book which explores mental health, trauma, inequality and identity through the friendship between two boys who have grown up in foster care. Margaret joins us live in the studio. We hear from the creators of a stage production (How To Win Against History) and a film (Madfabulous) based on the life of the so-called 'Dancing Marquess' Henry Paget, the 5th Marquess of Anglesey, a flamboyant Victorian aristocrat who inherited a vast fortune, squandered it and died at the age of 29. And the current Marquess of Anglesey talks about how his family views their ancestor. And artist Michael Visocchi talks about his monumental sculpture, Commensalis, which tells the story of the whale. Part of his sculpture can be seen in Dundee this weekend before it departs for the island of South Georgia in the Atlantic Ocean later in the summer.Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Billy Porter, famous for his Broadway roles in such shows as Kinky Boots and Grease, and onscreen in Pose and Cinderella is making his directorial debut in theatre with This Bitter Earth. Jesse is an introspective Black playwright and when Neil, Jesse's boyfriend, who is a white Black Lives Matter activist, accuses him of political apathy, their passions and priorities collide. Playwright Harrison David Rivers and Billy Porter talk to Samira Ahmed about their production.Glastonbury festival kicks off this week, and the line-up includes its now familiar mix of famous veteran rock stars, chart-topping solo artists and headline-making bands. But music festivals are still struggling in the wake of Covid, and are facing numerous challenges. Former Spotify Exec Will Page and journalist Jude Rogers are on to discuss.The Art Fund's Museum of the Year prize is being announced on Thursday, and we've been speaking to all the finalists. Today it's the turn of Compton Verney Art Gallery, situated in a grand Georgian house in the Warwickshire countryside. Samira was taken on a tour by CEO Geraldine Collinge and guide Christine Cluley.And we pay tribute to Clovis Salmon, who is credited with being the UK's first black documentary filmmaker. Sandi Hudson-Frances, artist and fellow filmmaker, and Ros Griffiths, organiser of Brixton's Big Caribbean Lunch and curator of new public art project Windrush Untold Stories, share their personal memories of him.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer: Claire Bartleet

Samira talks to legendary Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose latest film F1 stars Brad Pitt as a racing car driver. Alistair McGowan and Dr Caroline Potter celebrate the extraordinary music and life of the French composer Erik Satie, whose centenary is marked on Radio 3 on Saturday. Alistair's play about Satie, called Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear, is broadcast on Radio 4 on July 1st. Nick Ahad visits Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, shortlisted for this year's Museum of the Year. Caroline Norbury, Chief Exec of Creative UK, reacts to the government's launch of their Creative Industries Sector Plan. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Harry Graham

Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi talk to tom Sutcliffe about directing Pixar's latest film Elio, about a lonely boy who wants to make contact with aliens. The film is then reviewed by film producer and critic Jason Solomons and art critic and writer Hettie Judah. Tom and guests also discuss a major retrospective of the work of painter Jenny Saville at London's National Portrait Gallery, and The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey.Jenny Saville is also the guest on this week's edition of This Cultural Life. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

On the opening night of the Glasgow Jazz Festival, Mercury Prize-shortlisted pianist Fergus McCreadie performs from his forthcoming album The Shieling live in the Front Row studio. Writer and Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen talks about his debut novel Muckle Flugga – a story of love and family set on a remote Scottish island – and reads from the poem he has written for Independent Bookshop Week. In the latest of our features on the institutions shortlisted for Museum of the Year, we speak to two of the team behind Perth Museum, a state-of-the art space created in the former City Hall, which opened last year and is home to the Stone of Destiny, an ancient symbol of monarchy and kingdom.And Jamie Lloyd's production of Evita at the London Palladium has got people talking, as Rachel Zegler's showstopper moment is performed on the exterior balcony of the theatre and beamed into the auditorium. Variety's London critic David Benedict discusses the use of live streaming in the theatre. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

RuPaul's Drag Race creators Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato join Nick Ahad to talk about their career making making television and movies, ahead of being guests of honour at this year's Sheffield DocFest.Radio 3 presenter Tom Service discusses the life and legacy of Alfred Brendel who was a celebrated author, poet and pianist.Caroline Norbury, the CEO of Creative UK, Stephanie Sirr, the Chief Executive of Nottingham Playhouse, and Sienna Rodgers, the Deputy Editor of parliamentary magazine The House, discuss how the arts will be affected by the recent spending review.The theme of this year's Liverpool Biennial is ‘bedrock'. The inspiration is the sandstone which spans the city region and is found in its distinctive architecture. 'Bedrock' is also a metaphor for the social foundations of Liverpool and the people, places and values that ground the city. From the cornucopia of work by 30 artists from all over the world, shown in galleries and venues all over the city, the art critic Laura Robertson chooses three highlights.Producer: Ekene Akalawu Presenter: Nick Ahad

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland tell Tom Sutcliffe about their new film, 28 Years Later; a whole new take on the story which stars Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. It's the follow up to their post-apocalyptic fast-paced, gory zombie movies 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. The Rage virus escaped a medical research laboratory and - nearly three decades later - one group of survivors has learned how to exist among the infected. Tom speaks with James Frey, once described as “America's Most Notorious Author”, about Next To Heaven – his new novel brimming with sex, murder and millionaires.Front Row is talking to all the finalists in this year's Art Fund Museum of the Year prize, and today we're off to Belfast to hear from the Golden Thread Gallery. Founded the year after the Good Friday Agreement, the gallery seeks to promote the work of contemporary Northern Irish artists – as well as leading creators from across the world.Radio 4 has announced today the names of 6 researchers who will be working with the network as part of scheme run with the Arts and Humanities Research Council called New Generation Thinkers … The aim is to put research on the radio. Several hundred academics across the UK applied and Drs Laura Minor and Sarah Smyth have been chosen to work with Front Row over the coming year.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Professor John Mullan and writer Lucy O'Brien join Tom to review More, Pulp's first album in nearly 24 years. They also discuss exhibitions by the 20th century British artists Edward Burra and Ithell Colquhoun which are running in parallel at Tate Britain. Plus they give their verdict on Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, inspired by actual experiences of Laura Piani, who is making her directorial debut with this film.Tom also talks to Visual Art Curator Sim Panaser and artist Abi Palmer, about Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff - one of the finalists in the Art Fund Museum of the Year. And we reveal the winner of Women's Prize for Fiction.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Turner Prize winning artist Rachel Whiteread talks about her retrospective exhibition at the brand new Goodwood Art Foundation in Sussex. We celebrate the centenary of the National Library of Scotland and hear about its plans to send important items from its collection to museums around the country - from National Librarian Amina Shah and bestselling writer and Centenary Champion Val McDermid. And writer and curator Lally Macbeth talks about her book The Lost Folk: From the Forgotten Past to the Emerging Future of Folk, which looks at the past, present and future of the UK's folk culture - from music to Morris dancing and from pub signs to church kneelers. Presenter: Kate Molleson Producer: Fiona MacLellan

Sarah Moss, the celebrated author of Ghost Wall, discusses her new novel Ripeness, which oscillates between tension-filled contemporary Ireland and a heady summer in 1960s Italy. Dylan Jones discusses his new book 1975: The Year The World Forgot and debates whether this was the best year for music with chief music critic of the Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick. After reports of an emerging deal between the UK and Greece around the status of the Elgin Marbles, we talk to Geoffrey Robertson KC, campaigner for their return, about the legal ramifications. A new statue of Stalin has appeared on the Moscow Underground at Taganskaya station. After de-Stalinisation in the 60s it seems that the Russian authorities are now reintroducing images of the former leader, showing him in a positive light and ignoring his reign of terror. Tom speaks with the BBC's man in the Russian capital, Steve Rosenberg, about what this might mean. And we finish the programme with a specially written poem from Fred D'Aguiar, Professor of English at the University of California, about the government response to the migrant deportation protests.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Simon Richardson

Samira Ahmed talks to Twin Peaks' co-creator Mark Frost and podcaster Mike Munser about the show's enduring legacy, 35 years after it began. And Hollywood is under pressure, with financial incentives luring filmmakers elsewhere. Samira also talks to playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti about her new play Marriage Material, which spans decades in the lives of a Sikh family running a corner shop in Wolverhampton.

Tom and guests review What it Feels Like for Girl, the BBC's coming-of-age drama based on the memoir of Paris Lees; Taylor Jenkins Reid's new novel, Atmosphere, set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program and new film, Lollipop, about a young woman released from prison battling to regain custody of her children, written and directed by Daisy-May Hudson. We also talk to former Vice President of Washington's Kennedy Center, Marc Bamuthi Joseph about being fired by President Trump and the administration's latest interventions in the arts world.Guests: Scott Bryan, TV critic and broadcaster; Caroline O'Donoghue, author and podcaster; Marc Bamuthi Joseph, former Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington; Zachary Small, arts reporter, New York TimesPresenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Daisy Goodwin discusses her debut play, By Royal Appointment, which stars Anne Reid as Queen Elizabeth and Caroline Quentin as her dresser, and which opens this week at Theatre Royal, Bath. The life and legacy of Irish novelist playwright and poet Edna O'Brien is discussed by writer Jan Carson and the director of the documentary Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story, Sinead O'Shea. And we hear from the curator of Design & Disability, an exhibition at the V&A in London which showcases the contributions of Disabled, Deaf, and neurodivergent people to contemporary design and culture since the 1940s. Plus Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst pays tribute to American writer Edmund White, whose death has just been announced. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Comedian Nick Mohammed on his stand-up show Mr Swallow, and Deep Cover, his action thriller about a group of comedy improvisers.Kate Wasserberg, Artistic Director of Theatr Clywd on the theatre's £50 million redevelopment, and opening the new auditorium with a production of the musical Tick Tick... Boom!Ulrich Birkmaier, senior conservator of paintings at the J Paul Getty Museum in LA on restoring a work by Artemisia Gentileschi damaged during the catastrophic Beirut explosion in 2020.Theatre critic Michael Coveney pays tribute to pioneering stage designer William Dudley.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Samira discusses the Olivier award-winning production of Fiddler on the Roof with its star Adam Dannheisser and director Jordan Fein.Sarah Dunant talks about the women in the Renaissance who became art patrons, as she publishes her novel The Marchesa, about Isabella d'Este of Mantua. Screenwriter Frederic Raphael, whose films include Far From the Madding Crowd, Darling and Eyes Wide Shut, on the art of writing film scripts. Producer: Harry Graham Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Samira Ahmed and writers Dreda Mitchell and Mark Ravenhill review Imelda Staunton and her daughter, Bessie Carter, in Mrs Warren's Profession.They consider, too, theatre director Marianne Elliott's first foray into film, The Salt Path, based on a Raynor Winn's bestselling memoir of how she and her husband, after they have lost their house and farm and he has been diagnosed with a rare terminal disease, walk the 600 miles of the South West Coast Path. It features Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs - with and the land and seascape of the end of England in a starring role. The Victoria and Albert Museum has a collection of 4.5 million artefacts. Inevitably, many are stored away. But now the museum is inviting everyone backstage, to the V&A East Storehouse, where half a million objects are looked after. It is a wonderful gallimaufry, ancient ceramics next to plastic chairs from the sixties, a huge Picasso, a Frank Lloyd Wright office and a child's pedal car. Samira, Freda and Mark wander the gantries.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May

Paul Hartnoll of electronic music duo Orbital talks about the reissue of the band's Brown album which was originally released in 1993, with the addition of 23 extra tracks of rarities and previously unreleased material and about the intersection between dance music and politics. Frances Wilson, who has previously published acclaimed biographies of D H Lawrence and Thomas De Quincy tells us about her latest book Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, about the great Scottish writer, poet and essayist. And the creator of Netflix's new detective series Dept. Q, Scott Frank, who previously wrote and directed The Queen's Gambit and has written the scripts for Hollywood movies from Minority Report to Marley & Me, talks to us about adapting bestselling Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen's books for the screen and why he's transposed the setting for the series from Copenhagen to Edinburgh. Presenter: Kate Molleson Producer: Mark Crossan

Live from the Hay Festival, Alison Steadman talks to Samira about her career, from Abigail's Party to Gavin and Stacey. Laura Bates and Gwyneth Lewis discuss Arthurian Legends and The Mabinogion. Hisham Matar champions the Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz. And transatlantic husband and wife country duo Outpost Drive perform on stage. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Oliver Jones

Stereophonic is a play about the creative process, power dynamics and fraught personal relationships of a 1970s rock band. It won a Tony and many other awards on Broadway. Now Stereophonic has come to the West End. Playwright David Adjmi and Will Butler, sometime of Arcade Fire, who has written the music, discuss their own artistic process as they created it. Plus Skin from Skunk Anansie on their first LP in almost a decade, news of a new exhibition shedding light on painter Joseph Wright of Derby's artistic process and Alexander Larman joins Antony Gormley to pay tribute to Alan Yentob.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Simon Richardson