Front Row

Robbie Collin and Sarah Crompton join Samira Ahmed to review:Rose Tremain's new book, The Housekeeper, which imagines how Daphne du Maurier's classic novel, Rebecca, came to be written.Queen at Sea, a film starring Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay, which takes on the moral quandaries that occur with care in the advanced stages of dementia, when someone has lost the ability to make critical decisions.Thelma & Louise the new musical which is playing at the Young Vic in London.And we'll have an interview with Laura Beatty, a finalist in the BBC National Short Story Awards, for her story Two Minutes to Midnight.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jonathan Blackwell

Twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid emerged almost 40 years ago with their debut album This Is The Story and Top 3 single ‘Letter from America'. The Proclaimers join Kirsty Wark to discuss their new album, the ambiguously titled, You May Offend.Novelist Kate Atkinson won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum and today she chats about her latest novel, Our Noble Selves, set around the Festival of Britain which is 75 years old this autumn.Ahead of London Fashion Week, Laura Weir, CEO of the British Fashion Council discusses the fashion industry and the British Fashion Council's recently launched initiative Fashion Britain about devolving fashion outside the London epicentre of the industry.     Edinburgh based menswear designer Kestin Hare joins the conversation to talk about growing a fashion industry away from London centre of the fashion industry.And we'll have an interview with another finalist in the BBC National Short Story Awards, Irish novelist Caoilinn Hughes

Biographer Hermione Lee talks to Tom about her new book Anita Brookner: Art and Life, which explores the career of the famously private art historian and author of 24 novels including the Booker prize-winning Hotel du Lac.Hollywood is enjoying one of its best summers at the box office as a mix of big budget blockbusters and surprise hits by new directors has powered cinema to a record $4.76 billion in global ticket sales, a 25% increase on the year before. Tim Richards, the CEO of VUE Cinemas, and Clarisse Loughrey, the chief film critic at The Independent, discuss what's happening and how it is reshaping the films you see.Echo & the Bunnymen's lead singer Ian McCulloch talks about the band's latest album Apples for Isaac, their first new release for over a decade.And author Cherise Saywell on her story Ditto, set in a small town in Australia, which has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Andrea Kidd

Samira Ahmed talks to Hunter Davies about his new book Get Back: The Boys Who Became the Beatles, Juliette Binoche about her directorial debut on In-I in Motion, Jack Thorne on his speech arguing for the need to protect writers in the age of AI, and National Short Story Award shortlisted author Lucy Caldwell. Producer: Eliane Glaser

Viv Groskop and Amanda Vickery join Tom Sutcliffe to review:The Bayeux Tapestry as it goes on display to the public in Britain for the first time since its creation almost a millennium ago. Taipei Story, the new novel from bestselling literary phenomenon Rebecca F Kuang, author of Babel and Yellowface, about a young Chinese-American woman studying in Taiwan and grappling with ideas of disapora and identity. Everybody Digs Bill Evans, the debut narrative feature from filmmaker Grant Gee which looks at the life of the legendary jazz musician Bill Evans.And as the BBC National Short Story Award returns, Tom announces the shortlist live - and talks to one of the shortlisted authors.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Tim Bano

Music critic Neil McCormick shares his verdict on the Oasis documentary, Don't Look Back in Anger about Noel & Liam Gallagher's reunion tour. Writer Beth Steel talks about her acclaimed play Till The Stars Come Down. The drama is based around a wedding in Mansfield, East Midlands. Originally a sold-out hit at the National Theatre, the production has had a West End Transfer and been performed globally. Beth talks to Samira Ahmed about the show making its regional premiere at the Nottingham Playhouse.This Friday, the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks will be marked by solemn commemorations in the United States. Since 2001, many writers, artists and filmmakers have created work in response to the attacks, and tonight we speak to historian and writer Simon Schama and to film critic and curator Hugo Emmerzael about how cultural responses have helped shape our understanding of what happened that day and in the aftermath – from Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to the films of Kathryn Bigelow and the music of avant-garde composer William Basinski. And Henry Ward, artistic director of the Freelands Foundation discusses their new £100,000 awards for projects around the country which engage communities with art in interesting ways, including a horse box from the Burton Art Gallery and Museum in Bideford in North Devon which takes art into schools. Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Fanny Herrero, writer and creator of the French sitcom Call My Agent, joins Tom Sufcliffe to talk about how her show about the antics of the cut-throat Paris talent agency ASK became a global hit and why, after a five year hiatus, she's got the agents back together for their first ever film.This year's unprecedented extreme heat and lack of rain in large parts of the UK has wreaked havoc with gardens big and small. How have the historic landscapes, parks and gardens coped? Historic England and The Heritage Fund have worked together on a report to offer guidance to those who care for them on how to adapt and prepare for our changing climate.Maria Friedman's latest role is in the musical Kimberly Akimbo. She explains what's it like to play a teenager with a rare genetic condition that causes her character to age rapidly, giving her the appearance of an elderly woman.As the Scottish Government announces a minimum income scheme for artists, which will be piloted during the current Parliament, we ask Cleo Goodman, co-founder of the Basic Income Conversation project, what it might look like, how much people can expect, and how ‘artists' will be defined in the application process.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Ava Pickett discusses her new play Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy at Theatre Royal Stratford East, and the huge success 1536, her Olivier Award-winning play about the Tudors.Louisa Young on her novel The Golden Years, which continues The Cazalet Chronicles, the hugely popular series of books by Elizabeth Jane Howard. With the opening this week of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum, Samira talks to Agnes Valencak, Head of Exhibitions at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and art dealer Philip Mould about the challenges of moving priceless pieces of art. Plus Guy Lodge on the latest news from the Venice International Film FestivalPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd

Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore the architecture and culture of Norman Britain as part of a special day of programmes on Radio 4 marking the return of the Bayeux Tapestry.From Durham to Peterborough, Lincoln to Norwich, the Norman invasion shaped British architecture, landscape and culture. Beginning in wood but later cemented in stone, power was expressed in the rounded arches and distinctive ornamentation of cathedrals and castles. Beginning in 1066, the Romanesque style can still be seen all over the country today, and Britain also bears the stamp of Norman cultural influence in other ways too - from illuminated manuscripts to our language and music.With: Helen Carr, writer and historian and author of Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth CenturyJanina Ramirez, art historian and author of Legenda: The Real Women Behind the Myths that Shaped EuropeSimon Jenkins, author of many books including England's Thousand Best ChurchesVicky Richardson, curator and writer specialising in architecture.Also - John Goodall, Architectural Editor of Country Life, tours Lincoln cathedral and castle.Producer: Eliane Glaser

Mark Ravenhill and Leila Latif join Tom Sutcliffe to review:Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's new film Bitter Christmas, a tragi comedy told across different time frames, and questioning the relationship between reality and fiction in the film industry. Author of best selling The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin's new speculative fiction novel is Under Story, which asks if you could turn back the clock, would you live your life a second time?And Ridley Scott's film The Dog Stars, starring Jacob Elordi, set in a post-apocalyptic world.Also, art critic Louisa Buck joins Tom to discuss the life and work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama who has died at the age of 97.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Andrea Kidd

Ahead of her sixth performance at the BBC Proms the mezzo soprano star Joyce DiDonato talks to Kirsty about the explosive potential of her voice. VP Head of YouTube EMEA - Pedro Pina - delivers the flagship address of this year's Edinburgh TV Festival. He gives his perspective on the continuing evolution of tv as we know it. Comedy is at the heart of the Edinburgh Festivals, and today the shortlist for the Edinburgh Comedy Award has been revealed. Director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards Nica Burns is joined by chair of judges Liz Lewin to discuss the names everyone's talking about this year. Life life and work of legendary singer and actor Tim Curry is celebrated by culture critic and broadcaster David Benedict and Tim's lifelong friend, the gallerist Richard Cork.Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Caitlin Sneddon

Samira Ahmed spoke to Dolly Parton in 2023. As her death is announced Front Row pays tribute to the star of country music who sold more than 100 million records and wrote over 3,000 songs in a career that spanned six decades. A chance to hear Meg Mason, the bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss, about her new novel, Sophie Standing There, which deals with celebrity obsession and the publishing industry. A new film looks at the story of the Second World War through General De Gaulle's eyes. We speak to its director, Antonin Baudry, about De Gaulle: Resistance - this summer's hit in French cinemas. And we mark sixty years of the Notting Hill Carnival with founder member Allyson Williams and Ricky Belgrave, DJ and chair of the British Association of Sound Systems.Producer: Ruth Watts

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and William Lee Adams join Tom Sutcliffe to review:The Life of M - the new novel from Rachel Cusk. The book centres on a writer's attempt to chronicle the life of a globally famous film star, and explores the strangeness of celebrity.Stop! That! Train! - a comedy disaster movie featuring many of the stars from RuPaul's Drag Race.Coyote vs Acme - after a lengthy and tumultuous journey, including being shelved by its studio, the much anticipated Looney Tunes film finally reaches cinemas. The blend of live action and animated film follows Wile E. Coyote as he takes legal action against the Acme Corporation for providing him with defective goods. Chinese animated film Niu Lai has become an unexpected box-office and social media phenomenon. Initially released to little attention, the film gained widespread visibility online, generating debate about independent filmmaking, internet culture and the economics of contemporary cinema in China.And as HMV announces that it wants to become a 'destination' for books on the high street, a group of independent booksellers calls on the Prime Minister to provide the same tax relief that pubs and live music venues have recently been granted. What is the state of bookselling on the high street? Lauren Brown, Deputy News Editor at The Bookseller, joins. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Tim Bano

Ann Droid and Motherland star Paul Ready on his debut one man show Little Animals, a powerful piece of writing on climate, consumerism and the anxieties of being a Dad in today's world. The founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales on his book The Seven Rules of Trust, an optimistic view of how technology can impact on our lives. Comedian and actor Rosie Holt on her two shows at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Churchill's Urinal and The Illegal Aliens Have Landed. And Senegalese musician Senny Camara talks to us about performing on the kora, traditionally the preserve of male musicians, and performs for us live. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan.

As contemporary art venue, The Light, prepares to open in Durham, its artistic director Tony Guillan, and the art critic Louisa Buck, discuss the new building and its opening exhibition, Victory Over the Sun: Encounters with Light.Comedian Iain Stirling is known to many for narrating Love Island. He's stepped out from behind the scenes to front new reality tv show Race Against The Tide where participants compete against each other and the shoreline to create sandcastle art.As her latest novel, Little Spark, is published, novelist Jess Kidd explains the appeal of the Victorian century.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

The comedian Joe Lycett has long dabbled in art, but it's a serious business now as his first ever solo exhibition ‘Everything Must Go' has just opened at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. He talks about how this show came together and why its most eye-catching piece is a giant pink and blue woolly mammoth called Martin.Charlotte Higgins talks to Samira Ahmed about her book Ukrainian Lessons, and the role artist's play in the cultural identity of the country. With poetry sales at an all time high, we speak to poets Nikita Gill and Lucas Jones, two writers credited as being part of this boom. Entries for A-level arts subjects continue to fall. However, this year saw a drop of nearly six per cent in entries for A level English Literature. What does this continued decline mean for the health of the arts and humanities? Hetan Shah is Chief Executive of the British Academy and Professor Robert Eaglestone is education policy lead at the English Association. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd

Academic and critic Maria Delgado and writer and producer Jake Cunningham join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the film Tony, a film about the early career of food writer Anthony Bourdain, who is played by Dominic Sessa. The film also stars Antonio Banderas, who becomes an unexpected mentor for the young chef.They also talk about Death Note: The Musical. Based on the best-selling Manga series of the same name, the Barbican show tells the story of a student who discovers a notebook which gives him the power to kill. The final item for review is Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mario Vargas Llosa's final novel, I Give You My Silence, where a music journalist is on a quest to tell the story of an unforgettable musician. The book is also a love letter to Peruvian culture. Sarah Ditum discusses Jason Arday's memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things. This programme was broadcast before the announcement of Jason Arday's death. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Australian writer and performer Hannah Reilly talks to us about her much-anticipated one woman show about sex, power and authenticity, Roleplay, which is produced by the team behind Fleabag and Baby Reindeer and which has sold out in Edinburgh but is heading to London for a run in the autumn. Critic Fergus Morgan talks us through the other shows which are making a splash at this year's Edinburgh Festivals - from a radical sequel to Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, which stars Golden Globe-winning actor Wagner Moura, and in which 12 members of the audience are brought on stage to deliver a verdict in A Trial, to a reimagining of Virginia Woolf's The Waves - presented to audiences in a sauna. The first international exhibition from Alabama's Legacy of Slavery Museum has come to Edinburgh this month, and we're joined by its founder, eminent lawyer and activist Bryan Stevenson to talk about how it depicts the international slave trade and racial brutality over centuries. We're also joined by writer and director Zora Howard whose powerful production Hang Time sees three performers talk about their lives and loves as they appear to be hanging from a tree, and which is inspired in part by the deaths of two men in Southern California in recent years. And director Louis Paxton talks to us about debut feature film The Incomer, which opens this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival tomorrow night. It's a darkly comic fable in which an awkward council worker (played by Domnhall Gleeson) is sent to a remote Scottish island to relocate a pair of siblings (Gayle Rankin from GLOW and Grant O'Rourke from Outlander), to the mainland, but let's just say things don't quite go to plan. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Steph McGovern, presenter of new BBC show The Big Deal, is joined by Marie Le Conte to discuss how to buy art.Fleabag actor Sian Clifford on her lead role in "Lady", a new mockumentary film about a fading aristocrat.Why has a new show at Edinburgh about Amanda Knox been so controversial? Tristram Fane Saunders gives his assessment live from the Fringe Festival.And Colin Thubron, both a travel writer and novelist, has a new book which journeys into Egypt and the human mind - literally. He talks about how witnessing brain surgery influenced his novella Passage.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

What's the Royal Shakespeare Company's much anticipated stage adaptation of Game of Thrones like? Critics Boyd Hilton and Kate Maltby give their verdict. Conductor Marin Alsop on what makes American classical music sound American, ahead of her American Classics Prom on 24 August. TS Eliot Prize-winning poet Anthony Joseph discusses his new collection, Haunting the Black Air, which journeys from the Trinidad of his childhood to the dancefloors of New York.And following the news of the death of the music producer William Orbit, music jpurnalist Kate Hutchinson discusses his career, including his work on Madonna's Ray of Light album. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd

Suzi Feay and John-Paul Stonard join Samira to review:Can Nothing Save Us?, the new novel from Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, a state-of-the-nation thriller set in the US.The Summer Book, a new film starring Glenn Close and based on the beloved novel by Moomins creator Tove Jansson. And Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam at the Royal Academy, featuring paintings by the 19th century painter who specialised in pictures of fairies, killed his own father and spent the rest of his life in Bethlem and then Broadmoor psychiatric institutions. Plus the Guardian's Stephanie Convery discusses the news that AI companies have been buying up rare books and 'destructively scanning' them - removing their spines, scanning, then shredding them - in order to train their large language models. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Tim Bano

In the first of our special programmes from the Edinburgh Festivals, actress Stockard Channing - star of Grease, Six Degrees of Separation and Practical Magic - joins us alongside her friend, actor David Westhead, to discuss their production of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, in which a cynical and disillusioned older man reflects on his early life as an ambitious and idealistic writer.Jeff Whitty, Tony Award winning creator of the hit musical Avenue Q, which is currently running until 2027 in London's West End, tells us about Midsummer!, his new production inspired by Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's dream, set in the Gilded Age and performed in a contemporary verse translation. We have a live performance from siblings Maddie and Marcus Rice from their show with songs Goodbye Dandelion, an exploration of an unlikely friendship between an 87 year old and their much younger friend, which is the recipient of the inaugural Underbelly Futures Fund Award. And we hear how deaf actors and artists are taking centre stage at this year's Festival, with Stijn Van Opstal, the director of the acclaimed production [seagull], performed in Flemish sign language by Belgian company Olympique Dramatique - and with director Cora Bissett and deaf performer Jamie Rea, whose gig theatre production The Singer, centres on Joe, a deaf artist who 'sings' with his hands, and Andy, a washed-up musician seeking a comeback, and features music by KT Tunstall. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Samira is joined by two magicians live in the studio, from the stage show "Now You See Me Live". And then she takes part in a trick and is bamboozled! Jacqueline Crooks' latest novel Sky City follows a young woman and her friends in 1990's London, as they struggle to carve out lives for themselves in the shadow of their pasts. Jacqueline explains why literature is the perfect place to discuss difficult themes. We look at the French government's multi-million Euro national security plan to beef up museum security, following a spate of audacious robberies across the country. Tribute bands generate millions of pounds, playing live each year in the UK; from The Bootleg Beatles to Oasish. We speak with two tribute acts 'with a twist', Elvana and Nic-Cage Against The Machine, about the flourishing facsimile pop scene. This programme has been edited since broadcastPresenter: Samira Ahmed

John Hannah plays a washed-up former detective who has moved to Spain to run a pub in the new Channel 5 comedy drama Benidorm is Murder. He discusses the appeal of television crime series, and why working-class settings are underrepresented on the small screen.Hull Maritime Museum reopens after a £20 million refurbishment. Director Gillian Osgerby on why this museum is such an important feature of Hull's cultural landscape.Critic Benji Wilson, author of Rate This Book: How Star Ratings Took Over The World, and journalist, Helen Nugent, editor of online magazine Northern Soul, on the power of star ratings.Stephen Ellery on his new appointment as chief conductor of the Dnipro Philharmonic in Ukraine.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Rhianna Dhillon and Sarfraz Manzoor join Tom Sutcliffe to review:Childhood in War, an exhibition at the Imperial War Musuem exploring how children have experienced conflict from 1914 to the present day. Ish, the debut feature film from multimedia artist Imran Perretta which follows two boys in Luton as they navigate childhood against a backdrop of political tension and personal loss.And Children of Wolves, the new novel from Lawrence Osborne (Ballad of a Small Player), about a private investigator sent to Turkey to find a 27-year-old woman who has disappeared. Plus Laura Barton discusses this year's Mercury Prize shortlist.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Tim Bano

Composer Missy Mazzoli discusses her opera The Galloping Cure, which fuses a live orchestra with electronic beats and features a charismatic antihero and talking dogs. An allegory for a crisis which has become a worldwide epidemic, the production by Opera Ventures Productions and Scottish Opera receives its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival and is a reimagining of a story by Franz Kafka. Artist Joyce W Cairns is one of Scotland's most renowned painters, and in 2018 she was elected the first President of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture. She talks to us about making the move from mythological to autobiographical painting and about how she was inspired to create her impressive War Tourist series of paintings - drawn from research in Normandy and Tunisia - after inheriting a suitcase of her father's World War II memorabilia. And as the heatwave continues across parts of the UK and Europe, we ask how cultural institutions are responding. Is the closure of galleries due to uncomfortable temperatures going to become the norm? Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Professor Dame Mary Beard reveals the 2026 Booker longlist and how she has found the process of being Chair of the judges.British contemporary pop artist Philip Colbert's latest installation has just been unveiled amidst the historic ruins of Pompeii. Philip talks to Samira Ahmed about being inspired by an ancient mosaic featuring a lobster, a symbol he frequently includes in his work, and how he adapted his process for the UNESCO heritage site.Hollywood actor Bill Pullman, known as the fictional US President Whitmore in Independence Day, Meg Ryan's spurned beau in Sleepless in Seattle and many more roles, is currently appearing at the RSC in Stratford in a production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. He talks with Samira about his work on stage in the UK and the US, his favourite film roles and why he feels uniquely qualified to be playing Gayev in this production.As reports say that around half of all new music uploaded to streamers is made with A.I., music economist Will Page discusses what this means for the music industry and for listeners who may not know that they're listening to something that wasn't made by a real person.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd

Graeme Garden remembers his friend and Goodies colleague, Bill Oddie.Frank Miller reimagined Batman as a tougher, grittier sort of comic book hero: The Dark Knight. He has written a memoir and a guide for fans.The new Children's Laureate, writer Patrice Lawrence tells us about taking on such a prestigious role.And 850 years of the Eisteddfod - Archdruid Mererid Hopwood and Marc Rees discuss the importance of this centuries-old Welsh celebration of music, poetry, art literature.Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Hanna Flint and Chris Power join Tom Sutcliffe to review:The new stage musical adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting, featuring famous songs from the 1996 Danny Boyle film as well as new compositions to bring Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud to life.On the Sea, a film by novelist and director Helen Walsh about a mussel fisherman in northern Wales and the romance that he kindles with a new itinerant worker called Daniel. Cool Machine, the final part of Colson Whitehead's Harlem trilogy, which began with Harlem Shuffle and was followed by Crook Manifesto, and continues the adventures of Ray Carney, furniture store owner who lives a double life as a part-time criminal fence.Tom also talks to novelist Kate Mosse about the news that Anthropic has created a $1.5 billion fund to settle a class action lawsuit brought by authors whose copyrighted works were scraped in order to train the company's AI chatbot Claude. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Tim Bano

In 1985, Wham were the first Western pop group to perform in communist China, and the tour changed people's lives. As a new documentary about this landmark moment in pop lands in cinemas - and screens on BBC Two next month - Andrew Ridgeley tells the story.From Merchant Ivory period dramas to Peaky Blinders, the art of costume making is celebrated in a new exhibition - Costume Couture - at Edinburgh's Dovecot Studios. We're joined by John Bright, the founder of Cosprop, the pre-eminent costume making company in the UK and by historian Jade Halbert, whose new book about 250 years of costume making is Britain is soon published, to hear about how costume helps actors inhabit roles, and to hear about the history of this often neglected craft. Fleabag premiered ten years ago this week on BBC 3. In the highly acclaimed dark comedy, writer and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge frequently spoke directly to the audience and created an unapologetically flawed protagonist. BBC New Generation Thinker, and Salford University lecturer, Dr Laura Minor, and journalist and broadcaster Julia Raeside talk about the impact Fleabag has had on TV since.Plus, 8 years since the second devastating fire struck architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh's masterpiece, Glasgow School of Art, an update on its future has just been announced, but is a full restoration now looking less likely? We discuss. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Actor Ruth Madeley on starring in new TV drama The Rapture - a psychological thriller where the competing interests of an oil company, a religious cult, a protest group and a disturbed young woman convicted of murdering her mother, are set against a backdrop of climate change. Singer Nadine Shah on her homecoming BBC Prom in Gateshead.After a three year standoff, Northern Ballet reaches an agreement with the Musicians' Union. Naomi Pohl, General Secretary of the Musicians' Union on the significance of the new deal.Abandoned in 1929, the film Queen Kelly became the most infamous unfinished film in cinema history. Film historian Pamela Hutchinson on its torrid scenes on and off the screen.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Trent Park, the House of Secrets is a new museum in north London which explores the story of the secret listeners who eavesdropped on the conversations of German senior military prisoners of war. Samira is joined by Helen Lederer, whose grandfather who served as a WW2 secret listener, and the Chairman of Trent Park, Jason Charalambous.As Andy Burnham becomes the first Prime Minister to study English Literature at University, Samira talks to his former English Professor at Cambridge, John Mullan.Broadway star Ben Platt discusses his new musical at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, Midnight at the Never Get, where he plays a crooner in a New York dive-bar in the mid-60s who begins a decades long relationship with his male pianist. Playstation has made headlines with its new announcement that it would end making physical discs in 2028. Video game writer and broadcaster Jordan Erica Webber joins to discuss what this means for the culture of gaming and why gamers have responded to it so badly.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ruth Watts

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by film critic Tim Robey and classicist Edith Hall to discuss:Christopher Nolan's much anticipated film version of Homer's epic The Odyssey, shot with IMAX cameras and with a stellar cast which includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Samantha Morton.A new production of The Oresteia directed by acclaimed Australian director Simon Stone at the Bridge Theatre, London. Updated to the contemporary world, the play stars David Morrissey and Mary-Louise Parker.Booker-shortlisted for her novel Burnt Sugar, author Avni Doshi's new book The First House focuses on the impact of a disintegrating marriage. Also, theatre critic Matt Wolf talks to Tom about the state of Broadway musicals after Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats: The Jellicle Ball announced it will be closing early.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Lucy Collingwood

The coming-of-age series Heartstopper has been a phenomenon with young readers and viewers in recent years. Its creator Alice Oseman joins us as the film Heartstopper Forever lands on Netflix, and as the final graphic novel in her series is published. JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is one of the all-time greats of American literature and has inspired many writers including George Saunders, Dave Eggers and Sally Rooney. On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the book's publication, the author's son Matt Salinger talks to us about the universal appeal of the novel, the protagonist Holden Caulfield and his father's reputation as a recluse. And prog rock gets the Proms treatment! As a Prom this Saturday evening at the Royal Albert Hall sees work by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Mike Oldfield and Renaissance performed by a full-scale orchestra, Stuart Maconie, who is hosting the concert, and founder member of ELP Carl Palmer discuss prog rock's significance and legacy. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

British director Christopher Nolan discusses his biggest cinematic blockbuster yet: The Odyssey, which stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and more, in his retelling of Homer's epic poem about the warrior Odysseus's battles with ancient Greek monsters like the Cyclops, Circe and the Sirens on his quest to return to his family after the Trojan War.We talk with Tom Kiehl, CEO of the industry body UK Music, about the government's recent announcement of plans ‘to turn up the music business,' with new powers and investment. Is it something new or a rehash of old ideas? A new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder has just been released on Netflix. Samira is joined by author Tracy Chevalier and Laura Ingalls Wilder's biographer Pamela Smith-Hill to discuss the series and the enduring appeal of the stories.Candice Carty-Williams' breakthrough 2019 novel Queenie became a bestseller, made the publishing industry sit up and was adapted into series for Channel 4. Now she is back with her trademark blend of comedy and politics with Queenie is Working on It, a sequel which explores topics of fertility, sex and body image for a young black woman in contemporary Britain. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd

Diane Morgan on her BBC TV comedy series Ann Droid, in which she stars as the eponymous robot helper to Sue Johnston. We pay tribute to actor Sam Neill, who has died at the age of 78. His screen work stretched from blockbusters like Jurassic Park to small independent New Zealand releases.Anna Reynolds, Surveyor of the King's Pictures, on the rehang of Buckingham Palace Picture Gallery. Reopened recently, it has doubled the number of stunning works on display to the public; from Vermeer to Stubbs to Canaletto.Saxophonist Emma Rawicz won UK Jazz Act of the Year at 2026 Jazz FM Awards. She's currently touring with a range of projects, which includes her 20-piece Jazz Orchestra, which she manages as well as composing and arranging original music.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Critic and columnist Dr Kate Maltby and author Michael Donkor join Tom Sutcliffe to review Robota, the inaugural large-scale production at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Oxford. The production explores what happens to humanity when the line between human and machine blurs. They also discuss Country People by Pulitzer Prize nominated author Daniel Mason. The novel explores a year in the life of a family as they strike out into the unknown. And talk about Foreign Tongues the 25th studio album by the Rolling Stones. Plus, as the 2016 global hit Moana is turned into a live action film, critic Larushka Ivan- Zadeh assesses why Disney remakes films and whether they are any good.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Lynval Golding of two-tone and ska legends The Specials , on the band's final album, Live from the Cathedral, which was recorded in Coventry Cathedral. and which pays tribute to the band's late frontman Terry Hall. Photographers Tish Murtha and Sandra George, whose work represented disadvantaged and marginalised communities in Newcastle and Edinburgh respectively, were not given the recognition they deserved in their lifetimes. Now with major exhibitions at Baltic Gateshead and City Art Centre in Edinburgh, we discuss the significance of their work. David Thomson is renowned as the doyen of film criticism, but his latest book - A Sudden Flicker of Light - is billed as a revisionist history of the movies and asks us whether the film industry has given us false expectations of life. He speaks to us from California. And we're joined live in the studio by the artist who's won an international competition to create a permanent memorial to author Dame Muriel Spark in Edinburgh, the city of her birth. Presenter : Kirsty Wark Producer : Mark Crossan

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has just created his largest site-specific exhibition - Ai Weiwei: Button Up! - which has now opened at Aviva Studios in Manchester. Xiaowen Zhu, Director of esea contemporary art gallery, has been to see the monumental works on show and shares her thoughts on whether in this case bigger is truly better. Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour on his ground-breaking play, White Rabbit Red Rabbit. He's joined by the actor Lucian Msamati who has taken on one of the performances in the latest run of the play in which neither the actor or the audience know what the play is about until the actor opens an envelope on stage.Journalist Stephen Armstrong reflects on the Jackass phenomenon as Jackass: Best and Last, the final film in the franchise, is released. As Discofoot, a fusion of dance and football, premieres in the US as part of the country's World Cup celebrations, visual artist Alina Akbar, winner of this year's Football Art Prize with her video piece - Footwork - discusses why football and dance make great partners.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Confessions II is Madonna's first album in 7 years. Novelist Matt Cain and journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer discuss going back to the dancefloor.Sky TV has offered £1.6 bn pounds for ITV's free to air channel and its streaming platform ITVX. Jake Kanter, journalist for the screen industry website Deadline, considers what it will mean for British television. With a new play about Daphne du Maurier - Daphne, The Secret Lives of Daphne Du Maurier - at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, the playwright Rosie Race joins Samira Ahmed, along with Helen Taylor, author of a detailed biographical guide to her work, The Daphne du Maurier Companion to discuss her life and work. And with last weekend's 4th of July celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of US independence from Britain, actor and filmmaker Tara Gadomski looks at the impact of the cultural events taking place across the country.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by critics Bidisha and David Benedict to review:The Invite, a new film directed by Olivia Wilde about two couples who join each other for dinner, starring Seth Rogan and Olivia Wilde as hosts and Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz as their guests.Pride the Musical, created by the same team as the hit 2014 film, which tells the true story of a group of LGBT activists who support a Welsh mining community during the 1980's miners' strikes. And the novel Trouble Was by Charlotte Edwardes which is told from the perspective of young schoolboy Frank whose family leaves their home to move in with their aunt in her farmhouse, during the 1976 heatwave.Tom also talks to journalist William Lee Adams about the news that Canada is joining Eurovision.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Lucy Collingwood

The acclaimed novelist Kazuo Ishiguro talks about how he went about curating a season of films featuring trains for the BFI - from classics such as Shanghai Express by Josef von Sternberg and Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express to lesser known gems - and about how trains have inspired his own work - including songs, and his forthcoming novel, Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger. Actresses Maureen Beattie and Tracy-Ann Oberman discuss why they've changed the gender of popular roles for stage productions which are opening soon - Lear at Pitlochry Festival Theatre which sees one of Shakespeare's greatest tragic figures portrayed as a matriarch in decline, and at the Theatre Royal Bath, Garry Essendine in Noel Coward's comedy about the perils of celebrity Present Laughter is now Gerri Essendine, an ageing actress desperately clinging on to her youthful beauty. Author Stuart Cosgrove hails Village People frontman Victor Willis (whose death has just been announced) as one of the finest soul voices of his generation, whose talents were perhaps overlooked due to the novelty reputation which came to be associated with the group. And Dr Sonke Prigge tells us why - and how - he has preserved the sound of the clattering mill, traditionally used in Germany to scare away birds from cherry orchards, for the British Library's sound archive. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan