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Tana French is the creator of the Dublin Murder Squad crime books, that inspired the 2019 BBC TV series. Her gritty urban mysteries have been translated into 37 languages and sold around 7m copies worldwide, gaining praise from the likes of Stephen King and Marian Keyes. Her latest novel, The Searcher, moves the action to rural Ireland for the first time. A retired Chicago police officer reluctantly takes on the search for a missing teenager in a small town that seems tranquil on the surface but in reality is anything but. A new statue dedicated to Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th-century advocate of women's rights, was unveiled this week at Newington Green in Islington, London, created by Maggi Hambling. It very quickly drew criticism from some because of its inclusion of a naked female figure. The art historian Jacky Klein gives her assessment. Industry is a new BBC2 drama, directed by Lena Dunham, set in the financial district in London and focuses on a new intake of 20-somethings who must all compete for a limited set of positions at a top investment bank in London. Kohinoor Sahota reviews. Today is Armistice Day, and the day that, 100 years ago, the body of an unidentified soldier killed in the First World War was drawn in a solemn procession through London to be laid to rest at Westminster Abbey. The story of The Unknown Warrior moved the English musician Ralph McTell to write a song chronicling it. In Front Row he talks about this, the powerful symbolism of the ceremony and how he recruited Billy Connolly, Anthony Hopkins and Liam Neeson from each of the other nations of the United Kingdom, to speak some of his words. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Jerome Weatherald Main image: Tana French Image credit: Jessica Ryan
Idina Menzel, famous for singing Let It Go from the film Frozen, provides the voice once more of Elsa, now Queen of Arendelle and still with magical powers, in the sequel Frozen 2. The singer discusses the early concept for her character in what became the biggest-grossing animated film of all time, and how Elsa has grown up in the years since the original. The new Frozen 2 film has been long awaited but does the plastic merchandise brought out to accompany the film line up with its environmental concerns? Environment journalist Lucy Siegle takes stock. The first UK retrospective of the work of Dora Maar opens at Tate Modern today. The artist, who died in 1997 aged 89, was best known for her provocative photographs and her surrealist photomontages, as well as her productive eight-year relationship with Picasso. Jacky Klein reviews. Literary agent Clare Alexander and publisher John Mitchinson continue their discussions on how the publishing industry works, focusing today on where the power lies. There's no denying the influence of Amazon, but that's far from the whole story. Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome Weatherald
A solid gold toilet reputedly worth £4.7 million has been stolen from Blenheim Palace. It's part of the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's new exhibition Victory is Not an Option which remains open and combines a retrospective of his work along with some new pieces made especially for the Palace. Art critic Jacky Klein reviews and reports on the latest from the theft. Brad Pitt stars in the film Ad Astra as an astronaut on a mission to Neptune in order to save the planet from destruction. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews this epic space odyssey. It's believed that John Milton's personal, annotated copy of an early Shakespeare folio has been discovered. The folio includes sophisticated marginalia that could shed light on the development of Milton as a poet and academics say it could be one of the most important literary discoveries of modern times. Cambridge University fellow Dr Jason Scott-Warren explains his astonishing find. As the Rugby World Cup heads to Japan, we get a personal introduction to current Japanese culture from Junko Takekawa, from the Japan Foundation, and Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, academic and curator of the recent Manga exhibition at the British Museum. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Hannah Robins
Ben Platt has been acting or singing for most of his life, and after winning critical acclaim, and a Tony for the title role in Dear Evan Hansen, and also for playing the loveable, if quirky, Benji, in Pitch Perfect, he’s now shed his characters and written his debut album, very much from the heart. He tells Shahidha why he felt compelled to write an autobiographical album and why it was important not to hetero-wash it. American artist Lee Krasner was a true innovator working with bold colours in an abstract expressionist style from the 1940s onwards. She struggled to find recognition in her own lifetime, working mainly in the shadow of her husband Jackson Pollock. As the Barbican in London holds a huge retrospective of Krasner’s work, Shahidha asks the artist’s biographer and friend Gail Levin and art critic Jacky Klein how far this exhibition goes to give Krasner the recognition she deserves. Shahidha visits Hoxton Hall, a beautiful old music hall in East London to talk to the makers of Chasing Rainbows, a new play about a pioneering black, female astronaut. It’s fictional but inspired by a real space engineer and in it, Oneness Sankara explores the impact of the astronaut's determination to fly in space on her daughter. Donna Berlin, who plays the spacewoman, spends the performance recreating weightlessness. Shahidha finds out how this is done, talking to the actors, director, writer and an aerialist. Presenter: Shahidha Bari Producer: Harry Parker
Catch up on a panel discussion between Dame Mary Beard, Adrian Rifkin, Jemima Stehli and Jacky Klein as they take our 'Renaissance Nude' exhibition as a starting point to explore how we depict, look at and respond to the nude across historical and contemporary arts. How have our attitudes on the nude changed throughout history? How does representation of the nude differ throughout the creative arts? How have topics such as gender, sexuality, power and beauty been represented and affected through the varying depictions of the nude?
Ben Elton, creator of the iconic Elizabethan sitcom Blackadder II, talks about his fascination with Shakespeare, as Upstart Crow returns to BBC Two for a Shakespeare/Dickens mashup, A Crow Christmas Carol. He's also written the screenplay for All is True, a Shakespeare biopic starring Kenneth Branagh. Vanessa Kisuule reads her poem Describing Snow in the Aftermath, part of Radio 4's poetry day marking the winter solstice. As artist Olafur Eliasson installs melting ice blocks outside Tate Modern in order to highlight the dangers of climate change, Stig asks whether political art is becoming more of a call to action. With critics Jacky Klein, Jonathan Jones and artist Bob and Roberta Smith. And why has misery won out over cheer on Christmas TV in recent years? David Butcher investigates. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Timothy Prosser
An entire disused swimming pool has been built on the ground floor of the Whitechapel Gallery in London for the new exhibition from the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset. The artists discuss how they have been inspired by the work of David Hockney and Ed Ruscha. Then film critic Mark Eccleston art critic Jacky Klein and artist and former Canadian national competitive swimmer Leanne Shapton reflect on the swimming pool in the arts. Kwame Kwei-Armah opens his first season as the Artistic Director of London's Young Vic with a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night. This reworking of Shakespeare's comedy, which includes soul music and show tunes from songwriter Shaina Taub, has already impressed audiences in New York. Theatre critic Sam Marlowe gives her verdict.Green Noise is the title of poet Jean Sprackland's new collection which encapsulates her concerns with the natural world on which she focuses minutely, as well as the sounds of the street, the wind, and resonating history. She reads her work and talks about writing poems that listen to the green noise of life.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Edwina Pitman
Alice Walker is famous for prose books such as The Color Purple and In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. But her first book was a collection of poems and she has published eight more. Alice talks about her latest, Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart, which ranges from poems of rage about injustice, poems of praise to great figures - BB King for instance - and celebration of the ordinary like making frittatas. Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is known for her pumpkin installations and her obsession with polka dots. A new documentary charts her career beginning in New York in the 1950s during the Pop Art movement, where she became well known for her provocative immersive exhibitions and performances. It covers her return to Japan in middle-age, checking herself into a psychiatric hospital and fading from public view, to her current status as the world's bestselling living female artist. The film-maker Heather Lenz tells us about her documentary. Alongside the film, a new show of Yayoi Kusama's recent work opens this week in London. Jacky Klein reviews.Today is National Poetry Day. Twenty years ago, in its first contribution to National Poetry Day, Radio 4 commissioned Sean Street to write a sequence of poems based on the network's day. So, Thought for the Day was a poem, there was a poem about the pips - the Greenwich Time Signal - and another on the Shipping Forecast. These were dropped between programmes throughout the day. Twenty years later Front Row has commissioned a new poem from Sean Street on this year's theme of change. He reads it publicly for the first time. Presenter: Gaylene Gould Producer: Julian May
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition opens on 12th June. It has been held every year without interruption since 1769 providing a platform for emerging and established artists. This year it is co-ordinated by Grayson Perry with the theme "Art Made Now". Art historian Jacky Klein joins Stig to review the exhibition.Shebeen is a new play set amongst the Caribbean community in 1950s Nottingham. Inspired by the Windrush generation and written by local playwright Mufaro Makubika, the drama deals with an immigrant Jamaican couple and the forbidden parties they throw at their shebeen - an illegal bar set up in their home. Writer Mufaro Makubika and director Matthew Xia discuss its relevance now. The offbeat comedy Flowers, about the dysfunctional family of a children's writer, starring Olivia Coleman and Julian Barratt, returns to Channel 4 for a second season. The Anglo-Japanese writer Will Sharpe, who also directed and acts in it, is in the studio to discuss its dark humour.We review Vampyr, the action role-playing video game with a moral dilemma at its heart which is released today. Jonathan Reid is a vampiric doctor whose thirst for blood compels him to kill innocent people, but how does that sit with his Hippocratic Oath? Games reviewer Jordan Erica Webber joins Stig to play the game and offers her verdict.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Harry Parker.
Actor David Morrissey, well known for his roles in TV dramas like State of Play, The Deal, Red Riding, The Walking Dead and Britannia. He talks about his latest role is as Inspector Tyador in BBC Two's adaption of the China Miéville's novel The City and The City. The drama is a speculative science-fiction meets police procedural, set in two cities which share a geographical location but whose residents are trained to "unsee" the other city. Claude Monet had a fascination with buildings in his paintings throughout his life, from the bridges and streets of Paris and its suburbs in his early years to the renowned architecture of Venice and London in later life. Architect Jo McCafferty and art critic Jacky Klein discuss Monet & Architecture, a major new exhibition at the National Gallery in London.The Rapid Response Unit is an art installation in Liverpool where leading artists respond to global events and world stories as they happen. Mark Dunne, leader of the project, and graphic artist Patrick Thomas explain how the process works and what art can bring to the world of news, with reference to Turner prize-winning Jeremy Deller who produced 2000 original printed posters relating to Facebook and the process of deleting Facebook accounts. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hilary Dunn.
Sir Tom Jones and Jennifer Hudson discuss mentoring the competitors in the TV talent show The Voice, how they coach their protégés and where the value of knockout singing competitions lies. Kirsty visits rehearsals at the studios of the television show and talks to the two judges. As The Square, a satire on modern art galleries hits cinemas, we consider the portrayal of the art gallery in film with Briony Hanson, Head of Film at British Council, and art critic Jacky Klein who also works at Tate.As 'embiggen', a word coined by The Simpsons, makes its way into the dictionary, lexicographer Susie Dent traces the way words hop from the screen into people's conversations and their impact on our language.Presenter Kirsty Lang Producer Jerome Weatherald.
Priscilla Presley talks about life with Elvis and 40 years of looking after his legacy, as she takes part in a concert tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who accompany Elvis Presley's voice live. Cate Blanchett plays 13 characters each reciting a different artist's manifesto in her new film, Manifesto. We talk to Cate and director Julian Rosefeldt about translating what was an art installation to a traditional linear film. But, what is an art manifesto? Art critics Richard Cork and Jacky Klein explain, select the strangest and the most convincing - and consider if they helped or hindered artists to produce work.Presenter : John Wilson Producer : Dymphna Flynn(Photo: Cate Blanchett as Tattooed punk in Manifesto. Credit: Manifesto).
Matt Lucas talks to Stig Abell about his autobiography 'Little Me: My life from A-Z', in which he writes about the challenges of his childhood, his start on the comedy circuit 25 years ago, and the phenomenal success of TV show Little Britain. Tamsin Greig and Martin Freeman discuss James Graham's new play Labour of Love, about the three decade battle between old and new Labour in a North Nottinghamshire constituency, in which they play a labour party agent and an MP. Jacky Klein on the surprising relationship between the father of conceptual art Marcel Duchamp, and the surrealist Salvador Dali, the subject of a new exhibition at the Royal Academy.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Timothy Prosser.