Front Row

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