Columnist and broadcaster Giles Coren is joined in the studio by radio DJ Nihal Arthanayake and writer and comedian Viv Groskop to cherry-pick the best of the cultural week. And alt-rockers Wolf Alice perform live in the studio.
Nikki Bedi is joined in the studio by Ekow Eshun and Professor Sarah Churchwell to cast a critical eye on the week's arts offerings. Sparks perform live in the studio.
Presenter Amol Rajan and studio guests offer critical and entertaining discussion of the week's arts events. John Wilson meets actors Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling to talk about Blade Runner 2049, thelong-awaited follow-up to Ridley Scott's seminal science fiction thriller. Ian McKellen gives a masterclass in the art of playing King Lear. Comedian and children's author Tim Minchin performs live in the studio.
Giles Coren is joined by Rachel Johnson and John O'Farrell to discuss political drama. Kirsty Lang interviews Michael Fassbender about his new film The Snowman.
A review of the week's arts events. Darcey Bussell celebrates the legacy of Kenneth MacMillan, Stig Abell talks to Philip Pullman and Ghostpoet performs live.
Historian Mary Beard brings her passion for classics to Front Row. The Cambridge classicist visits The Roman Singularity exhibition at the Sir John Soane's Museum in London to explore the work of architectural designer Adam Nathaniel Furman. Artist Nathan Coley meets Japan's most famous architect Kengo Kuma as Kuma's extraordinary new building for the V&A Dundee nears completion. David Gilmour talks about his recent film David Gilmour Live At Pompeii and performs live in the studio.
Giles Coren and guests are in the studio for an Agatha Christie special. Kenneth Branagh talks about directing and starring in the blockbuster remake of the Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express. Nikki Bedi heads to the debating chamber of County Hall in London to take part in an immersive theatre revival of Witness for the Prosecution. Sarah Phelps is one of the guests on the sofa and Father John Misty performs live in the studio.
Mary Beard returns with a new series of the live arts and cultural debate programme to discuss the clash of generations. Boomers and millennials may be bitterly divided over pensions and house prices, but are the old and the young also waging a war in theatres, galleries and bookshops? And how do artists relate to generations that have gone before? Mary and her guests discuss Damien Hirst's latest show at Houghton Hall, as well as The Inheritance - a new play directed by Stephen Daldry about different generations of gay men in New York today.
Mary Beard and her guests discuss the issue of taking offence. As debates on censorship and the freedom of speech rage in the media, comedy and literary worlds, the panel look at preparations for Theatr Clwyd's play The Assassination of Katie Hopkins and South African film The Wound.
In this week's episode, host Mary Beard and her guests enter the wonderful world of musical theatre. As a self-confessed sceptic Mary looks at some genre-busting shows - and asks whether it is now cool to like musicals.
On this week's programme, host Mary Beard and her guests are discussing the British art scene outside the London bubble. Thirty years since the heyday of the YBAs, are artists being forced out of the capital due to high rents? Is this giving them more creative freedom? We visit Glasgow International Festival to find out.
In this week's programme, pre-recorded on Thursday, Mary and her guests look at the role of Britain's museums in the 21st century, and Mary experiences life as a museum attendant.
Topical weekly discussion show. Mary Beard and her guests discuss gender-blind and colour-blind casting, and what it really means to get 'the right person for the job'.
Front Row Late comes from the Hay Festival, where Mary Beard is joined by actor Rose McGowan, writer Laurie Penny and novelist Kamila Shamsie.
Mary Beard returns with the live, topical cultural debate programme. Mary and her guest panellists discuss the representation of older people in our culture. Featuring, a rare television interview with writer, poet and cultural commentator Clive James.
A live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music introduced by Mary Beard As the V&A opens its first outpost outside London, in Dundee, Mary Beard and her panel of guests discuss iconic architecture and the role of cultural buildings in changing the fortunes of our towns and cities. Mary and her panel also debate whether Glasgow School of Art should be rebuilt, whatever the cost, and how Grenfell Tower should be memorialised. And Mary takes a day trip to Margate, to find out how hostile attitudes to Turner Contemporary have been reversed since it opened in 2011.
Mary Beard is joined by historian and broadcaster David Olusoga, novelist Kate Mosse and historian Laura Ashe to discuss how film, theatre, literature and photography shape our understanding of history. And Mary takes part in a re-enactment of the Battle of Prestonpans to explore the popular appetite for reliving historical events.
Mary Beard hosts the topical cultural debate programme.
Mary and her panel of guests - Kate Mosse, Sathnam Sanghera and Dreda Say Mitchell - are in Birmingham, where the Birmingham Literature Festival is underway. Ahead of the announcement of this year's Man Booker Prize, they discuss who tells us what to read, and are prizes and critics important when choosing a book, or are digital algorithms just as useful? Mary also investigates how the publishing industry spends money to influence the books we buy.
Special edition of the topical culture programme in which Mary Beard is in conversation with Oscar-winning actress and writer Emma Thompson.
Mary Beard presents the live, topical cultural debate programme. Mary Beard and guests discuss the ethics of portraying human suffering on the big screen.
Ahead of the award of the 2018 Turner Prize, Mary Beard and her panel of guests discuss the shortlisted artists and the level of commitment required to take in the exhibition. With each of the shortlisted artists exhibiting moving image work, what does this mean for painting and sculpture? She explores the world of moving image art in the company of artists Jane and Louise Wilson and Larry Achiampong. Mary and her guests also discuss one of the art world's biggest stories of 2018: Banksy's self-shredding work, which was auctioned last month, and a new documentary which examines commercialism in the art world - Nathaniel Khan's The Price of Everything.
In this special edition of Front Row Late, Mary Beard is in conversation with author, critic and broadcaster Clive James. After migrating to Britain from Australia in the 1960s, James established himself as a caustic and charismatic commentator on popular culture and a pioneer of television criticism. In his heyday, he was one of the most famous faces on British TV and secured access to some of the biggest stars of the day, including Mel Brooks, Jane Fonda and Frank Sinatra. He has gone on to prove himself a captivating memoirist, reflecting on a rich and eventful life, and also a major-league poet and translator. A diagnosis of leukaemia in 2010 may have slowed down James's productivity in recent years but, with the help of pioneering treatment, he has gone on to chronicle his illness in insightful columns for the Guardian and to produce powerful poetry exploring mortality and the many joys of life. Now aged 79, he has lived longer than he or his doctors predicted and, in the summer of 2018, he surprised many by publishing another book. Mary Beard interviews Clive James about the book, The River in the Sky, which reflects on 'the fragile treasures of his life'. She explores his attitude towards his own mortality, his reflections on being a migrant and whether we can expect him to produce yet more books.
Mary and her guests discuss the posthumous reputations of writers, musicians and artists, and ask whether we should honour or override their wishes when they die. As a short story, Sylvia Plath wrote at the age of 20 is published for the first time, does every piece of early work by a literary legend deserve to be published and pored over? From Kafka to Tupac and Amy Winehouse, posthumous work sells and adds to a body of work - but what's the responsibility of those who look after artists' legacies? What gives us the right to rewrite work by a great author? And is the urge to complete an unfinished work sometimes too great to resist? And from MI5 files to restaurant receipts, why are we fascinated by the artefacts great writers leave behind when they die? Mary explores Doris Lessing's archive, to ask how personal effects and ephemera paint a picture of a great writer's life.
As a new exhibition of work by Victorian artist and critic John Ruskin opens in London, Mary and her panel of guests - David Olusoga, Shahidha Bari and Simon Jenkins - discuss whether we can ever agree on the meaning of beauty, or whether it truly is in the eye of the beholder.
Mary and her panellists - sociologist Tom Shakespeare, architect Elsie Owusu and writer Simon Garfield - discuss whether size matters in our culture.
A live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music introduced by Mary Beard Mary and her panel of guests – Peter Hitchens, Shappi Khorsandi and Giles Fraser - discuss Mary and guests discuss censorship in culture ahead of the 30th anniversary of the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie following the publication of The Satanic Verses.
Mary is in conversation with the acclaimed and bestselling writer of the His Dark Materials trilogy of books, Philip Pullman.
A live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music introduced by Mary Beard Mary Beard presents the cultural review show. As anticipation mounts around the publication of David Cameron's autobiography, a panel discusses the art of the memoir.
Mary Beard and her panel - Shahidha Bari, Scarlett Curtis and Ella Whelan - discuss how writers and artists are responding to anxiety in contemporary culture.
Mary Beard talks to novelist Margaret Atwood about her career and her sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.
Mary Beard and her panel discuss whether today's satirists are up to the job of lampooning contemporary politics and society. Are politicians fair game as targets for satirists?
Mary Beard and guests engage with topical cultural discussion. This week Front Row Late is in Belfast, discussing the complex relationship between adults and young people in our culture. As Greta Thunberg learns whether she has won the Nobel Peace Prize, why do Thunberg and her fellow activists incite so much negative attention from older critics? Are children represented fairly in our culture or are they all too often seen and not heard? And Mary talks to Charlotte Church about her own experience of growing up in the glare of publicity and about how she views the current generation of young activists.
Mary Beard and her panel discuss the links between culture, money and power. With the rise in protests against corporate sponsorship of culture in recent months, Mary and her guests ask if it matters which companies foot the bill for major cultural institutions and events, and if sponsorship by companies some people regard as unethical is a price worth paying to ensure culture remains affordable and accessible. Mary also asks whether we ought to expect to pay a high price for the best culture, and what culture can be enjoyed without forking out any cash at all. Mary also meets Mark Carney, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England, who shows her some of the Bank’s art collection, and discusses whether money is as much about culture as economics.
Mary Beard and Armando Iannucci discuss taking liberties with a literary classic, whether it is possible to satirise the current political situation, and the impact of swearing.
Mary Beard and guests discuss how our culture is responding to the issue of migration. How can writing and drama contribute towards an essential conversation about this topical issue?
Mary Beard and her panel of guests discuss why we consume so much sensationalised death in movies, crime fiction and television drama, while we are reluctant to speak about real pain and loss. How much do our religious traditions continue to shape our attitudes towards death, grief and the afterlife? And how will technology change our idea of legacy in the future? And how can comedy help us to come to terms with grief and our own mortality?
As London Fashion Week opens, Mary Beard and her panel of guests discuss the art and ethics of the clothing industry. When can fashion genuinely be regarded as an art form, and who is high-end designer fashion actually for? From the hijab to the hoodie, how do the clothes we wear communicate who we are to other people? And given recent controversies around sustainability and cultural appropriation, does the rag trade need to clean up its act? And Mary talks to designer Hussein Chalayan about when fashion can truly be described as an art.
This week's programme features an exclusive puppet production based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, created in confinement in Canada by acclaimed author Margaret Atwood and her sister Ruth. Plus, actress Emma Thompson reflects on mortality and exclusively reads a John Donne poem while in isolation in Scotland. Mary is also joined on a video link by writer and critic Shahidha Bari to discuss Titian's great mythological masterpieces, which are currently off-limits due to the temporary closure of the National Gallery.
As many of us are confined indoors, Mary and her guests discuss the importance of nature in art and writing. The programme also features an interview with Angel of the North sculptor Antony Gormley filmed via video link from his studio in Norfolk as well as performances by leading writers and performers.
Mary and her guests consider the effects of Covid-19 on the world of literature, asking whether isolation will lead to a post-pandemic rise in books. There is also a discussion on how writing and drama chronicled the HIV and Aids crisis of the 1980s and helped to shape public attitudes.
Mary discusses the power of poetry in a time of pandemic, with Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke, poet Lemn Sissay and historian David Olusoga. Plus, poetry performances from Helen Mirren and the so-called `Poet Laureate of Twitter", Brian Bilston.
Mary asks why people turn to music in times of crisis, from free concerts streamed by A-list names to benefit singles, cross-balcony singalongs and quarantine choirs. She also asks whether the spirit of sharing and caring change the way we consume music in the long term, or whether the generosity will run out if and when we 'get back to normal'.
With cultural institutions around the country closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Mary Beard hosts interviews and discussions from her studio at home. Mary and her guests – including artistic director of the Young Vic theatre Kwame Kwei-Armah, music director of the Royal Opera Antonio Pappano and actor Juliet Stevenson - discuss the long-term effects of Covid-19 on the future of performance, and ask what culture might mean to us once the current lockdown is lifted. Featuring special performances from British Nigerian opera singer Le Gateau Chocolat and actors Emma Thompson and Greg Wise.
Mary and her guests examine the links between risk, culture and creativity. Director Lee Daniels explains why he thinks the current shutdown in Hollywood could be a radical creative opportunity for film-makers, and photographer Don McCullin questions the worth of a career spent risking his own life to alert the world to the suffering of warfare. Comedian and `guilty feminist" Deborah Frances-White joins Mary and David Spiegelhalter, Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk, to disentangle the complexities of emerging into life after lockdown, and artists Gillian Wearing and Michael Landy sign off the show with their first collaboration in more than 20 years.
