Culture reviewed with pace and judgment.
Front Row treats culture as a live conversation, with voices framing reviews, interviews, performances, and disputes across the arts. Its best moments test a work's premise, then let critics, artists, and writers add texture without losing momentum.
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Front Row is an arts magazine with criticism at its centre. It moves fast, but the speed rarely flattens the work under discussion. One edition can begin with a review panel on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Lena Dunham's memoir, and Dan Levy's Big Mistakes, then end with live music or a preview of the next cultural argument. Another can travel from Gene Kelly's ballet legacy to Joel Meyerwitz's photography, travel writing, literary prizes, and a raffle-won Picasso. The range is broad. The method is consistent. A voice frames the work, states the critical pressure point, and then pushes guests toward judgment, example, or disagreement. That makes the programme useful for listeners who want more than listings but less than academic distance. The show is comfortable with interpretation. It asks how a new production handles a famous film shadow, why an artist's reputation changes over decades, what separates influence from imitation, and how institutions decide what culture is worth. Recent episodes take in Tracey Emin's Tate Modern exhibition, Francois Ozon's The Stranger, Jim Jarmusch's Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Amitav Ghosh's fiction, Mark Gatiss at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Margaret Drabble reflecting on a long career. Music is treated as culture rather than filler. Jack Savoretti performs live, Governor B helps explain the new UK Christian and gospel singles chart, and Moya Brennan's Clannad vocals become part of a tribute. The show also lets news enter the room. It considers AI tools for film classification, museum charging policies, Kanye West being refused a UK visa, and the politics around plays about Queen Victoria or the rise of Hitler. The register is measured. The questions can be sharp. The best exchanges have the feel of a review being made in real time, with enthusiasm checked by evidence and skepticism softened by curiosity. Front Row suits listeners who already care about books, theatre, film, visual art, media, and music, and who enjoy hearing informed people test their own first reactions. Its appeal is not only access to artists and critics. It is the editorial discipline of making each cultural item answer a clearer question before moving on.
Made for: For listeners who follow theatre, books, film, art, media, and music and want informed criticism without a slow seminar tone. It fits people who enjoy expert guests, live arts coverage, and brisk arguments about taste and context.
What sets it apart: Front Row combines review-panel judgment with interviews, performances, and arts news in one tightly framed programme. It moves from synopsis to critique to cultural stakes quickly, giving guests room for detail while keeping the editorial line clear.
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Front Row turns film and television reviews into precise conversations about adaptation, performance, visual choices and the influence of earlier work.
Front Row moves briskly between review-table argument and interviews, with Samira Ahmed, Tom Sutcliffe and Kirsty Wark guiding conversations that connect screen work to the wider arts.
A gorgeous Lord of the Flies gets challenged; you'll enjoy the dissent as much as the verdict.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp hour on classic culture under pressure.
Front Row pulls three kinds of pressure into one hour: Clint Dyer's new staging of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Lena Dunham's memoir on the sick-making side of overnight success, and Dan Levy's new comedy series Big Mistakes.
Patricia Ward Kelly helps frame Scottish Ballet's expanded Starstruck as both Gene Kelly tribute and living stage reinvention.
Starstruck gives this Front Row conversation a clean centre: Scottish Ballet's homage to Gene Kelly, and the care involved in bringing his stage and screen energy into a new form.
Jack Savaretti, Veronica Ryan, and a brisk arts hour that keeps its focus moving.
Front Row centers Jack Savaretti, whose live acoustic performance lands just as his ninth studio album, We Will Always Be The Way We Were, is in play for this week's official album chart.
John Morton's 2026 puts Ian Fletcher inside World Cup bureaucracy, where integrity is just another path to comic trouble.
John Morton's 2026 returns Ian Fletcher to the kind of institutional satire that suits him best, this time inside a thinly veiled international organisation responsible for the World Cup.
Victoria, a gospel chart, and Tayari Jones give Front Row a brisk, varied shape.
Front Row opens on Daisy Goodwin's Victoria, A Queen Unbound, and Samira Ahmed keeps the focus on Goodwin's suggestion that Queen Victoria may have been bullied and, in modern terms, coercively controlled by Albert.
A measured adaptation debate weighs hypnotic Lord of the Flies imagery against storytelling that could be tighter.
Front Row sets recent adaptations against the weight of the works behind them, moving from Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights to Jack Thorne's television Lord of the Flies before opening out to the Southbank Centre's Grade 2 listing and James Meek's Your Life Without Me.
Multi-part dramatized retellings of scandals like OceanGate's Titan and the Lehman Brothers collapse.
Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas argue their way through terrible movies.
A review show discussing a stage version of Dracula starring Cynthia Erivo, a Charli XCX mockumentary, and the film The Secret Agent.
Tom Sutcliffe hosts a review show discussing new works by François Ozon, Amitav Ghosh, and Jim Jarmusch.
Front Row reviews Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights film and Jack Thorne's Lord of the Flies TV adaptation.
A review show discussing the film Marty Supreme, the stage production Into the Woods, and Natalie Haynes on immersive exhibitions.
Nick Hilton calls Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger both a “one-star movie and a five-star movie,” while Susanna Clapp praises its restless imagery but finds its satire unfunny.
Front Row builds the hour around strain.
Patricia Ward Kelly discusses Scottish Ballet's Starstruck, a two-act homage to her late husband Gene Kelly, and reveals he refused to allow a biopic of his life.
Front Row opens with Jack Savaretti in the studio.
Front Row interviews Mark Gatiss about his role in Brecht's play on Hitler's rise and novelist Margaret Drabble on her new book and career changes.
Tom Sutcliffe introduces reviews of new works by Francois Ozon, Amitav Ghosh, and Jim Jarmusch, and discusses pseudonyms with guests.
John Morton says 2026 uses the bleeped name of FIFA as a “silly comic weapon.”
Front Row opens with Queen Victoria and Daisy Goodwin's new play, Victoria, A Queen Unbound.
This episode reviews Tracey Emin's exhibition at Tate Modern, exploring her controversial career and divided critical opinions, while also discussing the film Sirat and its polarized reception.
Front Row reviews new adaptations of Wuthering Heights and Lord of the Flies, discusses brutalism, and critiques James Meek's novel.
A review of Park Chan-wook's film No Other Choice, Oliver Hermanis' film The History of Sound, and Julian Barnes' final novel Departures.