2025 Turner Prize winner; remembering Martin Parr; Bradford’s year as the UK City of Culture
Tonight, the winner of the 2025 Turner Prize will be announced in Bradford, this year’s City of Culture. Joining Nick to discuss the runners and riders is arts journalist at the Yorkshire Post, Yvette Huddleston. The death of the photographer Martin Parr was announced over the weekend. His reputation was established with his colourful1980s seaside holiday pictures. To remember his life and legacy, we hear from photographer Stephen McCoy who currently has a show at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol.Egyptian Queen Nefertiti is rumoured to have been one of the most desirable women in the ancient world but could things turn ugly over the location of the bust of Nefertiti? With the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, there have been renewed calls for it to be returned to Egypt from the Berlin’s Neues Museum where it’s currently on display. Heba Abd el Gawad, Senior Curator of Anthropology at London’s Horniman Museum, and Professor Sebastian Conrad, who has written extensively on Nefertiti, discuss the issues.
Punchdrunk is a theatre company that has been pushing at the boundaries of theatre for over two decades. It pioneered fully immersive experiences, creating worlds where audiences become active participants rather than passive spectators. Their latest show is Lander 23, a live-action video game, set on a distant planet where a previous crew has mysteriously vanished. Nick paid a visit to the company’s home in Woolwich, London. Arts journalist Yvette Huddleston reflects on Bradford’s year in the spotlight. Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
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Kate Winslet on Goodbye June
Kate Winslet speaks to Samira Ahmed about her directorial debut, Goodbye June. With a screenplay written by her son Joe Anders, the film portrays complex family dynamics colliding with the surreal realities of palliative care.With talks around a possible peace deal in Ukraine ongoing, we discuss whether the country has effectively used arts and culture to further the national cause. We hear from conductor and founder of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra Keri-Lynn Wilson, and visual artist Pavlo Makov.Entertainment journalist Al Horner joins from Los Angeles to talk about the latest twist in the on-going battle between Netflix and Paramount to takeover the famed film studio Warner Bros. He also walks us through the winners and snubs from today's Golden Globe nominations.Filmmaker Noah Baumbach, best known for co-writing the blockbuster Barbie movie with his wife Greta Gerwig, talks about his new film Jay Kelly, which stars George Clooney as one of Hollywood's most famous stars who is struggling to figure out who loves him when the cameras stop rolling. And we remember the life and career of the acclaimed architect Frank Gehry.
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Reviewing Paddington The Musical, Jafar Panahi's latest film, and Russell Tovey meets the Sea Devils
Tom and guests Arifa Akbar and Nick Hilton consider Paddington The Musical. It's the latest step for a beloved British institution... How does he work on stage? Is the bear believable? Are the songs memorable?Iranian director Jafar Panahi's latest film has won the Palme d'Or. It Was Just An Accident, straddles a difficult gap between political commentary and a lightly comic look at revenge. He had to make this film in secret and has just been sentenced - in absentia - to a prison sentence by the Iranian authorities for "propaganda activities" against the country.In The War Between the Land and the Sea, the latest offshoot of the Whoniverse, Russell Tovey plays a humble admin assistant who is promoted to humanity's Ambassador when the Sea Devils return and decide that humans need to be taught respect for their watery world.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
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Composer Sir John Rutter
John Rutter on his first purely orchestral album in almost 60 years, which also marks the composer and conductor's 80th birthday. Novelist Sean Lusk on the extraordinary - and scandalous - life of 18th-century aristocrat Mary Wortley Montagu, which is told in A Woman of Opinion, which won Fiction of the Year at last month's Saltire Awards. Recently, a number of actors have said they would prefer not to have to work with intimacy coordinators on set. We raise their concerns with Ita O'Brien, an intimacy coordinator who also trains others for the role, and Creative Director of Synchronicity Films, Claire Mundell. Also, as work gets underway at Edinburgh's first new concert hall in 100 years, we hear why it's needed, and about the challenges of building in a historic city centre site. Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan
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Updating A Christmas Carol; new sculpture exhibition by blind artists and curators; 2025’s funniest novel
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has been transformed into a piece of hip hop dance at London’s Sadler's Wells East, and a Bollywood infused song and dance extravaganza for the big screen. We hear from the creatives behind the new versions, Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha and choreographer Dannielle Rhimes Lecointe. Beyond the Visual is the first of its kind in the UK - an exhibition co-curated by visually impaired artists. Held at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, the exhibition encourages visitors to touch the displays, listen to audio descriptions, and does much to make sure it truly is art for all, and all the senses. Joining Nick in the studio are artist and co-curator of the exhibition, Dr. Aaron McPeake and Dr. Clare O’Dowd the research curator at the Henry Moore Institute.A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike has been announced as the winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The 2005 winner of the prize, A Short History of Tractors in Ukraniain, by the late author Marina Lewycka was declared the "winner of winners" over the last twenty five years of the prize. To investigate what makes a funny novel, Nick is joined by critic and Wodehouse fan Tristram Fane Saunders and three-time Wodehouse Prize nominee Lissa Evans.Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu