Front Row

In venues around the UK and here on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC Sounds, it’s Live Comedy Day today – a celebration of live comedy and grassroots clubs. We’re joined by two of the cast of the new Saturday Night Live UK, Emma Sidi and Hammed Animashaun, and by Amanda Dwyer, who won the Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award at the Glasgow Comedy Festival this weekend, to discuss the stand-up landscape right now.
Mink Stole is an icon of “trash cinema” and has appeared in every one of filmmaker John Waters’ features, from the infamous cult classic Pink Flamingos to mainstream hits Hairspray and Serial Mom. She talks about her long association with Waters and his ensemble of Dreamlanders, and about her show Idol Worship in which she and actor and drag queen Peaches Christ reflect on her career in front of an audience.
And live from opening night at the V&A Dundee where Catwalk – The Art of The Fashion Show celebrates over a hundred years of spectacular fashion displays, from Frederick Worth to Vivienne Westwood and Versace, curator Kirsty Hassard talks us through the history of the runway. And we are also joined by curator Rachel Whitworth from the Bowes Museum in County Durham to discuss one of the modern day pioneers of the fashion show, Vivienne Westwood, as the exhibition Rebel, Storyteller, Visionary opens there.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan

Writer Robert MacFarlane on the world underground as a new documentary, Underland, inspired by his award-winning book of the same name is released in cinemas.
Dancer and choreographer Meryl Tankard on creating a new work, Echoes of '78, which pairs the original dancers of a work created by German choreographer Pina Bausch with their younger selves.
Singer Hak Baker and journalist Ludovic Hunter-Tilney on the evolving nature of the protest song plus a live performance from Hak of his song Windrush Baby.
Translator and judge Sophie Hughes on the International Booker Prize shortlist 2026 which was announced today.
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin
She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated by Izidora Angel
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin
On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan
The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King
Artist Glen Baxter remembered.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Lesley Manville, on appearing in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at London's National Theatre
Art In Space: As Nasa prepares to send people back to the Moon, former astronauts Helen Sharman and Cady Coleman talk us through the books & music they took with them into space.
Do classicists underestimate how difficult it is to read Homer's Odyssey? Ahead of Christopher Nolan's new adaption, we'll discuss with Mary Beard and Professor Emily Wilson about reading and translating one of the oldest surviving works of literature.
Should Russia be readmitted to The Venice Biennale? A public letter signed by dozens of MEPs is calling for EU funding to be suspended if Russia is allowed to participate
Presenter: Samira Ahmed

On this week's review show, critic and broadcaster Rhianna Dhillon and fashion historian and writer Amber Butchart join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss Riz Ahmed's new comedy series Bait, which follows a struggling actor who auditions for the role of James Bond and has to deal with the fallout.
They give their verdicts on Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A in London, featuring the work of designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
And they review Two Prosecutors, the new film from Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, a bleak comedy following a prosecutor as he attempts to help a political prisoner during the Stalinist Purge of 1937.
Plus, the ongoing story of the novel that was pulled by its publisher after allegations that it was partly written by AI. Tom talks to Alexandra Alter, the New York Times journalist who broke the story, and Anna Ganley from the Society of Authors.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Tim Bano

Actor Forbes Masson on the National Theatre of Scotland's stage musical revival of cult sitcom The High Life in which he starred alongside Alan Cumming as air stewards working the commuter route between London and Scotland.
The writers behind the hotly anticipated whodunnit novel The Ending Writes Itself - billed as being by Evelyn Clarke but in fact written by Cat Clarke and VE Schwab - talk about satirising the publishing industry and about the challenges and pleasures of writing collaboratively.
And as The Coming of Age - a new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London - explores experiences and perceptions of ageing, art historian Richard Cork and artist Clare Shenstone reflect on how older people have been represented in art and culture.
Plus why is the V&A Dundee seeking a design team to makeover its galleries less than ten years since it opened? Architect and former editor of The Architects Journal Rory Olcayto explains.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan