Front Row Folgen

The Simpsons is the longest running scripted primetime TV show ever. As season 31 kicks off in the UK we explore its potent popularity with comedian and fan David Baddiel and writer, producer, and story editor on thes how Tim Long who’s worked on more than 450 episodesPhotographer Simon Phipps discusses his book Brutal North, a celebration of modernist and brutalist architecture in the north of England. The post-war years saw the building of some of the most aspirational and successful modernist architecture in the world, from Newcastle’s Byker Wall Estate to the Preston bus station, completed in 1969. But how vulnerable are these buildings today?British film director Steve McQueen has achieved Oscar success but his latest project sees him returning to the small screen with a series of five new dramas for BBC TV, set in London’s West Indian community between 60s and the 80s.Jenny Sturgeon’s new album is inspired by and takes its title from Nan Shepherd’s book about the Cairngorms, The Living Mountain, which, though slender, has had a profound influence, changing the way we relate to high and wild places. There are 12 chapters and Sturgeon has written a song for each. She talks about recording them in the mountains, with a backing track of natural sounds. She tells, too, the story of her guitar, made from local materials – an old shelf from a local bar and even heather and lichen growing in the Cairngorms. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Julian May

We conclude our tour of the novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020 tonight with a final book group where listeners put their questions to Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life. A campus novel and a coming-of-age story, it tells the experiences of a gay, Black doctoral student in a predominantly White, PhD programme at a supposedly enlightened American university.With part of Sir Malcolm Arnold’s archive under threat of destruction by the Ministry of Justice, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber argues that these papers are important to the 20th Century British composer’s legacy. Throughout the period of two lockdowns, self-isolation and working from home, we’ve been hearing from individuals in the creative industries about something that has given them a lot of pleasure, and occasionally brought them solace, in these challenging times. Tonight it’s the turn of Nick Park, the Oscar-winning creator of Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, and many other Aardman classics, to reveal his personal Lockdown Discovery. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Oliver Jones Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald

Tana French is the creator of the Dublin Murder Squad crime books, that inspired the 2019 BBC TV series. Her gritty urban mysteries have been translated into 37 languages and sold around 7m copies worldwide, gaining praise from the likes of Stephen King and Marian Keyes. Her latest novel, The Searcher, moves the action to rural Ireland for the first time. A retired Chicago police officer reluctantly takes on the search for a missing teenager in a small town that seems tranquil on the surface but in reality is anything but. A new statue dedicated to Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th-century advocate of women's rights, was unveiled this week at Newington Green in Islington, London, created by Maggi Hambling. It very quickly drew criticism from some because of its inclusion of a naked female figure. The art historian Jacky Klein gives her assessment.Industry is a new BBC2 drama, directed by Lena Dunham, set in the financial district in London and focuses on a new intake of 20-somethings who must all compete for a limited set of positions at a top investment bank in London. Kohinoor Sahota reviews.Today is Armistice Day, and the day that, 100 years ago, the body of an unidentified soldier killed in the First World War was drawn in a solemn procession through London to be laid to rest at Westminster Abbey. The story of The Unknown Warrior moved the English musician Ralph McTell to write a song chronicling it. In Front Row he talks about this, the powerful symbolism of the ceremony and how he recruited Billy Connolly, Anthony Hopkins and Liam Neeson from each of the other nations of the United Kingdom, to speak some of his words. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Jerome WeatheraldMain image: Tana French Image credit: Jessica Ryan