Front Row Folgen

News from the Cannes Film Festival, including the premieres of Elton John biopic Rocketman and Ken Loach's Sorry We Missed You. With film critic Jason Solomons. David Chipperfield pays tribute to fellow architect I.M Pei, famous for his iconic designs such as the Louvre pyramid, who has died aged 102. Scottish crime writer Denise Mina on Conviction, her latest novel whose narrator is obsessed with listening to true crime podcasts. Welsh artist Sean Edwards has an exhibition at the Venice Biennale in which his elderly mother performs a monologue each day, broadcasting live from her flat in Cardiff into a Venice Church. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser

The actor Stephen Graham originally made his mark as the racist skinhead Combo in Shane Meadows’s 2006 film This Is England. The actor and director have teamed up again for a new 4-part Channel 4 drama The Virtues, in which he plays a troubled alcoholic trying to get over the trauma of his childhood. The actor discusses making the show, as well as his recent role as undercover cop John Corbett in Line of Duty. The Unicorn is a theatre devoted to children. Its latest production is Dido, based on Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell. Stig Abell investigates how you make a seventeenth-century opera fun for eleven-year-olds, talking to the director, conductor, a singer and two teachers. But what of the target audience? Two young lads tell him what they thought of it. Simon Armitage has been announced as the new Poet Laureate. As he begins his decade long post, he reveals his ambitions for the role and also discusses his new book of poems Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic, which brings together his commissioned work including war poetry and poems responding to Henry Moore's sculptures and the life of Branwell Bronte.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins

Television dramatist Sally Wainwright has written award-winning crime series such as Happy Valley, heart-warming love stories such as Last Tango in Halifax. The last time she turned her attention to the 19th century, it was to portray the Brontës in To Walk Invisible. Now she’s returned to the Victorian age, this time looking at the life of lesbian landowner Anne Lister. Historical novelist, Philippa Gregory reviews. The idea of the canon in contemporary and modern art is currently being fiercely debated in galleries and museums with many of these institutions now attempting to broaden the canon by including previously overlooked female artists and artists of colour, and challenging the idea of a universal canon by trying to reflect their localities in their collections. Caroline Douglas, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, and Helen Legg, Director of Tate Liverpool discuss the rebalancing of modern and contemporary art collections.In the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing, the name of one of the victims, 29-year-old Coronation Street superfan, Martyn Hett, began trending on twitter with the hashtag BeMoreMartyn. The hashtag has now evolved into the title of a verbatim play created from interviews with eight of Martyn’s friends. Theatre critic Lyn Gardner, and Mike Lee, the co-writer of the play, join Front Row to talk about making theatre from such a traumatic event. Recent days have seen English football clubs enjoy dramatic success in Europe, but it’s Welsh football that is the subject of celebration in a new exhibition at Tŷ Pawb, the arts centre in Wrexham. Curator James Harper discusses how contemporary artists have found inspiration in the beautiful game.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ekene Akalawu