Front Row Folgen

We announce the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019 shortlist. Chair of the Judges and Director of the Art Fund Stephen Deuchar explains why these museums are in contention for the £100,000 prize.A recent report commissioned by President Macron has recommended that France should return all of its African artefacts unless they can prove that they legitimately acquired them, marking a significant shift away from the status quo in how museums deal with contested objects. As the debate about cultural repatriation and restitution intensifies we consider what impact it'll have on the way museums operate in practice. Subhadra Das, Curator at the UCL Collections, and Neil Curtis, Head of Museums and Special Collections at Aberdeen University, reflect on this complex issue. The Cranberries were in the process of recording their eighth album in 2018 when lead singer, Dolores O’Riordan, tragically died. The remaining band members decided to finish the album and on tonight’s Front Row, Noel Hogan, guitarist and co-songwriter with the group, reveals why they made the decision to continue with the album and what that process has been like.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Hannah Robins

Adeel Akhtar, who stars in the new BBC1 series Back to Life, talks about his acting career – from Four Lions to becoming the first non-white male to win a Best Actor BAFTA for the TV drama Murdered By My Father.Doris Hatt (1890-1969) was a painter, feminist, socialist and pioneer of British Modernism. Her work spanning five decades is the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton near where she lived. Curator Sarah Cox and historian Denys Wilcox discuss the life and art of Doris Hatt. It's fifty years since Joe Orton's play What the Butler Saw shocked audiences with its black comedy. Orton cultivated his image as a doyen of 60s counterculture but new research into his record collection reveals a surprising taste in music. Emma Parker has been listening to Orton's LPs. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser

We consider the connection between the public house and the arts. Why do pubs make such great settings, provide so much inspiration and serve as great venues for the arts? Al Murray ponders the longevity of his pub landlord and what this character allows him to explore about Britishness, as literary journalist Suzi Feay considers the representation of pubs in books and TV. Musician Eliza Carthy remembers her first ever public performance in The Bay Hotel in Robin Hood’s Bay, where she was a regular at the folk club there, while crime novelist David Mark tells us how he finds inspiration from the host of intriguing characters he meets down his local, the Samson Inn in Gilsland, Cumbria.But, as pubs continue to be in decline – 25% of pubs have closed since 2001 - we consider how some hostelries are reinventing themselves as cultural destinations. Dawn Badland runs The Inn Crowd, a project which supports rural pubs to host spoken word performances, and Adam Lacey is manager of The Old Joint Stock, a Birmingham pub with its own 100 seater theatre. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah Robins