Front Row Folgen

In Sebastian Barry’s inaugural speech as Laureate for Irish Fiction earlier this year, he stated that Ireland was in a 'golden age of prose'. As Northern Irish writer Anna Burns scooped the Man Booker Prize for her novel Milkman last month, Front Row hears voices from the No Alibis bookstore in Belfast. We speak to former Irish Laureate and Booker Prize winner Anne Enright; Professor of Irish History and Literature, Roy Foster; award-winning, Belfast-born writer Lucy Caldwell; and writer, editor and journalist Sinead Gleeson. They discuss the renaissance in Irish writing, its roots in Irish storytelling and love of language, and how the border - now at the heart of the Brexit debate - is being written about by a new generation of writers, north and south.And Front Row exclusively announces the winner of this year's Hepworth Sculpture Prize, hearing live from the victor and from the Chief Curator of The Hepworth Wakefield, Andrew Bonacina. This year’s shortlist includes Mona Hatoum, Michael Dean, Phillip Lai, Magali Reus, and Cerith Wyn Evans.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson

Arts education has become the focus of a great deal of passion and concern recently, since the core, knowledge-based subjects took precedence over the creative subjects when the EBacc was introduced in England by the then Education Minister Michael Gove, announced in 2010.With the arts not being a requirement in the GCSE syllabus for the English Baccalaureate (the EBacc), leaders in the arts and the lucrative creative industries have been very vocal in their criticism of government policy.Stig Abell chairs a discussion on the subject from a state secondary school - Soar Valley College in Leicester - with leading figures in arts and education.On the panel are:Bob and Roberta Smith, contemporary artist and education advocate Deborah Annetts, Chief Executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (the ISM)Trina Haldar, graduate in chemistry and engineering, and director and founder of Leicester-based Mashi Theatre Branwen Jeffreys, BBC’s Education EditorMark Lehain, founder (and former headteacher) of one of the first secondary Free Schools. He also leads the Parents and Teachers for Excellence campaignJulie Robinson, headteacher of Soar Valley College in LeicesterCarl Ward, Chief Exec of the City Learning Trust, a partnership of schools teaching a combined total of 6000 pupils in Stoke-on-TrentPresenter: Stig Abell Producers: Edwina Pitman and Jerome Weatherald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the second in the Fantastic Beasts film franchise from JK Rowling which explores the Wizarding World before Harry Potter. Eddie Redmayne and Johnny Depp star, and Jude Law joins the cast as a young Dumbledore. James Walters, Head of the Department of Film at the University of Birmingham reviews. As CAPSID, a new exhibition which explores how viruses behave, opens in Manchester, Front Row brought together the artist behind it, John Walter, and scientist turned artist, Dr Lizzie Burns to discuss the appeal of making art inspired by the microbiological world.Fernand Léger is the subject of a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool. Leger's work moved between many of the great art movements of the 20th century - Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism - but retained his own distinctive style. Fernand Léger: New Times, New Pleasures is the first major exhibition dedicated to the artist in the UK in 30 years. Art Critic Laura Robertson explains his significance.Adapting 1902 novel Heart Of Darkness for the stage in 2018 - theatre company Imitating The Dog has turned Joseph Conrad's famous story on its head, swapping the African Congo for war-torn Europe, narrator Charles Marlow for a black female private detective, and using digital film and a dual narrative on stage. To discuss this creative reimaging and how it tackles the novel’s issues with race and colonialism, John is joined by Co-Artistic Director Andrew Quick, and Keicha Greenidge, who plays the lead role.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Ekene Akalawu