Front Row Folgen

The Cutty Sark was launched 150 years ago this year. The acme of sailing technology, now she floats not in the sea but in the air in Greenwich. People walk around on, in and under her. So the ship has become a monumental public art-work. The sculptor Michael Speller, who has made public works for Greenwich, tours the Cutty Sark with Kirsty Lang and the ship's curator, Hannah Stockton. They start beneath the keel, Michael considering the the shape and heft of the hull, then venture into the hold, where the iron ribs to which the huge planks are attached, are akin to the armature of a sculpture, and finish up on deck, where Michael is struck by the delicate filigree of the rigging and the powerful shapes described by the masts and yards. Regina King is sweeping up awards for her performance in If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins’ adaption of James Baldwin’s novel set in 1970s Harlem. She talks to Kirsty about police violence in America, how the awards season resembles a political campaign and why she used her Golden Globes speech to issue a challenge to the industry. Demolition of the former Royal Mail sorting office in Bristol began last week, as part of the regeneration of the city’s Temple Quarter district. Vanessa Kisuule is Poet-in-residence on the project and has written a poem, ‘Brick me’, to capture the history of the site which has been derelict for more than 20 years. It at once celebrates the erasure of an eyesore, and is an elegy for the loss of a familiar landmark.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Julian May

American comedian Tiffany Haddish joins the voice cast of the Lego Movie sequel as the shape-shifting Queen Whatever Wa'Nabi. She tells Front Row how comedy saved her from a troubled childhood and the foster care system, and how she went on to host Saturday Night Live and feature on the cover of Time 100.Alice Clark-Platts’ latest thriller The Flower Girls was the subject of fierce bidding war. The story of two sisters, Laurel and Primrose, the novel has resonances with the Bulger and Madeleine McCann cases. A former human rights lawyer, Alice Clark-Platts grapples with notions of whether a person can ever be rehabilitated and why the past is often impossible to bury in future relationships.This year sees the 25th anniversary of the National Lottery. In that time it has awarded almost £40bn to good causes across more than 535,000 individual projects. Ros Kerslake, CEO of the newly-named National Lottery Heritage Fund who award their own share of the money, discusses her new plans to distribute over £1bn to the UK’s heritage over the next five years.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Ben MitchellMain image: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part Photo credit: Warner Bros

Painter, sculptor, architect and engineer- Leonardo da Vinci is regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. To mark the 500th anniversary of his death, 144 of his drawings from the Royal Collection are to be exhibited in 12 galleries and museums nationwide. Senior curator Natasha Howes, and Mark Roughley, medical illustrator and Art in Science lecturer at Liverpool School of Art and Design discuss the Renaissance master's anatomical work on show at Manchester Art Gallery.Green Book - a film about an Italian-American bouncer turned chauffeur for an African-American concert pianist, driving through the Deep South in Jim Crow America, arrives in the UK garlanded with awards and Oscar and Bafta nominations. Al Bailey, Co-founder and Director of Programming at Manchester International Film Festival, reviews.As Sian Edwards prepares to conduct Opera North’s latest production of Janáček’s Katya Kabanova, she discusses the appeal of the Czech composer’s music, and what she plans to bring to his dark tale of a woman in search of love but trapped by convention.Earlier this month, the Department for Education announced plans for a new model music curriculum with the aim of stopping the decline in the number of pupils studying music at GCSE and A Level. The plan has faced criticism including thirty academics with backgrounds in music and education signing an open letter to the DfE. The Right Honourable Nick Gibb, Minister for School Standards, and Dr Jonathan Savage from Manchester Metropolitan University, and former Chair of Expert Subject Advisory Group for Music 2013, join Gaylene to discuss if the proposed new curriculum is the right answer to the right question.