Front Row Folgen

Alan Bennett's new play Allelujah! is set in the geriatric ward of a Yorkshire hospital threatened with closure. It follows a singing, dancing choir of quick-witted elderly patients whose problem is not that they are ill so much as they have nowhere to go. Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner discuss working together and how Alan manages to take on big themes - English identity, education and now the NHS - without being, he says, a "political" writer. Blenheim Palace is housing a major exhibition of the work of the radical French artist Yves Klein, famous for his ultramarine blue paintings and sculptures. Louisa Buck reviews. A new survey into ethnic diversity in children's literature has found that only 4% of all the children's books published in the UK last year featured a black, Asian or minority ethnic character. Farrah Serroukh, who led the Reflecting Realities survey, and writer Patrice Lawrence discuss the findings.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Hannah Robins.

Sacha Baron Cohen's return to TV is Who Is America?, a new series in which he dupes figures such as Sarah Palin and Bernie Sanders into giving interviews to him, heavily disguised with prosthetics. TV critic Boyd Hilton reviews.As the decision is taken to rebuild the Glasgow School of Art after its second devastating fire, Sally Stewart, Head of Architecture at the school, discusses the latest plans for the celebrated Charles Rennie Mackintosh masterpiece.Photographer Anita Corbin discusses her latest project, First Women, a series of portraits of 100 women who have broken barriers in areas including sport, law, and the military, to become the first of their gender to achieve their positions. After he was stopped from photographing a work by Rembrandt this afternoon at Scotland's National Galleries - a painting on loan from a museum that allows the public to take photographs of the painting freely - art historian Bendor Grosvenor discusses the ethics of taking photographs in art exhibitions.The Chinese fantasy epic, Asura, with special effects made in Hollywood and starring China's most popular stars, cost 112 million dollars to make and was eagerly anticipated. But after its opening last weekend China's most expensive film ever has been pulled from cinemas. The BBC's Hong Kong Bureau Chief, Vivian Wu, tells John where it all went wrong. Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Pierce Brosnan discusses his long and varied career which began as an artist, as he reprises the role of Sam Carmichael in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again - with less singing this time.The Irish government has recently announced a new arts strategy and funding of Euro 2.billion Euros in a programme called "Investing in Our Culture, Language and Heritage. Journalist and Art Historian Robert O' Byrne, Dr. Annie Doona, Chair of Screen Ireland, and Catherine Heaney, Chair of the National Museum of Ireland Board discuss how the plan will affect Ireland's cultural landscape.As MPs begin to debate the government's White Paper on Brexit, John Kampfner from the Creative Industries Federation explains their reaction to proposals for the arts and creative sector.Need inspiration for holiday reading? Writer Stephanie Merritt recommends books to travellers destined for Malta, Spain and Greece as part of our Summer Reads series.Presenter : Kirsty Lang Producer : Dymphna Flynn.