Front Row Folgen

Tracey Thorn describes her new record 'Record' as 'nine feminist bangers'. She talks to John Wilson about why electro-pop turns out to be her preferred style for a musical look back at various stages in her life from birth, through teenage crushes and learning to play guitar to motherhood.The Finnish National Gallery has just become the latest institution to make digital images of works in its collection, that are no longer in copyright, freely available to the public. No major UK arts institution has taken a similar step. Art Historian Dr Bendor Grosvenor has been campaigning on this issue and explains his position.As two biographies of Mary Shelley have been published since Christmas "In Search of Mary Shelley the girl who wrote Frankenstein" by Fiona Sampson and "Mary Shelley" by Miranda Seymour we look at the competing claims and different perspectives that biographers bring to the lives of their subjects. Biographer and critic Kathryn Hughes and critic and editor of on-line literary magazine Boundless, Arifa Akbar, discuss what "rival" biographies reveal about the process of writing biography itself.Grime artist Stormzy took two of the top awards at the Brits and used his platform to criticise the government over its response to Grenfell Tower fire. From an interview with Front Row on the occasion of last year's awards he throws light on what motivates his rapping and his thoughts on grime's place in the awards.

Playwright Dennis Kelly's emotional new play Girls and Boys centres on the story of a woman in an aggressive man's world. Kelly and actor Carey Mulligan, the star of the one-woman show, discuss the disturbing themes in the play and the challenges of performing it.Following a major leak from the Game of Thrones set - and the accompanying outrage - we ask writer Gareth McLean and TV critic Emma Bullimore whether our aversion to spoilers has now gone too far.Boyd Hilton reviews Mosaic, a new TV drama series from Steven Soderbergh, which stars Sharon Stone as a murdered novelist. The HBO series is accompanied in the US by a mobile phone app whereby the viewer can choose from which perspective the plot is viewed. Matt Bellamy, the axeman who fronts Muse and is famous for his searing solos, has said the guitar as a lead instrument is dead. It has retreated into the texture of the music. Front Row plays a lament in tribute to the lead guitar, as it loses its leading role.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Julian May.

I, Tonya is a new biopic about figure skater Tonya Harding, who was known as the bad girl of the ice rink. The film stars Margot Robbie and Allison Janney who've won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA respectively for their performances. Briony Hanson reviews.With the Winter Olympics in full swing we ask 'is figure skating a sport or an art'? Robin Cousins, former Olympic champion and current commentator at the figure skating at the Games in Pyeongchang, and Debra Craine, dance critic of The Times, discuss how ice dancing relates to more classical forms of dance on terra firma. Jess Kidd won the Costa Short Story Award in 2016 and that year published her debut novel Himself to critical acclaim. She discusses her new novel The Hoarder about a care worker and her relationship with the belligerent Cathal Flood and the junk-filled house he inhabits.Yesterday the BBC launched two new African language services, bringing the news, and telling stories in Yoruba and Igbo. Wole Soyinka, the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, is Yoruba; Chinua Achebe, author of arguably the most famous African novel, Things Fall Apart, was Igbo. The editors of the new services discuss the importance of Yoruba and Igbo art and culture today.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald.