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Front Row

Sergei Polunin, David Baddiel, Rankin

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

With John Wilson.

Sergei Polunin is the youngest dancer ever to be made a principal with the Royal Ballet, a role he unexpectedly quit after two years aged 21. Earlier this year he suddenly left the cast of a new ballet version of Midnight Express, days before its UK premiere. As he takes the lead in a Moscow production of Coppélia in London, Polunin discusses this role and his career highs and lows.

David Baddiel's first full stand-up show for over 15 years concentrates on the idea of celebrity. In Fame - Not The Musical, he argues that famous people don't talk about how the level of fame can fluctuate, and suggests that he is no longer as famous as he used to be. He discusses his return to the stage, and also reveals that he feels partly responsible for Sachsgate, the infamous prank calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to Andrew Sachs.

In 1936 Dame Laura Knight became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy since 1769. As a new exhibition of her work opens at the National Portrait Gallery, Juliet Gardiner reassesses an artist who began painting circus scenes and went on to become an official war artist, creating a famous picture of the Nuremberg Trials.

In tonight's Cultural Exchange, the British portrait and fashion photographer Rankin - full name John Rankin Waddell - selects a short poem by Thomas Hardy which had a big influence on his decision to become a photographer while studying at Brighton Polytechnic.

Producer Claire Bartleet. Show less

Contributors

Presenter:
John Wilson
Interviewed Guest:
David Baddiel
Interviewed Guest:
Sergei Polunin
Interviewed Guest:
Juliet Gardiner
Interviewed Guest:
Rankin

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