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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music

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John Wilson

Sting undefined

Beth Greenacre

Mark Haddon

Chris Hannan

Ian McDiarmid

Rebecca Armstrong

Front Row: Sting, David Bowie's art collection, Mark Haddon, Ian McDiarmid and Chris Hannan

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31/10/2016

Sting, David Bowie's art collection, Mark Haddon, Ian McDiarmid and Chris Hannan

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Sting, David Bowie's art collection, Mark Haddon, Ian McDiarmid and Chris Hannan

Sting on his new album; David Bowie's curator; Ian McDiarmid and Chris Hannan; Mark Haddon

Sting disusses his new album, David Bowie's curator on the musician's art collection, Mark Haddon reads The Pilgrim's Progress, and Ian McDiarmid talks about playing Enoch Powell.

Sting discusses 57th & 9th, his first rock album in 13 years, the title being a reference to New York City, his adopted home for the last 35 years. 

"Art was, seriously, the only thing I'd ever wanted to own." So said David Bowie, who gathered a huge and distinguished collection, particularly of post-war British painting. As an exhibition of the work opens at Sotheby's, ahead of its sale next month, Beth Greenacre, who was Bowie's curator, walks John Wilson around the collection and discusses what it reveals about him. 

As part of the BBC's Love to Read campaign which celebrates the pleasures of reading, author Mark Haddon - best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - confesses to a classic book he's never read, and reads it especially for Front Row. His choice of classic book: John Bunyan's 1678 Christian allegory, The Pilgrim's Progress. 

Enoch Powell's 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech is at the heart of a new play that examines the shifting nature of identity. Playwright Chris Hannan and actor Ian McDiarmid discuss bringing Powell the man and Powell the politician to life in the premiere production of What Shadows at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. 

Presenter: John Wilson 
Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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