Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Front Row

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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

BBC Radio 4 FM

Samira Ahmed

Rebecca Armstrong

Front Row: Jackie, The Transports, TS Eliot Prize, 'Yellowface' row

Jackie, The Transports, TS Eliot Prize, 'Yellowface' row

16/01/2017

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Jackie, The Transports, TS Eliot Prize, 'Yellowface' row

Natalie Portman as Jackie, TS Eliot Prize and should non-Asian actors play Asian roles?

Sarah Crompton reviews Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy, a new production of The Transports, the winner of the TS Eliot Prize, and should non-Asian actors play Asian roles?

Following the casting of Tilda Swinton as a character originally identified as Tibetan in the recent film Dr Strange, and the furore surrounding the casting of a new production of Howard Barker's play, In The Depths of Dead Love - Kumiko Mendl, Artistic Director of Yellow Earth Theatre, and Deborah Williams, Executive Director of Creative Diversity Network join Samira to discuss the issue of 'Yellowface' - the practice of non-Asian actors playing Asian roles. 

Sarah Crompton reviews the film Jackie, directed by Pablo Lorrain and starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy, which focuses on the immediate aftermath of JFK's assassination in 1963. 

The Transports is a ballad opera telling the true story of two convicts who fell in love in prison as they were waiting to be sent on the First Fleet to Australia. They had a child, were cruelly separated, but thanks to a kind gaoler, were eventually united. It was recorded in 1977 by giants of the folk world - June Tabor, Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson. 40 years on a new generation of folk stars - Nancy Kerr, Faustus, the Young'Uns - are touring their new production. Samira meets them as they rehearse and finds The Transports has plenty to say about exile and migration today.

Britain's most prestigious award for poetry, the TS Eliot Award, is announced this evening. The prize is for the best collection of poems published in 2016, and Front Row will have the first interview with the winner. 

Presenter: Samira Ahmed 
Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.

BBC Radio 4

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

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Front Row

Jackie, The Transports, TS Eliot Prize, 'Yellowface' row

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4