Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

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

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

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 LW

Front Row: Simon Amstell, The Taming of the Shrew, Mind the Gap's learning disability theatre

Simon Amstell, Bradford’s learning disability theatre company, The Taming of the Shrew

Simon Amstell, The Taming of the Shrew, Mind the Gap's learning disability theatre

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Simon Amstell, The Taming of the Shrew, Mind the Gap's learning disability theatre

Simon Amstell on his new film, Benjamin; plus radical new takes on The Taming of the Shrew

Simon Amstell on his new film, Benjamin; two radical new takes on The Taming of the Shrew; plus Bradford’s learning disability theatre company, Mind the Gap.

Comedian Simon Amstell discusses his new film, Benjamin, based on his own life, and which he's both written and directed. He describes how making the film - about a rising young filmmaker who uses his real life relationships as material for his work - has helped him with his own anxieties.

Gender swapping in The Taming Of The Shrew. Two radical new productions of Shakespeare’s misogynistic comedy are currently playing at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff and at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford. In the original, a man marries a woman who speaks her own mind, and then starves her, deprives her of sleep, and constantly contradicts her until she becomes a docile, obedient victim of his abuse. Now, in the new productions, the genders have been swapped and the women wield the power. Kirsty Lang talks to Justin Audibert, Director of the Royal Shakespeare’s production, and to Jo Clifford, who has re-written the play for the Sherman, about what their re-imaginings reveal and how the work impacts on us today.

As part of the BBC’s We Are Bradford - a new project exploring people’s stories and issues in the city - we meet Bradford based Mind the Gap, England’s largest learning disability theatre company. Next month they stage their largest and most ambitious production yet: Zara - an outdoor theatrical spectacle with a puppet baby larger than a double decker bus. Reporter Sharuna Sagar visited their rehearsals. 

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Emma Wallace

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

Simon Amstell, The Taming of the Shrew, Mind the Gap's learning disability theatre

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4