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Front Row: Tobias Menzies plays Prince Philip; Six, a musical about the wives of Henry VIII; and Rapman

13/11/2019

Tobias Menzies plays Prince Philip; Six, a musical about the wives of Henry VIII; and Rapman

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Tobias Menzies plays Prince Philip; Six, a musical about the wives of Henry VIII; and Rapman

Tobias Menzies plays Prince Philip in The Crown; Six, a musical about Henry VIII's wives

Tobias Menzies on the challenges of playing Prince Philip; Six, a student musical about the wives of Henry VIII that's about to open on Broadway; Rapman on his first feature film.

This edition of Front Row has a regal air. As the third series of The Crown airs next week, with Olivia Coleman taking over the role of Queen Elizabeth from Claire Foy, Stig Abell talks to Tobias Menzies about the challenges of playing Prince Phillip, previously Matt Smith's part. Covering the years 1964 – 1977, in this series the Royals have all four of their children and are more settled in their domestic lives. But events in the wider world are making their impact, from the election of Harold Wilson as Prime Minister to the Apollo moon landing.

Six is a musical about the wives of Henry VIII which started out as a Cambridge student production in 2017 and is now a transatlantic phenomenon, about to tour the UK and open on Broadway. Professor of Musical Theatre Millie Taylor reviews. 

Shiro’s Story was a series of three videos telling the story, partly in rap, of a young man caught in a world of violence and retribution. Each amassed over 7 million views and Jay-Z was a fan. Their creator, Rapman, has now made a full length feature film, Blue Story, about the gang wars he witnessed while growing up in South London.  Will his YouTube audience follow him to the cinema?  He joins Front Row to talk about who gets to tell stories in film.

And news of the winner of the £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize for fiction that "opens up new possibilities for the novel form", announced this evening.

Presenter: Stig Abell
Producer: Julian May

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