Front Row

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)

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: James Graham, Nottingham's Rock City celebrates 40 years, Liam Bailey, Phoebe Boswell

James Graham, Nottingham's Rock City celebrates 40 years, Liam Bailey, Phoebe Boswell

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, James Graham, Nottingham's Rock City celebrates 40 years, Liam Bailey, Phoebe Boswell

Geeta Pendse presents from Nottingham, with local lad James Graham on his new rom-com.

Geeta Pendse presents from Nottingham, with local lad James Graham on his new covid rom-com, live music from Liam Bailey and artist Phoebe Boswell on breathing in lockdown.

Geeta Pendse presents Front Row live from Nottingham in a shared broadcast with BBC Radio Nottingham. 

In spite of virus restrictions, Nottingham Playhouse goes live for the first time since March this week with a season they're calling Notthingham Unlocks. We'll talk to the playwright and local James Graham about his brand new play, a lockdown romance played by TV stars Jessica Raine and Pearl Mackie. James Graham, who's known for stage and TV dramas that take on big topical issues, from Brexit to Rupert Murdoch's rise to power, will explain why the the story of a couple who meet on a perfect date and then have to decide what to do when lockdown begins, is the perfect story for now.  

The live music venue Rock City is celebrating forty years of launching a thousand music careers and Nottingham relationships this year. We'll have memories right from the beginning but also from students who are finding the venue's pioneering socially distanced gigs a lifetime. 

We'll talk to the Nottingham-born musician Liam Bailey who fulfilled his dream of playing at Rock City. He was signed by Amy Winehouse, supported Paloma Faith and tours with Drum and bass duo Chance and Status. But his new album Ekundayo – named for a Yoruba word meaning sorrow becomes joy – is a new departure for the singer-songwriter. It’s an album motored by stories from his own life – from his search for his absent Jamaican father to his struggles with mental health to managing to make the most of lockdown against all the odds.

And Phoebe Boswell will talk about her forthcoming exhibition - Here - at Nottingham's New Art exchange.  She was born in Kenya, raised in the Arabian Gulf but now lives and works in the UK. Her work combines drawing with video, sound and digital animation but the themes are simple ones of identity and belonging. She’ll be talking about her brand new interactive work which struck an unexpected chord with lockdown-weary participants. 

Presenter: Geeta Pendse
Producer: Olive Clancy

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

James Graham, Nottingham's Rock City celebrates 40 years, Liam Bailey, Phoebe Boswell

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4