Front Row

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BBC Radio 4 LW

Front Row: Drag kings, Courttia Newland, wintry podcasts

Drag kings, Courttia Newland, wintry podcasts

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Drag kings, Courttia Newland, wintry podcasts

Drag kings John Travulva and Don One, and novelist Courttia Newland

Drag kings Don One and Jodie Mitchell; writer Courttia Newland on his new novel A River Called Time; Eleanor Penny with her guide to podcasts for these long, dark nights.

As RuPaul’s Drag Race UK returns for a second season and the US series welcomes its first trans man as a competitor, are the ironically gendered boundaries of drag breaking down and what about the other side of drag - the kings? Drag kings Don One and Jodie Mitchell, better known as John Travulva, join Samira to talk about the world of Kings.

Courttia Newland’s new novel A River Called Time has been 18 years in the making and imagines a city a little like London in a world in which colonialism and slavery never happened.  The writer discusses imagination, speculative fiction and class – and his co-scripting with Steve McQueen for two of the Small Axe films - Lovers Rock and Red, White and Blue.

You’re back in lockdown, it’s bitterly cold outside and the nights are long and dark. You could order a sad lamp online and hope for the best, or you can lean into it with writer Eleanor Penny’s round up of podcasts for this bleak midwinter. Creepy, desolate, bleak - but gripping and thrilling too. Recommendations include The Sink, The Orbiting Human Circus, and Victoriocity.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Jerome Weatherald

Main image above: Drag King John Travulva
Image credit: Holly Revell

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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Drag kings, Courttia Newland, wintry podcasts

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