Front Row

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

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

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Front Row: Women's Prize Shortlist, Jamie MacDonald, Rotten Tomatoes

Women's Prize Shortlist; Jamie MacDonald's new Radio 4 show

Women's Prize Shortlist, Jamie MacDonald, Rotten Tomatoes

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Women's Prize Shortlist, Jamie MacDonald, Rotten Tomatoes

Bernadine Evaristo, chair of the Women's Prize juding panel, reveals this year's shortlist

Bernadine Evaristo reveals the Women's Prize shortlist, and Alex Clarke casts a critical eye; comedian Jamie MacDonald on his Radio 4 show that deals with losing his sight.

Today the shortlist for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction is revealed.  Chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo joins Front Row to talk through the chosen books and explain why they’re worth their place on the list and literary critic Alex Clark gives her reactions.

Citizen Kane has been knocked off the top spot on Rotten Tomatoes as a unfavourable review from 1941 has been found ruining its 100% critics rating. Taking its place is Paddington 2. Critic Jason Solomons digests the news.

Jamie MacDonald is a Glaswegian stand-up comedian who lost his sight in his teens due to a degenerative retinal disease. In his new Radio 4 stand-up series Jamie MacDonald: Life on the Blink, he reflects on how he used humour to move from denial to acceptance of his condition. He shares his experience of writing from personal experience, and how he made the unexpected move from banking to comedy. 

Presenter: John Wilson 
Producer: Hannah Robins

Main image: Bernadine Evaristo
Image credit: Sam Holden

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Women's Prize Shortlist, Jamie MacDonald, Rotten Tomatoes

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