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Front Row: Stephen Beresford, A harp concerto about bees, James Graham, Peter Kosminsky

Stephen Beresford, Peter Kosminsky, a harp concerto about bees

Stephen Beresford, A harp concerto about bees, James Graham, Peter Kosminsky

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Stephen Beresford, A harp concerto about bees, James Graham, Peter Kosminsky

Playwright and BAFTA winning screenwriter Stephen Beresford on The Southbury Child.

Playwright Stephen Beresford on The Southbury Child, a harp concerto about bees, playwright James Graham on arts education, writer-director Peter Kosminsky on The Undeclared War

Playwright and BAFTA winning screenwriter Stephen Beresford has returned to writing for the stage with The Southbury Child, a co-production between The Chichester Festival Theatre and The Bridge Theatre in London. Stephen joins Samira to discuss his state of the nation play, focusing on a charismatic vicar at the centre of a controversy, in a Dartmouth parish in decline. 

Hive explores the life of a beehive over the four seasons of the year. Composer Sally Beamish visits the Front Row studio to tell Samira about her concerto for harp and orchestra, with harpist Catrin Finch who will play Pavan from Sally Beamish's score for a ballet version of The Tempest.

From the past in Wolf Hall and the present in The State, writer and director Peter Kosminsky takes us to the near future in his new drama The Undeclared War. It’s a cyberwarfare thriller set in 2024, mixing espionage and politics with coding, bots and hacking. Peter joins Samira to discuss the research that goes into his projects, finding new faces, and how to set the drama of coding on the screen.

And playwright James Graham on why he thinks the arts and creative subjects are under serious threat in our schools and universities.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian May

Image: Alex Jennings as David Highland in The Southbury Child at The Chichester Festival Theatre and The Bridge Theatre, London
Photographer credit: Manuel Harlan

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