Punchdrunk Podcasts

The Burnt City is the biggest production to date from the pioneering immersive theatre company Punchdrunk. As the company takes up residence in the former Royal Arsenal buildings of Woolwich, their first permanent space, they draw on the Greek tragedies of Agamemnon and Hecuba to reinterpret the Trojan war as a dystopian future noir. The French com…

Comedian Reggie Conquest and I sat outside a trade school in Buffalo, NY where he talked to me about his VERY NEW conversion to Islam. I walked in on him praying and forced him to tell me all about it even though he's not an expert at all, which he's not afraid to admit. As Reggie talked I realized how similar Islam and Judaism are. It sparked a gr…

Jason Solomons reports live from the Cannes Film Festival, with news of the surprise hits of this year's festival and who's in contention for the big prizes. The playwright John Godber on updating Teechers, a play that he wrote in the 1980s about his experiences as a drama teacher, for 2022. The British and Greek governments are due to meet this we…

Melly Still on directing ‘The Wreckers’, by Ethel Smyth, the first ever opera by a woman composer to be performed at the Glyndebourne Festival.Morgan Quaintance and Hettie Judah join us to review Emergency, the new film directed by Carey Williams and the Cornelia Parker exhibition at The Tate.Ivor Novello Awards: Sam Fender’s track Seventeen Going …

Bafta-winning actress Joanna Scanlan on learning Welsh and acting in the language for the very first time in Y Golau - a new crime drama for S4C and BBC iPlayer, set in rural Carmarthenshire and simultaneously filmed in Welsh and English.Indu Rubasingham on directing The Father and The Assassin - a new play by long-time collaborator Anu Chandrasekh…

Television screenwriter Kay Mellor, the woman behind popular series like Band of Gold, Fat Friends and The Syndicate, is remembered by fellow dramatist Sally Wainwright, Kat Rose Martin holder of the Kay Mellor Fellowship and television critic Julia Raeside.The idea of a minimum wage for artists is discussed by Aisa Villarosa Director of External R…

Dave Smith joins me to have our annual (except last year) what’s up with America. We covered everything. From the new baby exterminator laws to the current President, to the media’s attack on Joe Rogan, to the crime wave (of which I’m responsible for some) to homelessness, to Elon Musk, to the war in Ukraine. Dave gives an honest and non-biased run…

36 years after playing pilot Pete Mitchell in the first Top Gun film, Tom Cruise returns to the role. Now Mitchell is one of the US Navy's top aviators, a courageous test pilot and instructor. He can dodge planes in the air but avoiding the advancement in rank that would ground him proves more difficult for him. Larushka Ivan Zadeh reviews the film…

On today's Front Row review, we discuss directors taking a new look at much loved works: Daniel Fish’s Broadway production of Oklahoma!, now at the Young Vic in London, explores the darker aspects of the musical. Conversations with Friends, the debut novel by bestselling author Sally Rooney, has been adapted for television, following the lockdown s…

Film directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, otherwise known as ‘the Daniels’, join us to discuss their much anticipated sci-fi, multiverse film - Everything Everywhere All At Once.The artist Maurizio Cattelan is being sued over the authorship of some of his most famous works. Art critic Louisa Buck and lawyer Mark Stephens join Front Row to di…

Eurovision decided to ban Russian participation this year on the grounds that it might bring the contest into disrepute, following the invasion of Ukraine. Dean Vuletic, author of Postwar Europe and The Eurovision Song Contest, spoke to Tom Sutcliffe, ahead of tonight's first semi-final in Turin.The hashtag #BookTok has been viewed on TikTok 52.6 b…

Joe List, Luis Gomez, and Keryn Feehan join me on my rooftop for a wild all-over-the-place conversation that started with friendship and ended in a love child for which 23 states wouldn’t allow early termination. These are 4 of the dumbest people you know . For real. List is probably the smartest because he knows how to spell the word Movie. Luis i…

Clio Barnard talks to Samira Ahmed about directing the television adaptation of Sarah Perry’s bestselling novel The Essex Serpent. It stars Claire Danes as Cora Seaborne, a naturalist who moves to Essex to investigate reports of a giant serpent living in the marshes. Cora thinks it might be a living fossil. She meets Will Ransome, the local vicar, …

Singer songwriter PJ Harvey tells us about Orlam, her narrative poem set in a magic realist version of the West Country - a rural, and at times gothic, coming-of-age story and the first full-length book written in the Dorset dialect for many decades.Radical Landscapes is the name of a new exhibition exploring human connections with the landscape, a…

This year’s Brighton Festival has two guest directors for the first time in its history. One of them, Tristan Sharps, artistic director of Brighton based theatre company dreamthinkspeak, joins Elle to discuss the literary inspiration behind his immersive production, Unchain Me, and his collaboration with fellow guest director, Syrian architect Marw…

Everyone is happy at this time of year if you're an NFL fan; new draft picks- new hope towards a championship. The Buffalo Bills drafted at a bunch of positions, fans were hoping they'd address. Ben Grimaudo and David Palermo address their "feelings" on the Bills draft. Follow Numb Bills Fan everywhere. Subscribe to the podcast! Subscribe to YouTub…

Nathaniel Price discusses his drama First Touch, opening at the Nottingham Playhouse, about an aspiring young footballer growing up in Nottingham in the 1970s. Inspired by real life events, it explores the ways predatory abusers exploit positions of power within a community, in this case how the actions of a paedophile football coach almost go undi…

Serial inside blaster and now father and comedian Chris Distefano talks to me about what it’s like to be a father. Chris was about as honest (and funny) as anyone I’ve ever talked to about this stuff. He admitted to the negatives and told me about the positives. Very funny and interesting conversation! Chris is for real a hilarious standup comedian…

Huw Stephens, familiar to listeners to Radio Cymru and Radio Wales presents a multilingual, multicultural Bank Holiday edition of Front Row from Cardiff. Caryl Lewis is a mighty presence in Welsh literature, author of more than 25 books. Her novel Martha, Jac a Sianco is a modern classic, taught at A Level. She wrote the screenplay for the film – a…

Observer theatre critic Susannah Clapp and broadcaster and Editor of the Wales Art Review Gary Raymond review The Corn is Green at the National Theatre and Tate Britain's Walter Sickert exhibition. And Samira talks to actor actor Cherylee Houston, best known as Coronation Street’s Izzy Armstrong, who is also co-founder of the The TripleC organisati…

Dr Matthias Wivel, co-curator of the Raphael exhibition at the National Gallery, discusses the life and death of the Renaissance painter and how he shaped the history of western art. The shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction is announced today. Literary critic Alex Clark talks about the six books in contention for the prize, and we’ll be hear…

Emerging playwright Tim Foley is in the distinctive position of having won a prize for every play of his that has been staged. He joins Front Row to discuss his third play, Electric Rosary – a sci-fi exploration of religion and science in the company of a group of nuns and a robot - which has just opened at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.…

Delta Clear applicant and standup comedian Mike Cannon met up with me at the St Louis Lambert International airport to discuss today’s hot button topic in a discussion you could only be at if you passed a rigorous screening process handled by top industry professionals. Now, I’m not really sure if the St Louis Airport is international. Actually, it…

Atlantis (2019) was the Ukrainian entry for that year's Oscars. It now seems incredibly prescient in its depiction of a Ukraine set post-war in 2025. Film critic Laruskha Ivan-Zadeh and historian Kathryn Hughes join Front Row to review it. They'll also be talking about Michael Arditti's novel The Young Pretender. It imagines the life of the real-li…

Chivalry, the new Channel 4 comedy which looks at the making of a Hollywood movie in a post MeToo world, has been co-created by its co-stars – Sarah Solemani, and Steve Coogan. Sarah joins Elle Osili-Wood on Front Row to discuss why MeToo has provided new grounds for comedy.Venezuelan singer Samuel Mariño originally trained as a ballet dancer befor…

Director Robert Eggers discusses his new film The Northman, set in Iceland at the turn of the 10th century. A Nordic prince sets out on a mission of revenge after his father is murdered. The plot, which is an old Nordic story, is allegedly the basis for the plot of Hamlet. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, Willem Dafoe and…

Dan Soder came over to talk about his special that came out nearly three years ago. "Son Of A Gary" on HBOMax. This podcast is three years in the making. I've been wanting to get Dan on to talk about his dad Gary since the release of his special, but then something happened and we never got around to it. After we finished the episode, I had one las…

Greg Tompsett from Cover1.net joins David Palermo to talk the Salary cap and going into the future. The NFL Draft is around the corner and with the busy Brandon Beane offseason, the General Manager has narrowed his options to draft for impact. This podcast will last until the salary cap changes. Subscribe here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCJc_v9pW…

The Big Jubilee Read is a reading for pleasure campaign by the Reading Agency and the BBC highlighting 70 books from across the Commonwealth published during the decades of the Queen's reign. To mark the launch, Front Row comes from the Studio Theatre at the Library of Birmingham with an audience. Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah talks to Samira ab…

Our Thursday review critics, Dr. Kirsty Fairclough and poet Joelle Taylor, give their assessment of Paul Verhoeven's film Benedetta and the exhibition Let the Song Hold Us at Liverpool's Fact Gallery.Nick meets Alan Lane, Artistic Director of Slung Low Theatre Company in Leeds, to discuss his 'pandemic memoir', The Club on the Edge of Town. Present…

Tom Robinson is the black man wrongly accused of raping a white girl in To Kill a Mocking Bird. In Harper Lee's novel and the film he is at the centre of the story but, defended by the white lawyer, Atticus Finch, almost voiceless. In the acclaimed new stage production now in the West End, the actor playing Tom Robinson, Jude Owusu, discusses his a…

After being announced as the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2022, the Canadian photographer and artist Edward Burtynsky talks to Tom about his 40-year career as a landscape photographer.This year’s Turner Prize is returning to Liverpool for the first time in 15 years. Laura Robert…

Katie Hannigan sits down with me to tell me about her time as a NYC tour guide. It was a tawdry world of autistic tourist nerds and their dumb families. Make sure to check out Katie’s new standup comedy album, “Feeling of Emptiness” and listen to her podcast, “Lady Journey” that she does with Sarah Tollemache every week. For more Ari: Subscribe on …

70 years after Sooty first appeared with Harry Corbett on the BBC’s Talent Night, presenter and current owner of The Sooty Show Richard Cadell talks to Samira about Sooty’s enduring appeal, as Sooty’s Magic Show embarks on a new tour and a theme park opens at the end of May. Annilese Miskimmon, Artistic Director of English National Opera, discusses…

The Buffalo Bills keep making Bills fans emotionally tear up. Stephon Diggs resigned with the team for 4 years 70 million guaranteed. Brandon Beane has shown great plays with Monopoly money. Josh Allen and Diggs locked up for a long time keeps pointing arrows upwards in the NFL. Follow Numb Bills Fan everywhere. Subscribe on YouTube and where you f…

American playwright Jeremy O.Harris discusses his play Daddy, at London’s Almeida Theatre, which explores the romantic relationship between Franklin, a young black artist, and Andre, a wealthy white collector.Front Row reviews works that are poles apart today; the exhibition Inspiring Walt Disney, which reveals how Disney’s fascination with France,…

Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese-American poet whose recent works include a best-selling novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and a multi-prize-winning volume of verse, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. He talks about his latest collection of poems, Time Is A Mother, exploring themes of childhood, addiction, sexuality and the death of his mother. The third…

The playwright Mike Bartlett is busy. The 47th, his dark comedy about the next presidential race, with Bertie Carvel giving an uncanny performance as Donald Trump is about to open at the Old Vic in London. So too is Scandaltown, his modern day Restoration comedy about social ambition, featuring characters with names such as Hannah Tweetwell and Fre…

Big Jay Oakerson and Robert Kelly joined me on the road to Michigan for a weekend of shows. Come with us on the drive to Fort Wayne and watch us test our luck with a $20 scratch off ticket. Stay tuned for the outro to find out what happened with our winnings. Ari Shaffir: Upcoming Shows Patreon Instagram Website Big Jay Oakerson: Upcoming Shows & m…

Rae Morris discusses her latest single, ‘No Woman is An Island,’ ahead of the release of her new album.Ludovic Hunter-Tilney joins us to discuss the highlights from last night’s Grammy Awards. Novelist Ashley Hickson Lovence talks about his new novel, Your Show, about Uriah Rennie, one of the first black referees to officiate games in the Football …

Critics Sarah Crompton and Abir Mukherjee review Slow Horses, the brand new series from Apple TV+ starring Gary Oldman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Olivia Cooke, Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves and Jonathan Pryce. Slow Horses is based on the novel of the same name by Mick Herron, which is part of the author's Slough House series. It tells the story of a team …

Presented by Kate Molleson from Glasgow. As the Burrell Collection reopens in Glasgow after a £68 million refit, Sunday Post art critic Jan Patience discusses the significance of the gallery, which includes rare Persian carpets, Chinese ceramics and sculptures by Rodin. Director Cora Bissett talks about Orphans – the new musical from the National T…