Front Row Late

Mary Beard returns with the live, topical cultural debate programme. Mary and her guest panellists discuss the representation of older people in our culture. Featuring, a rare television interview with writer, poet and cultural commentator Clive James.

A live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music introduced by Mary Beard As the V&A opens its first outpost outside London, in Dundee, Mary Beard and her panel of guests discuss iconic architecture and the role of cultural buildings in changing the fortunes of our towns and cities. Mary and her panel also debate whether Glasgow School of Art should be rebuilt, whatever the cost, and how Grenfell Tower should be memorialised. And Mary takes a day trip to Margate, to find out how hostile attitudes to Turner Contemporary have been reversed since it opened in 2011.

Mary Beard is joined by historian and broadcaster David Olusoga, novelist Kate Mosse and historian Laura Ashe to discuss how film, theatre, literature and photography shape our understanding of history. And Mary takes part in a re-enactment of the Battle of Prestonpans to explore the popular appetite for reliving historical events.

Mary Beard hosts the topical cultural debate programme.

Mary and her panel of guests - Kate Mosse, Sathnam Sanghera and Dreda Say Mitchell - are in Birmingham, where the Birmingham Literature Festival is underway. Ahead of the announcement of this year's Man Booker Prize, they discuss who tells us what to read, and are prizes and critics important when choosing a book, or are digital algorithms just as useful? Mary also investigates how the publishing industry spends money to influence the books we buy.

Special edition of the topical culture programme in which Mary Beard is in conversation with Oscar-winning actress and writer Emma Thompson.

Mary Beard presents the live, topical cultural debate programme. Mary Beard and guests discuss the ethics of portraying human suffering on the big screen.

Ahead of the award of the 2018 Turner Prize, Mary Beard and her panel of guests discuss the shortlisted artists and the level of commitment required to take in the exhibition. With each of the shortlisted artists exhibiting moving image work, what does this mean for painting and sculpture? She explores the world of moving image art in the company of artists Jane and Louise Wilson and Larry Achiampong. Mary and her guests also discuss one of the art world's biggest stories of 2018: Banksy's self-shredding work, which was auctioned last month, and a new documentary which examines commercialism in the art world - Nathaniel Khan's The Price of Everything.

In this special edition of Front Row Late, Mary Beard is in conversation with author, critic and broadcaster Clive James. After migrating to Britain from Australia in the 1960s, James established himself as a caustic and charismatic commentator on popular culture and a pioneer of television criticism. In his heyday, he was one of the most famous faces on British TV and secured access to some of the biggest stars of the day, including Mel Brooks, Jane Fonda and Frank Sinatra. He has gone on to prove himself a captivating memoirist, reflecting on a rich and eventful life, and also a major-league poet and translator. A diagnosis of leukaemia in 2010 may have slowed down James's productivity in recent years but, with the help of pioneering treatment, he has gone on to chronicle his illness in insightful columns for the Guardian and to produce powerful poetry exploring mortality and the many joys of life. Now aged 79, he has lived longer than he or his doctors predicted and, in the summer of 2018, he surprised many by publishing another book. Mary Beard interviews Clive James about the book, The River in the Sky, which reflects on 'the fragile treasures of his life'. She explores his attitude towards his own mortality, his reflections on being a migrant and whether we can expect him to produce yet more books.