Episode details

Radio 4,28 Sep 2026,42 mins
Es Devlin retrospective, Sebastian Faulks, Turner Prize, Apple Music Hall
Front RowAvailable for over a year
The multi-award winning stage designer and artist Es Devlin talks to Samira as a retrospective of her work opens at the Design Museum in London. Devlin has created sets for theatre and opera and also for stadium concerts, fashion shows, and the Olympics opening ceremony. This is her first UK museum show and her first retrospective in Europe, and it celebrates her 30-year creative practice across stage design, art installations, sculpture and music. The music played in the exhibition and briefly on our programme was composed by Polyphonia. Sebastian Faulks, one of the country’s most acclaimed novelists, imagines the life of an ex-soldier stationed in 1946 Palestine at the end of the British Mandate in his new book Farewell to Eden. He talks to Samira about why this troubled period of history has drawn him in. The technology giant Apple has helped transform the way we listen to music through its devices and platforms, and is now opening its own 600-capacity concert venue at Battersea Power Station in London, with Elton John headlining its first show. Samira speaks to Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services and Health, about the company’s ambitions for Apple Music Hall and its role in the music industry. Jonathan Jones reviews the work of the nominees for this year’s Turner Prize. Producer: Eliane Glaser
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