Front Row - 04/09/2009

Bidisha joins Kirsty Lang to review Fish Tank, the new film from acclaimed writer and director of CCTV thriller Red Road, Andrea Arnold. Set on a council estate in Barking, London, the film follows the story of 15-year-old Mia, whose life changes when her mother brings home a new boyfriend. Kirsty talks to violinist Daniel Hope, who has been described as 'the most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pre', as he premieres a new violin concerto by the Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, at the Proms. The designers behind two of the biggest forthcoming fireworks displays, at the Edinburgh International Festival and London's Thames Festival, discuss the use of music in pyrotechnic shows and if firework designers should be treated as artists. Plus a review of Trevor Griffiths's new play about the extraordinary life of Thomas Paine, author of The Rights of Man and participant in the French and American revolutions, which opens at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London, marking the 200th anniversary of Paine's death.