Artists at Work

Latest Episodes:

In the Studio: Vietnamese Cinema Nov 03, 2026

Show notes

Tuyet Vah Huynh meets two film-makers in Hanoi, Nguyen Duy Anh and Bui Kim Quy . Tuyet explains how cinema is booming in Vietnam. In 2025, more than 70 million cinema tickets were sold, and Vietnamese films took more than sixty per cent of the domestic box office. And yet, for audiences in Britain and much of the world, Vietnamese cinema can still feel largely undiscovered. Vietnam has been making films for generations, but outside the country, the image of Vietnam on screen has often been shaped by Hollywood, films about Vietnam, rather than films made by Vietnamese film.

The Arts Hour Indian-Irish poet Nikita Gill Oct 30, 2026

Show notes

Nikki Bedi speaks to superstar Irish-Indian poet and New York Times-Bestselling author Nikita Gill about her latest “novel in verse Styx: The River” Plus critic Kohinoor Sahota discusses this week’s cultural highlights: Oscar-winners Aaron Sorkin and Mikey Madison on their new film, The Social Reckoning “Kinetic artist” Liliane Lijn on growing up in a multi-lingual household and being given Salvador Dali's moustache! South African actor John Kani (King T’Chaka in Black Panther) on playing Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest And fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe alum Florence Pugh on playing "fallen woman" Cathy Ames in the epic new Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden

In the Studio: Yuko Mohri Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

Neil McCarthy meets Japanese artist Yuko Mohri, as she prepares for a major exhibition. Her sculptures often fuse ordinary objects, such as umbrellas, feather dusters and apples, with unstable forces such as air and water. The results are works of kinetic art that are constantly changing and evolving, as Neil discovers.

The Arts Hour: Elif Shafak Oct 23, 2026

Show notes

Nikki Bedi speaks to the Turkish-born author about her new novel In One Brief Moment All Eternity. Using the voices of different women, Shafak tells the story of 19th century French writer Gustave Flaubert, whose famous book Madame Bovary forever shaped modern fiction.

We hear from New Zealand's Taika Waititi about Klara and the Sun, his new film based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Jamaican author Marlon James discusses The Disappearers, his new Booker-shortlisted story about 1980s homophobia.

French director Stéphane Demoustier on The Great Arch, his new biopic of outsider Danish architect Otto von Spreckelsen

And as a new adaptation of Sense & Sensibility hits the cinemas, British star Daisy Edgar Jones and Australian screenwriter Diana Reid make the case for Jane Austen's enduring relevance and wit.

Joining to give his take on the week's cultural highlights is Guy Lodge, chief film critic at Variety magazine.

Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

In the Studio: Joachim Trier Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

Another chance to go behind the scenes with director Joachim Trier as he makes the follow-up to his international hit The Worst Person In The World. Stephen Hughes got exclusive access to the set of Sentimental Value, following the film from pre to post production. In a series of candid interviews, the writer-director reveals the anxiety he feels every time he has to make a movie, and how he is helped by his loyal team: screenwriter Eskil Vogt and producers Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, Mone Mikkelsen and Lars Thomas Skare.

The Arts Hour: Visionary filmmaker Boots Riley on his radical new movie I Love Boosters Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

Nikki Bedi and critic Leila Latif celebrate this year’s London Film Festival with international directors of some of the most playful and provocative upcoming titles.

African-American auteur Boots Riley explains the heady cocktail of comedy, shoplifting and politics in his film, ‘I Love Boosters’.

From the Philippines, Rafael Manuel, reveals why he chose an elite Manila golf course as the setting for his social satire, Filipiñana.

Chilean-Indian director Shalini Adnani’s ‘Our Share of Sand’ examines class and patriarchy’, through the eyes of a twelve year old girl who travels from England to India to reconnect with her father.

And Nigerian filmmaker Daniel Oriahi’s “The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives” is a dark comedy which explores marriage, jealousy and fertility in a Yoruba family.

The Arts Hour: Tom Cruise on his latest film Digger Oct 09, 2026

Show notes

Nikki Bedi speaks to Sudanese Russian director Suzannah Mirghani about her latest film, Cotton Queen and discusses this week’s cultural highlights with critic Hanna Flint: Tom Cruise and Oscar winning Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu on their new film, Digger Oscar winning actor Catherine Zeta Jones on reclaiming her Welsh accent in the TV series, Kill Jackie Punjabi-Indian superstar singer Diljit Dosanjh on performing in London's biggest stadium Gonzo journalist Jon Ronson on his latest book, The Castle And Oscar-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri on adapting Thelma and Louise into a stage musical

In the Studio: German Synth Music Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

In Berlin, three artists have come together to make some unusual music. They’re not a regular rock band in a commercial recording studio, but in an experimental space, where rare vintage synthesisers from Cold War East Germany sit alongside contemporary instruments. They’re continuing a decades long Berlin tradition of experimental electronic music. In the Studio joins the trio for a couple of days as they push at the envelope of audio possibilities, and hears how musicians from the East and the West influenced each other at the heights of the Cold War. Thanks to the only surviving example of one GDR synthesiser, we’ll literally hear the sound of the other side of the wall in a former divided city.

World Book Club: Paul Tremblay, A Head Full of Ghosts Oct 03, 2026

Show notes

Josie Long interviews one of the masters of modern horror, Paul Tremblay. He answers your questions on on of his best loved novels, A Head Full of Ghosts.

The story centres on the Barretts, a typical New England suburban family, torn apart when their eldest daughter, 14-year-old Marjorie, begins to display signs of acute mental illness.

When doctors are seemingly unable to offer any relief, and financial troubles compound the horror of being unable to help their child, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. But the priest offers more than prayers; he knows of a production company that is eager to document their plight, and pay a pretty penny for access. With mounting medical bills, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of a hit reality television show - The Possession. When events in the Barrett household spiral into tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old memories blur with the edited version presented to the world, and the terrible truth of what happened to the Barrett’s is finally brought to light. Though at the end, readers will still be asking if the events were purely medical, or if there really was a supernatural evil lurking beneath it all. One of Paul’s most beloved works.

Paul answers your questions about the timeless appeal of horror, the power of ambiguity in storytelling, and how demonic possession is perhaps the lesser of all the evils revealed in this story.

The Arts Hour: Saoirse Ronan and Rachel Eliza Griffiths Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

Nikki Bedi speaks to American poet, author, and artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths about the extraordinary new documentary film Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie and discusses this week’s cultural highlights with critic William Lee Adams:

American Irish actor Saoirse Ronan on her cultural hero, Barbra Streisand

French creator and writer Fanny Herrero on her new feature length film, Call My Agent

Chinese American literary star Rebecca F Kuang on her new novel, Taipei Story

Director Dave Green on his Looney Toons film, Coyote vs Acme

And we hear music from Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected