Front Row Folgen

As Scottish indie pop legends Belle & Sebastian prepare to celebrate 30 years of musicmaking, they look back at what got them here. Plus they help ring in the new year with a Rabbie Burns classic. Jamaica’s former Poet Laureate Lorna Goodison reflects on her recent residency at Ellisland Farmhouse, where Robert Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne. Award-winning Scottish poet and spoken word artist Michael Mullen brought their debut collection Goonie in to the world this June. Now they share a poem written specially for Front Row, about the joys of Hogmanay. Kirsty celebrates the life of Scottish comedian and impressionist Stanley Baxter, who passed away earlier this month aged 99. His productions became staples of Christmas and New Year television, as broadcaster and cultural historian Matthew Sweet discusses with actor Juliet Cadzow.

Director Joachim Trier on his latest film Sentimental Value, which is nominated for eight Golden Globes, including Best Picture and Best Director. We take a look at the late Brigitte Bardot's three most important films, with critic Muriel Zhaga Writer John Lloyd on the 42nd anniversary release of The Meaning of Liff, the book he co-wrote with Douglas Adams. Ahead of a memorial concert for the late great pianist Alfred Brendel, Samira is joined by his son, the cellist Adrian Brendel, and the pianist Dame Imogen Cooper.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Oliver Jones

In 1776, the Founding Fathers of America signed the Declaration of Independence, embarking on a new experiment in how to build a nation.On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore the founding fathers – and mothers – of American culture: the key figures who shaped American literature, music, visual art, and theatre and created a distinctively American voice.With the literary historian Sarah Churchwell, the art historian Erin Pauwels, the musicologist Glenda Goodman, the music critic Kevin Legendre, and the theatre historian Heather Nathans and critic Matt Wolf. Producer: Eliane Glaser