Front Row - Sgt. Pepper at 50; Jimmy McGovern; RIBA North
Download Sgt. Pepper at 50; Jimmy McGovern; RIBA North
For the bank holiday, Samira is in Liverpool for the art premieres celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of the album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She meets Sean Doran, the co-artistic director of the Sgt. Pepper at 50: Heading for Home arts festival, as he transforms the city into a turntable for the album by commissioning 13 world premieres - one for for each track.
Samira also meets two of the artists commissioned to come up with their interpretation of these classic Beatles songs: singer and performance artist Meow Meow has taken on Lovely Rita and is creating a street procession and a sound installation; and dramatist Keith Saha has written a new play inspired by the themes of She's Leaving Home, which will be performed in private homes in Toxteth.
Distinguished television writer Jimmy McGovern has written a new drama for BBC One, Broken, which looks at the life of a priest, Father Michael Kerrigan, played by Sean Bean, as he struggles to minister to a poor community. Jimmy takes Samira to St Francis Xavier church in Liverpool where much of the new television drama was filmed, and which has long inspired him.
And RIBA North is the new national architectural centre in Liverpool. As it finally prepares to open, Samira pays a visit to the new building on the city's waterfront which itself has been the subject of controversy, and arrives in Liverpool at a time when the city's architectural plans have led to it being placed on UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger list.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ekene Akalawu.
Published on Monday, 29th May 2017.
Available Podcasts from Front Row
We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the Front Row webpage.