The Arts Hour

Nikki Bedi and critic Leila Latif look ahead to the 98th Academy Awards ceremony, while speaking to the following Oscar contenders:
Director Chloe Zhao and actress Jessie Buckley on Hamnet
Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho and actor Wagner Moura on The Secret Agent
Multiple Academy Award winning Greek auteur, Yorgos Lanthimos, on Bugonia
Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania discusses the making of The Voice of Hind Rajab
And Brazilian cinematographer Adolpho Veloso talks about creating the look of Train Dreams

Nikki Bedi is joined by critic Zing Tsjeng to discuss cultural highlights of the week:
Australian actor and movie producer Margot Robbie on her experience filming Emerald Fennell’s racy take on Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
Venezuelan-American theatre maker Moisés Kaufman explains what inspired his latest play, Here There Are Blueberries.
Hollywood leading man Ethan Hawke discusses his Oscar-nominated role as the prolific Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater’s film, Blue Moon
Norwegian director Mona Fastvold talks about their film, The Testament of Ann Lee, with star Amanda Seyfried.
And Iranian-born British actor Paul Chahidi describes how music from his native country provided the backdrop to his childhood in the UK
Plus, Nikki interviews Polish director Jan Komasa about his unsettling new film starring Adolescence's Stephen Graham. The Good Boy will be screening at London's Barbican as part of the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival on 11 March, ahead of an international release later in the month.
Photo credit: Zuzanna Krajewska

Nikki Bedi is joined by critic Katie Puckrik to discuss cultural highlights of the week:
Oscar winning British actor Riz Ahmed on his film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, set in London
Hollywood star Kristen Stewart on her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water
Japanese composer Dai Fujikura talks about turning Hokusai’s famous painting, The Great Wave, into a new opera
Author Sadiqa Johnson reveals how the real history of a Black American GI in Germany inspired her latest novel
Oscar nominated Brazilian cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, tells Nikki Bedi about his filming techniques for Train Dreams
And Kirsty Sinclair Dootson explains her dual fascination with the mid twentieth century explosion in colour film coinciding with social and political changes in India.
(Photo: Adolpho Veloso. Credit: Courtesy of Adolpho Veloso)

Nikki Bedi is joined by American comedian Josh Sharp and critic Rhianna Dhillon to discuss cultural highlights of the week:
Oscar and BAFTA nominated Nigerian British actor Wunmi Mosaku on her role as Hoodoo priestess Annie in the film, Sinners
American filmmaker Jared Bush on returning to his animated animal kingdom for Zootopia 2
Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard on the unsympathetic protagonist of his latest novel, The School of Night
Oscar winning American screenwriter Eric Roth talks about his debut play, an adaptation of the 1952 Western, High Noon
Comedian Josh Sharp explains the creative process behind his one man stage show, ‘ta-da!’ which blends personal stories from his life with a 2000 slide power point presentation
And Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi recounts her experiences of making films in restrictive circumstances
(Photo: Wunmi Mosaku attends the 31st annual Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California, U.S., January 4, 2026. Credit: REUTERS/Mike Blake)

Nikki Bedi talks to Daniyal Mueenuddin, the Pakistani-American author behind one of the year’s most anticipated novels, This Is Where The Serpent Lives. They discuss how it weaves a panoply of different characters with a kaleidoscopic overview of Pakistan’s social upheaval and rural/urban conflicts following independence.
Plus Bidisha joins as this week’s cultural critic, discussing Richard Linklater, French New Wave cinema, Albanian folk music, the films of Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi, the photography of Peter Hujar and one of world’s biggest selling genre’s: “romantasy”.
(Photo: Daniyal Mueenuddin. Credit: Chris Blonk)