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About The Arts on Sunday

The Arts on Sunday is literally radio with pictures.... and theatre, film, comedy, books, dance, entertainment and music – all the things, in other words, that make life worth living.

The show celebrates the diversity of creativity, both here and overseas, with views, reviews, previews, interviews, a regular comedy slot and the Play of the Week.

The Arts on Sunday is your backstage pass to pictures of an exhibition, the film of the play of the book, standup comedy, knockdown argument, the art of noise and the noise of art – from opening night to the final curtain.

The programme's presenter is Award-winning arts journalist Lynn Freeman. Lynn is the hardest-working woman in show business, but she makes it look easy. She made 'What’s Going On' required listening for both practitioners and consumers of the arts – and that’s just about all of us.

Her enviable knowledge of, and insight into, the whole range of arts and entertainment is exceeded only by her boundless enthusiasm, and even after 20 years on the arts beat, Lynn still gets goose-bumps when the lights go down and the curtain goes up.

The programme producer is Simon Morris. He comes from the gangster end of the arts – films, TV and rock and roll. This has left him with a certain… well, not cynicism exactly, but shall we say “realism” at some of the excesses of the arts community. So why is he still capable of being pole-axed by the voice of Dolly Parton, the films of Paul Thomas Anderson and the comedy of Eddie Izzard?

As well as providing the regular 'At The Movies' slot for The Arts on Sunday, Simon’s job includes chasing up obscure and often irritating music clips.

Chris Cessford is the programme's reporter. It’s Chris Cessford’s job to hit the streets, the backstages, the galleries and the nerve-centres of the arts to report on issues and news from around the country. A long-serving journalist, Chris knows a little bit about a lot of things and likes to dig deep for the nugget of a story. She loves interviewing creative people who are passionate about their art.

She’s a fan of soap operas, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, poetry, obscure theatre and documentary films but when it comes to the arts, she’ll give anything a try.