About this programme

With an estimated 50 pubs a week closing across the UK, this edition of the show looks at the future of what are British institutions. Lauren Laverne looks at the past, present and future of pubs, Sting visits the Cumberland Arms - the heart of Newcastle's folk scene - to perform from his new album If on a Winter's Night, and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy performs a piece that both laments and celebrates the pub. Plus, in a rare TV interview, John Cale talks about his life in music, and Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode discuss films that deal with the end of the world.