Beard, Olusoga and Keyes feature in BBC's Hay line up

Mary Beard, David Olusoga and Marian Keyes are among the names featuring on the BBC's Tent line-up for the 31st Hay Festival this summer.

Running from 24th May to 3rd June, the line-up includes events with Kamila Shamsie, Sarah Churchwell, and Colm Tóibín, as well as with Beard (pictured), Olusoga and Keyes, among others.

Across TV and Radio, 38 BBC shows will be recorded on site, from BBC World News’ "Talking Books", "HardTalk" and "Click", to BBC Two’s "Front Row Late", BBC Radio 4’s "Today", "Start the Week", and "Beyond Belief", BBC Radio 3, BBC Wales, and BBC Hereford and Worcester.

Online, BBC iPlayer will carry live streams of highlight events, while BBC Arts will offer live festival coverage throughout the week.

Additional events in the BBC Tent offer an inside look at the latest dramas and documentaries, including tips from leading filmmakers, presenters and producers.

Jonty Claypole, director of BBC Arts, said: “The greatest writers in the world go to the Hay Festival and the BBC broadcasts them back to the world. Our BBC Tent has an action-packed programme with a wide array of writers from poet Helen Mort to novelists Colm Toibin and Marian Keyes and the verbal dexterity of Manchester's Young Identity. And we'll be out and about throughout the festival too, bringing the very best events to audiences everywhere.”

Peter Florence, director of Hay Festival, said: “It’s a joy to work with the BBC to amplify the conversations in this Welsh field and bring the festival to the world.”

The festival will see BBC World News record four editions of Talking Books in front of a live audience as Martha Kearney talks to bestselling British Book Awards-shortlisted Irish novelist Marian Keyes, while Gavin Esler meets Norwegian journalist and author Åsne Seierstad and Indian writer and publisher Anuradha Roy. BBC Culture will report live from the festival throughout the week, while a panel of writers including Shamsie, Churchwell and Tóibín debate their new Stories that Shaped the World project.

BBC Two will present a live broadcast of its flagship arts show Front Row Late with classicist Beard, while new documentaries are previewed: filmmaker Clare Beavan will offer an exclusive preview of her new film about Germaine Greer; chief executive of the Royal Academy Charles Saumarez Smith will join producer Martin Rosenbaum and director Adam Low to talk about their new film "The Private Life of The Royal Academy"; historian Olusoga will discuss his contribution to the BBC’s landmark art series "Civilisations"; and filmmaker Teresa Griffiths and academic and writer Dr Tim Kendall discuss the challenges of making a new film about Sylvia Plath’s iconic novel, The Bell Jar.

BBC Four will preview a documentary about the ice skater John Curry – "The Ice King" followed by a Q&A with the director James Erskine; hip-hop artist and writer Akala will talk to the BBC’s director of arts Claypole about his recent documentary on Homer’s Odyssey "Akala’s Odyssey"; and presenter Kirsty Wark and film maker Morag Tinto will discuss the challenges of making "The Many Primes of Muriel Spark".

Outside of the BBC Tent there are sessions featuring a range of BBC stars including Dan Saladino, Russell Kane, Amol Rajan, Gemma Cairney, Katya Adler, Simon Schama, Rachel Parris, Ruth Jones, Jules Hudson, Fergal Keane, Clemency Burton-Hill, Alex Jones, Jon Sopel, Jim Naughtie, Amy Lamé, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, and Robin Ince, while screenwriter Andrew Davies will join script editor Laura Lankester and producer Faith Penhale to talk about their upcoming adaptation of Les Miserables.

Elsewhere at the festival, authors including Margaret Atwood, David Walliams and Jacqueline Wilson will be headlining.