Episode description

Following today’s announcement of the 2024 Oscar nominations, film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh joins Front Row to consider how well this year’s shortlisted categories reflect the year in cinema.

In Howard Jacobson’s new novel, What Will Survive of Us, nothing much happens but everything changes. Lily and Sam, in middle age and longstanding relationships – with other people - fall in love, then stay that way for years and years. The Booker Prize winning author talks to Shahidha Bari about love, sex and literature.

Local Government funding has been rising up the political agenda with one in five council leaders fearing that their local authority is on the verge of municipal bankruptcy. However is cutting council spending on culture a false economy? Stephanie Sirr, Chief Executive of Nottingham Playhouse and joint president of UK Theatre, and Councillor Barry Lewis, Leader of Derbyshire County Council and member of the Local Government Association’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, join Front Row to discuss.

Presenter Shahidha Bari Producer: Paula McGrath