Episode description

Labour MPs are having a moment on the stage with Jennie Lee, the UK's first Arts Minister, the subject of Lindsay Rodden's eponymous new play for Mikron Theatre, and Education Minister Ellen Wilkinson the focus of Paul Unwin's new play, The Promise, about the 1945 Labour Government. Lindsay and Paul join Front Row to discuss dramatizing parliamentary politics.

Acclaimed music journalist writer Jon Savage joins to discuss his new book The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Resistance Shaped Popular Culture (1955–1979), which explores how queer artists from the earliest days of rock 'n' roll to the heights of disco shaped the sound, look and attitude of popular music. From Little Richard to David Bowie and from Dusty Springfield to Village People, the book is rich in detail and explores how often closeted artists had a profound impact of modern culture.

Architecture writer Paul Dobraszczyk on this year's Stirling Prize shortlist and how the six projects that have made this final category measure up to the the prize's aim to celebrate the "building considered to have made the most significant contribution to the evolution of UK architecture".

With voice actors and motion capture performers in the US currently on strike over AI protections, the place of AI in the culture industries remains highly contested. The Writers Guild of America may have settled their strike but film critic Antonia Quirke explores whether screenwriters still have something to fear from the algorithm.

Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu