Arts & Ideas Folgen

In a special event recorded in front of an audience at London's Royal College of Music Anne McElvoy talks to John le Carré to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking Cold War espionage novel, The Spy who Came in from the Cold. It's the book which brought him international fame and which was described by Graham Greene as 'the best spy story I have ever read'. He discusses his extraordinary childhood as well as the state of Britain today, and the revelations of whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden.

Philip Dodd is joined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins speaking about his new memoir - An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist. Plus Tacita Dean speaks about about her new film 'JG' premiering in a new exhibition of her work at London's Frith Street and theatre critic Susannah Clapp reviews 'The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas, a new play by Dennis Kelly at London's Royal Court.

Actor Diana Quick, playwright Jessica Swale and critic Susannah Clapp join Matthew Sweet to discuss the changing role of women, as reflected in the theatre. The works of Henry Moore and Francis Bacon are brought together in the Ashmolean Museum's exhibition ‘Flesh and Bone’ - art critic Bill Feaver reviews. Andrew Lycett discusses the founding father of Victorian sensation-fiction, Wilkie Collins. Professor Nello Cristianini explores the shifts in the field of Artificial Intelligence.