Arts & Ideas Folgen

What is the good life? Philip is joined in the studio by the commentators Robert Skidelsky, Owen Jones and Jamie Whyte, the classicist, Edith Hall, the philosopher, Mark Vernon and the Benedictine Monk, Father Bede Hill to discuss the question. In this discussion Philip Dodd and his guests consider how an idea that began with Aristotle as an ethical quest can have evolved in the 21st century into unbridled consumerism.

Ian McMillan is joined by poet Wendy Cope and actor Juliet Stevenson as he announces the winners of this year’s Proms Poetry Competition.

Which literary works make the most entries into celebrity choices on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs? Mariella Frostrup is joined by Sir Tim Rice and writer and broadcaster Kevin Jackson to explore the regular favourites and unexpected misses, the literary classics that 70 years of the great and the good can’t live without - and reveal some surprise choices. Actress and Desert Island Castaway Harriet Walter reads some of the desert island book choices.