Arts & Ideas Folgen

Constable, Gainsborough and Turner, the three towering figures of English landscape painting, have their artwork showcased in a new exhibition at the Royal Academy – Anne McElvoy is joined by art critic Lynn Nead and historian Andrew Wulf to review. Sir Ronald Harwood talks about adapting his play Quartet for the big screen. Advertising executives Robin Wight and Barry Delaney discuss the legacy of David Ogilvy. And the artist Katrina van Grouw gets under the skin of birds in a remarkable book of anatomical drawings.

Colm Toibin is one of Ireland's finest writers, whose books explore issues such as Catholicism, immigration and homosexuality. His 2009 novel Brooklyn won the Costa novel of the Year, and his latest The Testament of Mary is a controversial re-imagining of the life of the Virgin Mary. In an extended interview recorded at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival at The Sage Gateshead on Saturday 3 November, Philip Dodd talks to Colm Toibin about his own life, his ideas, and thoughts on literature.

Matthew Sweet speaks to acclaimed director Michael Grandage whose theatre company launches with a new production of Peter Nichols's celebrated play Privates on Parade. As a new centre in Cambridge is set up to assess the dangers that might arise from progress in artificial intelligence, Matthew talks to one of its founders Sir Martin Rees and sustainability innovator Rachel Armstrong. And Jonas Mekas, film-maker, artist, poet, and a leading figure of avant-garde and experimental cinema, discusses his remarkable and prolific sixty-year career.