Start the Week Folgen

On Start the Week Lisa Jardine talks to the artist Gavin Turk about the construction of artistic myth and the question of authorship and authenticity. The rare book dealer Rick Gekoski searches for lost treasures amid tales of theft, forgery and destruction, while the curator Paul Roberts reveals the life and culture preserved in the volcanic devastation of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The everyday object - a table - is at the centre of Tanya Ronder's new play of belonging, identity and inheritance.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe looks at the cultural history of Italy. The world renowned film director, Bernardo Bertolucci discusses his latest film Me and You. The journalist and film-maker Annalisa Piras looks back at her country's political, economic and social decline over the last two decades while the English born conductor with Italian roots, Antonio Pappano, talks about the musical soul of Italy. And Tim Parks offers a portrait of his adopted homeland - the 'charmingly irritating dystopian paradise' of Italy - as he travels the country by train.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Jonathan Freedland journeys from the origin of life to the possibilities of new life-forms with the geneticist Adam Rutherford. Steve Jones updates the Bible from the point of view of modern science and Barbara Sahakian looks at our ability to make decisions, and whether 'smart drugs' should be used to boost our reactions. The artist Susan Aldworth is inspired by neuro-scientific imagery to explore the relationship between mind and body in her portraits of those with epilepsy and in doing so asks how this material corresponds or contrasts with the subject's sense of self.Producer: Natalia Fernandez.