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Sir Alex Younger is the former head of MI6, Britain’s secret intelligence service. He assesses the evolving security risks facing Britain in the 21st century, and how the country continues to build strategic partnerships and intelligence agreements in a fracturing world. Younger ran MI6 during President Trump’s first administration and reflects on prospects for ‘the special relationship’ in the second.With tensions between the US and China, increased economic protectionism and the war in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas, the Head of the Europe Programme at Chatham House, Armida van Rij, believes European security and economic prospects appear fragile. And this comes at a time of political polarisation throughout the continent.After Britain finally left the EU in 2020 following the Brexit vote it was feared that it would be Britain that was isolated and vulnerable. Not so, claims the journalist Ross Clark, in his forthcoming polemic, Far From Eutopia: Why Europe is failing - and how Britain could do better (published 23rd January 2025). Clark pinpoints the absence of economic growth and huge disillusionment about high migration throughout Europe, and how Britain is surpassing many of its former continental partners. But questions still remain about how Britain will fare – on its own – on the global stage.Producer: Katy Hickman

While the great Italian renaissance painters and the Dutch masters are world famous, why are there so few British artists from this period leading the way? It’s one of the questions the art historian Bendor Grosvenor examines in his new history, The Invention of British Art. From prehistoric bone carvings to the landscapes of John Constable, Grosvenor reassesses the contribution British artists have made at home and abroad.The writer and former curator at the V&A Susan Owens wants to turn our attention to drawing. It is a simpler, more democratic form of art-making, she argues in The Story of Drawing: An Alternative History of Art. And one that is a fundamental part of the creative process. She reveals what can be learnt by looking again at the sketches made by Gainsborough, William Blake and Tacita Dean. The artist Lucinda Rogers specialises in urban landscapes. She immerses herself in her environment and records straight from eye to paper. Her intimate street views explore the changing nature of cities, from London to New York. During the US Presidential election she travelled to different locations as a reportage illustrator. A reproduction of her first sketchbook, New York Winter 1988, has just been re-released. Producer: Katy Hickman

The UK high street has appeared to be in a near perpetual state of distress since the birth of self-service shopping in the 1950s. Since then, local authorities approving out-of-town developments in the 1970s, the rise of the supermarket, the internet and the recent Covid lockdowns, have all taken their toll on town centres. Adam Rutherford talks to three guests about the changing nature of the high street.Annie Gray explores the long and varied history of shopping districts in The Bookshop, the Draper, the Candlestick Maker, from medieval marketplaces to the purpose-built concrete precincts still standing today. The urban designer and strategic planner Vicky Payne believes the high street is far more resilient than people think. Her research has looked at the innovative work being done across the country, from Bournemouth to Barnsley, to revitalise town centres. And the food writer Angela Hui shines a light on the central role that migrants have played – from running corner shops to restaurants. Her Chinese takeaway installation, inspired by her experiences growing up behind the counter of her parents’ business in Wales, forms part of the All Our Stories exhibition at the Migration Museum, Lewisham Shopping Centre, until December 2025.Producer: Katy Hickman