Arts & Ideas

Matthew Sweet and guests explore the art of the con.... If you've ever fallen for a scam, you'll be reassured by Maria Konnikova's new book The Confidence Game, in which she explains why most of us are easy prey to con artists. Orson Welles was infamous early in his career for a radio broadcast of HG Wells' War of the Worlds which - it's said - caused genuine panic that aliens were invading earth. For Free Thinking Larushka Ivan-Zadeh discusses Welles's last film, F For Fake, which tells the tangled story of art forger Elmyr de Hory. And Gary Lachman and Kevin Jackson visit a new exhibition about Elizabethan alchemist, philosopher and mathematician John Dee - a mysterious figure who during his long career was sometimes a con-artist, and sometimes the conned.

Anne McElvoy looks at what happened to the Arab Spring five years on, talking to Egyptian novelist Alaa Al-Aswany - whose new novel is called The Automobile Club of Egypt - and to satirist and critic Karl Sharro. They will be joined by Lebanese actress Sahar Assaf talking about performing in Dario Fo and Franca Rame's monologue An Arab Woman Speaks. Also in the programme, Owen Hatherley discusses his latest book The Ministry of Nostalgia. And, lexicographer Tony Thorne and writer Hannah Jane Parkinson discuss how social media is affecting language. The English premiere of Dario Fo and Franca Rame's An Arab Woman Speaks is on at the New Diorama Theatre in London until 6th February. Producer: Luke Mulhall

Rana Mitter goes underground to discover a world which long fed the human imagination and which fulfils all humanity's practical needs outside of food and yet which has become something we like to ignore, hide, conceal and forget. Counting the potential costs for all our futures, three enthusiasts for all that lies beneath, the engineer Professor Paul Younger from Glasgow University ; Ted Nield editor of the bi-monthly magazine Geoscientist and MIT's Rosalind Williams. Professor Paul Younger from Glasgow University is the author of Water: All That Matters and Energy: All That Matters Ted Nield is the author of Underlands: A Journey Through Britain's Lost Landscape Rosalind Williams is the author of Notes on the Underground' and 'The Triumph of the Human Empire'. Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

Merlin Holland, Will Self and Fiona Shaw join Matthew Sweet for a discussion about Oscar Wilde's novel which was published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in the July 1890 issue and then as a book 121 years ago in 1891. It prompted discussions about censorship and hedonism and went on to play a considerable part in the writer's downfall. Endlessly filmed, The Picture of Dorian Gray seems to communicate directly to successive generations - but how much about its writer can it really tell us. Merlin Holland, Oscar Wilde's grandson, has adapted it for a new stage version which runs at The Trafalgar Studios in London from January 18th to February 13th. Will Self's novel Dorian: An Imitation updated the story to the late 20th century. Fiona Shaw played Agatha in the 2009 film version, Dorian Gray. Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Matthew Sweet is joined by Professor Christopher Frayling to look at the revival of Westerns and Bryony Hanson and Laurence Scott consider the 2016 Oscar contenders.

Philip Dodd wrestles with an especially knotty question – does France have to stop being French to survive? Its a question which owes its urgency to recent events from the massacres of last year to the rise of the Right and an apparent erosion of the secular values that underpin the Fifth Republic. What price the France of Camus and New Wave Cinema in the face of globalisation? To answer these questions Philip is joined by the political commentator Anne-Elizabeth Moutet, the historian Liz Buettner, the Muslim scholar, Ziauddin Sardar and Andy Martin, an expert in 20th century French literature which did so much to fix the features of modern France in our minds. Producer: Zahid Warley.Europe After Empire by Elizabeth Buettner is published in April Islam Beyond the Mad Max Jihadis by Ziauddin Sardar is published in February

Anne McElvoy talks to the winner of this year's TS Eliot poetry prize Sarah Howe - who won for her first collection; Anne talks to leading physicist Lisa Randall - author of Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs and explores new architecture with Douglas Murphy and Owen Hopkins. New Generation Thinker Jonathan Healey looks at what history can tell us about coping with flooding.

Anne McElvoy looks at changing fashions and values in the art world as she talks to Observer critic Laura Cumming about her researches into a 19th-century court case involving a Velázquez portrait. New Generation Thinker Joe Moshenska joins the conversation to explain more about the trip to Spain during which the future Charles I was painted by the Spanish artist. Curator Liz Gilmore and dealer Julian Hartnoll discuss the British painter John Bratby who was celebrated and seen as an enfant terrible of the art world in the '50s and '60s. He is believed to have painted over 1500 works and an exhibition at the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings has drawn upon paintings brought in by members of the public. Artist Gayle Chong Kwan is working on a project based upon the North Eastern food dish Pan Haggerty. She talks about the walks, videos and photographs she has been creating as part of her residency in East Durham. Laura Cumming's book is called The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velázquez John Bratby: Everything But The Kitchen Sink Including The Kitchen Sink runs at the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings from January 30th to April 17th. The Pan Hag Project is being produced in conjunction with Forma Arts. Producer: Ella-Mai Robey

With two plays by Lorraine Hansberry being staged in the UK in 2016, Philip Dodd looks at her writing and its resonance today. When A Raisin in the Sun opened in 1959 it was the first play written by a black woman to be performed on Broadway. It is now touring the UK and being broadcast at the end of January on BBC Radio 3. Les Blancs - written 11 years later - is set in an African country on the brink of civil war and is staged at the National Theatre in Spring. The new production of Raisin in the Sun is being directed by Dawn Walton and Yael Farber is in charge of the National's account of Les Blancs - both directors will be joined by the playwright, Kwame Kwei Armah to discuss Hansberry. Kwame Kwei-Armah, who runs Baltimore's Centre Stage, put on what he called the Raisin Cycle in 2013 which included Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park and his own Beneatha's Place, both responses to Hansberry. Philip's other guests are the historian Dr Althea Legal- Miller and the anthropologist, Kit Davis. Les Blancs directed by Yael Farber opens at the National Theatre on March 24th. A Raisin in the Sun directed by Dawn Walton artistic director of Eclipse Theatre company opens at the Sheffield Crucible Studio Theatre on Jan 28th and tours to New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich; Nuffield Theatre, Southampton; Liverpool Playhouse; Watford Palace Theatre; The Albany, Deptford ; The Belgrade, Coventry. A BBC Radio 3 production of A Raisin in the Sun is being broadcast on Sunday January 31st.Producer: Zahid Warley

Storm up the stairs and slam your bedroom doors, because Matthew Sweet and guests are considering The Teenager on Free Thinking tonight. David Aaronovitch remembers the trials of growing up in a Stalinist household as his new book Party Animals is published. He's joined in the studio by his brother Ben - who is also an author. Plus, Matthew Sweet considers the social history of those difficult years talking to the neuroscientist Iroise Dumontheil of Birkbeck University of London and musician Viv Albertine and comparing different decades of teenage life. And Simon Stephens talks about the revival of his play Herons which explores the impact of gang bullying on a 14 year old boy. Party Animals by David Aaronovitch is out now. Ben Aaronovitch is the author of Rivers of London. Herons by Simon Stephens is at the Lyric Hammersmith from January 21st to February 13th. Producer: Laura Thomas