Arts & Ideas

Philip Dodd plus guests David Reynolds, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Simon Heffer and David Edgar discuss Winston Churchill and Englishness, in the week of the 50th anniversary of his death

Author Michael Dobbs, dramatists James Graham and Paula Milne and TV producer Trudi-Ann Tierney join Anne McElvoy in the BBC Radio Theatre as part of BBC Democracy Day. They debate whether dramas like The West Wing, Borgen or This House aid our understanding of the way governments operate or do they foster cynicism about democracy?

Matthew Sweet looks at today's announcement of this year's Oscar nominations focusing on the politics of the foreign film awards with critics Ian Christie, Karen Krizanovich and Phillip Bergson. TV dramatist Russell T Davies discusses his new projects for Channel 4, E4 and 4OD, Cucumber, Banana and Tofu which explore the passions and pitfalls of 21st century gay life.

Philip Dodd explores the way we look at art with documentary maker Fred Wiseman, curator Iwona Blazwick, artist John Keane, poet Kelly Grovier and philosopher Professor Barry C. Smith. Veteran filmmaker Fred Wiseman who has documented what it is like to work at London's National Gallery. National Gallery is screening in key cities across the UK.

The Scottish poet Robert Crawford and fellow-TS Eliot biographer, Lyndall Gordon join Anne McElvoy to work out Eliot's enduring power and appeal while the winner of this year's TS Eliot prize, David Harsent also takes a bow. Allan Ropper a US neurologist, talks about the mixture of intuition and medical knowledge that every brain doctor needs. He is joined by Brian Hurwitz, Professor of Medicine and the Arts at King's College London to discuss the role of case histories over time and new importance being attached to narrative medicine.

Mike Bartlett talks to Anne McElvoy about his play Bull which takes to the stage at the Young Vic this month and Game which opens at the Almeida in February. Also Dr. Andy Martin evaluates Soumission, the new Michel Houellebecq novel creating controversy in France; Cleo Van Velsen discusses Hans Fallada's 1944 prison diary A Stranger in My Own Country; and the artists Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson reveal Song for Coal, their new work about energy which goes on display at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Lady Antonia Fraser talks to Matthew Sweet about her childhood in Oxford and London in the 30s and 40s, her lifelong fascination with history, and her forthcoming book, My History: A Memoir of Growing Up. Academics Susan Neiman and Robert Pogue Harrison discuss our modern day obsession with youth. And as a major retrospective of the late French director, Eric Rohmer, begins at the British Film Institute, critics Jonathan Romney and Ginette Vincendeau look at the auteur's fascination with characters in the summer of their lives.

In an extended interview, Philip Dodd talks to Clive James whose writing and broadcasting in the last fifty years has made him one of the most distinctive voices in Britain. He confirmed his credentials as a translator last year with his version of Dante's Divine Comedy and his latest book, Poetry Notebook, is a testament to his consuming love of poetry in general. Philip Dodd explores this passion with him and learns how it has informed and illuminated his thinking throughout his life.

Matthew Sweet on Pantomime past to present with writer Jeffrey Richards and actor/director Tony Lidington. Bryony Lavery talks stage writing ahead of her double-Christmas offerings of Treasure Island at the National Theatre in London and The One Hundred and One Dalmatians at Chichester's Festival Theatre. American biologist EO Wilson on the meaning of human existence.

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek speaks to Philip Dodd about the re-emergence of a radical left and the need for a clearer agenda for change. Douglas Carswell, Beatrix Campbell and Gabriella Coleman explore the success of protest movements from online activists and Anonymous to demonstrations on the street. And Matt Wolf joins Philip for a first-night review of City of Angels at the Donmar Warehouse.