Arts & Ideas

Richard Mabey discusses his biography of Flora Thompson, author of Lark Rise to Candleford, and choreographer Richard Alston joins Anne McElvoy on the eve of Radio 3's Ravel Day. Plus there’s a discussion about the ongoing fascination with ruins; whether a picturesque castle ruin glimpsed through the mist or the eerie photographs of an abandoned Detroit. Anne talks to the curator of a new exhibition at Tate Britain and the writer, Amanda Hopkinson.

Philip Dodd in conversation with artist and film-maker Julian Schnabel, best known for creating a series of paintings on broken ceramic plates as well as directing films, including The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls, and a biopic of the painter Basquiat. Michael Goldfarb, the author of Emancipation, How Liberating Europe's Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance, considers the life of a pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, the oldest known holocaust survivor who died on 23 Feb 2014 at the age of 110.

Matthew Sweet visits the British Museum's Vikings exhibition with the curator Gareth Williams and Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough from Durham University. Lincoln Paine discusses his history of navigation and seafaring 'Sea and Civilization'. Plus Captain M.K.Barritt, author of An Artist in the Channel Fleet, looks at the Napoleonic War artist John Thomas Serres.

Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld talk about the impact of education and religion on success and Anne McElvoy has a first night review of Peter Gill's new play Versailles from historian David Reynolds. Plus Spitting Image is 30 years old, the series'€™ original producer John Lloyd, the Labour politician Alan Johnson and editor of the satirical website The Daily Mash, Tim Telling talk about its legacy.

Film director Wim Wenders and Australian philosopher Mary Zournazi explain why they believe we need a new visual and moral language for peace. Richard King outlines why he believes taking offence has become a political tactic.

As Dirty Rotten Scoundrels becomes a musical, Samira Ahmed considers the scoundrel with historian of literature Nandini Das and novelist Nick Harkaway. Danny Dorling talks about the UK housing crisis. Plus we report on the winner of this year's Paul Foot Award for campaigning or investigative journalism.

Anne McElvoy looks at the relationship between France and its former colonies, talking to David Bellos about his translation of a classic novel depicting the Algerian War, and to Andrew Hussey, whose new book is about "the Long War Between France and Its Arabs" and to Dr Karima Laachir from SOAS at the University of London. Professor Tim Birkhead talks to Anne about his new book and research into bird mating systems. And Charlotte Higgins discusses her new book and the lessons we can learn from the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, who died in AD 14.

Charlie Chaplin's City Lights is ranked by The American Film Institute as one of the best American films ever made. To mark the centenary of Chaplin's iconic tramp character, Matthew Sweet discusses City Lights with comedian Lucy Porter, actor Paul McGann, film maker and historian Kevin Brownlow, and Chaplin's biographer David Robinson. Recorded in front of a live audience at the Watershed Arts Centre as part of the Bristol Slapstick Festival.

Shelagh Delaney wrote A Taste of Honey when she was 18. First performed in 1958, a new National Theatre production stars Lesley Sharp and Kate O'Flynn. Oxford historian Selina Todd has a first night review. Anthony Little, headmaster of Eton College discusses class, tradition and teaching manhood. And discussing the pivotal notion of self-worth in terms of achieving social mobility are Douglas Murray, Selina Todd and Lindsay Johns. Presented by Philip Dodd.

To mark the death of cultural historian Stuart Hall, another chance to hear his extended conversation with Philip Dodd, which was first broadcast in December 2004.