Season 2021 2021

TV-PG

Stephen Sackur speaks to British Conservative MP and former soldier Tobias Ellwood. Two decades after they were expelled from Kabul the hard-line Islamists are back. US and British troops are scrambling to complete a humiliating evacuation. It looks like an historic defeat for western powers. How damaging could the consequences be?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Kamila Sidiqi, a leading Afghan women's rights campaigner, entrepreneur and government adviser under President Ghani. She escaped from Kabul as the Taliban took over. Is her cause now lost and who is to blame?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Ethiopia's attorney general Gedion Timothewos. The conflict between government forces and Tigrayan rebels has cost thousands of lives and revived the spectre of famine - is there a way to avert catastrophe?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Paula Kahumbu, CEO for WildlifeDirect, Kenya. Her campaign to protect elephants and other endangered species asks Kenyans to prioritise protection of the country's wild spaces - is it working?

The chaotic evacuation operation still underway at Kabul airport has put a harsh spotlight on two decades of US and Nato military commitment in Afghanistan. It looks and feels like a strategic defeat but what does it tell us about the wider geopolitical balance of power? Stephen Sackur speaks to Russia's ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin. Is this reverse for the US and her allies a positive for Russia?

Stephen Sackur speaks to artist and sculptor Maggi Hambling. Her work has won international acclaim and sometimes stirred controversy, how has her creative vision evolved over the last six decades?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Omar Zakhilwal, former finance minister of Afghanistan who has been involved in talks with the Taliban. Will pragmatism or zealotry prevail as the Taliban grapple with the realities of ruling a broken country?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Lindsey Graham, the veteran US senator for South Carolina and one of the Republican Party's most outspoken voices on foreign policy. President Biden's decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan has drawn criticism at home and abroad. But to what extent can the chaotic scenes in Kabul be blamed on the 2020 deal struck with the Taliban by President Trump?

The Covid-19 pandemic and emerging superpower rivalries have presented the EU with troubling questions. Stephen Sackur speaks to Spain's deputy prime minister and economy minister Nadia Calviño. Is Europe too inward-looking and too fragmented to shape the 21st century?

Stephen Sackur speaks to one of the world's great modern-day explorers, Robin Hanbury-Tenison. He committed himself to the protection of indigenous people and their lands. Have his efforts made a difference?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Nicaraguan journalist and former-revolutionary Carlos Fernando Chamorro. He is currently in exile as President Daniel Ortega intensifies his crackdown on dissent. Why has Nicaragua slumped back into authoritarianism?

In an exclusive interview for HARDtalk as part of the BBC's 100 Women season, Zeinab Badawi speaks to supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Republicans in Texas have managed to ban abortion in almost all cases in their state. Anyone performing, aiding or abetting the termination of a pregnancy after roughly six weeks can be sued in court. The implications are enormous, not just in Texas but across the US. And it points to a wider phenomenon. Ideological conservatives are using state activism to confront federal power. Stephen Sackur speaks to Texas Republican State Senator Bryan Hughes. Has a new front opened up in America's culture wars?

Stephen Sackur speaks to the acclaimed British cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins. He had made a long list of films and won two Oscars for the films 1917 and Bladerunner 2049. But is technology, from CGI to the ubiquitous camera phone changing everything we thought we knew about making films?

Stephen Sackur speaks to renowned British Indian musician and composer Nitin Sawhney. From a childhood disfigured by racism to the embrace of the UK's cultural elite, what are the common threads in his remarkable career?

Zeinab Badawi speaks to Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, amid concern about renewed tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme. Tehran insists that it is only developing nuclear power for civilian purposes, but now Israel has warned that it crosses all 'red lines' and that it won’t allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. This follows warnings by Washington and the EU that Iran must allow international weapons inspectors full access to its workshops. Has the IAEA’s inspection programme failed and dashed all hopes of a diplomatic solution to this crisis?

The crisis over a lack of supplies in the UK triggered by a shortage of truck drivers has reignited the debate about the consequences of Brexit. This comes on top of concerns about the impact on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and what it means for the historic peace agreement there. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Michel Barnier, who was the EU's chief Brexit negotiator and has declared himself a centre-right candidate for the presidential elections in France next year. How does he see the fallout from Brexit and why does he think he is fit to be the next president of France?

Seventy five years on from the verdict of the Nuremberg trials where some of the most senior Nazis were sentenced to death for war crimes, HARDtalk repeats its 2017 interview with the son of one of the guilty men. Stephen Sackur interviews to Niklas Frank, a journalist and writer but also the son of Hans Frank, the brutal Nazi Governor of Poland from 1939 to 1945. He was convicted of war crimes and executed for the major role he played in the deaths of millions of Jews and Poles during the Second World War. Niklas Frank tells Stephen Sackur how he's coped with the crimes of his father and why he will not let his fellow Germans forget the worst aspects of the Nazi era.

Seventy-five years after the Nuremberg Military Tribunals convicted some of the most senior Nazis of war crimes and crimes against humanity, HARDtalk repeats its 2017 interview with the last surviving prosecutor from the trials, Ben Ferencz. He also helped liberate the death camps of Europe when he was serving in the US military. Does he believe the Nuremberg trials have made genocide and crimes against humanity less likely to be committed in the world today?

From Covid to climate change, governments around the world face challenges which demand modifications of human behaviour. When it comes to getting people to do things differently, what works best: the carrot of persuasion, or the stick of coercion? Stephen Sackur speaks to Richard Thaler, the world renowned economist and behavioural scientist who believes a nudge often works better than a shove when change is needed. Does that hold good when the problems we face become urgent and existential?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Richard Deverell, the director of Kew Gardens. He has big ambitions to put Kew, which is home to one of the world’s largest collections of living plants, at the centre of the fight to avert environmental catastrophe. But how realistic is that?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Moscow is set to be a major beneficiary of the extraordinary spike in fossil fuel energy prices - does that mean Moscow will flex its muscle more aggressively on the world stage?

Stephen Sackur speaks to writer and comedian David Baddiel, who has a gift for finding the funny in some of the darkest corners of the human psyche. Now he is taking on our often toxic online culture. Is comedy becoming a casualty of the culture wars?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Adela Raz, still officially Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, though the Taliban disowns her and the Americans ignore her. In the face of a looming humanitarian catastrophe, is it time for the outside world to come to terms with Afghanistan's new rulers?

75 years ago the first Nuremberg trial of Nazi war criminals came to an end. The groundbreaking international tribunal handed down 12 death sentences. In the years that followed, there were hopes that an evolving mechanism of international justice would deter and punish further heinous acts of mass murder and genocide. Stephen Sackur speaks to international lawyer and author Philippe Sands. 75 years on from Nuremberg, is the world any better at delivering justice for the worst of crimes?

Stephen Sackur speaks to brain surgeon Henry Marsh whose book Do No Harm became a bestseller. Now he is confronting his own advanced cancer and lobbying for the legalisation of assisted dying for the terminally ill. Should death ever be the desired outcome for a doctor?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Australian billionaire mining magnate Andrew Forrest, who is using a chunk of his fortune to push a green, hydrogen-based energy solution. In the run-up to the Glasgow climate change summit, his conversion to decarbonisation is timely but is it credible?

Stephen Sackur speaks to acclaimed novelist and playwright Ariel Dorfman. His life has been shaped by political upheaval and exile. He fled Chile after General Pinochet seized power in 1973 and his books were banned and burned. Dorfman's work explores humankind's capacity for sin and salvation. Do we have it in us to overcome our worst instincts?

Stephen Sackur speaks to French finance minister Bruno Le Maire. France is in recovery mode after the damaging impact of Covid but is struggling to deliver on long promised economic reform. With a presidential election looming, is France looking for a new direction?

HARDtalk

Stephen Sackur speaks to Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, who believes greenhouse gas emissions can effectively be eliminated within a generation. But is he ignoring the political realities he will encounter at the COP26 summit in Glasgow?

Kosovo has enjoyed independent statehood for 13 years but almost half the world does not recognise it. Stephen Sackur speaks to prime minister Albin Kurti, who has had a turbulent career. He has been a political prisoner, he launched five tear gas attacks on his own parliament and he has a vision of Kosovo unifying with Albania. Is he a source of instability in the Balkans?

The Trump presidency challenged many public officials to make a choice - obey directives from the White House against their better judgment - or take a stand and face the wrath of the pro-Trump movement. Fiona Hill, former Russia adviser at the White House, took a stand. She was a key witness in the president's first impeachment and has since had time to reflect on what Trump meant for America and its geopolitical standing.

Stephen Sackur speaks to the acclaimed British director Mike Leigh. For five decades he has told stories about believable characters facing very human dilemmas. They're painstakingly put together and not always easy to watch. Is the demand for his kind of artistic vision dwindling?

Of all the football-mad cities in the world, few can compete with Manchester - home to two of the world's richest clubs, United and City. Football's global appeal cannot disguise the problems facing the game. Some fans say the sport is being ruined by financial greed, and racism is yet to be rooted out. Stephen Sackur speaks to former Manchester United and France star Patrice Evra. He has just done something most footballers never do by revealing his deep emotional scars. What made him do it?

Zeinab Badawi speaks to the deputy foreign minister of Poland Pawel Jablonski. In the light of the latest tensions between Warsaw and the EU, could Poland, in time, follow Britain's lead and exit the EU?

Stephen Sackur is in south Bronx, New York, to speak to rising star of the Democratic Party Ritchie Torres. He is the first gay black man elected to congress and a vocal champion for the poorest district in the country. Is America as a whole ready to embrace progressive politics?

Stephen Sackur talks to George Takei, forever famous as Lieutenant Sulu in Star Trek. Interned as a child in the United States for being of Japanese origin, he now campaigns for gay and immigrant rights. Do the values of Star Trek still resonate?

Stephen Sackur speaks to influential Republican activist Ryan Girdusky who is on the front line of America's culture wars. Founder of political action committee 1776 Project, he wants to end what he says is the brainwashing of US school children about race. What does it say about the US, that the classroom is a new political battleground?

Stephen Sackur interviews Hungarian opposition leader Péter Márki-Zay who hopes to unseat Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, in the elections next spring. Can this political novice really topple Europe's most controversial leader?

Stephen Sackur speaks to the Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub whose determination to dig deep into the past and present of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has prompted abuse, intimidation and legal action. What does her case say about the health of India's democracy?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Nicolai Tangen, head of Norway's sovereign wealth fund - worth more than $1.4 trillion, it's the biggest in the world. Fossil fuels have given Norwegians vast wealth. Are they now ready to wean themselves off oil and gas?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Republican congressman Ken Buck, a libertarian on issues of gun control and Covid, but a supporter of breaking up America's big tech giants. Do America's conservatives have a coherent world view and is Donald Trump still at the heart of it?

Stephen Sackur is in New York to speak to writer Paul Auster, whose novels and screenplays reflect the vibrant, complex cultural melting pot that is New York city. If America is experiencing a culture war, is he ready to join the fight?