Free Thinking

MP Jess Phillips on life in the public eye. Plus Ned Kelly, Lady Macbeth, one once flesh and blood, the other imagined into being, yet both have done sterling work as ciphers to the human condition. Anne McElvoy talks to Rebecca Daniels, curator of an exhibition marking the centenary of Australia’s great myth-maker, the artist Sidney Nolan and to David Taylor, curator of an exhibition at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre about the way memorable images work and legends are made—they are joined by Lorna Miller and Kevin 'Kal' Kallaugher, who draw on their experience as political cartoonists.

Transferences: Sidney Nolan in Britain runs at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester from 18th February 2017 – 4th June 2017 and part of centenary programming across 2017. You can find out more from http://www.sidneynolantrust.org/centenary-2017/centenary-programme

Draw New Mischief: 250 years of Shakespeare and Political Cartoons is in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s PACCAR room: 25 February – 15 September 2017

Producer: Karl Bos

Matthew Sweet visits Hull - the city where he grew up - and seeks out Basil Kirchin's sound world, Richard Bean's version of Hull during the Civil War and the re-opened Ferens Art Gallery where he used to spend Saturday mornings.

You can hear more of Basil Kirchin's music for films in tonight's Late Junction which follows at 11pm and Radio3 is recording Mind on the Run featuring Goldfrapp's Will Gregory with members of the BBC Concert Orchestra - the event takes place 17th - 19th Feb at Hull City Hall and will be broadcast on Hear and Now on March 4th.

Richard Bean's play The Hypocrite - dramatising what happened in the Civil War when parliament charged Sir John Hotham with denying King Charles entry to Hull - runs from Friday 24th of February – Saturday 25th of March at Hull Truck Theatre, and Friday 31th of March – Saturday 29th of April at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon

Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

Its 500 years since the German friar, Martin Luther, challenged the authority of the Pope and sparked the Reformation. The violent upheavals that followed have tended to obscure his character, his beliefs and his legacy. Nowadays when we think of him we usually conjure up the image of a jowly zealot. To uncover a truer likeness Anne McElvoy was joined at the London School of Economics by Luther's latest biographer, Peter Stanford and the historians, Diarmaid MacCulloch and Ulinka Rublack -- was he a fundamentalist reactionary or the enlightened creator of our modern world.

Producer: Zahid Warley

Dubbed the "godfather of British pop art", Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) is the subject of an exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery. Philip Dodd and his guests art historians Richard Cork and Judith Collins, philosopher Barry Smith and writer Iain Sinclair discuss Paolozzi's legacy. Plus an interview with American philosopher Professor Daniel Dennett Co-Director Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University.

Eduardo Paolozzi runs at the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 16 February – 14 May 2017

Daniel Dennett's latest book is called From Bacteria to Bach and Back.

Producer Torquil MacLeod

Neil Gaiman on his enduring attraction to the world of giants, gods and rainbow bridges of Norse myths and why he's produced his own version; plus research into the ugly side of Valentines from classical times to the 19th century with Annebella Pollen and Edmund Richardson, and, as the RSC prepares to bring Snow in Midsummer to the stage, the first of a planned series of Chinese classics, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig explains her play's 13th century origins and along with Craig Clunas, author of Chinese Painting and Its Audiences, talks to Rana Mitter about bringing Chinese culture to new global audiences.

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig play Snow in Midsummer based on a Chinese classic is on at The Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre Feb 23rd-March 25th 2017

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

30 years ago There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation was published. Philip Dodd talks to the author Professor Paul Gilroy about its impact and whether discussions about race and culture in Britain have moved on or not.

Producer Eliane Glaser.

Matthew Sweet meets Eric the UK's first robot, built in 1928 now at the Science Museum as part of a big display exploring robotics. He's joined by Kathleen Richardson who is Senior Research Fellow in the Ethics of Robotics at De Monfort University, Murray Shanahan - Professor of Cognitive Robotics from Imperial College - and Ryan Abbott from the University of Surrey School of Law to discuss the legal and ethical implications of our increasing reliance on robotics and automation. And Kevin Jackson looks at the first English translation of Makt Myrkranna or Powers of Darkness - Valdimar Asmundsson's 1901 Icelandic reworking of Bram Stoker's vampire classic Dracula.

As the Royal Academy unveils its huge new show of work produced in Russia between 1917 and 1932, Anne McElvoy and her guests - the film maker and actor, Dolya Gavanski, novelist Charlotte Hobson and the historians Stephen Smith and Victor Sebestyen - assess the role played by artists in the revolution and the relevance of their paintings, sculptures, films, books and music today.

Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932 runs from February 11th to April 17th at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Producer: Zahid Warley

Garrett Carr travelled by foot and canoe along Ireland's border. Kapka Kassabova journeyed to what she calls "the edge of Europe". Frank Ledwidge's army career took him to the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, Nikolas Ventourakis is fascinated by how to capture the abstract notion of borders in photographs. They talk to Anne McElvoy about the essence of edges, notions of the other and the challenges of invisible borders which come and go like the smile of the Cheshire Cat.

The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland's Border by Garrett Carr looks at a landscape which has hosted smugglers, kings, runaways, soldiers, peacemakers, protesters and terrorists

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

The Indian writer and essayist, Pankaj Mishra believes we are living in an age of unprecedented anger - one that liberal rationalists struggle to comprehend. He joins Philip Dodd to consider the long term impact of these fervent times.

Elif Shafak talks about her latest novel, Three Daughters of Eve, which looks at love, friendship and religion set in Oxford and Istanbul.

They are joined in the Free Thinking studio by Douglas Murray, founder of the centre for social cohesion and on a line from USA, Julius Krein, editor of American Affairs, a new magazine backing Trumpism.

Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak is published on the 2nd of February.

Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra is published on the 7th of February.