Free Thinking

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.

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.

TV dramatist Jed Mercurio, producer Caryn Mandabach and writer-director, Dominic Savage talk to Anne McElvoy about creating successful dramas including The Line of Duty and Peaky Blinders. Novelist Sarah Waters discusses her play with Christopher Green called The Frozen Scream and latest novel The Paying Guests. And New Generation Thinker Sarah Peverley looks at Christmas customs in Medieval England.

American author Rebecca Solnit discusses the impact of "mansplaining" which she explores in her book Men Explain Things To Me.

Mona Siddiqui talks to Philip Dodd about her book called My Way: A Muslim Woman's Journey. The scholar Ziauddin Sardar has written Mecca, The Sacred City which explores the history of the birthplace of Muhammad and his own pilgrimages to it. And Navid Kermani has written God Is Beautiful: The Aesthetic Experience of the Qur'an which considers the manner in which the Qur'an has been perceived and experienced from the time of the Prophet to the present day.

Philip Dodd and a panel including historians Philip Ziegler and John Guy, biographer Sarah Bradford, journalist Deborah Orr and author William Kuhn explore British monarchy past and present and ask what is the role of a royal head of state in the twenty first century.

Philip Dodd, Roger Scruton and Janet Suzman look at theatre in South Africa - a year since Mandela’s death and in the Czech Republic 25 years on from the Velvet Revolution. Director Howard Davies discusses 3 Winters - a new play by Tena Stivicic which depicts a family living through the remnants of monarchy to Communism, democracy, war and the EU: Croatia 1945–2011.

Scientist Brian Cox and Professor Chris Frayling join the actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood for a discussion about Stanley Kubrick's landmark film 2001: A Space Odyssey chaired by Matthew Sweet and recorded in front of an audience at the BFI in London on 30.11.14.