Free Thinking

In extended conversation with Philip Dodd, Dame Janet Suzman talks about her acting and directing and politics in her native South Africa - which goes to the polls on May 7th.

Philip Dodd explores 18th century attitudes to the law, crime and punishment with Professor Norman S Poser, Antonia Hodgson, Lucy Powell and Geoffrey Robertson QC.

In 1714 Bernard de Mandeville published his provocative Fable of the Bees, in which he explored the relationship between morality and economic wealth.

Anne McElvoy talks to Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Desmond Shawe-Taylor and historians Amanda Foreman, StellaTillyard and Jeremy Black about 18th century monarchy and power.

If Mrs Thatcher thought she was living again through Victorian England, we are now living through the eighteenth century. This special edition of Free Thinking explores London as the centre of the world then and now, financial bubbles bursting then and now, and the lust for consumption then and now, whether of bodies or bodices.

Naomi Alderman, Geoff Mulgan and Lionel Bently join Philip Dodd to explore the ever-changing meaning of Originality. Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, discusses the meaning of greatness in art in front of the new exhibition - Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice. And as Simon Stephens's new play Birdland opens, the playwright talks inspirations, death and originality.

Matthew Sweet discusses the silent film star Betty Balfour with BFI curator Byony Dixon and comedian Lucy Porter and interviews Dutch novelist Peter Buwalda and James Lovelock.

Anne McElvoy looks at the impact of war, the Afghan elections and childhood violence. She's joined by Professor Hew Strachan and Ian Morris. Film critic Charlotte O Sullivan has been watching 'I Declare War,' Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson's film about childhood games which turn sour. And in the week that the British Command handed over to the Americans in Helmand province, Noorjahan Akbar and Hamdullah Mohib talk about what has happened to their culture and society in Afghanistan over that time and what might change with national elections at the week-end.

Matthew Sweet explores the idea of the police with the playwright Roy Williams, the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Sara Thornton, the historian Kate Colquhoun and the film maker and criminologist Roger Graef.

Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic and curators Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Victoria Walsh join Anne McElvoy to discuss the display of art and design. As Prospect magazine launches the long list for its poll of World Thinkers for 2014, Serena Kutchinsky, Digital Editor of Prospect, joins Anne to debate what makes a leading intellectual. And lawyer and political activist Raja Shehadeh outlines the arguments he will be putting forward in this year's Edward Said London Lecture: Is there a Language of Peace? The programme was broadcasted from a pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre where Radio 3 is broadcasting live every day for two weeks.