The Compass

If we think of William Shakespeare as exclusively English, we should think again. People around the world have adopted his work and made it something that speaks to their own culture. Writer and academic Nadia Davids takes us to Cape Town and Johannesburg to hear how Shakespeare has played an important role in the politics of a troubled country, and how he still matters in post-Apartheid South Africa.

(Photo: A man carries a volume of Shakespeare's complete works. Credit: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

Nikki Bedi explores how India has taken the works of an Englishman brought to them by British colonists in the 18th Century and adapted them for modern audiences everywhere. From the Bollywood screen to storytellers in remote villages, Nikki looks at how people are using Shakespeare’s stories of love, power and revenge to speak to the concerns of contemporary India.

Robert McCrum travels to the United States in search of Shakespeare and the American Dream and hears how he became part of the very fabric of early American life soon after the colonists arrived in New England and has remained an important cultural reference point for Americans.

Robert talks to composer Stephen Sondheim and actor Alec Baldwin along the way. As author James Shapiro puts it: “Americans use Shakespeare to talk about the things that divide us or that we don’t want to talk about”.

Photo: Leonardo Dicaprio is Romeo In the movie adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. (Credit: Getty Images)

Robert McCrum travels to the United States in search of Shakespeare and the American Dream and hears how he became part of the very fabric of early American life soon after the colonists arrived in New England and has remained an important cultural reference point for Americans.

Robert’s journey takes him to New York, Washington and Nashville to speak to various Americans who use Shakespeare as a way of addressing issues such as race and politics. As author James Shapiro puts it “Americans use Shakespeare to talk about the things that divide us or that we don’t want to talk about”.

(Photo: Members of an amateur dramatic society rehearse Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in Queens, New York City circa 1950. Credit: Orlando /Three Lions/Getty Images)

Written by Joaquin Rodrigo in 1939, the Concierto de Aranjuez is a guitar classic. It was written amid the chaos of the Spanish Civil War, and in circumstances of poverty and personal tragedy. Soul Music explores how the piece touches and changes people's lives.

(Photo: Blind Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo (1901 - 1999) playing the piano at his home in Madrid. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

Kevin Connolly travels to Morocco, which sees itself as a beacon of moderate Islam, to visit the institute for training imams, which has been set up to create a new generation of Islamic teachers and leaders from the West African states of Nigeria, Mali and Guinea. They are being prepared to fight on the front line of a battle of ideas and being equipped to take on the teachings of extremists who support the so-called Islamic State, both online and face-to-face in their own mosques. We ask whether mainstream and establishment political and religious organisations are likely to have the technical know-how and the presentational skills to compete with the slick video processing and focussed messaging of IS.

Kevin also travels to Tunisia, which five years ago was the cradle of the Arab Spring. It is the ideal vantage point to ask whether the political and cultural stagnation of the decades before the Arab Spring helped to create the conditions for the rise of IS. We assess whether a lack of prosperity and hope is driving young men into the arms of extremist organisations. If the main driver of the rise of IS was a long accumulation of economic and political failures does that mean a problem that took decades to create might take decades to fix?

(Photo: Young Imams from West Africa learning how to combat extremism)

Kevin Connolly travels through the Middle East to look at different ways in which the Arab states in the region are confronting the ideas of the so-called Islamic State and how well-equipped they are to fight them.

Through social media sites, a network of sympathetic preachers is promulgating a jihadist vision of Islam and recruiting fighters from across the Middle East. Tunisia and Libya are among the key recruiting grounds and the largest providers of ‘foreign fighters’ in Syria and Iraq.

Fi Glover looks at how communities in Uganda have revolutionised the justice system by taking matters into their own hands.

The complexity of the law system in Uganda can be a tough one to follow – and causes particular difficulties for its residents. Solving that problem are the Barefoot Lawyers. In 2012, a technically competent group of legal experts began providing legal advice through social media to anyone who requested it. And it is now an award-winning, non-profit social enterprise assisting 300,000 people every month and answering around 50 enquiries per day. A particular achievement came in winning a sexual assault case for a twelve-year-old girl.

Our local reporter delves into the inner workings of the legal group to hear why they wanted to help and how they have made it work. They hear from the individuals whose lives have been changed as a result – as well as how the country’s official legal system are responding to the group.

Is a DIY law system the basis for a perfect country? Presenter Fi Glover, entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, professor Henrietta Moore of the Institute for Global prosperity and special studio guests – give their verdict.

(Photo: Gerald Abila, the Managing Director of Barefoot Lawyers, at his office in Kampala. Credit: Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty Images)

Fi Glover examines India’s pioneering work on sanitation for women. With stories from the workers who are inventing simple systems alongside active campaigning, she follows the changing attitudes towards women’s rights and their wellbeing. Our local reporter explores the corridors of universities to hear the young women who are putting themselves in charge of their own future – and whether those in charge of inspiring change nationwide are taking note.

She puts the findings to entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox and professor Henrietta Moore of the Institute for Global prosperity. Together, they determine whether global nations should take on both the practice and the inspiration from India into their own communities.

(Photo: The founder of the Indian sanitation charity Sulabh International Bindeshwar Pathak (C) demonstrates his low-cost and environmentally-friendly two-pit toilet technology. Credit: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images)

In 2001, the American state of Michigan had a suicide rate of 89 per 100,000 amongst mental health patients. By 2013 this had dropped to just 16 per 100,000 and shines against the US national average of 230. One network of hospitals in particular – The Henry Ford Group – registered zero suicides per 100,000 patients and branded its scheme as the zero-suicide model. Its achievement comes from offering mental health screenings at earlier stages for patients. Local reporter Colin McNulty speaks to the doctors who developed the system and how they have sustained it. He also follows the wider network of patients, friends and relatives who have all benefited from the scheme.

What this ground-breaking healthcare service offers is weighed up byFi Glover, entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox and Professor Henrietta Moore of the Institute for Global Prosperity. And with the estimation that global annual suicide fatalities could rise to 1.5 million by 2020 – is it a staple addition to the perfect country or a one-off success story?

Image: a man walks by street art in Detroit, Michigan Credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images