The Interview

The conflict in Colombia between the state and left-wing rebels has been running for more than 50 years. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions more are displaced. Tim Franks speaks to the Colombian government's chief peace negotiator Sergio Jaramillo. Can he make a deal?

(Photo: Sergio Jaramillo, Colombian High Commissioner for Peace)

Britain has the same prime minister but a new government. David Cameron's Conservative Party won last week's general election outright - his former coalition allies were reduced to a rump. He now has a mandate to renegotiate the country's membership of the European Union, with the threat that the British people could vote in a referendum to leave altogether. With the forces of independence on the march in Scotland, and evidence that they have been roused in England, too, is the UK being pushed apart? Hardtalk speaks to Sir Malcolm Rifkind, UK Foreign Secretary 1995-1997, Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson 2001-2006 and Pat McFadden, UK Shadow Europe Minister.

(Photo: Left to right, Sir Menzies Campbell, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Pat McFadden. Credit: Carl Court, Justin Tallis, Oli Scarf/AFP/Getty Images)

In-depth, hard-hitting interviews with newsworthy personalities.

Tim Franks speaks to the Portuguese Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque who has one of the most unforgiving jobs in politics. She is committed to reviving her own country’s battered economy, to saving the single currency, and somehow to ensuring that Greece pays its debts and stays inside the Euro.

(Photo: Maria Luis Albuquerque. Credit: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images)

Hardtalk speaks to a man from the highest echelons of the US foreign policy establishment. Dr Richard Haass has worked in the State Department, advised US presidents, and is now president of the influential think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He believes we are witnessing the end of one era of world history and the dawn of another. A new 'era of disorder' - more chaotic and more dangerous than any time in a generation. He says American foreign policy is partly to blame and US authority has been diminished. So how dangerous is the world now? And what could be done about it?

(Photo: Dr Richard Haass. Credit: Reuters)

Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to a novelist whose fictional world is filled with drugs, sex, sleaze and alienation. Scottish writer Irvine Welsh draws deeply flawed characters and makes them entertaining and all too human. His first bestseller was Trainspotting, a tale of heroin ravaged youths from the wrong side of Edinburgh’s tracks. His latest book returns to the same turf. He now lives most of his life in the US, so how come his imagination is still so heavily stirred by Scotland and his working-class roots?

(Photo: Scottish author Irvine Welsh. Credit: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Many people are familiar with cases involving terminally ill patients who believe that they should have the right to die. But what about making this a right for everyone - even if they are fit and healthy? Zeinab Badawi speaks to the controversial Australian Dr Philip Nitschke who believes anyone over 50 should be able to plan an end to their own life. But is he not just encouraging acts of suicide?

(Photo: Dr Philip Nitschke. Credit: David Mariuz/Getty Images)

Zeinab Badawi talks to the American economist and hi-tech entrepreneur Pippa Malmgren. By 2025 robots and artificial intelligence will be performing a lot more of the jobs that humans do at present. What is not clear is whether as a result of this, prospects will be brighter or bleaker for us. Will technology create more jobs than it destroys? Will only the brightest and most talented survive in jobs - leading to greater inequalities in society and could artificial intelligence even pose an existential threat to humans?

(Photo: Economist and hi-tech entrepreneur Pippa Malmgren)