Arts and Ideas

Actor Samuel West speaks to Samira Ahmed about the art of delay, whilst former banker Frank Partnoy argues in favour of procrastination. Will Self and Sophia McDougall reflect on A Clockwork Orange, fifty years since the novel was published. Professor Tim Spector explains how genetic research increasingly challenges previous assumptions. And film critic Melanie Williams discusses Woman in a Dressing gown, along with the film’s star, Sylvia Syms.

This Landmark programme is devoted to Hitchcock’s drama Blackmail. Matthew Sweet is joined by American Critic Camille Paglia, BFI curator Nathalie Morris, playwright and screenwriter Michael Eaton, and composer and film historian Neil Brand, whose specially arranged score will accompany the film for a special performance at the British Museum, 6 July 2012.

Film director Todd Solondz discusses his new suburban satire, Dark Horse. Marina Warner and Richard Cork explore man’s desire for flight as a new exhibition, Flight and the Artistic Imagination, opens at Compton Verney. Susannah Clapp reviews Joe Penhall’s new play, Birthday. And Josh Hall, the next of this year’s New Generation Thinkers, examines the relationship between astronomers and the red planet.

To mark the 300th anniversary of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's birth and discuss why Rousseau still matters today Philip Dodd is joined by the novelist Lawrence Norfolk, philosopher Susan James, Professor of Intellectual History Richard Whatmore and specialist in 18th Century Literature Lucy Powell. The actor Samuel West reads from Rousseau's work.

With Rana Mitter. Night Waves has a first night review of The Royal Opera's production of Berlioz's Les Troyens - complete with over 100 singers. Rana is also joined by Dambisa Moyo, Steve Tsang and Isobel Hilton for an examination of China's race for resources. Emma Griffin, one of the next of this year's New Generation Thinkers reexamines the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the working class. Frances Ashcroft shows how electrical signals in our cells are essential to everything we think and do and with James Malpas, Rana takes a look at Tate Modern's latest exhibition Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye.

Matthew Sweet talks to Jenny Saville about her work on display at The Museum of Modern Art in Oxford. Diarmaid MacCulloch and Nick Spencer discuss whether the disestablishment of the Church of England would be good or bad for the church and for society as a whole. New Generation Thinker, Matthew Smith looks at the cultural history of the diagnosis and medical treatment of ADHD. And Dr Ellen Adams explains about the importance of the language known as Linear B.

For this International Review Edition Matthew Sweet is joined by Moscow based broadcaster and critic Konstantin Eggert, Colombian born philosopher and law lecturer Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Iranian academic Narguess Farzad, and Lesley Lokko, a novelist who shares her time between Ghana, South Africa and Scotland. They discuss a new book by Alonso Cueto, the Blue Hour which deals with the legacy of the war with the Shining Path and a Russian film Silent Souls, about two men trying to keep alive the ancient traditions of their people. They also debate whether an ageing population is perceived as a gift or a burden in other parts of the world and discuss arts and cultural events where they are.

With Samira Ahmed, Kerry McCarthy (MP for Bristol East) has the verdict on Armando Iannucci's new comedy; Veep. Comedian David Baddiel and biographer Nicola Beauman reappraise Elizabeth Taylor's written work. New Generation Thinker Charlotte Blease, examines historical and contemporary deceptions in medical practice. And Curator Brigitte Schultz, the historian Timothy Stanley and Wouter Vantisphout of Delft University in the Netherlands discuss the phenomenon of the modern empty city with reference to a new exhibition of photographs currently on display in Berlin.

Anne McElvoy talks to the Pulitzer Prize winner, Katherine Boo about her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Jackie Wullschlager reviews the literally luminous new show at Tate Liverpool which features the late work of Twombly, Turner and Monet; one of our New Generation thinkers, Timothy Secret, reflects on how we mourn our dead and Uta Frith, Harry Collins and Marcus Chown explore a new twist on the legacy of one of the great scientific minds of the 20th Century, Alan Turing.

Philip Dodd talks to Gerard Lemos, the author of The End of the Chinese Dream: why Chinese People Fear the Future. Also in the programme, a first night review of Benjamin Britten’s 1951 opera Billy Budd in a new production at the ENO. As the Olympics draw nearer and we head further into a time of austerity Philip and guests discuss the notion of endurance. And tonight marks the start for this year’s New Generation Thinkers. This evening Adriana Sinclair on whether the law is the only path to justice.

Anne McElvoy asks Director David Cronenberg if he sees himself as a political commentator, or are his films all about the spectacle? Lord Robert Winston criticised the Cultural Olympiad for the lack of science in the four-year celebration. Anne McElvoy is joined by Lord Winston and the historian of science Richard Holmes to discuss the relationship between science and the arts. This week marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the Falklands war, and Anne McElvoy talks to authors Carlos Gamerro. His novel “The Islands”, recently translated in English, gives a surreal account of the war and explores its impact on the Argentinian psyche. And artist Rachel Whiteread's first permanent public commission in this country - a new façade for the Whitechapel Gallery in London. Anne is joined by the art critic for The Times, Rachel Campbell-Johnston.

Philip Dodd hosts a concert on Europe, with political thinker Slavoj Zizek who has recently returned from Athens, the writer Pankaj Mishra, Edward Lucas, the Editor of the International section of The Economist and the broadcaster and journalist Michael Goldfarb. And Kamila Shamsie reviews the extraordinary eight hour, un-cut staged reading of The Great Gatsby, Gatz, part of LIFT, the London International Festival of Theatre.

Matthew Sweet talks to the singer, actor and civil rights campaigner Harry Belafonte. He tells Matthew how he and Sidney Poitier were like Apollo astronauts, sharing a pioneering role that's hard for anyone else to understand. And as British race relations films Sapphire and Flame in the Streets are re-released Matthew is joined by film historian Stephen Bourne, anthropologist Kit Davis and actress Adjoa Andoh to discuss the films.

Rana Mitter discusses Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch with the actress Fiona Shaw, the choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan, and the dance critic Sarah Crompton. Martin Amis’ new novel ‘Lionel Asbo: State of England’ has burst onto the literary scene like a hand grenade of brilliant divisiveness. Reviewers seem to either love or hate the book which describes the lottery winning lunacy of one feckless urban criminal and his grossly extended family. There was an all-nighter of philosophy at the Institut Francais in London at the week-end and Night Waves was there to find out whether such a French happening has much to teach us.And two new blockbuster films reimagine the story of Snow White: Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman.

Samira Ahmed talks to the writer Robert Caro about The Passage of Power, the latest volume of his celebrated biography of Lyndon B. Johnson. Also in the programme - more power and politics as we review the new Julius Caesar at the RSC. Plus the South African actress Janet Suzman looks at Shakespeare's women - from Cleopatra to Ophelia - and asks if scholars have misunderstood how many of the great theatrical roles for women have been played. And Margaret Atwood looks back on the life of the late great science fiction writer Ray Bradbury who died yesterday at the age of 91.