Arts and Ideas

Director Ridley Scott returns to the big screen this week with his new film Prometheus. Writer Toby Litt gives Anne McElvoy his verdict. In a new book "Consumption and its consequences", anthropologist Daniel Miller argues that consumption is actually central to social relationship and that advocating curbing it is the wrong place to start. Sociologist Don Slater joins the discussion. Military Historian Antony Beevor talks to Anne McElvoy about his new history of the Second World War. He explains why he feels the conflict must be treated as an amalgamation of conflicts, why there is a renewed fascination with the war today, and why it is so critical for Europe - especially now - to remember the lessons that were learned between 1939-1945. And Anne McElvoy visits the Serpentine Gallery in London and talks to the architects responsible for the Beijing National Stadium about their first UK collaboration with Chinese artist Ai Weiwei - this year's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

Are we living in a second Elizabethan era? Juliet Gardiner, Stephen Haseler, Vernon Bogdanor and Julie Sanders join Philip Dodd to discuss in what sense we are all new Elizabethans. Antigone is on the stage of the National Theatre and the classicist Edith Hall and political theorist Kimberly Hutchings discuss how the play resonates today. And as an exhibition of Thomas Heatherwick's work opens at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Philip meets him to explore how he sees his work.

Rana Mitter meets John Irving whose new novel 'In One Person' examines loss of innocence, loss of sexual identity and trust in his most political novel since 'The Cider House Rules'. For Night Waves writers Gabriel Gbadamosi and Kamila Shamsie have been covering the Globe to Globe Shakespeare season and report back. Rana talks to artist Tom Phillips about his best-known work, A Humument now re-published in its fifth edition. And film historian John Cunningham and the poet and translator George Szirtes discuss the film 'The Turin Horse'.

THIS PROGRAMME CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE. Matthew Sweet watches Ken Loach's new film The Angels' Share. Along with Hannah McGill, Anne Karpf and Lynda Mugglestone he also discusses the use of strong swearwords in the film and the controversy surrounding the cuts that Loach was forced to make in order to obtain a 15 certificate for the film. And science writer Marcus Chown, creative writing teacher Richard Hamblyn and translator Martin McLaughlin discuss the work and life of Italo Calvino and the way he uses science in his writing.

Anne McElvoy talks to neuroscientist David Eagleman to discuss the new ethical issues raised by the contradictory nature of brain science. The online social revolution is arguably the biggest cultural change the world has experienced since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. However, Andrew Keen - in his new book Digital Vertigo - suggests the social revolution is more dizzying and divisive than it is communitarian and life-enhancing. He's joined by writer and broadcaster, Naomi Alderman to untangle the web of social media. Anne also talks to the former diplomat and soldier Rory Stewart MP about his new two-part television documentary about Afghanistan. And a new exhibition at the British Museum explores how man's relationship with the horse has developed over centuries, from the deserts of Arabia to the race courses of England. Historians Louise Curth and Donna Landry discuss how the iconography of the horse has been represented in art and culture.

As a new book about warring philosophical frenemies Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre is published, Philip Dodd explores their fractious relationship. Italian affairs commentator Geoff Andrews and Sicilian journalist Alessandra Bonomolo discuss to what extent the Sicilian Renaissance was successful. And Nick Pearce, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, journalist Sue Cameron and political historian Peter Catterall discuss the nature of safe spaces in politics: how much have they facilitated the course of politics in the UK? Should all ministerial advice be made public?

Samira Ahmed talks to Jackie Kay and the former Reith lecturer, Michael Sandel about their new books, reviews a new production of Pinter's Betrayal and discusses the merits of a new extended version of Sergio Leone's gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America.

Matthew Sweet talks to the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson about the theologian, Jean Calvin and what she believes is his profound influence on the great tradition of American literature. Also in the programme, the writer John Healy. After fifteen years of living on the streets of London as an alcoholic, Healy discovered chess in prison, and then wrote an acclaimed autobiography, The Grass Arena. As a new documentary, Barbaric Genius, sets out to unravel the tangled story of how that publishing success turned into infamy, John Healy talks to Matthew Sweet about his life and his writing.

Anne McElvoy talks to Susannah Clapp about The Sunshine Boys at the Savoy Theatre. Angie Hobbs,Emily Sandberg and Anders Sandberg discuss how far we should push athletic performance. Michael Goldfarb and Ian Christie assess the legacy of the film Colonel Blimp. What has its impact been on the way we think about the conduct of war? And Caroline Cox decodes the meaning of the word Glamorous and reviews the V and A’s Ballgowns exhibition.

Samira Ahmed and guests discuss the opening and relaunch of The Photographer's Gallery in London this weekend after relocating to new premises and a multi-million pound overhaul. Carlos Fuentes, one of Mexico's greatest writers, died on Tuesday and Professor Steven Boldy, an expert on his work and close friend, explains why he was so significant in the Spanish-speaking world and beyond. Paul Seabright, the author of "The War of the Sexes", and historian Joanna Bourke debate whether the answer to greater harmony and equality between the sexes lies in our remote evolutionary past. And New Generation Thinkers Shahidha Bari and Lucy Powell discuss this year's Brighton Festival curated by Vanessa Redgrave.

Matthew Sweet presents Night Waves with a first night review of a new production of Falstaff live from the Royal Opera House in London. Journalist Peter Oborne and writer Eliane Glaser join Matthew to debate political ideology. Scottish human rights lawyer and screenwriter Paul Laverty talks to Matthew about his new political film Even The Rain and Diego Marani a linguist at the European Union who writes a column for a Swiss newspaper in the made up language of Europanto.

Rana Mitter reads a new collection of poetry from the Taliban in a newly translated volume that attempts to get inside the lives of a people little understood in the West. Science writer Philip Ball traces the rise of curiosity back to the 17th century and the Scientific Revolution when it changed from a vice to a virtue. And a review of an exhibition that’s a time capsule of 18th Century loot revealing the tastes, art, books and souvenirs of aristocrats returning from their Grand Tour of Europe.

Anne McElvoy talks to Hilary Mantel about her new historical novel Bring up the Bodiesand to Michael Apted the film maker behind the ground-breaking television documentary project 56 Up which has been following the lives of a selection of English people at seven year intervals.Susannah Clapp reviews Babel, the latest project from the immersive theatre company who won plaudits for last year's mammoth theatrical extravaganza, The Passion, in Port Talbot. This event has been commissioned for World Stages London as part of the Cultural Olympiad and uses the biblical story of the Tower of Babel as a starting point around which to organise 500 performers in an outdoor performance that has been billed as the theatrical event of the year.

In remembrance of Vidal Sassoon, Night Waves podcasts an interview with Philip Dodd first broadcast on Monday 16 May 2011. As a film is released about Vidal Sassoon's life, he talks to Philip about growing up as a Jew in East London in the 1930s, his life as the iconic hairdresser of the 1960s and his later work.

Samira Ahmed talks to Andro Linklater whose new book Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die examines the assassination of the all-powerful prime minister of Great Britain, on 11 May 1812.