hardtalk can be raw.t extra time to really dig deep into somebody‘s psyche, there are times when they express emotion and dig deep into themselves, in a way that you don't see anywhere else. sometimes we all interview celebrities, actors and musicians and so on, and i still think they should be subjected to some rigorous questioning. and i'm thinking most recently of burt reynolds, whom i interviewed. and, you know, he was charming. and he enjoyed it. but it was obviously tougher kind of questions than he would normally have on the celebrity circuit. and ijust said to him at the end, "you're approaching your 80th birthday", and so on, "are you happy? would you describe yourself as happy? " and he said, "i was until i started this interview!" i always find that people are more... celebrities often seem surprised that they enjoy it so much. i really like that. it's a whole different interview to what i'm used to. i mean, when you look back at some of the stuff that you did then, are you guilty of misogyny?

we do on hardtalk. this is hardtalk! come on! in the world of finance... no, he might sue me.like, "really? bodyguards, where are you?" he didn't, needless to say, but that instant reaction when they haven't enjoyed it. they slightly know when they come on, they often have a sense of what's in store, they're perhaps more prepared to go... i think the extra time we have really matters. from the word go... yes. and they hadn't even given me a chance! i was kicked under the table by one british politician... you're kidding!? mo mowlam, mo mowlam, former northern ireland secretary. what, literally? after this interview, she was wearing these sharp heels and pointed toes and she kicked me under the table and she got me right in the shin. you might have deserved it! i said, "what did you do that for?" she said, "because you're a bastard." were you? had you been? i think it's important that you give the same treatment to everybody and this is how the programme has lasted so long, you're as tough with everybody and you have to be. i want to say, here we are all talking about hardtalk

it's time now for hardtalk.e very significant people have lined up condemning what you have done, or questioning it. i'm not sure... the european commissioner, peter mandelson, has questioned the wisdom of publishing the cartoons, he says, "publishing them again and again pours petrol on the flames." you talk about frustration with governments, now, but your whole career, basically, sounds as if it's been banging your head against a brick wall. great to see you, how are you? how do you feel, as president, that you are going to go down in history as a president who presided over a loss of a large part of your territory? oh, gosh, yes. we understood that you wished to do this interview, and you wished to reply to questions that we, in the name of the bbc, are putting towards you, am i not right? cheers! yeah! to the next 20 years! how come you all have water, and i have got wine? that's terrible! so go on, you've got to take us back to the first run. we want to hear, tim, your thoughts on how it all started, and w

now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.e very significant people have lined up condemning what you have done, or questioning you? do you —— your wisdom has been questioned in publishing the cartoons again and again, pouring petrol on the flames. when you talk about frustration with governments now, at your whole career looks like it has been spent at war. how do you feel as president that you are going to go down in history as a president who presided over a loss of a large part of your territory? we understood that you wished to do this interview, and you wished to do this interview, and you wished to do this interview, and you wished to reply to questions that we, in the name of the bbc, are putting towards you, is that not right? cheers! to the next 20 years! how come you all have water, and i have wine's that is terrible. so go on, you need to take us back to the first. we want to hear your thoughts oi'i first. we want to hear your thoughts on how it all started. the strangest thing about starting it was that people did

before we got onto hardtalk. well, x—men... be! before we got onto hardtalk. well, x-men... x-men. .. x-men is not tosh. be! before we got onto hardtalk. well, x-men... x-men is not tosh. is there a role you have turned over being too puerile silly? about once a week. no, no, i have said it many times. x—men is a discussion in a very popularform of times. x—men is a discussion in a very popular form of what the civil rights movement does. it is not true of superman and those guys, those weren't so suddenly become super men by changing their underwear, it seems to me. what other tosh? i'm thinking, i probably have! maybe i am picking away at the wrong thing, but it seems to me there is an insecurity in acting. it is a thing that it insecurity in acting. it is a thing thatitis insecurity in acting. it is a thing that it is a very insecure profession. you're great, great uncle died in the workers. i wonder whether that insecurity, even today, is still a part of your make—up. well, i am excluding narrowly lucky as an actor from that point of view. i have never been out of work.

now it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. injust a welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. in just a few days, pope francis will fly to egypt to offer his personal support to egypt's coptic christians. he will find a community filled with apprehension, targeted by jihadist community filled with apprehension, targeted byjihadist extremists, and subject to persistent discrimination and sectarian violence. elsewhere in the middle east, in syria and iraq, the middle east, in syria and iraq, the plight of christians is even worse. my guest today is the general bishop of the cup that church in the uk, bishop angaelos. do christians have any future at all in the middle east? —— one. bishop angaelos, welcome to hardtalk do you think there is something substantively different about the nature of the threat faced by coptic christians in egypt to date? because they have faced threats for many yea rs. they have faced threats for many years. yes. we have faced threats for centuries, particularly over the past decades, but to have suicide bombers in churches is a shif

now on bbc news, time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, saying that the dally.nkara at the office of the prime minister, binali yildirim. in this exclusive interview i asked him whether turkey is becoming more authoritarian after the recent controversial and closely fought referendum. can the government bring together a divided nation? prime minister binali yildirim, welcome to hardtalk thank you very much, you am most welcome to this beautiful country, turkey. thank you. what is your response to critics who say the recent referendum has turned turkey into a dictatorship, that there will be one party rule and president of the gamble be like a latter—day ottoman sultan? —— erdogan. all right, so you kind of address to one aspect of the criticisms, which is that you had somehow rigged the vote, the party had, so that it would be in yourfavour. vote, the party had, so that it would be in your favour. you said how you refute those allegations. but looking at the substance of what the constitutional chases —— changes will bring, the argument is that it will bring, th

now it is time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur.ords israel and apartheid in the same sentence, and you are stepping into a political minefield. write a un report and accuse israel of systematically implementing apartheid policies, well, you can be sure there will be a diplomatic explosion. my guest today, rima khalaf, did just that, and promptly resigned from her un post, when the secretary general refused to accept her work. her motives have been widely questioned. so let's ask her — what were they? rima khalaf, welcome to hardtalk. pleasure to be here. now that the dust has settled for a few weeks on this episode, of you, the report you commissioned on israel, and apartheid, you have had some time to reflect on it all. do you have regrets about the way you handled it? no, actually, not at all. first let me explain that i did not commission the report because i wanted to commission a report. escwa, or the un economic and social commission for western asia, is an intergovernmental body. we are an intergovernmental agency. and we ju

now it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur.ay i'm in rural northern germany. stable, prosperous, 21st century germany. but i'm here to talk about the past and its relationship to the present. my guest is the writer, journalist and son, niklas frank. now, his father was appointed by hitler to be the governor general of nazi—occupied poland. he was intimately involved in the murder of millions of people. so, how has this german son dealt with the terrible crimes of his father? niklas, i'm wondering why you have chosen to make your life in the very far north of germany. is it because you wanted to get as far away as possible from yourfamily background in bavaria? no, i still love bavaria. and every year we have about many weeks in bavaria, in the same village where i grew up. but it was my profession as a journalist at stern magazine, which i worked for 23 years, was based in hamburg. so, i had to lure my wife, she was attached to munich, because she is a big gardener, to her house with a big garden, so we've lived here for 33 yea

time now for hardtalk. welcome to a special edition of hardtalk. am stephen sackur and today i am joined by an audience here at the bbc radio theatre to celebrate 20 years of hardtalk interviews. who better to have on our birthday than sir ian mckellen? whether you think of him as richard iii or gandalf, he has won hearts and accolades around the world. not just for decades of work on screen but his passion of public campaigning, particularly on the issue of gay rights. please give a warm welcome to ian mckellen. cheering and applause. that was quite a welcome. ian mckellen, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. there's a lot to talk about both personal and in terms of yourcampaigning. but there are very few actors with the diversity you have offered your audiences, from the great shakespearean roles to comic book characters in x—men. is there a common thread through everything you have done? the common thread is there is no common thread. there is a variety. what i always admired in my youth was people playing different sorts of parts in different envir

welcome to hardtalk, with me, sarah montague.a few months ago, russia was congratulating donald trump on becoming president, and expressing the hope that both countries would take their relationship to a whole new level. now, moscow's relations with the us and the west are so bad that the russian prime minister dmitri medvedev talks of them as "ruined". that was after america's response to the recent chemical attack in syria. but even before that, there was the stand—off in ukraine, and accusations of russian interference in american elections. now there are fears the russians could meddle in the french elections and other european votes this year. my guest is vladimir chizhov, russia's ambassador to the eu. will russia promise not to pervert democracy in europe? vladimir chizhov, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. france's foreign ministerjean—marc ayrault has accused russia of meddling in french democratic life. is that true? of course it's not. well, i'm afraid that this wave of anti—russian rhetoric has become contagious, and ha

now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk i am sarah montague. crisis is one of the world's most enormous problems. 60 million people have fled their homes and countries. my guest today says the problem is fixable, and we can do it easily. he is the economist, professor sir paul collier. the solution, he argues, is to give refugees jobs. in doing so he suggests everyone will benefit. but if the answer is so simple, why has it not been done before? professor sir paul collier, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. you have said, of the syrian refugee crisis, that it is entirely manageable, we can do it easily. yet we are talking about millions of desperate people on the move. why do you say it is so fixable? because it is. the reason we have a mess is because of two reasons. one is that we have in international system which is hopelessly broken. we have a system built in 1950 that is com pletely a system built in 1950 that is completely unfit for the 21st century problems. we never changed it. we've got a broken system which was then confro

now on bbc news it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk i am stephen sackur.oday i am in rural northern germany. stable, prosperous when he first century germany. but i am here to talk about the past. and its relationship to the present. my guest is the writer, journalist and son, niklas frank. now, his father was appointed by hitler to be the governor general of nazi occupied poland. he was intimately involved in the murder of millions of people. so, how has this german son dealt with the terrible crimes of his father? niklas, iam with the terrible crimes of his father? niklas, i am wondering why you have chosen to make your life in the very far north of germany. is it because you wanted to get as far away as possible from your family background in bavaria? no, i still love bavaria. and every year we have about many weeks in bavaria, in the same village where i grew up. but it was my profession as a journalist at stern magazine, which i worked for 23 years, was based in hamburg. so i had to lure my wife, she was attached to munich, because she is a big garden

now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm sarah montague. european union in greater trouble than ever before. it's notjust because of brexit, even founding members — countries like italy — are unhappy about the direction it's headed. the italian economy has always struggled within the straightjacket of the euro. and it's wanted its fellow members to help share the burden of the half a million migrants who have turned up on its shores over the past three years. my guest here at the italian embassy in london is italy's europe minister, sandro gozi. he is a passionate european. how does he think the eu should change if it to survive and win over the next generation of europeans? sandro gozi, welcome to hardtalk. you have said that the beginning of european disintegration has started with brexit. is the eu disintegrating? if it remains the status quo, certainly. it must get out of the status quo. it must show there is a political reaction to the series of crises that has hit the union. among these, the major one is certainly the brexit decision.

. —— hardtalk.me to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi, here in florida, where my guest is 98—year—old ben ferencz. he is the last surviving prosecutor at the nuremberg nazi trials. he also helped liberate the death camps of europe while serving in the us army. so does he believe that the nuremberg trials have made genocide and other crimes against humanity less likely to be committed in the world today? ben ferencz, welcome to hardtalk. you were born in 1920 in transylvania in central europe. you moved to the united states with your family when you were a little baby. you really epitomise the american dream, a kind of rags to riches story, because it was discovered that you were highly intelligent and you were put on a fast track to harvard law school. we arrived in america. my parents were young immigrants fleeing persecution and poverty. no money, no skills, no language. and lucky to have some friendly new yorker offer us, my father, who had been trained as a shoemaker, but they didn't need any boot

now on bbc news it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur.s wildlife is one of the wonders of the natural world, but the fate of the continent's elephants, rhinos and big cats is now desperately uncertain. illegal poaching could see these great species disappear from their african heartlands. my guest today is richard leakey, chairman of the kenya wildlife service. he also happens to be a world—famous palaeontologist whose life story reads like an implausible movie script. the question is — will his fight for africa's endangered wildlife have a happy ending? richard leakey, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. you know, there is an adage, a saying which goes like this: "you should never go back." and yet you have decided to go back, to run and be the chairman of the kenya wildlife service so many years after you did thatjob in the late ‘80s. why have you gone back? well, i go by a different philosophy. if you do a job and you do it reasonably well, and it gets messed up, if you can go back and tidy it up again, why not? imean, get it back to what

now on bbc news it's time for hardtalk welcome to hardtalk, i'm sarah montague.he refugee crisis is one of the world's most intractable problems. 60 million people have fled their homes, a third of them also fleeing their own country. but my guest today says the problem is fixable and we can do it easily. he's the economist professor sir paul collier. the solution, he argues, is to give refugeesjobs — and in doing so, he suggests everyone will benefit. but if the answer is so simple, why hasn't it been done before? paul collier, welcome to hardtalk. thanks for inviting me on. now, you have said of the syrian refugee crisis that it is entirely manageable, it is fixable, we can do it easily, and yet we are talking about millions of desperate people on the move — why do you say it is so fixable? because it is. the reason we've got a mess is two things. one is we've got an international system which is hopelessly broken. we've got a system built in 1950 that is completely unfit for 21st century problems. and we've never changed it. so we've got a broken system which

now it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur.g rotten in the republic of france? as the country prepares to elect a new president polls suggest record levels of apathy and disillusion among french voters. a spate of terror attacks has sown insecurity and sparked a heated debate about immigration, islam and france's identity. my guest today is pascal bruckner, a writer and public intellectual in the grand french tradition. is france living through an age of decline? pascal bruckner, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. we are talking with a french presidential election very close. does france feel ripe for the sort of political shock that we've seen in recent times both in the uk over the brexit vote and in the united states with the victory of donald trump in the presidential election? i hope not, with all my heart i hope we won't face the same electoral results that you had with brexit and that the americans had with trump. so we're doing everything to avoid the passage to the far right with marine le pen. but at the present time we

ben ferencz, thank you very much for coming on hardtalk. it has been a pleasure.but think about it. thank you. good morning. if you like your weather dry and sunny, you were very happy with the first days of april. in fact, we had sunshine topping and tailing the country. just look at this picture from sunday in south—west scotland. a beautiful day here. similar story in london, where you can enjoy the spring blossom. it was the warmest place in the country with 17.2 celsius in st james‘s park. now, our week ahead will be a mostly dry one. just a little bit fresher, though, and i suspect through the night, some chilly nights will come. a touch of light frost not out of the question. high pressure hanging in there in eastern areas, but out of the west, these are these fronts pushing in. they will not bring significant rain but will bring a change to northern ireland and western scotland, as we go through the morning, eventually into western fringes of wales in the south—west. ahead of it, though, any early—morning mist will lift away for sunshine. so by the middle

now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk. the country with the biggest oil reserves in the world is in economic meltdown. venezuelans queue for hours for bread. the sick can't get the medicines they need. violent crime is thriving in the chaos. caracas is now the world's most dangerous capital. hugo chavez's socialist revolution has lost its charismatic leader, but not yet its grip on power. opposition to chavez's successor, nicolas maduro, is mobilising. the national assembly is at war with the government. venezuela is on the brink of a terrifying descent into darkness. can anyone pull it back from the brink? foreign journalists are rarely welcome in venezuela, so we charter a small plane to the country's caribbean island of margarita, where overseas visitors can still slip in with little fuss. this used to be a buzzing, prospering tourist town. now, the flow of people, money and jobs has dried up. many local businesses have closed down. more are likely to follow. the beaches have not lost their allure, but venezuela has. a

that's all for me, now it's time for hardtalk. has been a singing star since the ‘60s, a civil rights activist and a woman you don't mess with on or off stage. she's worked with martin luther king and has sung everywhere that's anywhere. and once she even shot at someone who threatened to cheat her in a business deal. still a huge star and as powerful as ever, she is our guest today on hardtalk. # i love you, porgy, # don't let him take me, # don't let them handle me, # and drive me mad. # if you can keep me, # i wants to stay here with you forever, # two days after forever, # with you forever... # ‘cause i got my man. nina simone, dr simone, a very warm welcome to the programme. thank you tim sebastian, you have the same name as bach, my first love. i can't lose with that, can i? no, you can't. you can but i can't. tell me about music as a political weapon which you've used it as. 0h, now. that's a hard one. um, as a political weapon. it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of american blacks and third world people all ov

now it's time for hardtalk.as been a singing star since the 1960s, a civil rights activist and a woman you don't mess with on 01’ and a woman you don't mess with on or off stage. she has worked with martin luther king and has sung everywhere. once she even shot at somebody. still a huge star and as powerful as at all, she is a guest today on hardtalk. —— as powerful as ever. # i love you, porgy # i love you, porgy # don't let him take me. # don't let him take me. # don't let them handle me. # don't let them handle me. # and drive me mad. # and drive me mad. #if # and drive me mad. # if you can keep me, i want to stay here with you forever, two days after forever, # with you forever... # with you forever... # ‘cause i got my man. nina simone, doctor simone, a very warm welcome to the programme. thank you tim sebastian, you have the same name as my first love. i can't lose with that, can i? no, you can't. tell me about music as a political weapon. 0h, about music as a political weapon. oh, now. that is a hard one.