Sir Ian McKellen - Actor
Whether you think of him as Richard III or Gandalf, you will know he has won hearts and accolades around the world - not just for five decades of work on stage and screen, but also for his passionate public advocacy, particular on the issue of gay rights. Sir Ian McKellen was brought up in a Britain in which homosexuality was still a crime. He did not come out publicly until he was 49. Almost three decades on he is still acting and still campaigning. For this special programme recorded in front of an audience to mark 20 years of Hardtalk, Stephen Sackur asks him to what extent has the cultural landscape changed?
5 Huhti 201723min
Former Commissioner of Corrections, Georgia, USA - Allen Ault
Why is a former head of state-sanctioned executions now an opponent of the death penalty? A host of countries around the world still impose the ultimate punishment on the most serious criminals - death. But what is it like to be in command of the machinery of state-sanctioned execution? In a rare insight, Stephen Sackur speaks to Allen Ault, who spent years running the corrections system in the southern US state of Georgia. He organised the killing of criminals until he could stand it no more. What changed?(Photo: Allen Ault - Former Commissioner of Corrections, Georgia, USA, on BBC Hardtalk)
31 Maalis 201722min
South African Anti-Apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada
He spent 26 years in jail for trying to topple South Africa’s white minority government. Veteran anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada has died. He was 87 years old. For 18 years he was with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, and when he was released from prison in October 1989 at the age of 60, he continued the struggle for a non racial South Africa. After the first democratic elections in 1994, President Mandela persuaded him to join him in government as his political adviser. Sarah Montague interviewed Ahmed Kathrada for Hardtalk in April 2014. A man who had given his entire life to the liberation struggle, he had no time for hatred or bitterness.(Photo: Ahmed Kathrada. Credit: Getty Images)
29 Maalis 201723min
Ben Ferencz, Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Nazi Trials
Looking back, what does the last surviving prosecutor at the Nazi Nuremberg trials think they achieved? 98-year-old Ben Ferencz helped liberate the death camps in Europe when he was serving in the US military. Himself a Jew from central Europe, he speaks to Zeinab Badawi in Florida about what he has learnt in his long life about the nature of evil.
27 Maalis 201723min
Deputy Leader of the Turkey's Republican People's Party - Selin Sayek Böke
Does Turkey's main opposition party have a credible alternative vision for the country? Zeinab Badawi talks to Selin Sayek Böke, a deputy leader for the CHP. Her party was established by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and was the automatic party of government for decades. So what went wrong?(Photo: Selin Sayek Böke, Deputy Leader of the CHP on Hardtalk)
24 Maalis 201723min
Joshua Wong, Secretary General of Demosisto political party, Hong Kong
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Joshua Wong, a leader of the so-called umbrella pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2014. He's now the secretary general of the Demosisto political party. But since Hong Kong is due to elect a new chief executive later this month, who will not be chosen by the people, has the territory's pro-democracy movement failed?
22 Maalis 201723min
Zimbabwe's Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi
Sarah Montague speaks to Zimbabwe’s Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi. His job is to persuade people to holiday in a country where doctors, nurses and teachers have all been on strike, half the rural population face starvation and the economy is in the grip of a major currency crisis. He's worked alongside President Mugabe for the last decade. But at the age of 93 and with plans to stand in elections next year, isn't it time for the oldest head of state to go?(Photo: Walter Mzembi. Credit: Getty Images)
20 Maalis 201723min
Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vice-Chairman of Open Russia
Sarah Montague speaks to Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vice-Chairman of the pro-democracy movement Open Russia. He was rushed to hospital in Moscow when his organs started failing and says he knew immediately what was happening because the same thing had happened two years previously. Both times he claims, he was the victim of deliberate poisoning. He also claims he was targeted because of his opposition to President Putin and the Russian government. After his stay in Washington, where he is currently recovering, he intends to go back to Moscow. Does he still fear for his life?(Photo: Vladimir Kara-Murza)
17 Maalis 201723min
