Gabriel Attal: Has the magic worn off France's Emmanuel Macron?

Electoral politics is a blood sport and some of the toughest fighters in the game are the campaign strategists who hone and sell their candidates' message.Lynton Crosby is widely regarded as a master in the dark arts of political campaigning. He ran winning election campaigns in his native Australia for former prime minister John Howard. In the UK, he twice helped Boris Johnson win the London Mayor's office. Opponents on the left have accused him of using grubby, divisive methods to further a conservative agenda. Is bare-knuckle politics good for democracy?(Image: Lynton Crosby)

1 Jul 201223min

Stephen Sackur is in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, which for the past six tumultuous months has held the presidency of the European Union. In that time, the number of Eurozone countries seeking an emergency financial bailout has risen to five. On the eve of yet another crisis summit, EU leaders face decisions that could make, or break the common currency. Stephen Sackur talks to Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark's prime minister. Is the dream of a common European future from Scandinavia to the Aegean well and truly over?(Image: Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt giving a press conference. Credit: Georges Gobet / AFP / Getty Images)

29 Jun 201222min

Stephen Sackur talks to Gehad El-Haddad, an adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.Mohamed Morsi has made history by becoming Egypt's first freely-elected president, but how much power has he won? The image of tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters savouring victory in Tahrir Square can't disguise the fact that Egypt is still governed by a military clique. With Parliament dissolved, no new constitution written and the generals ringfencing their powers, has Egypt's revolution run out of road?(Image: Gehad El-Haddad)

26 Jun 201223min

With the London Olympics just weeks away, athletes are completing their final preparations - and that means fine tuning the mind as well as the body. In elite sport the title 'head coach' increasingly refers to the specialist hired to get inside the athlete's head to instil a winning mentality. Stephen Sackur talks to the psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters - a consultant to the British Olympic cycling team and a highly prized adviser to a host of other famous sporting names. Is winning really all in the mind?(Image: Steve Peters speaks to the British cyclist Victoria Pendleton during the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classic in February, 2011. Credit: Getty Images)

24 Jun 201223min

The 2012 Cannes Film Festival was criticised when all 22 films in the competition were directed by men. But Hollywood is not much better - a recent study found that less than 10 per cent of its directors were women.So why are there so few women film-makers? Sarah Montague puts that question to Beeban Kidron, one of the few women to have made the big time. She is perhaps best-known for directing the second Bridget Jones movie, The Edge of Reason. But most of her other films concern far more radical material: a documentary about the anti-nuclear women protesters at Greenham Common, a TV adaptation of the lesbian novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Her latest documentary is about India's sacred prostitutes. Is it women and the choices they make that interests her most?(Image: Beeban Kidron in 2005. Credit: Ian West / PA Wire)

22 Jun 201223min

The Greek election in June 2012 has saved Europe from economic and financial meltdown - for now. No-one in Europe believes the combined currency, banking and sovereign debt trauma is over. And right across the continent, politicians are struggling to answer a simple question: how does Europe find a way back to sustainable economic growth?Stephen Sackur talks to Labour's business spokesman Chuka Umunna. He says active government can revive and reshape capitalism. Are business leaders or the public ready to believe him?(Image: Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna (left) with Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. Credit: Chris Radburn / PA Wire)

20 Jun 201223min

Israel's secret service, the Mossad, is regarded as one of the most resourceful and ruthless intelligence agencies in the world.But are Israel's top spies on the same page as the country's politicians when it comes to an assessment of the threat posed by Iran? The question was prompted by Meir Dagan, director of Mossad until a year and a half ago. Just months after retiring he said an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would be stupid. Why did he go so public so quickly, and is there a dangerous gulf between Israel's political leadership and security chiefs?(Image: Meir Dagan - left - shakes hands with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon while receiving his letter of appointment in October 30, 2002. Credit: Getty Images)

17 Jun 201223min

Wayne McGregor is known for pushing boundaries in an art form usually associated with traditional entertainment. Once known as the bad boy of ballet, he has been the resident choreographer in one of the dance world’s pillar of establishment, the Royal Ballet in London’s Covent Garden, for six years. He continues to challenge his audiences and his dancers to the limit, constantly concocting new ways of marrying ballet with the world of science, new technology, pop music, art and architecture. HARDtalk’s Katya Adler asks if this is why he remains the maverick inside the ballet establishment.

14 Jun 201223min