Jonathan Miller – Theatre and Opera Director
Jonathan Miller has had a career of mind-boggling diversity and creativity that defies an easy label. He is best known as a director and producer of opera and theatre, but he is also a writer, performer, sculptor and photographer. He trained in medicine and sometimes seems more fulfilled by science than his life in the arts. Stephen Sackur asks why, after five decades as a dominant figure in British cultural life, he never seemed entirely at ease with his country or its culture.
29 Apr 201323min
Ioannis Kasoulides – Foreign Minister of Cyprus
Cyprus is enduring the agonies of a financial and economic meltdown. But here's the really bad news for the Cypriot people - according to international economists their darkest days have yet to come. The islands economy is about to shrink dramatically, overseas investors are fleeing and the current Government is struggling to come up with a survival strategy. Stephen Sackur speaks to Cyprus's Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides. Who and what will save Cyprus?(Image: Cyprus Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ioannis Kasoulides (right) shakes hands with Foreign minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt. Credit: Associated Press)
26 Apr 201323min
Carlos Gutierrez - US Secretary of Commerce 2005 – 2009
The United States is a nation built by immigrants, but immigration is also an issue which has created deep divisions. As the United States Congress prepares to debate a plan that would offer a pathway to citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants, America’s conservatives face a question – are they ready to embrace their country’s new demographic reality?HARDtalk speaks to Carlos Gutierrez, a former Republican Secretary of Commerce. America is changing fast; can the Republican Party keep up?(Image: Former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez (left) and former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Credit: Associated Press)
24 Apr 201323min
Christine Lagarde – Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
IMF managing director Christine Lagarde says the challenge right now is to move from a fragmented, 3 speed world economy to a full speed economy. It's a neat slogan, but how is it be done?
22 Apr 201323min
Mathieu Kassovitz - Actor and Director
Mathieu Kassovitz has been a darling of French cinema for 30 years. Now he says, "I'm out of this country" - and it's nothing to do with taxes. Is he frustrated with an industry that was indifferent to his latest movie? Or with the politicians who furnish some of his least-appealing characters? His newest offering, a tale of post-colonial bloodshed on a Pacific island inspired by real events, which he thinks should shame France, attracted an audience there of just 150,000 people. Has the actor-director tired of France, or have the French tired of him? Presented by Shaun Ley.(Image: Mathieu Kassovitz, Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
19 Apr 201323min
Steffen Kampeter – Deputy Finance Minister, Germany
Angela Merkel is a politician caught between a rock and a hard place. In Germany, a new party accuses her of doing too much to keep alive the hated Euro currency. Other eurozone members say her government is not doing enough, fearful of those domestic critics ahead of this autumn's federal election. Hardtalk speaks to Germany’s deputy finance minister Steffen Kampeter. Just how big a price is Germany prepared to pay to save the euro-project, and its own reputation?(Image: Steffen Kampeter, Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
17 Apr 201323min
Jeremy Irons - Actor
Stephen Sackur meets one of Britain's most successful actors, Jeremy Irons. The Oscar winning performer is best known for his portrayal of troubled, brooding upper class men. He has just finished making a documentary about the potentially devastating impact of the mountains of toxic waste polluting our planet. He is an actor with very strong opinions. Could that get him into trouble?(Image: Jeremy Irons, Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
15 Apr 201323min
Lord Maurice Saatchi - UK Conservative Party Chairman (2003-2005)
Rarely does the death of a long-retired politician prompt a genuinely worldwide reaction, but Margaret Thatcher was one of a kind. Britain's first female prime minister transformed her own country, and provided the world with a model of market economics and conviction politics, which was inspirational to some, repellent to others. Hardtalk speaks to a man who played a key role in the creation of Thatcherism. Maurice, now Lord Saatchi, was the advertising guru who helped define, and sell, what she stood for. How enduring is the Thatcher legacy? Presented by Stephen Sackur.(Image: Lord Maurice Saatchi, Credit: Getty Images)
11 Apr 201323min
