Start The Week

Andrew Marr talks to Pamela Yates about filming the mass killing of Guatemala's indigenous population during the 1980s, and how thirty years later her footage has become the evidence in a genocide case against a military dictator. And from the countryside of South America to the vast landscape of the Arctic: in Melanie McGrath's latest book, White Heat, nothing rots on the tundra, and all bones and memories are left exposed. The light and sea of Margate inspired Turner, and the Director of the Turner Contemporary gallery, Victoria Pomery, aims to put the Isle of Thanet on the artistic map. And a chest carved with wave forms is the centre piece of a show celebrating 50 years of design by the furniture maker, John Makepeace.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr with the physicists Brian Greene and Brian Cox explores the universe in all its wonder. And he attempts to understand our relation to parallel universes, which can be separated from us by enormous stretches of time and space, or hover just millimetres away. The science writer, Angela Saini, looks at why India is so successful in producing the next generation of doctors and scientists, in her book, Geek Nation. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to the human rights lawyer, Peter Harris, who represented the ANC when apartheid in South Africa was at its height. He discusses how the law was always seen to be done, even when justice was denied. Richard Susskind wants to revolutionise the justice system: as the new President of the Society for Computers and Law he sees technology as the answer to today's problems. Australia has been the recent victim of natural disasters - floods, storms and wild fires - and the country's leading conservationist, Tim Flannery, puts forward his views on the future of the planet. And as the longest running study of elephants in the wild turns 40, Phyllis Lee, explains what they've learnt about, what John Donne called, "Nature's great masterpiece". Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr with the former UN deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, who argues that national governments are no longer equipped to address complex international issues. The Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski describes the "corrupt grandiosity" of the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, and explains what is meant by the government's 'principled engagement' with the country. The historian David Gilmour looks back a hundred and fifty years to the unification of Italy, and considers whether it has ever really become a coherent nation-state. And the human rights lawyer, Baroness Helena Kennedy, believes we need to be more judgemental if we are to live an ethical life.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to Simon Wessely about the mental health of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and explores why British personnel appear to have fared so much better than their American counterparts. The historian John Stubbs revels in the antics of the Cavaliers - the 17th century dandies and political intriguers, loyal to the king. The experimental physicist Athene Donald argues that science is as creative as the arts, and describes how studying the texture of yoghurt could help the treatment of dementia. And Simon Sebag Montefiore studies the texture of a city - Jerusalem. His epic 3000 year history is a chronicle of faith and power, diversity and co-existence.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to David Attenborough as he goes on the trail of the elephant bird. Fifty years ago he was given pieces of its egg on a visit to Madagascar, now he returns to find out what this giant ostrich-like creature can tell us about the balance between survival and extinction. A journey of a different kind for Sheila Hancock who goes in search of the often over-looked artist of the watercolour. The writer David Shields heralds the death of the realist novel, as he advocates blending fiction and non-fiction in a kind of 'lyric essay', but he does it by plagiarising other authors in a form of 'creative sampling'. And poet Andrew Motion meditates on crossing the borders between fact and fiction.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to the British film-maker Mike Figgis about directing Donizetti's most psychologically profound opera, Lucrezia Borgia. Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell looks to the end of the world as the Mayans believed it, to discuss the communication of science. The businesswoman Margaret Heffernan asks how and why individuals and society as a whole choose to turn a blind eye to the uncomfortable truth. And society is also under the spotlight from the historian Edward Higgs, who champions the on-going importance of the census. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks fonts with the graphic designer Neville Brody, whose Anti-Design manifesto criticised the fear and lack of risk inherent in the art world, and challenged fellow artists to come up with something truly dangerous. Objects, overlooked and rejected, lie at the heart of much of Susan Hiller's work, which has been described as "investigations into the 'unconscious' of our culture." Hiller has been inspired by Minimalism, Fluxus and Surrealism, and Alex Danchev celebrates the best and worst in artists' manifestos. And the Nigerian writer EC Osondu, who works and lives in the US, explores the frayed bonds between his adopted country and his homeland. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to John Gray about our delusional quest for immortality, from Victorian séances to embalming Lenin's corpse to uploading our minds in cyberspace. Equally ambitious has been the quest to create the ultimate living, thinking robot, and the anthropologist Kathleen Richardson assesses how far machines could take over the earth. The science fiction writer Paul McAuley imagines a utopian world in the hostile environs of Jupiter and Saturn, based on a system of favours and patronage. And Dai Smith offers up an alternative history of his native South Wales, which brings together the events, people and writings that have shaped its unique culture.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Start the Week focuses on justice, fairness and ethical dilemmas this week. The leading Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm tells Andrew Marr that the inequalities inherent in capitalism has made people question its supremacy, and he argues that Marx remains as relevant today as in the last century. While the American academic Michael Sandel looks at the philosophy that underpins notions of justice, and unpicks the sometimes contradictory nature of morality. In her new play, Tiger Country, Nina Raine explores medical ethics and the huge toll working in a busy hospital takes on staff. And Azzam Alwash, an Iraqi water engineer, is seeking to right the wrongs of the past and restore the marshlands of his homeland to their former glory.Producer: Katy Hickman.

In the first Start the Week of the New Year Andrew Marr asks what has gone wrong in the West. The economist Dambisa Moyo charts 50 years of economic folly and argues that only radical changes in policy will stem permanent decline, while Lord Lawson, the former Chancellor, exposes the myths surrounding economic thinking. The journalist Stephen Kinzer calls on the US and UK to ditch its present allies in the Middle East - Saudi Arabia and Israel - and look to Iran and Turkey for support. And Labour's former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, explores those seemingly intractable problems, with a series of debates drawn from the "too difficult" box.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr celebrates 40 years of Start the Week. When Richard Baker first presented the show in 1970 it was a lively and often chaotic, mix of chat and celebrity knitted together by a weekly theme. Cookery demonstrations, and dancing with Wayne Sleep, rubbed shoulders with Roald Dahl and Sophia Loren discussing what frightens them, and Idi Amin playing the accordion. It was Melvyn Bragg who reinvented the programme 18 years later to make it a forum for ideas. He challenged his guests to explain their views and when guests like Maya Angelou, Francis Crick, Tom Stoppard and Salman Rushdie sat round his table together the debate sparkled. Andrew Marr who has been at the helm for the last 8 years is joined by Richard Baker and Melvyn Bragg to discuss four decades of Start the Week. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to the sculptor Anthony Caro about the development of modern British sculpture. Caro once worked out of a small garage at home, creating his growing metal structures, and it's the artist's studio that interests the art critic, Michael Peppiatt. He's attempting to capture the unique atmosphere of the tiny ramshackle studio behind Montparnasse where Alberto Giacometti lived and worked for nearly 40 years. For the last decade Sir Mark Jones has worked out of one of the grandest buildings in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum. As he prepares to step down next year, he talks about the continuing relevance of a museum that showcases objects and design. While the V+A has regularly exhibited works of fashion, several haute couture shops now pretend to be art galleries, and the writer, Justine Picardie asks how far fashion can be considered art. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to the conductor Semyon Bychkov about Tannhauser, Wagner's tortured artist, out of place in conventional society. While the scientist Mark Miodownik takes a measure of the world, and asks 'Does size matter?' in this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. Author Susan Hill ponders kindness, grief and miracles and the television screenwriter Tony Jordan forsakes EastEnders to take on 'the greatest story ever told', the Nativity. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to the choreographer Matthew Bourne about his vision for Cinderella, while the dance critic, Jennifer Homans sounds the death knell for ballet in her history of the art form. David Aaronovitch also asks whether Freud has had his heyday, in his examination of the continuing significance of the father of psycho-analysis, while the psychotherapist, Jane Haynes, celebrates the enduring appeal and relevance of Proust. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr travels back to Egypt in the 1950s to a time of religious pluralism and openness with the writer Tarek Osman. As Egypt votes in parliamentary elections, Tarek, asks what has happened in the intervening years. Francis Spufford imagines a very different world with his account of the Soviet Union under Kruschchev, and what could have happened if the dream of plenty had come true. Turkey's best-selling female novelist, Elif Shafak, argues against the constraints of identity politics and the pigeon-holing of multi-cultural writers. While Vicky Kaspi believes that we should be looking to outer space to stimulate curiosity and creativity: the astrophysicist and cosmologist researches some of the universe's most mysterious objects. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr takes a satirical look at the world in Start the Week. The satirist PJ O'Rourke makes a plea to the American public, Not To Vote, in his latest angry critique of liberal politics, while the writer and comedian Armando Iannucci explores the latest chapter in the life of his Machiavellian spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker. Mikhail Bulgakov's absurdist tale of how a stray mongrel becomes human is brought to the stage by Simon McBurney. And the classicist Mary Beard delves beneath the volcanic ash to uncover everyday life in the Roman town of Pompeii.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to the forensic psychotherapist Dr Gwen Adshead about the medicalisation of evil. While human nature in a different guise is explored through William Boyd's literary everyman, Logan Mounstuart, who moves from the page to tv screen in the adaptation of his novel, Any Human Heart. The poet Craig Raine compares the composition of a poem to the art of dress-making: "We are waiting till it feels exact,/ ruthless till we feel the fit." And the psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist concludes that the problem with modern society can be found in the left side of our brain. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to the Swedish poet, Lars Gustafsson about whether writers have a responsibility to challenge the establishment. Gillian Tett, the award-winning Financial Times journalist, who predicted the financial crash, does her own challenging of the status quo. The writer Patrick Wilcken describes the great intellectual Claude Levi-Strauss, as 'the poet in the laboratory' in a new biography. And Ed Vulliamy reports, in almost anthropological detail, on the lives of those caught up in the war of drugs, gangs and guns on the US-Mexican border. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr looks at what the future holds for Ireland after the financial crisis, with the cultural commentator, Fintan O'Toole, who argues for wholesale reform of the political system. While the Conservative MP, Nick Boles puts forward his blueprint for a new Britain. The fate of Deborah Cadbury's family firm was sealed when it was bought out by an American company. But she looks back at a chocolate dynasty that mixed sweet success with bitter rivalry. And the cellist Steven Isserlis is on a mission to enhance the reputation of the much-maligned composer, Saint-Saens.Producer: Eleanor Garland.