Hardtalk

In-depth, hard-hitting interviews with newsworthy personalities.

The conflict in Colombia between the state and left-wing rebels has been running for more than 50 years. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions more are displaced. Tim Franks speaks to the Colombian government's chief peace negotiator Sergio Jaramillo. Can he make a deal?(Photo: Sergio Jaramillo, Colombian High Commissioner for Peace)

Britain has the same prime minister but a new government. David Cameron's Conservative Party won last week's general election outright - his former coalition allies were reduced to a rump. He now has a mandate to renegotiate the country's membership of the European Union, with the threat that the British people could vote in a referendum to leave altogether. With the forces of independence on the march in Scotland, and evidence that they have been roused in England, too, is the UK being pushed apart? Hardtalk speaks to Sir Malcolm Rifkind, UK Foreign Secretary 1995-1997, Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson 2001-2006 and Pat McFadden, UK Shadow Europe Minister.(Photo: Left to right, Sir Menzies Campbell, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Pat McFadden. Credit: Carl Court, Justin Tallis, Oli Scarf/AFP/Getty Images)

In-depth, hard-hitting interviews with newsworthy personalities.

Tim Franks speaks to the Portuguese Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque who has one of the most unforgiving jobs in politics. She is committed to reviving her own country’s battered economy, to saving the single currency, and somehow to ensuring that Greece pays its debts and stays inside the Euro.(Photo: Maria Luis Albuquerque. Credit: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images)

Hardtalk speaks to a man from the highest echelons of the US foreign policy establishment. Dr Richard Haass has worked in the State Department, advised US presidents, and is now president of the influential think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He believes we are witnessing the end of one era of world history and the dawn of another. A new 'era of disorder' - more chaotic and more dangerous than any time in a generation. He says American foreign policy is partly to blame and US authority has been diminished. So how dangerous is the world now? And what could be done about it?(Photo: Dr Richard Haass. Credit: Reuters)

Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to a novelist whose fictional world is filled with drugs, sex, sleaze and alienation. Scottish writer Irvine Welsh draws deeply flawed characters and makes them entertaining and all too human. His first bestseller was Trainspotting, a tale of heroin ravaged youths from the wrong side of Edinburgh’s tracks. His latest book returns to the same turf. He now lives most of his life in the US, so how come his imagination is still so heavily stirred by Scotland and his working-class roots?(Photo: Scottish author Irvine Welsh. Credit: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Many people are familiar with cases involving terminally ill patients who believe that they should have the right to die. But what about making this a right for everyone - even if they are fit and healthy? Zeinab Badawi speaks to the controversial Australian Dr Philip Nitschke who believes anyone over 50 should be able to plan an end to their own life. But is he not just encouraging acts of suicide?(Photo: Dr Philip Nitschke. Credit: David Mariuz/Getty Images)

Zeinab Badawi talks to the American economist and hi-tech entrepreneur Pippa Malmgren. By 2025 robots and artificial intelligence will be performing a lot more of the jobs that humans do at present. What is not clear is whether as a result of this, prospects will be brighter or bleaker for us. Will technology create more jobs than it destroys? Will only the brightest and most talented survive in jobs - leading to greater inequalities in society and could artificial intelligence even pose an existential threat to humans?(Photo: Economist and hi-tech entrepreneur Pippa Malmgren)

There was a clear winner in last month’s Israeli election but there is not yet a new government. Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is taking his time, talking to smaller right-wing and religious parties, but also according to rumour, toying with the possibility of inviting the centre left Zionist Union into a national unity government. Stephen Sackur speaks to the man Netanyahu defeated in the battle for the premiership, Isaac Herzog. For him the election was a major disappointment, so what does he and the Israeli left, do now?(Photo: Isaac Herzog. Credit: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)

The brutal gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012 provoked widespread shock and outrage and put the spotlight on violence against women in India. A recent documentary about it provoked huge controversy. The film called India's Daughter featured an interview with one of the five convicted rapists, who expressed no remorse and blamed the victim for fighting back. The Delhi government prevented the film being shown in India and there were demands by the Indian government for it not to be aired by the BBC. HARDtalk talks to the documentary's director, Leslee Udwin. Was her film sensationalist and voyeuristic?Image: Lesley Udwin. Credit: Getty Images

Brandon Bryant's story provides a rare glimpse into a secret world and raises questions about the nature of 21st Century warfare. He joined the US Air Force straight out of college. He was picked to join one of the United States' most controversial and important military programmes - the deployment of armed unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones - to hunt down and kill some of America's most dangerous enemies. The experience has left him haunted and angry. We find out why.

Two years after the death of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s socialist revolution is in trouble. The country's oil reliant economy is ravaged by inflation, shortages and corruption. Those hit hardest are the poor, Chavez's bedrock supporters. Hardtalk speaks to one of the most prominent and outspoken members of the Venezuelan opposition - Maria Corina Machado. How close is chaos in Venezuela?(Photo: Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader. Credit: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images)

The scale of humanitarian suffering in Syria is impossible to capture in words delivered from the comfort of a radio studio - 12 million people are in dire need of emergency aid. Hardtalk speaks to Valerie Amos, head of the UN's humanitarian affairs operation. Is Syria part of a wider story of international humanitarian failure?(Photo: Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)

Do the world's richest individuals owe anything to the societies within which they flourish? Is the notion of 'giving back' a choice or a moral obligation? As part of the BBC’s Richer World season Hardtalk speaks to one of Britain's wealthiest men, the billionaire John Caudwell. He made his fortune out of mobile phones and now divides his time between backing new businesses and philanthropy. What are the ingredients for a healthy capitalist society?(Photo: John Caudwell at the Caudwell Children The Legends Ball in Battersea, London. Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Hardtalk speaks to a legend of the music business, a man who has written and performed some of the most memorable tracks of the last four decades. Nile Rodgers co-founded Chic, the band which defined the late '70s disco generation. From his own band Chic, to his collaborations with everyone from Madonna to Daft Punk, his beat goes on – so what is the secret to his special sound?(Photo: Nile Rodgers at the Spotify seminar, St. James's Church, Piccadilly, 2015. Credit: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images)

Hong Kong's self-styled umbrella revolution blew itself out before it could deliver any long-term change in the former colony's political weather. Hardtalk speaks to one of the pro-democracy movement leaders, Benny Tai. Months of street protests failed to pressure Beijing into concessions on the election of Hong Kong's next chief executive - so where does the campaign for political reform go now?(Photo: Benny Tai, an original founder of the pro-democracy Occupy movement, surrenders to the police in Hong Kong. Credit: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)

Stephen Sackur speaks with US venture capitalist and philanthropist Nick Hanauer, live from the BBC’s Radio Theatre in London. Nick Hanauer is an American dotcom billionaire businessman. He believes that the rich in America should pay more taxes and has warned of revolution if wealth inequality is not addressed. Is American capitalism in danger of collapse?(Photo: Nick Hanauer. BBC copyright)

Stephen Sackur speaks to General Sir Richard Shirreff, recently retired as deputy commander of Nato forces. He has recently described British Prime Minister David Cameron as hesitant and vacillating, and claims Britain and Nato are exhibiting dangerous weakness on conflicts from Ukraine to Syria. But is there a viable strategic alternative?(Photo: General Sir Richard Shirreff. Credit: Nato)

For the past five years Britains Liberal Democrat Party have been the junior partner in a coalition with the Conservatives. They have helped deliver a stable government and have wielded power for the first time in their modern history. Yet the electorate seems ready to condemn them for it in the coming British general election. We speak to Liberal Democrat government minister David Laws. What does his party’s experience say about politics in Britain today?(Photo: David Laws. Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)