Start the Week - 13/12/2010

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.

Start the Week - 06/12/2010

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.