Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

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.