Hardtalk

Electoral politics is a blood sport and some of the toughest fighters in the game are the campaign strategists who hone and sell their candidates' message.Lynton Crosby is widely regarded as a master in the dark arts of political campaigning. He ran winning election campaigns in his native Australia for former prime minister John Howard. In the UK, he twice helped Boris Johnson win the London Mayor's office. Opponents on the left have accused him of using grubby, divisive methods to further a conservative agenda. Is bare-knuckle politics good for democracy?(Image: Lynton Crosby)

Stephen Sackur is in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, which for the past six tumultuous months has held the presidency of the European Union. In that time, the number of Eurozone countries seeking an emergency financial bailout has risen to five. On the eve of yet another crisis summit, EU leaders face decisions that could make, or break the common currency. Stephen Sackur talks to Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark's prime minister. Is the dream of a common European future from Scandinavia to the Aegean well and truly over?(Image: Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt giving a press conference. Credit: Georges Gobet / AFP / Getty Images)

Stephen Sackur talks to Gehad El-Haddad, an adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.Mohamed Morsi has made history by becoming Egypt's first freely-elected president, but how much power has he won? The image of tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters savouring victory in Tahrir Square can't disguise the fact that Egypt is still governed by a military clique. With Parliament dissolved, no new constitution written and the generals ringfencing their powers, has Egypt's revolution run out of road?(Image: Gehad El-Haddad)

With the London Olympics just weeks away, athletes are completing their final preparations - and that means fine tuning the mind as well as the body. In elite sport the title 'head coach' increasingly refers to the specialist hired to get inside the athlete's head to instil a winning mentality. Stephen Sackur talks to the psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters - a consultant to the British Olympic cycling team and a highly prized adviser to a host of other famous sporting names. Is winning really all in the mind?(Image: Steve Peters speaks to the British cyclist Victoria Pendleton during the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classic in February, 2011. Credit: Getty Images)

The 2012 Cannes Film Festival was criticised when all 22 films in the competition were directed by men. But Hollywood is not much better - a recent study found that less than 10 per cent of its directors were women.So why are there so few women film-makers? Sarah Montague puts that question to Beeban Kidron, one of the few women to have made the big time. She is perhaps best-known for directing the second Bridget Jones movie, The Edge of Reason. But most of her other films concern far more radical material: a documentary about the anti-nuclear women protesters at Greenham Common, a TV adaptation of the lesbian novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Her latest documentary is about India's sacred prostitutes. Is it women and the choices they make that interests her most?(Image: Beeban Kidron in 2005. Credit: Ian West / PA Wire)

The Greek election in June 2012 has saved Europe from economic and financial meltdown - for now. No-one in Europe believes the combined currency, banking and sovereign debt trauma is over. And right across the continent, politicians are struggling to answer a simple question: how does Europe find a way back to sustainable economic growth?Stephen Sackur talks to Labour's business spokesman Chuka Umunna. He says active government can revive and reshape capitalism. Are business leaders or the public ready to believe him?(Image: Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna (left) with Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. Credit: Chris Radburn / PA Wire)

Israel's secret service, the Mossad, is regarded as one of the most resourceful and ruthless intelligence agencies in the world.But are Israel's top spies on the same page as the country's politicians when it comes to an assessment of the threat posed by Iran? The question was prompted by Meir Dagan, director of Mossad until a year and a half ago. Just months after retiring he said an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would be stupid. Why did he go so public so quickly, and is there a dangerous gulf between Israel's political leadership and security chiefs?(Image: Meir Dagan - left - shakes hands with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon while receiving his letter of appointment in October 30, 2002. Credit: Getty Images)

Wayne McGregor is known for pushing boundaries in an art form usually associated with traditional entertainment. Once known as the bad boy of ballet, he has been the resident choreographer in one of the dance world’s pillar of establishment, the Royal Ballet in London’s Covent Garden, for six years. He continues to challenge his audiences and his dancers to the limit, constantly concocting new ways of marrying ballet with the world of science, new technology, pop music, art and architecture. HARDtalk’s Katya Adler asks if this is why he remains the maverick inside the ballet establishment.

Katya Adler talks to Dr Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.Iran's nuclear power programme has been a source of international tension for the past decade. At no point has it been able to shrug off the suspicion that its pursuit of nuclear energy is also an effort to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists it has no such ambitions but many of the world's major powers remain unconvinced and Israel is warning it will attack. The international community is seeking assurances from Iran at a fresh round of talks in Moscow later this month. Katya Adler asks Dr Ali Asghar Soltanieh what guarantees Iran will give that its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful.(Image: Iranian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh. Credit: AFP / Getty Images)

HARDtalk's Katya Adler speaks to the chairman of the Police Federation in England and Wales, Paul McKeever. The police in Britain, used to being revered, respected and admired at home and abroad, find themselves under a heavy black cloud. With allegations of bribery and corruption denting the public's trust, the force now also faces dramatic cuts to its budget and changes to its structure. Paul McKeever, himself a long-serving officer, says proposed government reforms could lead to the destruction of the police as we know it. But with the force untouched by change for decades, is now not an ideal opportunity to shape up for the challenges of the 21st century?(Image: Paul McKeever in 2011 Credit: Getty Images)

Could we soon see a cure for HIV/Aids? Francoise Barre-Sinoussi thinks so. She's the Nobel Prize-winner who helped first identify the virus 30 years ago. She argues that the need to pour money into fighting one of the world's most deadly diseases is as great as ever. Already nearly 30 million have died from it. But with budgets being cut, can we afford more expensive research?(Image: Francoise Barre-Sinoussi Credit: Getty Images)

Stephen Sackur talks to the newsmakers and personalities from across the globe.Hardtalk is in Margate, a traditional English seaside town, home to the new Turner Contemporary art gallery.Stephen Sackur speaks to Tracey Emin, the artist of international renown who was raised in Margate and has a major exhibition based in her old home town.Her work has always been deeply personal - a frank exploration of her sexuality, her relationships, her life.She has made an extraordinary journey from wild youth to pillar of the cultural establishment - just how blurred is the line between her art and her life?(Image: Tracey Emin unveils her new exhibition at the Turner Contemporary in Margate. Credit: Getty Images)

Even if you have not seen his shows, you will have heard his songs. For works such as Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Lion King, Sir Tim Rice is regarded as one of the greatest lyricists of his generation. After a break from songwriting which lasted ten years, he is completing a new work, so what tempted him back? Why are there so few truly original musicals nowadays and why has he made it clear that he is very unlikely to work with his one time collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber ever again?(Image: Lyricist, writer and composer Sir Tim Rice's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, California. Credit: Photo by Vince Bucci/Getty Images)

We are in a depression - unemployment at levels last seen during the thirties, an economic crisis in the Eurozone and the prospect of worse to come. But the Nobel Prize Winning economist Paul Krugman, thinks none of this needs to be happening and that America and Europe should be richer than they were five years ago - even now it wouldn't take much to solve the problem. He thinks what debt-ridden governments should be doing is borrowing more to spend their way out of trouble.(Image: Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman. Credit: Reuters)

The people of Greece shocked the rest of Europe with the results of their parliamentary elections on 6 May 2012. No party had a clear majority and the Syriza coalition of the radical left was put in second place.Syriza opposes the bailout package or 'memorandum' which gives Greece billions of euros in exchange for a very tough austerity package of cuts and tax increases. Gavin Esler speaks to Syriza's top economic adviser Yiannis Milios and asks what will happen if the party wins the re-run election on 17 June 2012. Do they really believe they can stay in the Eurozone while tearing up the rules?(Image: A woman voting in the Greek elections of 6 May. Credit: AFP / Angelos Tzortzinis)

Iron Maiden is one of the most successful heavy metal bands ever. They have sold more than 80 million albums and are renowned for their live shows - tickets for which they say sell faster now than at any point in their 30 years as a band. Sarah Montague speaks to the band's lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, the only member of the band who has lopped off the long, 'hard rocking' hair. And that is because of his dual life. For when he is not on stage performing in front of thousands he can often be found in a cockpit. He is a commercial pilot who has now set up his own aviation business. So how can you mix the hard rock lifestyle of a metal-head with the clean living required of a pilot and entrepreneur?

Robin Gibb was a musician who did much to define the pop music of the 70s and 80s. With his brothers Maurice and Barry he formed the Bee Gees. They wrote the soundtrack for the disco era, perhaps captured best in their music for the movie Saturday Night Fever. In December 2010, Robin Gibb joined Stephen Sackur in the Hardtalk studio to talk about his music, his family and the pressures of a pop business which drove him into a private hell of drink, drugs and depression. In more recent years, Robin Gibb found a new sense of purpose, both in his music and in his work for a host of charities. To the end he remained committed to song-writing and was an advocate for talent in an industry increasingly dominated by marketing rather than the music itself. So today, a look back at Hardtalk with the late Robin Gibb.

So much for all the talk of a Moscow Spring. Despite sporadic street protests and the stirrings of middle-class rebellion, Vladimir Putin is back in the Kremlin and Russia's economic and political status quo remains intact. Why do liberal opponents of Putin struggle to gain traction? Stephen Sackur speaks to Grigory Yavlinsky, economist, reformer and a veteran leader of Russia's fragmented opposition. Will the liberals ever win in Russia?

At last Sub Saharan Africa has a positive economic story to tell, but is it being matched by improved governance? Are Africa's leaders making the best use of the current surge in economic growth to tackle endemic poverty? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Guy Scott, recently appointed vice-president of Zambia. He is a trained scientist, an ex-farmer, and he happens to be the most senior white official in post-colonial Africa. It is tempting to see him as a symbol of a continent no longer trapped in its past, but is it true?

Football is a global obsession - the star players of the sport, the likes of Messi, Rooney and Ronaldo reap vast rewards and worldwide adulation. But there's a sense of something rotten in the people's game. A sport worth billions of dollars has fallen prey to match fixing, cheating and bouts of shameful behaviour. Stephen Sackur speaks to Louis Saha, a French international striker, currently with Spurs in the English Premier League. His is the view from inside the football factory - has the joy been taken out of the beautiful game?