The Interview

How does the EU need to change if it is to win over the next generation of Italians? Hardtalk’s Sarah Montague speaks to Italy’s Under-Secretary for European Affairs, Sandro Gozi. The EU seems in greater trouble than ever before and not just because of Brexit. Even founding members of the club – countries like Italy - are unhappy about the direction that it is headed in its 60th year. The Italian economy has always struggled within the confines of the Euro. Additionally, it wants its fellow members to help share the burden of the half a million migrants who have arrived on its shores over the past three years. How does the EU need to change if it is to win over the next generation of Italians?Image: Sandro Gozi, Credit: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

Whether you think of him as Richard III or Gandalf, you will know he has won hearts and accolades around the world - not just for five decades of work on stage and screen, but also for his passionate public advocacy, particular on the issue of gay rights. Sir Ian McKellen was brought up in a Britain in which homosexuality was still a crime. He did not come out publicly until he was 49. Almost three decades on he is still acting and still campaigning. For this special programme recorded in front of an audience to mark 20 years of Hardtalk, Stephen Sackur asks him to what extent has the cultural landscape changed?

Why is a former head of state-sanctioned executions now an opponent of the death penalty? A host of countries around the world still impose the ultimate punishment on the most serious criminals - death. But what is it like to be in command of the machinery of state-sanctioned execution? In a rare insight, Stephen Sackur speaks to Allen Ault, who spent years running the corrections system in the southern US state of Georgia. He organised the killing of criminals until he could stand it no more. What changed?(Photo: Allen Ault - Former Commissioner of Corrections, Georgia, USA, on BBC Hardtalk)

He spent 26 years in jail for trying to topple South Africa’s white minority government. Veteran anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada has died. He was 87 years old. For 18 years he was with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, and when he was released from prison in October 1989 at the age of 60, he continued the struggle for a non racial South Africa. After the first democratic elections in 1994, President Mandela persuaded him to join him in government as his political adviser. Sarah Montague interviewed Ahmed Kathrada for Hardtalk in April 2014. A man who had given his entire life to the liberation struggle, he had no time for hatred or bitterness.(Photo: Ahmed Kathrada. Credit: Getty Images)

Looking back, what does the last surviving prosecutor at the Nazi Nuremberg trials think they achieved? 98-year-old Ben Ferencz helped liberate the death camps in Europe when he was serving in the US military. Himself a Jew from central Europe, he speaks to Zeinab Badawi in Florida about what he has learnt in his long life about the nature of evil.

Does Turkey's main opposition party have a credible alternative vision for the country? Zeinab Badawi talks to Selin Sayek Böke, a deputy leader for the CHP. Her party was established by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and was the automatic party of government for decades. So what went wrong?(Photo: Selin Sayek Böke, Deputy Leader of the CHP on Hardtalk)

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Joshua Wong, a leader of the so-called umbrella pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2014. He's now the secretary general of the Demosisto political party. But since Hong Kong is due to elect a new chief executive later this month, who will not be chosen by the people, has the territory's pro-democracy movement failed?

Sarah Montague speaks to Zimbabwe’s Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi. His job is to persuade people to holiday in a country where doctors, nurses and teachers have all been on strike, half the rural population face starvation and the economy is in the grip of a major currency crisis. He's worked alongside President Mugabe for the last decade. But at the age of 93 and with plans to stand in elections next year, isn't it time for the oldest head of state to go?(Photo: Walter Mzembi. Credit: Getty Images)

Sarah Montague speaks to Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vice-Chairman of the pro-democracy movement Open Russia. He was rushed to hospital in Moscow when his organs started failing and says he knew immediately what was happening because the same thing had happened two years previously. Both times he claims, he was the victim of deliberate poisoning. He also claims he was targeted because of his opposition to President Putin and the Russian government. After his stay in Washington, where he is currently recovering, he intends to go back to Moscow. Does he still fear for his life?(Photo: Vladimir Kara-Murza)

Bob Graham is one of the most popular politicians in contemporary American history. He has never lost an election and has served as a state legislator, Florida governor, and in the US Senate. He hails from the progressive, liberal wing of the Democratic party. But with Donald Trump in the White House and the Republicans controlling Capitol Hill, Zeinab Badawi asks him, has his type of politics gone out of fashion?(Photo: Bob Graham. Credit: Getty Images)

How tainted is Joice Mujuru by her long association with the ZANU-PF party? Stephen Sackur speaks to Joice Mujuru, former Vice President of Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is 93 years old. His wife recently suggested he could win re-election as a corpse, but failing that Zimbabwe needs to grapple with the issue of the succession. Who will follow Mugabe? Joice Mujuru is his former vice-president and one-time heir apparent. She broke away from the ruling party two years ago and now leads her own opposition party, but how tainted is she by her long association with Robert Mugabe?(Photo: Former Vice President Joyce Mujuru speaks at the launch of her party, Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) 2016, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Credit: Zinyange Auntony/AFP)

Zeinab Badawi speaks to the Congolese businessman and politician Moïse Katumbi. The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila has been in power for sixteen years and it was thought he would step down at elections that were due in November 2016. However, the elections are yet to be held. Moise Katumbi says he will run for president at the next election but is currently in exile in Europe. But can he rally enough support since he's not even living in his own country?(Photo: Moise Katumbi Chapwe, Governor of Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province, 2015. Credit: Federico Scoppa/AFP)

What does the Trump era mean for the Palestinian dream of statehood? For years the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been stuck, condemned to repeat itself year in, year out. But now something has changed – the two protagonists remain deaf to each other’s demands – but there's a new US president who seems to care little for Washington's long established quest for a two state solution. Does the Trump era signal the end for Palestinian hopes of statehood? Husam Zomlot, Senior Adviser to the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, talks to Stephen Sackur.

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, former Prime Minister of Ukraine. After three years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, 10,000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, is it time for Ukraine's leaders to acknowledge they’re in a war they cannot win? Arseniy Yatsenyuk was Ukraine's prime minister from 2014 to 2016 and he described his own premiership as a 'suicide mission.' How does his nation avoid self-destruction?

Is the much vaunted Singapore model under threat? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sacker is in Singapore for an exclusive interview with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Singapore represents one of the great economic success stories of the last fifty years but clouds are gathering on its horizon. President Trump is challenging assumptions about free trade and traditional security alliances in Asia.

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sacker is in Singapore for an exclusive interview with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Singapore represents one of the great economic success stories of the last fifty years but clouds are gathering on its horizon. President Trump is challenging assumptions about free trade and traditional security alliances in Asia. Is the much vaunted Singapore model under threat?

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Donald Verrilli, US Solicitor general under Barack Obama. The Trump presidency promises to be a fascinating test of the resilience of the system of government crafted by America's founding fathers. The new president has already criticised the courts for utilising their authority in blocking the so-called travel ban, with a new ban coming into effect imminently. Does the constitution ensure that the White House is always subject to and not above the law?

What is the Iranians' response to criticisms from Trump over its missile testing, and is it fuelling terror and conflicts in the Middle East? Zeinab Badawi speaks to Iranian academic Mohammed Marandi from Tehran, a staunch supporter of the leadership in Iran. Amidst his pronouncements on foreign policy Donald Trump has ratcheted up the rhetoric on Iran, calling the nuclear agreement with Tehran the 'worst deal ever negotiated'. He's expanded US sanctions on Iran after it tested a missile in January.

Sarah Montague speaks to Tzipi Livni, the joint leader of the Zionist Union opposition in Israel's parliament and a former Foreign Minister. For decades many have assumed that the only way there will be peace in the Middle East is when the Palestinians have their own state. But President Trump has made it clear that America is no longer wedded to the idea, whilst Tzipi Livni has in the past stated her support for “two states for two peoples". Could one state where Jews, Muslims and Christians are all treated equally, have a greater chance of delivering peace?(Photo: Tzipi Livni speaks at an election campaign press conference in the northern Israeli-Arab town of Shfaram, 2015. Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

Stephen Sackur speaks to Irish sports journalist David Walsh, who was convinced that cycling’s untouchable champion Lance Armstrong was a drugs cheat long before the sport revealed the scale of his deceit. Armstrong is history now, but doping continues to devalue elite sport - maybe it is a problem no amount of truth telling journalism can fix. It is the job of the journalist to speak truth to power, but can defying conventional wisdom and the powers that be often mean the profession can be a lonely place?(Photo: David Walsh, chief Sports writer, Sunday Times, UK in the Hardtalk studio)

Stephen Sackur speaks to John Madden, an Oscar winning director whose latest film is set in the murky world of Washington politics. The Academy Awards are upon us and Hollywood is awash with speculation, spin and self-importance. But this year, with Donald Trump in the White House and in a deeply divided America, real life has thrown up a melodrama which makes the movies look tame. Is Hollywood accurately reflecting the times we are living in?(Photo: Film director John Madden. Credit: Getty Images)

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Jens Spahn, a rising star in Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. With so much focus on America's new president, it's easy to forget Europe is facing its own period of prolonged uncertainty. Brexit negotiations are about to begin, the Greek debt crisis is going through another convulsion. It is also a year of key elections, most particularly in the continent's dominant economy, Germany. Is German politics going to reshape Europe?

Zeinab Badawi speaks to humanitarian activist and one of Hollywood’s best known and versatile actors, Forest Whitaker. One role for which he won numerous accolades including an Oscar for best actor was his portrayal of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. But how far is he concerned that his portrayal of Idi Amin played into racist stereotypes of Africans and their continent?

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Myron Ebell, who led President Trump’s transition team on environment policy and has long been an advocate of radical reform of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The Trump administration seems intent on a radical reset of America's energy and environment policies. The implications will be profound on everything from fossil fuel production to climate change policy. In America's new politics will the interests of big business consistently overshadow environmental concerns?Image: Steam and exhaust rise from a power station, Credit: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

In America's new politics will big business consistently trump environmental concerns?

Stephen Sackur speaks to the former Mexican president Vicente Fox, whose strongly worded Twitter responses to Donald Trump have caused a storm on social media. The new US president has wasted little time delivering on his signature campaign promises. He has already ordered the construction of the contentious wall along the US-Mexican border. The US congress will fund it, but ultimately, Mr Trump says, Mexico must pay. Can Mexico afford to provoke the new US administration?(Photo: Former Mexican President Vicente Fox gestures while speaking during an interview with AFP, 2016. Credit: AFP)

Stephen Sackur speaks to Petula Clark, a much loved child performer during World War Two. Getting to the top in show business is hard - staying there is much, much harder. Few stars can match the sustained success in music, film and theatre as her. She went on to have a host of hits in the UK, France, the US and pretty much everywhere else. She has worked with legendary names from Fred Astaire to Serge Gainsbourg, and she is still singing and touring. So what makes her tick?(Photo: Petula Clark performs at the Songwriters Hall of Fame 44th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner, New York Marriott Marquis, 2013. Credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Belgium's former Prime Minister and current MEP Guy Verhofstadt, an EU politician who'll be at the heart of the complex negotiations over a Brexit deal. He has warned Britain not to expect special treatment as it heads for the exit, but how confrontational is he prepared to be?

The UK Parliament is about to vote on the Government’s plan to trigger the formal process which will end in Britain leaving the EU. There's little doubt MPs will give Prime Minister Theresa May a green light, but much has changed since last June's Brexit referendum. The government has clarified its vision of what Brexit means, while President Donald Trump is shaking up global politics. The influential advocate of Brexit, Conservative MP Dominic Raab tells Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur he is confident Britain has a bright post-Brexit future on the world stage.(Photo: Dominic Raab, UK Conservative MP. Credit: Getty Images)

Is NATO obsolete? Or an organisation that can change and adapt? Jens Stoltenberg is chief of an alliance of 28 nations that's supposed to work by consensus, but his job just got a whole lot harder. Donald Trump is now in charge of NATO's dominant member, the United States, and he's been very public with his grave doubts about NATO's future. Will the ascent of Trump hasten the demise of NATO?HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur is in Brussels to speak to NATO Secretary General. Image: Jens Stoltenberg, Credit: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Oil-rich with plenty of farmland, why can't Nigeria feed its own people? Zeinab Badawi speaks to one of the delegates at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the Nigerian Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh. The Nigerian government, in power for 18 months, had raised hopes that it would reform the country. But engulfed by the worst recession in 20 years and with continuing militant attacks, why can’t the nation with enjoy greater stability?

Does the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House along with Brexit mark a shift in power away from Europe and spell the start of a new world order? Zeinab Badawi speaks to Ursula Von Der Leyen, Germany’s Defence Minister from the World Economic Forum in Davos. She is also deputy chairman of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU Party. (Photo: Ursula Von Der Leyen. Credit: Markus Hibbele/Getty Images

Stephen Sackur is in Moscow to speak to President Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. US intelligence chiefs have accused the Kremlin of authorising a covert effort to influence the presidential election in favour of Donald Trump but what is the truth behind the swirl of allegations? And, what can we expect from Russia-US relations now?(Photo: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends the opening of the Central House of Chess Player. Credit: Sergei Savostyanov/Getty Images)

Despite intimidation, harassment and legal challenges, Russia's most prominent opposition leader Alexey Navalny says that he will fight Vladmir Putin with 'People Power' in Presidential elections which are scheduled for 2018. How risky is it to challenge Vladimir Putin?Image: Alexey Navalny, Credit: Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images

Stephen Sackur speaks to Akram Khan - globally renowned as one of the great contemporary dancers and choreographers. In every culture on earth dance is a physical, joyful form of expression and communication. It is, in a way, the world's most basic common language. Khan epitomises the ability of dance to cross borders of time and space - he is British by birth, Bangladeshi by family heritage. His performances weave together influences from East and West, past and present. How would he define his dance?(Photo: Akram Khan (R) and Tamara Rojo (L) perform during a dress rehearsal of English National Ballet's Lest We Forget, 2014. Credit: Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

Taken hostage in Syria and held by the Nusra Front, which is allied to al-Qaeda, American journalist Theo Padnos was beaten and abused for nearly two years. He says the most bitter moment of his captivity was the realisation that it was he himself who was mostly responsible for his ordeal.(Photo: Theo Padnos in the Hardtalk studio)

Zeinab Badawi speaks to, Angelina Teny, from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in-Opposition. The people of South Sudan have known little peace for many decades and independence in 2011 has brought them nothing but war, increasing poverty, starvation and suffering. The UN says the current spate of fighting amounts to ethnic cleansing and could spiral into genocide. The main rebel group is headed by former Vice-President Riek Machar, who is now in exile. His wife Angelina Teny is a senior member of the movement. How much responsibility do they bear for the suffering?(Photo: Angelina Teny in the Hardtalk studio)

We are about to see what kind of impact Donald Trump's presidency will have on the US and the world beyond. From big power diplomacy with Russia and China, to global trade and climate policy, how different and unpredictable is Trump going to be?(Photo: President for Council on Foreign Relations Richard Hass, 2015. Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Zeinab Badawi speaks to psychologist Jan Kizilhan who has helped bring over a thousand Yazidi females from camps in Iraq to Germany to start a new life. The so-called Islamic State may be coming under pressure in both Syria and Iraq but still accounts emerge of atrocities carried out by them. The minority Yazidi community has been amongst one of the most persecuted groups of people; living mostly in northern Iraq, they have been killed, forced to convert to Islam and the women and girls have been held in sexual slavery. How does he decide who should stay and who should go?(Photo: Psychologist Jan Kizilhan, 2016. Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

Stephen Sackur speaks to Bassma Kodmani, member of the negotiating team of the Syrian opposition. After six years of terrible bloodshed could 2017 dramatically shift the dynamic of the Syria conflict? Change is certainly in the air. Aleppo has fallen to the Assad regime and a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia and Turkey is just about holding. Moscow's dominant role in the diplomatic endgame is now undisputed, with Ankara also playing a pivotal role. Is it time for the moderate rebels to accept their de facto defeat?

Stephen Sackur speaks to General Sir Richard Barrons who led the UK’s Joint Forces Command and fought in wars from the Balkans to the Middle East and Afghanistan. How vulnerable is the West in the new balance of global military power?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Egyptian film director, Mohamed Diab. His new film, Eshtebak, or Clash, paints a remarkable picture of the tumult in Egypt which led to the military takeover in 2013. What has happened to the spirit of the Tahrir revolution?(Photo: Egyptian director Mohamed Diab (R) poses after receiving the silver Tanit award for his film Clash at the 27th Carthage Film Festival, 2016, Tunisia. Credit: Fethi Belaid/AFP)

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Homa Hoodfar, a Canadian- Iranian academic recently released after 112 days imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Why did a respected anthropologist become an enemy of the Iranian state? Reading the political mood inside Iran is notoriously difficult. Since last year’s nuclear deal it seemed the relatively moderate President Rouhani was in the ascendancy. But Homa Hoodfar has reason to see things differently.

Paul Beatty's novel The Sellout won a Man Booker prize. It deploys biting satire to unpick the black American experience. After eight years of a black president, amid a swirl of demographic and social change, black Americans still feel the bite of discrimination and prejudice. How best to respond?

Zeinab Badawi speaks to the South African comedian Trevor Noah. How did a poor boy who grew up with a black mother and white father under apartheid, become the presenter of one of America’s most influential TV programmes - The Daily Show?(Photo: Trevor Noah attends the Paramount Pictures with The Cinema Society. 2016, New York. (Credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

HARDtalk is in Oslo to speak to Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to secure peace with Colombia's Farc rebel group. President Santos tells HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur that the prize was a 'gift from heaven' and says ‘this came like a big wind that pushed the whole country, and me, and the whole process to the port of destiny which was a peace agreement.’

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Qubad Talabani, Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government. The Kurds are key fighters in the war against so-called Islamic State. But does their ambition for independence threaten even more instability in Iraq?(Photo: Qubad Talabani. Image: Getty Images)

How will the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland be managed once the UK has left the EU? Sarah Montague asks Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, how she will make sure Brexit does not mean a return to the divisions of the past.(Photo: First Minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster arrives for a meeting at 10 Downing St, London, 2016 in , England. Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

What impact will the election of Donald Trump have on global geopolitics? Judging from the expressions of alarm coming from eastern Europe it could tilt the balance of power decisively in favour of Russia as regional tensions rise. But is that just scaremongering? Stephen Sackur talks to Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius who recently described himself as "very afraid" of Russia's intentions in the region.(Photo: Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius at the Baltic and Nordic Foreign Ministers meeting in Riga, Latvia, 2016. Credit: Ilmars Znotins/AFP/Getty Images)

What are Team Trump’s priorities for the United States? Wherever you live in the world, the election of Donald Trump as America's next President matters. The next leader of the world's most powerful nation promises to take the US, and by extension global politics and economics, in a very different direction. Stephen Sackur speaks to Anthony Scaramucci - a New York hedge fund boss, a Trump ally, and right now a member of the President-elect’s transition team.