Start the Week

Andrew Marr discusses the teaching of history with the Government's Education Secretary Michael Gove. The new history curriculum for schools has been hotly contested and the Minister explains his views on whether facts and dates trump historical analysis. He's joined by Margaret MacMillan who will present a real-time countdown to the outbreak of WWI in the coming year, the academic and tv historian Simon Schama, and Tom Holland who has recently translated Herodotus, considered to be 'the Father of History'.Producer: Katy Hickman.

In a special programme Andrew Marr looks back over the long career of Clive James. Even at the height of his fame as the star of weekend television, Clive James was always writing: poetry, essays and a series of memoirs. Now in his 70s and suffering from serious illness, he has been nominated for an award for his translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy. James explains how this last phase of his life has brought him a new seriousness; 'a late sublime'.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe talks to Josie Rourke about her production of Coriolanus, the story of the war hero destroyed by his own pride and the forces of realpolitik. His battle strategy fails on the streets of Rome as the masses get their first taste of democracy. David Runciman asks whether democracy breeds complacency rather than wisdom or reform, and in his study of Strategy, Lawrence Freedman asks why great military strategists often make such poor political leaders. Dominic Lawson tries to keep his moves hidden, as he enthuses about the world of chess.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy talks to the geneticist Alison Woollard about the extraordinary developments in biological science in the last decade, and how switching on and off certain genes could improve and extend life. The psychologist Kathryn Asbury studies the vexed question of nature and nurture, and whether a better understanding of genetic influence can improve children's education. Professor Roger Kneebone explains the role of jazz improvisation in the operating theatre, and what recreating surgery from the 1980s can teach modern clinicians. Raiding the past for hidden gems fascinates the conductor Sir Mark Elder as he prepares to bring operatic rarities to a new audience.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Bridget Kendall talks to Patrick Keiller about the relationship between film, cities and landscape. Victoria Henshaw is interested in what our cities smell like, and what we lose when we sterilise our environment. The poet Robin Robertston has written about the bleak, remote island of St Kilda and how the remnants of its close-knit community left together in 1930. The importance and difficulty of creating a sense of community is at the heart of Giles Fraser's new series which asks whether we've become merely nostalgic for a bygone age of close neighbourhoods, or whether it's possible to reconstruct them.Producer: Natalia Fernandez.

Tom Sutcliffe looks at the future of human rights with the campaigner Bianca Jagger and academic Stephen Hopgood. Jagger points to the failure of the global community to tackle violence against women and girls, while Hopgood sounds the death knell for international Human Rights with the rise of religious conservatism and the decline in influence of Europe and America. Pakistan's Tribal Area close to Afghanistan is the setting for Fatima Bhutto's debut novel, and the playwright Howard Brenton examines the chaos of the partition of India in his latest production, Drawing The Line.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Bridget Kendall looks back at the formative years of Gandhi with the historian Ramachandra Guha and opera director Phelim McDermott. At the turn of the twentieth century Gandhi spent more than twenty years in South Africa and England: Guha argues that these early experiences shaped his future ideas, while McDermott stages Gandhi's spiritual progress towards nonviolent protest in his production of the opera Satyagraha. Gandhi returned to India just after the outbreak of the First World War and the international historian David Reynolds looks at the legacy of the Great War, and its impact on the decision-makers of the future. The Editor of Prospect Magazine, Bronwen Maddox, explores its legacy.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr returns to Start the Week for a special programme on the early 17th century poet George Herbert. His English poetry was never published in his lifetime, but he hoped it would act as consolation 'of any dejected poor soul', and his latest biographer John Drury argues that with its focus on love over theology, his poetry still speaks to and for modern readers. The composer Sir John Tavener and the writer Jeanette Winterson discuss prayer in a secular age, and the power of music and words to soothe the soul.This programme was recorded before the sad announcement of Sir John Tavener's death.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Stephanie Flanders contemplates nothing with science editor Jeremy Webb who is fascinated with the idea of vacuum, voids and absolute zero; and astronomer Carolin Crawford explains there's more to black holes than meets the eye. The director Simon McBurney looks to reveal all in his production of the Magic Flute, including liberating the orchestra from the pit to centre stage; and Fiona Shaw asks 'is this all?' in her re-imagining of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.Producer: Natalia Fernandez.

Start the Week is at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival in Gateshead. Anne McElvoy talks to the historian Catherine Merridale about the Kremlin - a Russian fortress which has retained its original medieval function to intimidate and control, and which holds a special place in the imagination. Few buildings in England inspire such fear, but Simon Thurley explores how the country's architecture has influenced the world. The Newcastle-born writer Michael Chaplin looks to the history of the River Tyne to understand the changing fortunes of the city and its population; and the Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri attempts to save the remnants of Calcutta's colonial past under its ever-changing skyline. Producer: Katy Hickman.