Start the Week

Andrew Marr looks for solutions to the current global crisis. Detlev Schlichter dismisses the practice of printing more money in times of recession, arguing that in the next decade our reliance on paper money will collapse, and he proposes a return to hard commodities, like gold. The historian Philip Coggan pits creditors against debtors, tax payers against public sector workers, and believes it's time for a new monetary system to emerge. The Labour peer, Lord Glasman thinks we need to change the relationship between parliament and the market. And Angela Knight sticks up for the bankers, insisting they hold the key to the crisis, so deserve both a bonus and a bit of respect. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week, Andrew Marr begins the new year with a look at austerity. Anna Coote argues that it's time to embrace a new set of values that are not dependent on high rolling consumerism and, as unemployment rises, to share out the working hours more evenly. The great chronicler of Austerity Britain of the fifties, David Kynaston, explores whether there are any lessons to be learnt from earlier decades of thrift and dissent. The artist Antony Gormley discusses a new collaboration in which he explores the idea of survival in a world in which we are bombarded with information but have very little direct control. And Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times columnist, looks at at how Ireland is dealing with its 5th austerity budget and asks if there are lessons we can learn from the fate of the Celtic Tiger. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr visits the painter David Hockney to find out why he has swapped LA for East Yorkshire. Hockney takes him on a tour of the farm tracks and woods he has been painting near his home in Bridlington, and talks of his fascination at the changes of the season. In his vast studio hang pictures of increasing size and vibrant colour, many painted using his iPad. He might be in his seventies, but Hockney tells Andrew Marr that he's on a roll, busier than ever; excited by the new technology and full of ideas for his next works of art. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr discusses the idea of Christmas with Canon Giles Fraser who argues that the Christian Christmas was invented by the Emperor Constantine for political, not religious, reasons, 300 years after the birth of Christ. Canon Fraser will be discussing the idea that the legacy of Constantine's December feast distorts the message of Christ and casts a long shadow on modern believers. Clare Tomalin will be talking about Dickens and how the Victorian imagination shaped our understanding of what Christmas is and should be, and Susan Hill will be exploring the Christmas ghost story - one of the tenacious Victorian traditions still being reinvented in the 21st century.Producer: Eleanor Garland.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr asks if sport still embodies a notion of fair play and Corinthian spirit, or whether it has become mired in corruption, money and celebrity. Mihir Bose argues that sport is no longer just a game, but has become one of the most powerful political tools in the world. The social historian Janie Hampton looks back to a time when amateur wasn't a dirty word, while Brian Moore the 'pitbull' of the scrum, looks back at a disastrous year for the professionalism of English rugby. The philosopher Julian Savulescu believes the nostalgia for the age of the amateur is blinding people to the reality of today, and that far from penalising those who take performance enhancing drugs, we should merely set a safe limit and allow free rein. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr discusses the role of the public intellectual on Start the Week. The French philosopher, journalist and activist Bernard-Henri Levy flexes his muscles as he sets out his views on everything from literature to politics and fame, Baroness Mary Warnock looks at morality and what philosophers can add to the current debates about privacy, society and fairness, while Roger Scruton argues that his 'green philosophy' finds a natural home in right wing politics. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr discusses the pursuit of power, and the art of leadership, from dictators to technocrats. The Ghanaian economist George Ayittey sets out the fight against tyranny in Africa and around the world, while Maha Azzam looks to see whether Egypt could learn any lessons from his assertion that many of today's despots were yesterday's freedom fighters. The columnist Simon Heffer discusses how the desire to protect or assert power has distorted the course of history, and the economist Martin Wolf assess the rise of the technocrat in Europe. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr asks how the arts tackle politics and current affairs. The performer Rory Bremner turns his comedic eye to opera, in an updated version of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. Originally written to satirise Napoleon III's Paris, Bremner draws present day parallels with a spin-filled, celebrity-obsessed world. For the last 30 years the film maker Peter Kosminsky has turned conflicts from Bosnia, to the Falklands, and Israel/ Palestine, as well as the story of New Labour, into drama and documentaries for television. In 1939 the Whitechapel gallery in London was the space chosen to show Picasso's overtly political work, Guernica. The gallery's present director Iwona Blazwick talks about how artists have reflected the political and present day concerns. And the singer/ songwriter Sarah Gillespie argues that the key to a good protest song is to harness the experience of the individual. producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr discusses the writing of history with Peter Englund, Norman Davies Alison Weir and Boris Johnson. Norman Davies turns to the vanished kingdoms of Europe to explore an alternative history of the continent and to reclaim the stories of the vanquished. While the Swedish historian Peter Englund puts the lives of ordinary people throughout Europe at the heart of his re-telling of the First World War, the London mayor Boris Johnson celebrates the vitality of the capital through the lives of the great and good. Tudor specialist, Alison Weir who has published both academic history and historical fiction, argues against the blurring of these very distinct genres.Produced by Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr discusses Australia's cultural heritage with the prize-winning authors Thomas Keneally and Kate Grenville, and the opera singer and composer Deborah Cheetham. Keneally has embarked on a history of Australia through its people: from convicts and Aborigines, settlers and bushrangers, patriots and reformers, and he builds up a picture of the country's unique national character. For her latest trilogy Kate Grenville delves back into Australia's history and the first three generations of white settlement, to explore the complex relationship contemporary Australians have with the past. Deborah Cheetham is one of the country's "Stolen Generation", taken from her Aboriginal family when she was months old and fostered in a white community. She discusses how she has mined her lost heritage for her latest composition. Produced by Katy Hickman.