The Forum

The 1954 Japanese epic Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa has been described as one of the most influential films in the history of cinema. Set in 16th century rural Japan it tells the story of a small village that hires seven masterless samurai to protect them from a group of bandits intent on stealing their harvest. Seven Samurai’s unique style and themes redefined the action movie genre and inspired filmmakers across the world. Bridget Kendall talks to Daisuke Miyao, Professor of Japanese film at the University of California, San Diego; David Desser, Emeritus Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois; and Dolores Martinez, Emeritus Reader in Anthropology specializing in Japanese popular culture at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.Photo: Actor Toshiro Mifune in the film Seven Samurai (Credit: AFP/ Getty Images)

The German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe considered his monumental book known in English as The Theory of Colours to be his greatest achievement. The book is a record of hundreds of Goethe's observations about the way colour affects our mood, as well as a long and heated polemic with Isaac Newton's colour theory. Goethe's understanding of light and colour was scientifically flawed yet his book had a surprisingly strong influence on the fine and applied arts. To find out why, Bridget Kendall talks to art historian Alexandra Loske, colour writer Victoria Finlay and designer Odette Steele.Alexandra Loske is an art historian who teaches at the University of Sussex, Curator at the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museums, editor of the book Languages of Colour and author of Palette (forthcoming);Victoria Finlay is a writer, former arts editor of the South China Morning Post and the author of Colour, Travels through the Paintbox and The Brilliant History of Color in Art;Odette Steele is a Zambian textile designer recent and a graduate from the London College of Fashion at the University of the Arts, London.Photo: Goethe’s colour wheel, 1809. (Credit: Freies Deutsches Hochstift / Frankfurter Goethe-Museum)

It is 100 years since the exotic dancer and legendary ‘femme fatale’ Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad for passing secrets to the Germans during World War One. She was described at the time as the ‘greatest woman spy of the century’. But many now see Mata Hari as a convenient scapegoat, condemned merely for her unconventional lifestyle. Bridget Kendall discusses the myths and realities surrounding women in espionage with Julie Wheelwright, programme director of non-fiction writing at City, University of London, and author of The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage; Tammy Proctor, Professor of History at Utah State University and author of Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War; and Hanneke Boonstra, a Dutch journalist who is writing an official blog about Mata Hari as part of this year’s centenary commemorations in the Netherlands.(Photo: Mata Hari. Credit: Getty Images)

It’s forty five years since the commercial introduction of the first microcomputer chip set which evolved into the modern microprocessor, changing computers from tools for scientists into the engines which power today’s electronic consumer appliances. So how did the silicon chip evolve and where might this revolution be heading next? Bridget Kendal is joined by four distinguished computer and internet pioneers who helped spearhead some of the most important inventions of the computer age. Vinod Dham invented the first Pentium micro-processor and went on to become Vice-President at the world’s largest chip maker-Intel. His early work in this field earned him the nickname “The Father of the Pentium chip.” Sophie Wilson’s computer design was used to build the Acorn Micro-Computer. She also led the development of the ARM microprocessor, found in over half of the world’s consumer electronics. David Laws is a technology historian and a curator of the Computer History Museum in California. Dame Wendy Hall is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton in the UK. She worked alongside Sir Tim Berners Lee on an early version of the World Wide Web.Photo: A silicon chip (Getty Images)

What powers does the American President have, and how have these changed over the years to reflect the demands of the modern world?

Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti was a maverick performer, a musical pioneer, and is a continuing inspiration across the world. But he was also a thorn in the side of the Nigeria’s successive military governments and a fearless activist for social justice. Twenty years after his death, Peter Okwoche is joined by three people who all had personal experience of Fela Kuti, to discuss his complex and extraordinary life, musical legacy, and revolutionary political ideals - Dele Sosimi is a former member of Fela Kuti's band and now an acclaimed Afrobeat musician; Carlos Moore wrote the only authorised biography of Fela Kuti, Fela: This Bitch of a Life; and Jahman Anikulapo is a Nigerian arts journalist who followed Fela's career closely.Photo: Fela Kuti, 1986, Credit: Associated Press

Is Thomas More's vision of an ideal society becoming reality in modern-day California? The Forum travels to Singularity University at the heart of Silicon Valley to ask why California keeps attracting utopian thinkers who want to use advanced technology to solve humanity’s biggest challenges.Jack Stewart is joined by forecaster Paul Saffo, Chair of Future Studies at Singularity University, Ryan Mullenix, partner at NBBJ Architecture, Krista Donaldson, CEO of Silicon Valley healthcare start up D-Rev, and Colin Milburn, Chair in Science and the Humanities at University of California, Davis.Photo: NASA Hangar One at Moffett Field, California, Credit: Simon Dawson

Thomas More’s Utopia, published 500 years ago this month, is full of radical ideas and has provided food for thought to generations of people trying to find new ways to organise society. On his fictitious island More created a vivid mosaic of places, people and their customs and they have proven to be an inspiration not just for philosophers and politicians but also for writers. To mark the anniversary, BBC World Service and PEN International have asked three young authors, Rebecca F. John, Jose Pablo Salas and Lea Sauer, to take Utopia as a starting point for a new short story. Mr. More’s Wondrous Islands also includes a couple of intriguing passages from the original book. It is introduced by Jack Stewart, the readers are John Dougall, Bettrys Jones, Martina Laird and William Marquez and the producer is Radek Bosketty.

Five-hundred years ago, in what is now the Belgian city of Leuven, Thomas More published his vision for an ideal society which he called Utopia.To mark the anniversary, The Forum travels to Leuven University to debate More's book, its place in history and the politics it inspired.Presenter Bridget Kendall is joined by Leuven University rector Rik Torfs, culture studies professor Fátima Vieira who leads the Utopia 500 Project, historian of communism professor Erik van Ree from Amsterdam University, and Dilar Dirik, an expert on the Syrian-Kurdish ‘utopia’ of Rojava.

A battle is raging over the future of sport. Advances in retrospective testing have seen champions stripped of their medals years after they stood on the podium. Allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia have rocked the sports world and new treatments such as gene-doping are constantly evolving. The drugs change but the questions remain the same – how effective and how dangerous are performance-enhancing drugs? How do doping competitors evade the testers? And can sports tarnished by doping ever be cleaned up? Sharing their knowledge with Bridget Kendall are four sport insiders: David Howman stepped down as Director of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2016 after twelve years battling drug-taking in sport. David Millar is a British cyclist and former World Champion who has won stages at the Tour de France and rode in the professional peloton for over a decade. Banned for doping, he returned to the sport as an anti-drugs campaigner. He is the author of the memoirs ‘Racing Through The Dark’ and ‘ The Racer: Life on the Road as a Pro-Cyclist’. Professor Mario Thevis is a chemist who has tested competitors at seven Olympic Games and is Director of the Centre for Preventive Doping Research in Cologne, Germany. Dr Zhouxiang Lu has researched allegations of doping in China in the 1980s and 90s. He teaches at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.Photo: Athletes in the starting block at a race. (Getty Images)