The penultimate episode in our great political films series explores Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), her controversial take on... more

The second David Fincher film in our series (after Fight Club) is The Social Network (2010), the Aaron Sorkin-scripted take... more

Our great political films series reaches the twenty-first century with Paul Thomas Anderson’s unforgettable There Will Be Blood (2007), starring... more

David talks to writer and journalist Helen Lewis about David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), the film that launched a thousand... more

Our political films season has reached the late 1980s with Do The Right Thing (1989), Spike Lee’s searing take on... more

Today’s great political film is Akira Kurosawa’s epic of war and deception Kagemusha (1980). Set in late sixteenth-century Japan it... more

Today’s great political film is Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), voted the greatest film... more

Today’s episode is a conversation between David and the former politician Chris Smith (long-time MP and Secretary of State for... more

We resume our series on the great political films with Costa-Gavras’s Z (1969), the quintessential late 60s movie about assassination, conspiracy, street... more

To finish this series of bad ideas, David tries to persuade Gary Gerstle of the futility of televised leadership debates. From... more

For our penultimate bad idea in this series, David talks to Robert Saunders about what’s gone wrong with British politics... more

Today’s bad idea is a theory of the universe: David talks to astrophysicist Chris Lintott about Steady State Theory, the... more

Today’s bad idea concerns history itself: David talks to world historian Ayse Zarakol about the temptations and the pitfalls of... more

For today’s bad idea David talks to political philosopher Alan Finlayson about what goes wrong when politicians get their hands... more

Today’s bad idea is about how ideas get adopted, argued over and rejected: David talks to political philosopher Alan Finlayson... more

For our latest bad idea with an interesting history David talks to the geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about... more

To kick off our new series on the history of bad ideas David talks to historian Sophie Scott-Brown about the... more

For the final (extended) episode in our American Elections series David talks to Gary Gerstle about the historical significance of... more

For the last episode in this season of great political films David explores Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966), which changed... more

This episode is about two great films on the same dark theme: David talks to American historian Jill Lepore about... more

For today’s great political film David discusses Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963) with the Italian historian of ideas Lucia Rubinelli. How did... more

Today’s great political film is John Frankenheimer’s masterpiece of Cold War paranoia The Manchurian Candidate (1962), which came out the week of... more

In today’s episode David discusses Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), a great... more

Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) is many people’s favourite film of all time, including Donald Trump’s. Why does Trump love it... more

Today’s great political film is Frank Capra’s Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939), a much-loved tale of the little guy... more

For the first episode in our new series David explores Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937), a great anti-war film that is... more

David talks to author Michael Lewis about SBF and EA: about the man he got to know before, during and... more

David checks in with Gary Gerstle one more time before November to explore where things now stand with the US... more

For episode four of our series on the history of thinking about thinking machines, David and Shannon discuss a very... more

Today’s episode in our series on the history of thinking about thinking machines explores the novel that inspired Blade Runner: Philip... more