Night Waves - David Kynaston/Royal Academy Sculpture Exhibition/Miriam Margolyes

To coincide with Radio 3's 2009 Free Thinking festival of ideas, which takes as its central theme the idea of the family, Philip Dodd talks to historian David Kynaston, whose multi-volume history of post-war Britain continues with Family Britain, 1951-57. Having tackled the austerity years immediately after the Second World War, he turns his eye on the relative abundance of the 50s. The result is a colourful tapestry, interweaving the lives of bank clerks and housewives with great national events such as the return of Churchill to power and the death of George VI, using letters, diaries, newspapers, radio and TV broadcasts to challenge our perceptions about a period we think we know very well. The Royal Academy's exhibition Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska, Gill makes the case for these three artists as the true revolutionaries of British sculpture. Coming from very different backgrounds they worked in London at the beginning of the 20th century, reinventing in bold fashion the tradition of direct carving, looking far beyond the classial tradition for inspiration and exploring themes of sex, fertility and the machine age in unprecendented ways. Philip and guests investigate their feisty revolution and how it had lasting impact. Plus an interview with Miriam Margolyes, who possesses of one of the most versatile voices and eclectic CVs in the business as she climbs into a dustbin to play Nell in Samuel Beckett's Endgame.