Mikheil Saakashvili

The conflict of 2008 saw Georgia lose two regions to Russia; South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Sir David interviewed Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili soon afterwards, and he vowed to get the territories back. But this week Russia made that task even harder by agreeing to station a large, long-term military base in Abkhazia. Sir David is joined by President Saakashvili.

Last month, someone – and fingers have been pointed at Israel’s security service, Mossad – stole the identities and faked the British passports of at least six members of the Israeli diaspora who had returned to Israel only to find themselves accused of an assassination in Dubai. Israel’s cabinet minister for the diaspora, Yuli Edelstein talks to Sir David.

The Hollywood film Invictus is much more than a sports film, it is a film about President Mandela’s plans to unite a racially divided nation through rugby, and the man he asked to help him, Francois Pienaar – the South African rugby captain. Francois joins Sir David from Dublin.

The Somali Islamist rebel group al-Shabab now controls large swathes of the country and is threatening Mogadishu, the capital. Dahir Gelle, the country’s information minister, tells Sir David what the transitional federal government is doing to fight the insurgents.

Plus, German historian Heike Goertemaker challenges the commonly held view amongst historians that Eva Braun, the mistress and eventually the wife of Adolf Hitler, was an insignificant figure, unaware of the horrors of the Third Reich. She joins the show to discuss her book, Eva Braun – Life with Hitler.