“It's very important that we expose this work early on, so that people from different cultures see ballet as a way of a career. But in the 1990s or 2000s, it was pretty much closed, we didn't have - even in school - a lot of black ballet dancers from which to choose from. But now, obviously, things have moved on. Now, diversity is at the top of every director's agenda… it's great that we’ve seen a big shift and we see the right kind of representation of the world as we have it today, on stage.”

Michael Berkeley speaks to ballet star Carlos Acosta about his life and career.

Born in 1973, Acosta grew up in a poor part of Havana, where he was the 11th child in a very large family.

He began training at the National Ballet School of Cuba at 9 years old, and quickly rose to prominence. At 18, he became the youngest principal dancer at the English National Ballet.

After gaining further international experience, Acosta joined the Royal Ballet in 1998 - making it his home for nearly two decades, and performing every major classical role. Such was his impact, in 2014 he received a CBE in Queen Elizabeth’s honours list for services to ballet.

Now the Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, he’s fostered some unexpected collaborations, including a show based on the music of the city’s heavy rock legends Black Sabbath, as well as classics like Swan Lake and the Nutcracker.

Thank you to the Private Passions team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Oscar-winning filmmaker Sir Christopher Nolan, music icon Chaka Khan, and artist Tracey Emin. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Michael Berkeley Producers: Ben Cooper and Clare Walker Editor: Damon Rose

‘When it comes to humanitarian crisis, we should not allow children's future to be subject to geopolitics. We can't say that there are politically compulsions as a result of which we are allowing children to die of starvation. We can't say there are political compulsions because of which we are allowing children to die of want of medical aid. So the request before the Security Council was this. Cannot all countries agree on the minimum norms of humanitarian aid?’

Jugal Purohit speaks to Srinivasan Muralidhar, a lawyer turned judge in India for over four decades, in November 2025, he was appointed by the UN to lead an independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The commission examined alleged Israeli violations against Palestinian children from the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023 to October 2025. In June 2026 it published its 94-page report.

Israel did not cooperate or provide information to the commission. It rejected the report and disputed its conclusions after publication.

The report found that Israel had deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, as well as war crimes in the occupied West Bank.

Srinivasan Muralidhar talks about how the commission documented and verified the evidence of violations against children, the challenges it faced in establishing the facts, and the key conclusions it reached in its report.

This episode of The Interview contains discussion of the killing of children and other consequences of conflict.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, former Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, and the author Maggie O’Farrell. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Jugal Purohit Producer: Farhana Haider Editor: Justine Lang

“The time has come for the international community to be honest, not to be hypocritical, not be selective, not engage in erasure, but to admit that the gravest crime against humanity took place and it took place on this continent. And that the time to repair what was broken, what undermines our collective humanity, what is a scar on our collective conscience, the time and the only way to repair that is now.”

Aleem Maqbool speaks to Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, about his country leading a global campaign for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.

Earlier this year, the United Nations adopted an historic resolution that declared the transatlantic slave trade "the gravest crime against humanity", although every European nation chose to abstain in the vote. Meanwhile, the US was one of three countries to vote against.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, it’s estimated that around 12 million people were forcibly trafficked from Africa to European colonies in the Americas, although some historians place this figure even higher.

Accra’s campaign has been supported by countries all over the world, and although not so much by European nations, it has been recognised by some European institutions, like the Church of England. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with former Sudanese leader Aisha Musa, microfinance pioneer Jennifer Riria, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Aleem Maqbool Producers: Catherine Wyatt and Ben Cooper Editor: Justine Lang