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Andrew Marr discusses the work of the 'Godfather' of new music Pierre Boulez. The French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard explains the joy of his compositions, which are in a state of permanent revolution. The writer Peter Conrad pits Verdi against Wagner to ask whether it's possible to love both composers, or does taste, nationality and ideology still get in the way. With a very English temperament Simon Jenkins romps through the history of England in a bid to answer why the nation lost America, avoided a French revolution and gradually lost its world supremacy. And the Welsh National Poet, Gillian Clarke, talks about her country's literary heritage.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr talks to the journalist Misha Glenny about the murky world of internet crime, as the cybercops pit their wits against the cyberthieves and hackers. The creative director at google, Tom Uglow, celebrates the art and ingenuity that comes with he calls, 'the post-digital age'. It's more colourful, but no less subversive, at an exhibition of Postmodernism at the V&A. The curator Jane Pavitt argues that for this radical movement, style was everything. And the art historian Martin Kemp explores how image, branding and logos have become the obsessions of our age - from the coca cola bottle to the images of Christ and Che Guevara.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr discusses the life and work of the writer Vasily Grossman in a special programme recorded at an event in Oxford to celebrate his greatest novel, Life and Fate. Grossman was a Ukrainian Jew who spent most of WWII reporting on the front line with a humanity and attention to detail that defied the Soviet censors. His masterpiece, Life and Fate, pitted communism against fascism but came down on the side of human kindness. Start the Week looks at the legacy of a writer who is largely ignored in his own country, and asks how Grossman's depiction of the war compares to the authorised version in Russia today. Andrew talks to the historian Antony Beevor, the writers Andrey Kurkov and Linda Grant.