Hardtalk is a flagship BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television programme, consisting of in-depth half-hour one-on-one interviews.

It is broadcast four days a week (Monday to Thursday) on BBC World News and the BBC News channel. Launched in 1997, much of its worldwide fame is due to its global reach via BBC World. Until early 2005, the host was Tim Sebastian

Tim Sebastian

Tim Sebastian is a television journalist. He is the moderator of the New Arab Debates and the Doha Debates, and was the first presenter of BBC's HARDtalk....

, whose famous, and sometimes controversial, style of tough questioning brought a huge world audience to the show.

Since 2006, the show has been presented by Stephen Sackur

Stephen Sackur

Stephen John Sackur is a BBC journalist who presents HARDtalk, a current affairs interview programme on BBC World News and BBC News 24. He is also the main Friday presenter of GMT on BBC World News...

, who was previously the BBC's correspondent in Washington and Brussels and who is an experienced interviewer who has grilled U.S. Presidents

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 and Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

. He is occasionally replaced by several other well-known BBC presenters such as Zeinab Badawi

Zeinab Badawi

Zeinab Badawi is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist. She was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News , and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow , before joining BBC News. Badawi is currently the presenter of World News Today broadcast on both BBC Four and BBC World News...

, Carrie Gracie

Carrie Gracie

Carrie Gracie is a Scottish journalist and newsreader for BBC News.-Background:Gracie's father was a Scottish oil executive; Gracie was born while he was on assignment in Bahrain. She was educated in Aberdeenshire and Glasgow...

 and Sarah Montague

Sarah Montague

Sarah Montague is a British Journalist, best known for her work on BBC Radio 4 as one of the regular presenters of the Today programme.-Early life:...

. Other occasional presenters have included Jon Sopel

Jon Sopel (journalist)

Jon Sopel is a television presenter and correspondent for the BBC. He was educated at a boys' grammar school in Finchley London, and then at Christ's College; he received an honours degree in politics from Southampton University.-Broadcasting career:Starting his broadcasting career in local radio...

, David Jessel

David Jessel

David Jessel is a former British TV and radio news presenter; author; and campaigner against miscarriages of justice. From 2000 to 2010 he was also a commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.-Background:...

, Lyse Doucet

Lyse Doucet

Lyse Doucet is a senior BBC presenter and special correspondent from New Brunswick, Canada. She works for both BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television, and also reports for BBC Radio 4 and BBC News in the UK, including reporting on Newsnight.-Education:Doucet was born in Bathurst,...

, Nisha Pillai

Nisha Pillai

Nisha Pillai is a journalist based in London. She is one of the main news anchors with BBC World News.-Early life:Pillai was born in Kolkata, India and grew up in Mumbai. When she was 14, her family moved to London, England...

 and Noel Thompson

Noel Thompson

Noel Thompson is a news journalist with BBC Northern Ireland. Thompson is currently the main male presenter of BBC Newsline and political series Hearts and Minds.-Journalism career:...

.

Hardtalk has featured some of the best known personalities in the world, who have subjected themselves to Mr Sebastian's or Mr Sackur's grilling. Guests have included the Pakistani President

President of Pakistan

The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...

 Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...

, South African President

President of South Africa

The President of the Republic of South Africa is the head of state and head of government under South Africa's Constitution. From 1961 to 1994, the head of state was called the State President....

 Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...

, popular music

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

ian Boy George

Boy George

Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...

 and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins

Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...

.

Hardtalk Extra, a variant of Hardtalk, was first aired in 2004 and is devoted to the world of arts and culture, with a particular focus on authors. The programme is usually presented by Gavin Esler

Gavin Esler

Gavin Esler is a Scottish author and BBC television presenter, currently one of the four main presenters on BBC Two's flagship political analysis programme, Newsnight.-Education:...

 and Mishal Husain

Mishal Husain

Mishal Husain is a television news presenter for the BBC's international news channel, BBC World News, presenting Impact between 1400 and 1600 GMT every Monday to Thursday as well as presenting the Sunday evening editions of the BBC Weekend News on BBC One...

. Guests have included writers Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist.-Biography:Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical,...

, Anita Desai

Anita Desai

Anita Mazumdar Desai is an Indian novelist and Emeritus John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

, V.S. Naipaul, and Salman Rushdie, actress Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...

, and the actor Christopher Reeve

Christopher Reeve

Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...

.

Extra Time is another programme from the Hardtalk team, presented by Rob Bonnet

Rob Bonnet

Rob Bonnet is a BBC television journalist, presenting sport bulletins on BBC News services and Extratime, an interview programme on BBC World and BBC News.-Early life:...

 and broadcast on both BBC World News and the BBC News channel, featuring people from the world of sport, including professional tennis-players Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....

 and Andy Roddick

Andy Roddick

Andrew Stephen "Andy" Roddick is an American professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. He is currently the second highest-ranked American player, behind Mardy Fish....

.

There are two South-Asian

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

 versions of the above: Hardtalk India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

and Hardtalk Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

.