The Dark Side

On BBC Radio Three, there is a superb programme called Nightwaves, described as a "flagship arts and ideas programme, featuring in-depth interviews; vociferous debates on key cultural and philosophical questions" (why do things have to be called flagship now? Is main too plain?).

I rarely listen to it, but I do catch up with the podcast which features highlights from the previous week.

Last week's podcast contained highlights from the Free Thinking Festival in Gateshead and included a fascinating talk by Dr Gwen Adshead, a consultant psychotherapist at Broadmoor. The name Broadmoor will probably mean nothing to anyone outside the UK, so I should explain that it is a top security psychiatric hospital and houses many of Britain's most dangerous criminals. If Hannibal Lecter was English, he'd be in Broadmoor.

Dr Adhead's talk was called "A Woman's Right to Be Evil" and was one of the most interesting and humane things I've heard for a long time. Here is a link to the programme, but just in case the BBC are being silly about allowing non-licence payers to have access to their programes, I have embedded a 15-minute extract.

I normally work on the principle that my blog posts shouldn't take more than a minute to read. However, I think you'll regard this extract as 15 minutes well spent: