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 | | Friday 29 January 2010 - 2230 GMT - BBC Two Presented by Gavin Esler Tony Blair, the prime minister who took Britain to war in Iraq in 2003, has today faced six hours of questioning about his role - questions about the build-up to the invasion, the conduct of the war and the planning for its aftermath. He told the Chilcot Inquiry: "This isn't about a lie or a conspiracy or a deceit or a deception. It's a decision. And the decision I had to take was, given Saddam's history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over one million people whose deaths he had caused, given 10 years of breaking UN resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons programmes or is that a risk that it would be irresponsible to take?" Tonight, we are dedicating the whole programme to this unprecedented event. David Grossman, who has had a ringside seat at the proceedings, will take a forensic look at Mr Blair's evidence - what questions were answered, and indeed, what questions were not. We will be discussing his testimony with a panel including a member of the Cabinet at the time of the invasion, a former US envoy to the UN, a prominent opponent of the war and a relative of a serviceman killed in the war. And we'll be assessing Mr Blair's performance on the day with leading political commentators. Do join Gavin at 10.30pm on BBC Two. And on The Review Show this week (formerly Newsnight Review!) Kirsty and her guests Kate Mosse, Paul Morley, AL Kennedy and the Reverend Richard Coles give their take on Mr Blair's performance, discuss the ultimate teen rebel-without-a-cause Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye, and debate whether Van Gogh's letters on display at the Royal Academy in London add to our understanding of his art. And the big question tonight - why is modern day culture so obsessed with ideas of a secular afterlife? The forthcoming film of The Lovely Bones, plus David Eagleman's book Sum(which Stephen Fry has raved about) both make life after death seem pretty great - but there's not much God in either of them. Why? |
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