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Where does real power lie, in flesh or in stone? SIMON THURLEY, Chief Executive of English Heritage, presents Power Houses on Channel 4 – an examination of the relationship between architecture and political power. He talks about why three of the most famous buildings, The White House, The Kremlin and 10 Downing Street, both influence, and are influenced by, the people who live in them. Power Houses is broadcast on Channel 4 on 5 May at 7.30pm.

From Guernica to Hiroshima, to the destruction of the World Trade Center, to daily carnage in Darfur and Iraq, war has been increasingly directed against civilians, who constitute an ever larger proportion of its casualties. On the 70th anniversary of the bombing of a Basque hilltop town, the poet and academic IAN PATTERSON talks about his new book, Guernica and Total War, and about how modern men and women have responded to the threat of total, indiscriminate warfare. Guernica and Total War is published by Profile Books.

More than almost any other piece of classical music, Elgar’s Enigma Variations are associated with stirring thoughts of England and lost empire. 150 years after the composer’s birth, in a new four-part series for Radio 4, the poet RUTH PADEL explores Elgar’s most famous work, which brought him international fame and translated the qualities of his friends into musical expression. Using a mix of music, expert analysis, personal anecdotes and readings from journals and letters, the series explores how Elgar came to create this work and posed a riddle which has never been satisfactorily solved. Ruth also talks about the essential anomaly of Edward Elgar, whose music has been heard as an emblem of proud Empire and England, but was also the product of a private and often tortured soul. The Enigma I Will Not Explain starts on Radio 4 at 9.30am on 24 April. The Poem and the Journey: And Sixty Poems to Read Along the Way by Ruth Padel was published by Chatto & Windus earlier this year.

The Seventies is a decade stereotypically celebrated as style-less and taste-free. Yet, amidst all that orange, avocado and plastic, the early 70s unexpectedly gave rise to a full blown revival of ‘Edwardiana’. As part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s Edwardian season, style commentator PETER YORK talks about this nostalgic phenomenon and why it was that Laura Ashley, country kitchens, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady and all things rustic suddenly became de rigueur with both rich and poor in Britain. He also discusses the less obvious connections between the two decades: for example, the suffragette movement saw its energy revived in the Seventies as feminists rose up to take power in print. 1970’s Edwardian Resurrection is broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ 4 on 18 May at 9.00pm.