大象传媒

Rana Mitter tonight presents the strange story of 28,000 yellow plastic ducks lost at sea in 1992. In his book 'Moby Duck' the author Donovan Hohn has tracked their progress during twenty years afloat. Many of them are still travelling the oceans and in pretty good shape which is good news for plastic duck lovers but bad news for the environment. These toys, designed to go no further than your bath, have given oceanographers new information about the way two thirds of our planet works. But the ducks also have a curious appeal to Hohn as echoes of his youthful dreams permeate his journeys.

And as headlines in this week's papers warn of Britain's involvement in a new cold war with Iran, mounting tension with Argentina over the Falklands, and the continued loss of life in Afghanistan - on Night Waves we examine the art of peace. A new book by John Gittings argues that the world needs to spend more time studying and promoting how to make peace, not war. But given we have had war as long as we have had human beings, is it not part of our nature? And in today's increasingly complicated and over-crowded world, is it na茂ve to hope for peace? Hew Strachan, Professor of the History of War at Oxford joins Gittings to discuss war and peace.

There's a first night review of the National Theatre of Scotland's production 'An Appointment with the Wickerman' in Aberdeen from Susannah Clapp, and the theatre director Nicholas Kent joins Susannah after the review to discuss how the subsidised theatre is responding to the financial strictures of recession. Is it playing safe?

That's Night Waves tonight with Rana Mitter.