One on One | All stories

My guest for this week’s One on One is the man behind the Prague Fringe, Steven Gove. For many years, Steven has been working in his native Scotland at the Edinburgh Fringe, and is now on the board of directors of what is said to be the biggest arts festival in the world. A few years ago, he came up with the idea of bringing a bit of this creative chaos to the Czech capital, where he is now based. Sitting at his dinner table in Prague’s leafy Vinohrady, Steven told me why:

In this edition of One on One, we talk to the US ambassador to the Czech Republic Richard Graber about current issues in Czech-American relations including the positioning of a planned US radar base on Czech territory, visa-free travel to the United States, and about possible changes to Czech-American relations might see under the new US administration.

The story of the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia is one of the most remarkable episodes of the first world war. It has now been captured in a new documentary entitled Accidental Army by the Czech Legion Project. The group's Chicago-based founder Bruce Bendinger was in Prague screening it last week, and he stopped by at Radio Prague's studios to discuss the Legions and their fascinating history.

Rob Cameron’s guest on One on One this week is Kabir Bedi, one of India’s best known actors and one of the few to make that difficult transition from Bollywood to Europe to Hollywood. Kabir already had dozens of films under his belt before he won the lead role in the 1970s TV series Sandokan, a role that won him a legion of fans throughout Europe and especially in communist Czechoslovakia. Kabir Bedi was in Prague recently as a special guest of the Bollywood film festival, and Radio Prague asked the actor what explained the huge success of

Pavel Ivančic – a rising star in the world of fashion My guest on One on One this week is Pavel Ivančic, voted the Czech fashion designer of 2007. Together with his wife Radana he established his own fashion label Muset, which has been presented all over the world and received a number of awards at home. A graduate of Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Pavel Ivančic also attended the prestigious Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London. I met him last week at the Designblok festival in Prague, where he presented

Before becoming a Member of the European Parliament, our guest today had long been an established public figure in the Czech Republic. He was co-founder of one of the most successful television channels in Central and Eastern Europe, TV Nova, serving as the channel’s CEO for nine years. In 2002 he was elected senator for the region of Znojmo, before becoming a member of European Parliament in 2004. In this edition of One on One, we talk to Vladimír Želený.

My guest in One on One this week is respected Prague-based journalist Erik Best. Erik came to Prague from the US in the early 90s after completing degrees in foreign relations, the Russian language and business. Shortly after his arrival, he founded the Fleet Sheet – a serious daily bulletin published by him and his staff highlighting important business and political stories for subscribers. Later, he added Final Word - a widely-read, often pointedly witty but also critical opinion piece. Both are discussed in our interview. But first, we began

Christopher Harwood is a lecturer in Czech at Columbia University in New York. When I met him at his office on Columbia’s Upper West Side campus, we discussed Czech literature, the difficulties of learning Czech, and how Professor Harwood himself had become good enough at the language to teach it at one of the world’s leading universities.

My guest for One on One this week is Karel Buriánek, the frontman of Czech indie rock band Sunshine. Karel, or Kay as he is known to his fans, has worked in graphic design and fashion in Los Angeles, that’s before settling back in the Czech Republic and focusing on music. Karel has a weekly new music show on Radio Wave, and has just finished a hectic summer’s touring with his band. When I met him on a sunny Prague café terrace, he told me how playing all of this summer’s Czech festivals had been:

My guest for One on One this week is Professor Jaroslav Blahoš, one of the world’s leading endocrinologists. Besides publishing over 370 papers on his specialist subject, Professor Blahoš has also won several prestigious awards. Among other things, he was the only the second Czech after Jan Evangelista Purkyně to be made a member of France’s renowned Académie Nationale de Médecine. He has been head of the Czech Medical Association since 1993 and was president of the World Medical Association from 1999-2001.