MUMBAI: Seems like BBC World is taking a cue from our very own MAX. Furthering its popular Hardtalk franchise, BBC World has debuted Hardtalk Extra on 12 March 2004.

Hosted by BBC World presenters Mishal Husain and Gavin Esler, a new weekly programme from the Hardtalk stable, Hardtalk Extra, will profile the personalities and leading figures making the news within the world of art, film, media, theatre and music, as well as people who find themselves thrown into the news spotlight.

Launched in 1997, HARDtalk, BBC World's hard-hitting interview programme, has travelled the world in search of the movers and shakers on the international stage. The format of the programme, and its global reputation, has earned HARDtalk some unique interview opportunities, says a company release.

For its debut week, the channel will interview Oscar nominated Susannah York. York, whose co-star list include Marlon Brando, Dirk Bogarde, George C. Scott and Elizabeth Taylor, made her name in the 1960s and Sir Alec Guinness quickly dubbed her the "best thing in films since Audrey Hepburn."

The veteran British actress, whose career has spanned more than 40 years, is almost as famous for her work as a political campaigner as she is for her on-screen roles as she is for her work as a political campaigner, adds the release. 

For more than a decade she has led a relentless fight to free Mordechai Vanunu, the whistleblower, who in 1986, exposed Israel's secret nuclear weapons programme and was jailed for 18 years. He is due to be released on April 21 2004.

In an exclusive tete-e-tete, York revealed that it is her hot temper which has led her to champion various causes over the years and has on more occasions than one landed her in trouble. Apparently, she once hit director John Huston on the set of the 1962 film Freud, after he made a joke about her costar Montgomery Clift.