Notebook

Two years after it was dropped by ITV, The South Bank Show is staging a comeback.

Is the sun setting on the voice of the British Empire?

Eerie though it was that the killing of Bin Laden should coincide with a Start the Week devoted to the problem of evil, I don't imagine its message would go down too well with the headline writers. Because instead of talking about "Evil", according to the neuroscientist Simon Baron-Cohen, we should be referring to "a radical lack of empathy". According to his theory, which has prompted widespread interest already, around 10 sites in the brain are responsible for our empathy circuit, which affects our ability to commit callous acts, and this circuit depends on an interplay of genes and environment. Those with zero empathy need treatment. "Rather than putting them in prison we should be treating them in the health service. Empathy deficit is a disability no different from being in a wheelchair," he said.

Those who wish to banish religion from public life dismiss any enduring legacy of Christianity on the way we live or think now on two main grounds. The first is that the legacy is widely exaggerated by scheming bishops. The second is that, even if it exists, it is wholly negative, saddling us with the baggage of sectarianism, sexual repression and illogical thought. Melvyn Bragg's elegant, accessible and passionately argued account of the influence of the King James Bible, in its 400th year, quite simply blows such arguments out of the water. The King James, he writes, "is one of the fundamental makers of the modern world".

So much to learn, so little time... In every publisher's catalogue, you'll find the slenderest volumes on the biggest subjects. But huge concepts can't simply be boiled down into bite-size books, argues John Walsh

Lord Patten told MPs yesterday that if he was confirmed as the new chairman of the BBC he would expect to be unpopular – and predicted that "there will be all hell let loose" as the corporation is forced to cut spending on programming.

"They've killed the show", moaned Melvyn Bragg when ITV brought down the kibosh on the arts programme that had become a revered institution over its 32-year (and 110-award) lifespan.

Why do so many great authors struggle with sex scenes? John Walsh looks forward to the award no one wants to win

John Walsh on two glamorous decades at the restaurant that reinvented the celebrity scene

As the BBC confronts a 16 per cent cut in revenue, where will its axe swing? For many listeners, In Our Time by itself has justified the licence fee – and a withdrawal from such ventures would damn Auntie to indefensible mediocrity.

It is a cornerstone of Western literature and culture. But as the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible approaches, the authors of two new studies argue that its significance may have been overstated

"That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me ... On that night of 12 May 1994 I needed that love [she] gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct ... "

Jilly Cooper has named a goat in her latest novel after a critic who wrote a biting review. She got away lightly...