John Simpson

An evening with the journalist and broadcaster John Simpson CBE, part of his show 'The Leaders and Lunatics Tour'. Drawing on nearly 60 years of access to world leaders, he examines what makes tyrants and how sane societies slip into despotism, from Putin, Assad, Saddam, Gaddafi and Trump to Gorbachev, Mandela, Havel and Zelensky. The second half is an audience question-and-answer session about the events he has covered, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to Tiananmen Square and the Gulf Wars. The event runs 1hr 50 min including a 20-minute interval, presented and promoted by Fane.