Entertainment

Angelina Jolie aimed to ‘bring people together’ on Radio 4’s Today Programme

Radio 4’s Today programme will be guest edited by the Hollywood star.
Radio 4’s Today programme will be guest edited by the Hollywood star.

Angelina Jolie has said she hoped to “bring people together from a cross-section” during her turn as a guest editor on Radio 4’s Today programme.

The Hollywood actress, 43, takes the reins of the BBC show for a day on December 28.

The mother-of-six and campaigner said: “For me the biggest challenge I have had in my work is trying to understand how all the pieces come together.

“And with the state of the world we are all living in, with so much instability and the numbers rising on refugees, we’re at 68 million people displaced, and with all the many, many things your audience is aware of, how do we get to the core of what is happening and who are the different people that are offering solutions”.

Angelina Jolie guest edits the Today Programme (Anna Gordon/BBC) (Anna Gordon/Anna Gordon for the BBC )

One of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners – Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege – will feature during Jolie’s edit.

She said: “That was the goal, to bring people together from a cross-section of different kinds of people who are a part of the solution and learn what they feel needs to be done, see if we can all agree on what needs to be done and see where all the different issues come together, from General Scaparrotti to Denis Mukwege to our friends in the refugee camps.

“What they all understand is necessary to make change, to bring more stability to our world.”

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will talk about the government’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI).

Jolie hoped to ‘bring people together from a cross-section’ (Anna Gordon/BBC) (Anna Gordon/Anna Gordon for the BBC )

US General Curtis Scaparrotti, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet will also feature.

Veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby, who this month stepped down as the host of Question Time after 25 years, was the first of this year’s guest editors.

Blogger Chidera Eggerue, also known as the Slumflower and historian Andrew Roberts are among the guests to follow after Jolie.

Previous guest editors over the years have included Prince Harry, Sir Lenny Henry and Sir Richard Branson.