Frost over the world - Vaclav Havel - 26 Sep 08

Sir David speaks to Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, and one of the great icons of the Cold War. In November 1989, Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright, led a 10-day Velvet Revolution that overturned four decades of communism in Czechoslovakia. A man who had spent five years in prison was suddenly propelled into political office. For the next 13 years, Vaclav Havel served as President of Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic. He took the Czech Republic into Nato and also negotiated the Republic's entry into the European Union. Now retired, Havel has written his first play in 19 years. The play, Leaving, is about a politician's painful adjustment to a new life after leaving politics. Vaclav Havel tells Sir David that Russia today is "more dangerous" than the old communist regime and explains why accepting the presidency in December 1989 was the biggest decision of his life.