19th century
195 episodes
1816, the Year Without a Summer
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the link between the eruption of Mt Tambora in 1815, the largest and most lethal in recorded history, with famines in Europe and America in 1816.
21 April 2016
Featuring: Clive Oppenheimer, Jane Stabler, Lawrence Goldman
1848: Year of Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 1848, the year that saw Europe engulfed in revolution. Governments from Paris to Palermo were toppled, but the effects were not to last.
19 January 2012
Featuring: Tim Blanning, Lucy Riall, Mike Rapport
A Christmas Carol
From Bah Humbug to God Bless Us Every One: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Dickens' story of Scrooge's salvation by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come.
16 December 2021
Featuring: Juliet John, Jon Mee, Dinah Birch
CultureNovels adapted into balletsVictorian novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novellasBooks illustrated by Arthur Rackham1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsBritish novels adapted into filmsNovels adapted into operasChapman & Hall booksNovels about time travelNovels set in the 19th centuryNovels set in LondonBritish novels adapted into plays19th centuryBookAda Lovelace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th century mathematician and hard living daughter of Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace.
6 March 2008
Featuring: Patricia Fara, Doron Swade, John Fuegi
Alfred Russel Wallace
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian pioneer of evolutionary theory Alfred Russel Wallace.
21 March 2013
Featuring: Steve Jones, George Beccaloni, Ted Benton
HistoryRecipients of the Copley MedalBritish botanical illustrators19th-century English scientists20th-century British biologists19th-century British biologists, 19th-century English naturalists, British evolutionary biologists, Fellows of the Linnean Society of London, Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellows of the Zoological Society of LondonGeorgistsEnglish activistsMembers of the Order of MeritEnglish people of Scottish descentEnglish socialists20th-century English non-fiction writersPeople from MonmouthshireRoyal Medal winnersVictorian writersFellows of the Royal Society19th-century British writersBritish deistsCharles Darwin19th century20th centuryAnimalsAlice's Adventures in Wonderland
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lewis Carroll's work published in 1865 and inspired by telling stories to Alice Liddell and her sisters on picnics and boating trips in Oxford
15 February 2024
Featuring: Franziska Kohlt, Kiera Vaclavik, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Altruism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss altruism, described as “an unselfish attention to the needs of others” but how does this square with Darwin’s theory of Evolution?
23 November 2006
Featuring: Miranda Fricker, Richard Dawkins, John Dupré
Anaesthetics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of anaesthetics, from laughing gas in the 1790s to the discovery of “blessed chloroform”.
29 March 2007
Featuring: David Wilkinson, Stephanie Snow, Anne Hardy
Anarchism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anarchism and why its political ideas became synonymous with chaos and disorder.
7 December 2006
Featuring: John Keane, Ruth Kinna, Peter Marshall
Anna Akhmatova
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) whose work was banned under Stalin and who lived under constant threat of the gulags.
18 January 2018
Featuring: Katharine Hodgson, Alexandra Harrington, Michael Basker
Annie Besant
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of 19th-century writer and campaigner Annie Besant.
21 June 2012
Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, David Stack, Yasmin Khan
CultureEnglish feminist writers, English feminists19th-century English women writersVictorian women writersBritish women's rights activistsEnglish activistsEnglish women activistsEnglish socialistsNew Age predecessorsSocial Democratic Federation membersBritish reformersWomen mysticsEnglish people of Irish descentFormer AnglicansEnglish suffragistsVictorian writersFounders of Indian schools and collegesEnglish non-fiction writers19th centuryArchaeology and Imperialism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the link between archaeology and imperialism, and why there was such a fascination with Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia in the 18th and 19th centuries.
14 April 2005
Featuring: Tim Champion, Richard Parkinson, Eleanor Robson
Aurora Leigh
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's novel-poem published in 1856, three years before her death in Florence.
24 March 2016
Featuring: Margaret Reynolds, Daniel Karlin, Karen O'Brien
Beethoven
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise of Beethoven, from Bonn to Vienna, where he became one of the great composers, despite his growing deafness.
21 December 2017
Featuring: Laura Tunbridge, John Deathridge, Erica Buurman
German Roman CatholicsNational anthem writers19th-century German male musiciansGerman Romantic composers, German male opera composers, German opera composers18th-century German male musicians, 18th-century classical pianists, 19th-century keyboardists, Beethoven family, Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery, Catholic liturgical composers, Child classical musicians, Composers for piano, Deaf classical musicians, German ballet composers, German classical composers of church music, German deaf people, German emigrants to Austria, German male classical pianists, German people of Flemish descent, German string quartet composers, Ludwig van Beethoven, Musicians from Bonn, Oratorio composers, People from the Electorate of Cologne, Pupils of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Pupils of Joseph HaydnAge of Enlightenment18th century19th centuryMusicBenjamin Disraeli
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most famous politicians of the Victorian age, who broadened his fame and spread his ideas through popular novels.
19 September 2024
Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Emily Jones, Daisy Hay
HistoryKnights of the GarterPeople of the Victorian eraEnglish male novelistsRectors of the University of Glasgow19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsUK MPs 1865–1868English biographersVictorian era19th-century English poetsEnglish Anglicans19th-century English novelistsVictorian novelistsWriters from the London Borough of CamdenLords Privy Seal19th-century AnglicansMembers of the Privy Council of the United KingdomEnglish non-fiction writers19th-century English politiciansFellows of the Royal Society19th centuryBergson and Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of Henri Bergson on how our experience of time as a duration differs from the scientific measurement of time, and why that matters.
9 May 2019
Featuring: Keith Ansell-Pearson, Emily Thomas, Mark Sinclair
PhilosophyWriters from ParisFrench Nobel laureatesAcademic staff of the Collège de FrancePhilosophers of languageLycée Condorcet alumniMetaphysicians19th-century French writers19th-century French philosophersPhilosophers of mindÉcole Normale Supérieure alumni20th-century French philosophersPhenomenologistsNobel laureates in LiteratureFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesFrench epistemologistsJewish philosophers19th century20th centuryFranceLanguageMedicineBerthe Morisot
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the daring and innovative work of the French woman at the heart of the impressionist movement, capturing the domestic world and life in the open air
13 October 2022
Featuring: Tamar Garb, Lois Oliver, Claire Moran
Bertrand Russell
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the influential 20th-century British thinker Bertrand Russell, widely regarded as one of the founders of Analytical philosophy.
6 December 2012
Featuring: A. C. Grayling, Mike Beaney, Hilary Greaves
PhilosophyBritish free speech activistsBritish historians of philosophyEnglish logiciansUniversal basic income writersEuropean democratic socialistsMetaphysics writersMembers of the Order of MeritEnglish anti-fascists19th-century atheistsBritish philosophers of educationEmpiricistsEnglish humanistsFree love advocatesGeorgistsBritish critics of religionsEnglish Nobel laureatesNobel laureates in LiteratureTheorists on Western civilizationBritish political philosophersPhilosophers of social scienceEnglish people of Scottish descentEnglish socialistsEnglish male non-fiction writersConsequentialistsFellows of the Royal SocietyLinguistic turnPhilosophers of sexualityRhetoric theoristsMetaphilosophersPhilosophers of loveEnglish political philosophersCritics of work and the work ethicEnglish people of Welsh descent20th-century atheists20th-century English mathematiciansPresidents of the Aristotelian SocietyUtilitariansBritish atheism activistsWriters about communismLogicians19th-century English essayistsSecular humanistsPhilosophers of economicsIntellectual historians, University of Chicago facultyOntologistsEnglish scepticsFreethought writersCritics of the Catholic Church19th-century English philosophersBritish critics of ChristianityPeople from MonmouthshireAristotelian philosophersJerusalem Prize recipientsPhilosophers of lawEnglish prisoners and detaineesBritish philosophers of languageSet theoristsPhilosophers of technologyBritish consciousness researchers and theoristsPhilosophers of mathematicsBritish philosophers of mind20th-century English philosophers19th-century English mathematiciansAnti-nationalistsPhilosophers of literatureEnglish agnosticsBritish philosophers of culture, English pacifistsWriters about globalizationWriters about religion and scienceFellows of Trinity College, CambridgeEnglish essayistsAnalytic philosophersAcademics of the London School of Economics, British philosophers of scienceWriters about activism and social changeAlumni of Trinity College, CambridgePhilosophers of historyBritish philosophers of religionBritish ethicistsAtheist philosophersUniversity of California, Los Angeles facultyBritish philosophers of logicEnglish political writers19th century20th centuryEconomicsLanguageMathematicsBismarck
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the original Iron Chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck, one of 19th Century Europe’s most influential statesmen and the founder of modern Germany.
22 March 2007
Featuring: Richard J. Evans, Christopher Clark, Katharine Lerman
CulturePeople from the Province of SaxonyIndependent politicians in Germany, Recipients of the Iron Cross (1870), 2nd class, Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (military class)University of Göttingen alumniGrand Cross of the Legion of HonourHumboldt University of Berlin alumniGerman LutheransGrand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary, Knights of the Golden Fleece of SpainMilitary personnel from Saxony-AnhaltGerman monarchistsGerman nationalists19th centuryWarBohemianism
Melvyn Bragg discusses how a 19th century Parisian artistic philosophy re-emerged in the 20th century in the drawing rooms of Bloomsbury and Chelsea, as a lifestyle choice for a middle-class clique.
9 October 2003
Featuring: Hermione Lee, Virginia Nicholson, Graham Robb
Bolivar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and times of Simon Bolivar, hero of the revolutionary wars that liberated Spanish America from Spain.
30 October 2008
Featuring: Anthony McFarlane, John Fisher, Catherine Davies
Booth's Life and Labour Survey
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Booth's ambitious project to discover how many people in late Victorian London were living in poverty, and understand why
10 June 2021
Featuring: Emma Griffin, Sarah Wise, Lawrence Goldman
Brunel
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Victorian engineer responsible for bridges, tunnels and railways still in use today.
13 November 2014
Featuring: Julia Elton, Ben Marsden, Crosbie Smith
Capitalism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of capitalism and examines whether we have witnessed its triumph or if we are only now learning the full costs and the social impact of its unfettered advance.
24 June 1999
Featuring: Anatole Kaletsky, Edward Luttwak
Cave Art
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the cave peoples, human or Neanderthal, who made hand outlines, abstract symbols and multicoloured images of prey animals in the Stone Age.
24 September 2020
Featuring: Alistair Pike, Chantal Conneller, Paul Pettitt
Chartism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th-century campaign for greater democracy: the changes demanded in the People's Charter included votes for all men and secret ballots.
9 February 2023
Featuring: Joan Allen, Emma Griffin, Robert Saunders
Chekhov
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the great Russian writer Anton Chekhov.
14 March 2013
Featuring: Catriona Kelly, Cynthia Marsh, Rosamund Bartlett
CulturePositivistsModernist theatre19th-century non-fiction writers from the Russian Empire20th-century deaths from tuberculosisRussian atheists19th-century dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire, 19th-century short story writers from the Russian Empire, 20th-century Russian dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Russian short story writers, Novelists from the Russian Empire, Philanthropists from the Russian Empire, Russian male dramatists and playwrights, Russian male novelists, Russian opinion journalists, Russian-language writersBurials at Novodevichy Cemetery19th century20th centuryLanguageRussiaChristina Rossetti
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti.
1 December 2011
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Rhian Williams, Nicholas Shrimpton
CultureEnglish hymnwriters19th-century English women writersBurials at Highgate CemeteryWriters from the London Borough of CamdenAnglican saintsVictorian women writersEnglish fantasy writersPoets from LondonSonneteersEnglish women poetsBritish people of Italian descent, English people of Italian descent, Polidori-Rossetti family19th-century British writersVictorian poets19th centuryChromatography
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss chromatography as a means of separating mixtures, widely used when testing water and air quality, in forensics and drug manufacture.
4 February 2016
Featuring: Andrea Sella, Apryll Stalcup, Leon Barron
Clausewitz and On War
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss On War, the 19th-century treatise on the theory of warfare by the Prussian soldier Carl von Clausewitz.
17 May 2012
Featuring: Saul David, Hew Strachan, Beatrice Heuser
PhilosophyDeaths from choleraMilitary theorists19th-century German writersGerman untitled nobility19th-century German male writersMilitary personnel from Saxony-AnhaltPhilosophers of warGerman military writersPolitical realistsTheoretical historiansGerman male non-fiction writers19th centuryGermanyWarCoffee
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of coffee, from its origins in Ethiopia to its role in the spread of ideas, its part in the slave trade and its social impact.
12 December 2019
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Markman Ellis, Jonathan Morris
Colette
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the novels and life of one of the most remarkable writers of the last century, whose Claudine series was first published under her husband's name.
27 January 2022
Featuring: Diana Holmes, Michèle Roberts, Belinda Jack
CultureFrench bisexual women, French bisexual writersBisexual memoirists19th-century French women writersGrand Officers of the Legion of HonourBisexual journalistsFrench women novelistsBurials at Père Lachaise Cemetery19th-century French LGBTQ people, 20th-century French LGBTQ people20th-century French novelists20th-century French women writersBisexual novelists19th-century French novelistsBisexual women writersFrench LGBTQ novelists19th century20th centuryFranceConsequences of the Industrial Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the far-reaching consequences of the Industrial Revolution, which brought widespread social and intellectual change to Britain.
30 December 2010
Featuring: Jane Humphries, Emma Griffin, Lawrence Goldman
Custer's Last Stand
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, the bloody 1876 battle between Native Americans and the US Cavalry.
19 May 2011
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Adam Smith, Saul David
Darwin: Life After Origins
Melvyn Bragg presents a series about the life and work of Charles Darwin. Melvyn visits Darwin's home at Down House in Kent, where he continued working until his death in 1882.
8 January 2009
Featuring: Jim Moore, Steve Jones, Alison Pearn, Nick Biddle
Darwin: On the Origin of Species
Melvyn Bragg presents a series about the life and work of Charles Darwin. How Darwin was eventually persuaded to publish On the Origin of Species in November 1859.
7 January 2009
Featuring: Jim Moore, Steve Jones, Jim Secord, Johannes Vogel
Darwin: On the Origins of Charles Darwin
Melvyn Bragg presents a series about the life and work of Charles Darwin. Darwin's early life and time at Cambridge, where his interests shifted from religion to natural science.
5 January 2009
Featuring: Jim Moore, Steve Jones, David Norman, Colin Higgins
ScienceEnglish agnosticsHuman evolutionRoyal Medal winnersCharles DarwinIndependent scientistsEnglish scepticsEnglish Anglicans19th-century British biologists, 19th-century English naturalists, British evolutionary biologists, Fellows of the Linnean Society of London, Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellows of the Zoological Society of LondonTheoretical biologistsMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesAlumni of the University of EdinburghCircumnavigators of the globeMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesUtilitariansMembers of the Lincean AcademyEnglish abolitionists19th-century AnglicansRecipients of the Copley MedalAlumni of Christ's College, Cambridge19th-century English writersMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyEnglish travel writersRecipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)Fellows of the Royal SocietyBurials at Westminster AbbeyDeaths from coronary thrombosis19th centuryAnimalsDavid Ricardo
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ricardo's argument that Britain's economy was being held back by the interests of landlords and protectionism, and his call for free trade.
25 March 2021
Featuring: Matthew Watson, Helen Paul, Richard Whatmore
Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Eugene Delacroix's painting Liberty Leading the People, his celebrated depiction of the events of the 1830 July Revolution.
20 October 2011
Featuring: Tim Blanning, Tamar Garb, Simon Lee
Dickens
Melvyn Bragg discusses the achievements of Charles Dickens What is his political and literary legacy to our age?
12 July 2001
Featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Michael Slater, John Bowen
Critics of the Catholic ChurchEnglish male novelists19th-century travel writers19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsLiteracy and society theoristsPeople from Somers Town, LondonBritish male essayistsEnglish reformers19th-century English historians19th-century English poetsEnglish Anglicans19th-century English novelistsEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsWriters about activism and social change19th-century pseudonymous writersEnglish male poetsVictorian novelists19th-century British short story writersWriters from the London Borough of CamdenEnglish male journalistsEnglish prisoners and detaineesTrope theoristsEnglish philanthropistsBritish social reformersEnglish male short story writersLecturersBritish critics of religionsAnglican writers19th-century British journalistsEnglish satirists19th-century English non-fiction writers19th-century English essayistsEnglish historical novelistsEnglish male non-fiction writersEnglish travel writers19th-century British philanthropistsWriters of Gothic fictionBurials at Westminster Abbey19th centuryEdgar Allan Poe
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the writer of The Raven and Gothic horror stories such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher.
30 November 2023
Featuring: Bridget Bennett, Erin Forbes, Tom Wright
CultureHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesUnited States Military Academy alumniAmerican literary critics, American male dramatists and playwrightsAmerican male essayists, American male poetsSurrealist writersRecreational cryptographers, Writers from Boston, Writers from PhiladelphiaAmerican male non-fiction writersEpic poetsAmerican people of English descent19th-century pseudonymous writersRomantic poets19th-century American short story writers, Ghost story writers19th-century American poets19th-century American non-fiction writers19th-century American novelists, Novelists from New York (state)Writers from Baltimore19th-century American male writers19th-century American essayistsAmerican male novelistsWriters of Gothic fiction19th centuryAmericaEdiacara Biota
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Ediacara Biota: the Precambrian beings that some consider the first complex multicellular life forms.
9 July 2009
Featuring: Richard Corfield, Martin Brasier, Rachel Wood
Edith Wharton
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels, which explore the world of the privileged in America's Gilded Age, in which she lived, written in hindsight and with little mercy.
4 October 2018
Featuring: Hermione Lee, Bridget Bennett, Laura Rattray
Culture19th-century American poets20th-century American women writersGerman–English translatorsGilded Age19th-century American women writers, American women poetsKnights of the Legion of Honour19th-century American novelists, Novelists from New York (state)19th-century American short story writers, Ghost story writersMembers of the American Academy of Arts and LettersAmerican autobiographers19th century20th centuryAmericaEmily Dickinson
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Emily Dickinson, the now-celebrated poet of Amherst, who was prolific yet chose to publish few of her poems.
11 May 2017
Featuring: Fiona Green, Linda Freedman, Paraic Finnerty
Eugene Onegin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), often described as his masterpiece, which tells the tragic story of Onegin, Lensky and Tatyana.
22 June 2017
Featuring: Andrew Kahn, Emily Finer, Simon Dixon
Fairies
Melvyn Bragg discusses the literary and visual depiction of fairies. Supernatural creatures inhabiting a half-way world between this one and the next, fairies are ubiquitous in human culture.
11 May 2006
Featuring: Juliette Wood, Diane Purkiss, Nicola Bown
Fanny Burney
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the 18th-century writer Fanny Burney, also known as Frances D'Arblay and Frances Burney, best known for her novel Evelina.
23 April 2015
Featuring: Nicole Pohl, Judith Hawley, John Mullan
Culture19th-century English women writersEnglish essayistsEnglish women novelistsEnglish satiristsStreathamites19th-century English novelistsWriters from King's LynnConversationalistsBritish women essayistsEnglish women dramatists and playwrightsWriters from London18th-century English diarists19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsEnglish women poets18th-century English women writersEnglish pamphleteers18th-century English novelists18th century19th centuryFermat's Last Theorem
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Fermat's Last Theorem, a mathematical puzzle which took more than three hundred and fifty years to solve.
25 October 2012
Featuring: Marcus du Sautoy, Vicky Neale, Samir Siksek
Frederick Douglass
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of the prominent abolitionist, who in 1845 told his story in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
8 February 2018
Featuring: Celeste-Marie Bernier, Karen Salt, Nicholas Guyatt
History19th-century American male writers19th-century American memoirists, People of the Six Years' WarAnglican saintsActivists for African-American civil rightsAmerican male journalists19th-century American businesspeopleUnderground Railroad peopleAmerican lecturersWriters from Baltimore19th-century male writersAmerican autobiographersDeaths from coronary thrombosis19th centuryGaribaldi and the Risorgimento
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Giuseppe Garibaldi and his role in unifying Italy which, with his Red Shirts, he achieved substantially in 1861 and entirely in 1870.
1 December 2016
Featuring: Lucy Riall, Eugenio Biagini, David Laven
George Sand
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work and life of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin who in C19th France wrote many extremely successful novels, under the name George Sand
6 February 2020
Featuring: Belinda Jack, Angela Ryan, Nigel Harkness
CultureWriters from Paris19th-century French letter writersFrench bisexual women, French bisexual writers19th-century French women writersLegion of Honour refusalsFrench socialistsPseudonymous women writersFrench women novelists19th-century pseudonymous writers19th-century French novelistsFrench LGBTQ novelists19th centuryFranceGeorge and Robert Stephenson
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Stephenson, known as the Father of Railways, and his son Robert, designer of the Rocket, whose contribution was arguably even greater.
12 April 2018
Featuring: Michael Bailey, Julia Elton, Colin Divall
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works of Hopkins, unpublished in his lifetime, who FR Leavis called 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age and the greatest'.
21 March 2019
Featuring: Catherine Phillips, Jane Wright, Martin Dubois
Germaine de Staël
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, works and life of Germaine de Stael (1766-1817), a literary critic, author, opponent of Napoleon and developer of Romanticism.
16 November 2017
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Alison Finch, Katherine Astbury
CultureFrench literary criticsConversationalistsPeople of the First French Empire19th-century French novelistsFrench travel writers19th-century French women writers18th-century French women writersFrench feminists18th-century philosophersConverts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism, Romantic philosophers18th-century French letter writersFrench salon-holders19th-century French philosophersWomen in the French RevolutionWriters from ParisFrench Roman Catholics19th-century French letter writersFrench women novelistsFrench women philosophers18th century19th centuryFranceGerminal
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emile Zola's thirteenth and most successful novel in his Rougon-Macquart series, in which a strike breaks out in a destitute French mining village.
26 October 2023
Featuring: Susan Harrow, Kate Griffiths, Edmund Birch
Goethe
Melvyn Bragg discusses the great German polymath Johann Wolfgang Goethe - novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist and philosopher.
6 April 2006
Featuring: Tim Blanning, Sarah Colvin, W. Daniel Wilson
18th-century German male writersMembers of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences19th-century German non-fiction writersGerman philosophers of language19th-century travel writersMembers of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and HumanitiesPhilosophers of sexualityLiteracy and society theoristsGerman autobiographersGerman philosophers of historyGerman male non-fiction writersEpigrammatistsJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sturm und DrangEpic poetsPhilosophers of linguistics18th-century German civil servants, 18th-century German dramatists and playwrights, 18th-century German historians, 18th-century German novelists, 18th-century German poets, 18th-century travel writers, 19th-century German civil servants, 19th-century German diplomats, 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century German poets, German bibliophiles, German diplomats, German male novelists, People from Weimar, Scientists from Weimar, Writers from Frankfurt, Writers from WeimarGerman untitled nobilityNatural philosophersWriters about activism and social changeRomantic poetsGerman travel writersGerman librariansPhilosophy writersGerman political philosophersFabulists19th-century German novelistsGerman FreemasonsColor scientistsGerman philosophers of culture18th-century German philosophers, 18th-century essayistsFreethought writersGerman philosophers of science19th-century German philosophersGerman ethicists, German philosophers of educationTheorists on Western civilizationLiterary theoristsUniversity of Strasbourg alumniLeipzig University alumni19th-century German historiansGerman male dramatists and playwrights, German male poetsPhilosophers of social science19th-century German essayists19th-century German male writersGerman male essayistsEnlightenment philosophers18th-century German educators, 18th-century historians, 19th-century German educators, 19th-century historiansPantheistsPhilosophers of literatureGerman philosophers of art18th century19th centuryGermanyLanguageGoethe and the Science of the Enlightenment
Melvyn Bragg assesses the scientific legacy of the 18th century German poet and thinker Goethe, who gave us the term morphology and is sometimes even credited with inventing biology itself.
10 February 2000
Featuring: Nicholas Boyle, Simon Schaffer
Science18th-century German male writersMembers of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences19th-century German non-fiction writersGerman philosophers of language19th-century travel writersMembers of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and HumanitiesPhilosophers of sexualityLiteracy and society theoristsGerman autobiographersGerman philosophers of historyGerman male non-fiction writersEpigrammatistsJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sturm und DrangEpic poetsPhilosophers of linguistics18th-century German civil servants, 18th-century German dramatists and playwrights, 18th-century German historians, 18th-century German novelists, 18th-century German poets, 18th-century travel writers, 19th-century German civil servants, 19th-century German diplomats, 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century German poets, German bibliophiles, German diplomats, German male novelists, People from Weimar, Scientists from Weimar, Writers from Frankfurt, Writers from WeimarGerman untitled nobilityNatural philosophersWriters about activism and social changeRomantic poetsGerman travel writersGerman librariansPhilosophy writersGerman political philosophersFabulists19th-century German novelistsGerman FreemasonsColor scientistsGerman philosophers of culture18th-century German philosophers, 18th-century essayistsFreethought writersGerman philosophers of science19th-century German philosophersGerman ethicists, German philosophers of educationTheorists on Western civilizationLiterary theoristsUniversity of Strasbourg alumniLeipzig University alumni19th-century German historiansGerman male dramatists and playwrights, German male poetsPhilosophers of social science19th-century German essayists19th-century German male writersGerman male essayistsEnlightenment philosophers18th-century German educators, 18th-century historians, 19th-century German educators, 19th-century historiansPantheistsPhilosophers of literatureGerman philosophers of art18th century19th centuryGermanyLanguageHarriet Martineau
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Harriet Martineau who wrote extensively in the C19th on a wide range of subjects including abolition, and is called the mother of sociology.
8 December 2016
Featuring: Valerie Sanders, Karen O'Brien, Ella Dzelzainis
History19th-century English women writersEnglish women novelists19th-century English philosophers19th-century English historians19th-century English novelistsBritish women essayistsFeminism and historyEnglish women philosophers19th-century British economists19th-century atheistsVictorian novelists19th-century English short story writersBritish atheism activistsEnglish abolitionistsEnglish UnitariansEnglish people of French descentEnglish writers with disabilitiesBritish scientists with disabilitiesEnglish atheistsPositivistsVictorian women writersWriters from NorwichEnglish historical novelistsEnglish travel writersEnglish suffragists19th centuryEconomicsHeart of Darkness
Melvyn Bragg discusses Joseph Conrad's Novel, Heart of Darkness, a critique of colonialism at the turn of the century
15 February 2007
Featuring: Susan Jones, Robert Hampson, Laurence Davies
Hegel's Philosophy of History
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hegel's ideas on history as the progress of the consciousness of freedom, and whether we enjoy more freedom now than those in past centuries.
26 May 2022
Featuring: Sally Sedgwick, Robert Stern, Stephen Houlgate
PhilosophyDeaths from cholera18th-century German male writersBurials at the Dorotheenstadt CemeteryGerman philosophers of languageGerman LutheransWriters about religion and scienceGerman philosophers of historyGerman male non-fiction writersGerman idealistsAcademic staff of the Humboldt University of BerlinUniversity of Tübingen alumniPhilosophy writers18th-century German writersGerman political philosophersPhilosophers of lawMetaphysicians18th-century German philosophers, 18th-century essayists19th-century German philosophersTheoretical historiansGerman philosophers of mind, German philosophers of religionHeidelberg University alumni19th-century German essayists19th-century German male writersGerman male essayistsEnlightenment philosophers18th-century German educators, 18th-century historians, 19th-century German educators, 19th-century historiansPantheists19th-century mysticsGerman philosophers of art18th century19th centuryGermanyLanguageMedicineHeritage
Melvyn Bragg discusses the interconnections between heritage culture and the study of history, and the role they have both played in the formation of the British national identity.
18 July 2002
Featuring: David Cannadine, Miri Rubin, Peter Mandler
History's relevance in the 20th century
Melvyn Bragg discusses the relevance of the study of history in the 20th century and examines the place of imagination in the writing of it. What place does myth have in shaping our history?
3 December 1998
Featuring: Simon Schama, Lady Antonia Fraser
Hokusai
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), whose views of Mt Fuji such as The Great Wave off Kanagawa (pictured) are some of the most iconic in world art.
30 March 2017
Featuring: Angus Lockyer, Rosina Buckland, Ellis Tinios
Humboldt
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Prussian naturalist and explorer, Alexander Von Humboldt. A hero in South America; Charles Darwin described him as ‘the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived’.
28 September 2006
Featuring: Jason Wilson, Patricia Fara, Jim Secord
ScienceUniversity of Göttingen alumniMembers of the Bavarian Academy of SciencesGerman LutheransMembers of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities18th-century German LGBTQ peopleIndependent scientistsForeign members of the Royal SocietyGerman travel writersMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesHuman geographersHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesUniversity of Jena alumniFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesRecipients of the Copley MedalMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyMembers of the French Academy of SciencesRecipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)Gay scientistsMembers of the Prussian Academy of Sciences18th century19th centuryImperial Science
Melvyn Bragg discusses whether agriculture and an attitude towards nature, or the protection of trade routes was the main impulse that drove British imperial expansion in the 19th century.
1 February 2001
Featuring: Richard Drayton, Maria Misra, Ziauddin Sardar
Jane Eyre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell.
18 June 2015
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Karen O'Brien, Sara Lyons
CultureNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideBritish Gothic novelsVictorian novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsHarper & Brothers booksBritish bildungsromansBritish novels adapted into films1847 British novelsLove storiesFemale characters in literatureNovels set in the 19th centurySmith, Elder & Co. booksBritish novels adapted into playsWorks published under a pseudonym19th centuryBookJohn Clare
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Clare, the 'Northamptonshire peasant poet', whose writing was as celebrated as his life was humble.
9 February 2017
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Mina Gorji, Simon Kövesi
John Dalton
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss scientist John Dalton, who pioneered the development of atomic theory and carried out research into meteorology and colour blindness.
27 October 2016
Featuring: Jim Bennett, Aileen Fyfe, James Sumner
John Keats
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the short, brilliant life of one of the most celebrated Romantic poets and the works of his most intensely creative year from autumn 1818.
19 February 2026
Featuring: Fiona Stafford, Nicholas Roe, Meiko O’Halloran
John Ruskin
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and work of John Ruskin, art and social critic, and one of the most influential figures of the Victorian era.
31 March 2005
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Keith Hanley, Stefan Collini
English philosophers19th-century British journalistsEnglish essayistsArchitectural theoreticiansArtists' Rifles soldiersAnglo-ScotsAlumni of King's College LondonAnti-consumeristsAlumni of Christ Church, OxfordEnglish fantasy writersEnglish children's writersArts and Crafts movement artistsEnglish people of Scottish descentMale essayistsCritics of political economy19th-century British economistsCritics of work and the work ethic19th centuryEconomicsKant's Copernican Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Kant's ideas on how the world depends on us, on the limits of human knowledge and why we are bound to ask questions we cannot answer.
3 June 2021
Featuring: Fiona Hughes, Anil Gomes, John Callanan
Philosophy18th-century German male writersGerman logicians, Kantian philosophers19th-century German non-fiction writersHumor researchersGerman LutheransPhilosophers of sexualityWriters about religion and scienceGerman nationalistsMetaphilosophersGerman philosophers of historyGerman male non-fiction writers19th-century Prussian peoplePhilosophers of logicGerman idealistsGerman agnostics18th-century philosophersNatural philosophersWriters about activism and social changeMembers of the Prussian Academy of SciencesPhilosophy writers18th-century German writersGerman political philosophersKantianismPhilosophers of lawGerman philosophers of culture18th-century German philosophers, 18th-century essayistsLecturersGerman ethicists, German philosophers of educationGerman philosophers of science19th-century German philosophersTheoretical historiansTheorists on Western civilizationRationalistsGerman philosophers of mind, German philosophers of religionGerman epistemologistsLogiciansIdealistsPhilosophers of social science19th-century German essayists19th-century German male writersGerman male essayistsEnlightenment philosophersOntologistsNatural law ethicistsPhilosophers of warPeople of the Age of EnlightenmentAge of EnlightenmentPhilosophers of literatureGerman philosophers of art18th century19th centuryGermanyKierkegaard
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rich and radical ideas of Soren Kierkegaard, often called the father of Existentialism.
20 March 2008
Featuring: Jonathan Rée, Clare Carlisle, John Lippitt
PhilosophyChristian humanistsPhilosophers of cultureExistentialist theologiansPhilosophers of mindMetaphilosophersPhilosophers of lovePhilosophers of religion19th-century male writers19th-century pseudonymous writersChristian poetsEpistemologistsChristian ethicistsPhilosophy writersPhilosophers of artChristian radicalsPhilosophers of psychologyIrony theorists19th-century essayistsMetaphysiciansPeople celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendarUniversity of Copenhagen alumni19th-century deaths from tuberculosisPhilosophers of deathOntologistsSocial philosophersAphoristsExistentialistsPhilosophers of literature19th centuryMedicinePsychologyTheologyLamarck and Natural Selection
Melvyn Bragg discusses Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the 18th century French scientist, and his theory of Natural Selection. Who was he and how far did he pave the way for Darwin?
26 December 2003
Featuring: Sandy Knapp, Steve Jones, Simon Conway Morris
ScienceLamarckism18th-century French writers19th-century French male writers19th-century French writersProto-evolutionary biologistsFrench male writers18th-century French male writersMembers of the French Academy of Sciences18th-century French scientistsTaxon authorities of Hypericum species18th century19th centuryFranceLenin
Melvyn Bragg investigates what drove the Soviet leader Lenin, and enabled him to develop a model to export communism and build an original political system that remained intact for over seventy years.
16 March 2000
Featuring: Robert Service, Vitali Vitaliev
Philosophy19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire, 20th-century Russian philosophers, Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Switzerland, Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom, Russian communists, Russian revolutionariesSocialist feministsRussian male journalistsAnti-monarchistsMarxist theorists20th-century atheists19th-century pseudonymous writersVladimir Lenin19th-century atheistsLeaders who took power by coupAnti-nationalistsCritics of religionsPolitical philosophersAnti-imperialistsRussian atheistsEmigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany, Political party foundersAtheist philosophersNobility from the Russian Empire20th-century pseudonymous writers19th century20th centuryRussiaLouis Pasteur
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Louis Pasteur, microbiologist, developer of vaccines, saviour of the French beer and wine industries and preserver of milk.
18 May 2017
Featuring: Andrew Mendelsohn, Anne Hardy, Michael Worboys
ScienceRecipients of the Copley MedalFrench Roman CatholicsMembers of the Académie FrançaiseGrand Cross of the Legion of HonourForeign associates of the National Academy of SciencesFrench scientists with disabilitiesHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesForeign members of the Royal SocietyMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyÉcole Normale Supérieure alumni19th-century French chemistsMembers of the French Academy of SciencesMembers of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsRecipients of the Order of the Medjidie, 1st class19th centuryFranceMachado de Assis
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the foundational figures of Brazilian literature, a descendant of slaves, and his stories of Bras Cubas and Virgilia, Dom Casmurro and Capitu.
11 June 2026
Featuring: Ana Cláudia Suriani da Silva, Claire Williams, Viviane Carvalho da Annunciação
Madame Bovary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the literary sensation caused by the trial for indecency of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary.
12 July 2007
Featuring: Andy Martin, Mary Orr, Robert Gildea
Man and Disease
Melvyn Bragg discusses how humans have understood and fought disease throughout history, and examines the social consequences of diseases such as smallpox, bubonic plague, cholera, TB and AIDS.
12 December 2002
Featuring: Anne Hardy, David Bradley, Chris Dye
Mars
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet Mars. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars has been a source of continual fascination.
11 January 2007
Featuring: John Zarnecki, Colin Pillinger, Monica Grady
Marx
Melvyn Bragg discusses Karl Marx who once said that while other philosophers wanted to interpret the world, he wanted to change it. And he changed the world with his Communist Manifesto.
14 July 2005
Featuring: A. C. Grayling, Francis Wheen, Gareth Stedman Jones
PhilosophyGerman writers on atheismPhilosophers of cultureUniversity of Bonn alumniPhilosophers of mindCritics of political economyWriters about globalizationWriters about religion and sciencePhilosophers of religionSocialist feministsMaterialistsGerman male non-fiction writersCritics of work and the work ethicEconomic historians, German sociologistsFellows of the Royal Society of ArtsPhilosophical anthropologyGerman Marxist writersMarxist theoristsWriters about activism and social change19th-century atheistsEpistemologistsPhilosophers of educationGerman political philosophersStateless peopleCritics of religionsPhilosophers of lawAnti-consumeristsMetaphysiciansJewish socialistsPhilosophers of technologyHumboldt University of Berlin alumniUniversity of Jena alumniAnti-imperialists19th-century German philosophersTheorists on Western civilizationPhilosophers of sciencePhilosophers of historyCritics of JudaismBurials at Highgate Cemetery19th-century German historiansAtheist philosophersMembers of the International Workingmen's AssociationPhilosophers of economicsGerman anti-capitalists, German socialist feminists, Jewish communistsSocial philosophersPamphleteersGerman revolutionariesAnti-nationalistsOntologists19th centuryEconomicsGermanyMedicineMaxwell
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and work of the often overlooked 19th century Scottish scientist, and his enormous contribution to the creation of the technological age in which we live.
2 October 2003
Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Peter Harman, Joanna Haigh
SciencePeople associated with electricityDeaths from stomach cancer in EnglandCavendish Professors of PhysicsAlumni of Trinity College, CambridgeAlumni of the University of EdinburghOptical physicistsAcademics of King's College LondonColor scientistsFellows of the Royal Society19th-century British physicistsBritish theoretical physicists, Mathematical physicistsMagneticians19th centuryMathematicsMichael Faraday
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Michael Faraday, the most famous British scientist of the 19th century.
24 December 2015
Featuring: Geoffrey Cantor, Laura Herz, Frank James
SciencePeople associated with electricityWriters about religion and scienceRoyal Medal winnersEnglish Protestants19th-century British chemistsMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesOptical physicistsExperimental physicistsMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesEnglish inventors19th-century English scientistsHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesRecipients of the Copley MedalBurials at Highgate CemeteryForeign associates of the National Academy of SciencesMembers of the French Academy of SciencesRecipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)English physicistsFellows of the Royal Society19th-century British physicistsMagneticians19th centuryMiddlemarch
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's Study of Provincial Life, set before the Reform Act 1832 in a small, fictional town in the Midlands surrounded by farmland.
19 April 2018
Featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Kathryn Hughes, John Bowen
Mill
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 19th century political philosopher John Stuart Mill and his treatise On Liberty which is one of the sacred texts of liberalism.
18 May 2006
Featuring: A. C. Grayling, Janet Radcliffe Richards, Alan Ryan
PhilosophyEnglish agnosticsBritish free speech activistsPhilosophers of culturePhilosophers of sexualityEnglish logiciansUK MPs 1865–1868Voting theoristsEnglish libertariansEnglish political philosophersBritish male essayistsEnglish essayistsEuropean democratic socialists19th-century English philosophersScholars of feminist philosophyInfectious disease deaths in FranceHonorary Fellows of the Royal Society of EdinburghBritish socialistsPhilosophy writersPhilosophers of psychologyEnglish feminist writers, English feministsAnglo-ScotsEmpiricistsBritish philosophers of languageUtilitariansEnglish autobiographersBritish philosophers of mindRectors of the University of St AndrewsFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesTheorists on Western civilizationPhilosophers of scienceEnglish non-fiction writersPhilosophers of historyBritish social liberals19th-century English non-fiction writersLogiciansBritish ethicistsBritish political philosophers19th-century English writers19th-century English essayistsBritish philosophers of logicPhilosophers of economicsEnglish political writersEnglish people of Scottish descentEnglish socialistsEnglish male non-fiction writersBritish classical liberal economistsEnglish suffragistsEnglish republicansConsequentialists19th centuryEconomicsLanguageMedicinePsychologyMitochondria
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the power-packs within cells in all complex life on Earth: they are absolutely central to the way that cells work and the way we live.
1 June 2023
Featuring: Mike Murphy, Florencia Camus, Nick Lane
Moby Dick
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Moby-Dick (1851) by Herman Melville, the story of Ahab and the white whale, the most popular of around 1,000 ideas that listeners submitted.
7 December 2017
Featuring: Bridget Bennett, Katie McGettigan, Graham Thompson
Monet in England
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why the French impressionist Claude Monet painted the foggy Thames in central London more often than water lilies, haystacks or Rouen Cathedral.
27 June 2024
Featuring: Karen Serres, Frances Fowle, Jackie Wullschläger
Munch and The Scream
Melvyn Bragg and guests David Jackson, Dorothy Rowe and Alastair Wright discuss the work of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, focusing on his painting The Scream.
18 March 2010
Featuring: David Jackson, Dorothy Rowe, Alastair Wright
Napoleon's Hundred Days
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's astonishing return to power in France from exile on Elba in 1815 and how that galvanised the Allies into facing him at Waterloo
18 April 2024
Featuring: Michael Rowe, Katherine Astbury, Zack White
Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, thought he was victorious yet had to retreat, losing most of his army and, soon after, his empire.
19 September 2019
Featuring: Janet Hartley, Michael Rowe, Michael Rapport
Neuroscience
Melvyn Bragg and guests David Papineau, Martin Conway and Gemma Calvert discuss recent developments in neuroscience and examine the relationship between the mind and the brain.
13 November 2008
Featuring: Martin Conway, Gemma Calvert, David Papineau
Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nietzsche's influential ideas about what it means to be moral.
12 January 2017
Featuring: Stephen Mulhall, Fiona Hughes, Keith Ansell-Pearson
PhilosophyCritics of the Catholic Church19th-century German male musicians19th-century German journalistsPhilosophers of timeUniversity of Bonn alumni19th-century German non-fiction writersPhilosophers of sexualityWriters about religion and scienceMetaphilosophersGerman philosophers of historyGerman male non-fiction writersCritics of work and the work ethicGerman critics of Christianity19th-century Prussian peopleGerman music criticsWriters about activism and social changeStateless peoplePhilosophy writersIrony theoristsDeterministsPhilosophers of psychology19th-century German novelistsPeople from the Province of SaxonyCritics of religionsCritical theoristsAnti-consumeristsMetaphysiciansGerman philosophers of culturePeople associated with the University of BaselGerman military personnel of the Franco-Prussian WarGerman ethicists, German philosophers of education19th-century German philosophersTheorists on Western civilizationDeaths from pneumonia in GermanyGerman philosophers of mind, German philosophers of religionGerman epistemologistsPhilosophers of nihilismLeipzig University alumniPhilosophers of social science19th-century German male writersGerman male essayistsOntologistsAphoristsExistentialistsAnti-nationalistsPhilosophers of literatureGerman philosophers of art19th centuryGermanyMedicineMusicPsychologyWarNikola Tesla
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the inventor who helped the advance of electrification in America at the end of the 19th century and cultivated his reputation as a visionary genius
4 April 2024
Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Jill Jonnes, Iwan Morus
SciencePeople associated with electricityRadio pioneers20th-century American engineersAmerican electrical engineers, People from ManhattanMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyNaturalized citizens of the United StatesMembers of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsMental calculatorsAmerican humanistsDeaths from coronary thrombosis19th century20th centuryNorth and South
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, who set her 1855 novel in a version of Manchester she called Milton in the county of Darkshire.
9 March 2017
Featuring: Sally Shuttleworth, Dinah Birch, Jenny Uglow
Octavia Hill
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian reformer Octavia Hill, pioneer of social housing and campaigner for public open spaces.
7 April 2011
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Lawrence Goldman, Gillian Darley
On Liberty
Misha Glenny and guests discuss John Stuart Mill's celebrated work from 1859 arguing that the sole end for which mankind may interfere with anyone's liberty is self-protection.
15 January 2026
Featuring: Helen McCabe, Mark Philp, Piers Norris Turner
Oscar Wilde
Melvyn Bragg discusses Oscar Wilde, the Aesthetes and his literary legacy. Was Wilde a reactionary - the last of the romantics - or was he the midwife to modernism?
6 December 2001
Featuring: Valentine Cunningham, Regenia Gagnier, Neil Sammells
Bisexual poetsIrish Freemasons, Irish libertarians, Irish people of English descentConversationalistsIrish male dramatists and playwrightsBisexual novelistsFreemasons of the United Grand Lodge of EnglandVictorian poetsIrish writers in French, People educated at Portora Royal SchoolAlumni of Trinity College DublinBisexual journalistsInfectious disease deaths in FranceIrish male novelistsFin de siècleVictorian novelistsConverts to Roman Catholicism from AnglicanismScholars of Trinity College DublinLGBTQ AnglicansIrish expatriates in FranceBurials at Père Lachaise CemeteryAlumni of Magdalen College, OxfordWriters from Dublin (city)People convicted for homosexuality in the United Kingdom, People who have received posthumous pardonsBisexual male writers19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poets, Symbolist dramatists and playwrightsLibertarian socialistsLGBTQ Roman CatholicsAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersAphoristsWriters of Gothic fictionIrish male poets19th centuryIrelandMedicinePapal Infallibility
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the idea that Popes cannot err when defining a doctrine, in office, proclaimed at the First Vatican Council 1869-70
10 January 2019
Featuring: Tom O'Loughlin, Rebecca Rist, Miles Pattenden
Perpetual motion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the laws of thermodynamics put a stop to the idea perpetual motion.
24 September 2015
Featuring: Ruth Gregory, Frank Close, Steven Bramwell
Peter Kropotkin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of the Russian prince who became an anarchist and who argued that mutual aid was the key to evolution not survival of the fittest
24 February 2022
Featuring: Ruth Kinna, Lee Dugatkin, Simon Dixon
History19th-century essayistsHistorians of the French RevolutionAnti-consumeristsMembers of the International Workingmen's AssociationHuman geographers19th-century non-fiction writers from the Russian EmpireRussian anarchists20th-century atheistsSocial philosophers19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire, 20th-century Russian philosophers, Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Switzerland, Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom, Russian communists, Russian revolutionaries20th-century essayists19th-century atheistsPhilosophy writersRussian atheistsBurials at Novodevichy CemeteryAnarchist writers19th century20th centuryFranceRussiaPitt Rivers
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the Victorian anthropologist and archaeologist Augustus Pitt-Rivers.
28 February 2013
Featuring: Adam Kuper, Richard Bradley, Dan Hicks
Plasma
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss plasma. First observed in 1879, plasma is the most abundant matter in the universe, far more than solid, liquid or gas.
13 October 2016
Featuring: Justin Wark, Kate Lancaster, Bill Graham
Polidori's The Vampyre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the myths that gave rise to this novella from 1819 by Byron's physician, John Polidori, and the works such as Bram Stoker's Dracula it inspired.
7 April 2022
Featuring: Nick Groom, Samantha George, Martyn Rady
Culture19th-century English non-fiction writersBritish people of Italian descent, English people of Italian descent, Polidori-Rossetti familySuicides by cyanide poisoningAlumni of the University of EdinburghBurials at St Pancras Old ChurchEnglish male non-fiction writersWriters of Gothic fiction19th-century male writers19th-century British short story writers18th century19th centuryPresident Ulysses S Grant
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Grant's role in rebuilding America in the decade after the Civil War and his impact on African-Americans and Native Americans.
30 May 2019
Featuring: Erik Mathisen, Susan-Mary Grant, Robert Cook
HistoryHall of Fame for Great Americans inductees19th-century American male writersUnited States Military Academy alumni19th-century American memoirists, People of the Six Years' WarAmerican people of English descentActivists for African-American civil rightsCongressional Gold Medal recipientsCommanding Generals of the United States Army, Presidents of the United StatesMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyAmerican slave owners19th centuryProust
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and achievements of the 19th century French novelist Marcel Proust whose 3000 page work À La Recherche du Temps Perdu has been called the definitive modern novel.
17 April 2003
Featuring: Jacqueline Rose, Malcolm Bowie, Robert Fraser
Lycée Condorcet alumniDeaths from pneumonia in France, Prix Goncourt winnersFrench literary criticsConversationalistsFrench essayistsFrench male non-fiction writersFormer Roman Catholics20th-century mystics20th-century atheistsFrench short story writers20th-century French philosophers19th-century atheistsPeople with hypochondriasisModernist writersBurials at Père Lachaise Cemetery19th-century French philosophersFrench philosophers of art20th-century French novelistsFrench Roman Catholic writersFrench LGBTQ novelistsWriters from Paris19th-century French LGBTQ people, 20th-century French LGBTQ people20th-century French essayists, 20th-century French short story writersLGBTQ Roman CatholicsAphorists19th-century mysticsFrench atheistsPhilosophers of literature19th century20th centuryFranceRadiation
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the discovery of radiation, from the idea that light consisted of waves, through electromagnetism to the naming of gamma rays.
12 November 2009
Featuring: Jim Al-Khalili, Frank Close, Frank James
Rosa Luxemburg
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rosa Luxemburg, 'Red Rosa', a leading revolutionary and agitator in Poland and Germany until her arrest and murder in the Spartacus Revolt 1919.
13 April 2017
Featuring: Jacqueline Rose, Mark Jones, Nadine Rossol
HistoryGerman women philosophersEuropean democratic socialistsGerman revolutionaries19th-century German journalistsJewish socialists20th-century German women writers19th-century German writersGerman Marxist writersMarxist theoristsGerman Ashkenazi JewsGerman anti-capitalists, German socialist feminists, Jewish communistsCommunist women writers19th-century German philosophers20th-century German philosophersJewish philosophersEmigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany, Political party founders19th century20th centuryGermanyRussiaRudyard Kipling
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Rudyard Kipling, a writer sometimes described as the poet of empire.
16 October 2014
Featuring: Howard Booth, Daniel Karlin, Jan Montefiore
CultureFellows of the Royal Society of LiteraturePeople of the Victorian eraEnglish male novelistsDeaths from ulcersMythopoeic writersEnglish science fiction writersFreemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England20th-century English memoirists20th-century English male writersEnglish hymnwriters19th-century English poets19th-century English novelistsEnglish anti-fascistsVictorian novelistsMaritime writersEnglish-language poets from IndiaEnglish male short story writers19th-century English short story writersEnglish Nobel laureatesNobel laureates in LiteratureRectors of the University of St AndrewsEnglish children's writers19th-century English non-fiction writersBritish Nobel laureates20th-century English novelistsEnglish people of Scottish descent20th-century English poetsBurials at Westminster Abbey19th century20th centuryLanguageRutherford
Melvyn Bragg discusses Ernest Rutherford. He is seen as the father of nuclear science, a great charismatic figure who mapped the landscape of the sub-atomic world.
19 February 2004
Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Jim Al-Khalili, Patricia Fara
ScienceRadio pioneers20th-century British physicists, Members of the Pontifical Academy of SciencesPersons of National Historic Significance (Canada)Fellows of Trinity College, CambridgeKnights BachelorDiscoverers of chemical elementsHonorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Recipients of the Matteucci MedalHonorary Fellows of the Royal Society of EdinburghRecipients of Franklin MedalCorresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)Experimental physicistsCavendish Professors of PhysicsRecipients of the Dalton MedalEnglish Nobel laureatesAcademics of the Victoria University of ManchesterRecipients of the Copley MedalBritish Nobel laureates20th-century British scientistsForeign associates of the National Academy of SciencesMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyNobel laureates in Chemistry19th-century British physicistsBurials at Westminster Abbey19th century20th centurySchopenhauer
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the pessimistic philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and his extraordinary influence.
29 October 2009
Featuring: A. C. Grayling, Beatrice Han-Pile, Christopher Janaway
PhilosophyGerman writers on atheismGerman logicians, Kantian philosophersUniversity of Göttingen alumniGerman philosophers of languageGerman philologistsMetaphilosophersPhilosophers of loveGerman philosophers of historyGerman male non-fiction writersPhilosophers of pessimismPhilosophers of logicGerman critics of ChristianityGerman idealistsSimple living advocatesAcademic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin19th-century atheistsPhilosophy writersGerman political philosophersPhilosophers of psychologyCritics of religionsCritical theoristsGerman eugenicistsGerman philosophers of culture19th-century German writersAnti-natalistsGerman monarchistsGerman ethicists, German philosophers of educationGerman philosophers of science19th-century German philosophersTheorists on Western civilizationGerman philosophers of mind, German philosophers of religionCritics of JudaismGerman epistemologistsLogiciansAtheist philosophers19th-century German essayists19th-century German male writersGerman male essayistsOntologistsPhenomenologistsAphoristsPhilosophers of literatureGerman philosophers of art19th centuryGermanyLanguagePsychologySilas Marner
Melvyn Bragg and guests Rosemary Ashton, Dinah Birch and Valentine Cunningham discuss George Eliot's 1861 novel Silas Marner.
28 January 2010
Featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Dinah Birch, Valentine Cunningham
Sir John Soane
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the life and work of John Soane, architect of the old Bank of England and collector of the antiquities displayed in his home which became a museum.
6 February 2025
Featuring: Frances Sands, Frank Salmon, Gillian Darley
Spartacus
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of Spartacus, a Roman gladiator who was involved in a series of slave uprisings against the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.
6 March 2014
Featuring: Mary Beard, Maria Wyke, Theresa Urbainczyk
Symmetry
Melvyn Bragg discusses symmetry in art and nature. From snowflakes and butterflies to the music of Bach and the poems of Pushkin.
19 April 2007
Featuring: Fay Dowker, Marcus du Sautoy, Ian Stewart
Tagore
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature.
7 May 2015
Featuring: Chandrika Kaul, Bashabi Fraser, John Stevens
English-language poets from IndiaNational anthem writersKnights Bachelor19th-century Bengali poets, 19th-century Indian composers, 19th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Indian educational theorists, 19th-century Indian essayists, 19th-century Indian male artists, 19th-century Indian musicians, 19th-century Indian painters, 19th-century Indian philosophers, 19th-century Indian poets, 19th-century classical musicians, 19th-century male musicians, 20th-century Bengali poets, 20th-century Indian composers, 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Indian educational theorists, 20th-century Indian essayists, 20th-century Indian novelists, 20th-century Indian painters, 20th-century Indian philosophers, 20th-century Indian poets, Alumni of University College London, Bengali Hindus, Bengali male poets, Bengali musicians, Bengali nationalists, Bengali philosophers, Bengali zamindars, Bengali-language poets, Brahmos, Dramatists and playwrights from British India, Hindu poets, Indian Hindus, Indian Nobel laureates, Indian classical composers, Indian male dramatists and playwrights, Indian male essayists, Indian male painters, Indian male poets, Indian male songwriters, Indian portrait painters, Indian social reformers, Indian songwriters, Musicians from Kolkata, Oriental Seminary alumni, Painters from West Bengal, People associated with Santiniketan, People associated with Shillong, People from the Bengal Presidency, Poets from British India, Poets from West Bengal, Presidency University, Kolkata alumni, Rabindranath Tagore, Tagore family, Vangiya Sahitya Parishad, Writers from KolkataNobel laureates in LiteratureArtist authorsFounders of Indian schools and collegesHaiku poets19th century20th centuryLanguageMusicPaintingTess of the d'Urbervilles
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, which challenged Victorian morality and made Hardy's fortune when published in the 1890s.
5 May 2016
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Francis O'Gorman, Jane Thomas
The Age of Doubt
Melvyn Bragg examines who or what was responsible for the spread of religious doubt over the last three centuries and discusses the role of belief in God, in modern society.
9 March 2000
Featuring: A. N. Wilson, Victoria Glendinning
The American West
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 19th century American pioneers and examines whether our ideas about the frontier owe more to the mythology of John Wayne movies than to the history of the real trailblazers.
13 June 2002
Featuring: Frank McLynn, Jenni Calder, Christopher Frayling
The Anarchy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Anarchy, the period of bloody civil war that took place in 12th-century England.
1 November 2012
Featuring: John Gillingham, Louise Wilkinson, David Carpenter
The Barbary Corsairs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the sailors from around Europe and North Africa, licensed by the Barbary States to capture people to be sold into slavery until the 19th century.
9 November 2023
Featuring: Joanna Nolan, Claire Norton, Michael Talbot
The Battle of Trafalgar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nelson's decisive naval victory in 1805, long celebrated in Britain and remembered as a watershed in Spain yet overshadowed in France by Austerlitz.
2 December 2021
Featuring: James Davey, Marianne Czisnik, Kenneth Johnson
The Berlin Conference
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Berlin Conference, the international summit which formalised European colonial activity in Africa.
31 October 2013
Featuring: Richard Drayton, Richard Rathbone, Joanna Lewis
The Boxer Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Boxer Rebellion, when the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists purged China of foreign influences in the summer of 1900.
19 March 2009
Featuring: Frances Wood, Rana Mitter, R. G. Tiedemann
HistoryWars involving the United KingdomWars involving JapanPersecution of ChristiansWars involving the Habsburg monarchyUnited States Marine Corps in the 18th and 19th centuriesWars involving the United StatesEight Banners, Rebellions in the Qing dynastyWars involving FranceWars involving the Russian Empire19th centuryChinaFranceRussiaThe British Empire
Melvyn Bragg discusses the British Empire, what drove Britain to follow the imperial road and what was its legacy?
8 November 2001
Featuring: Maria Misra, Peter Cain, Catherine Hall
The British Empire's Legacy
Melvyn Bragg discusses whether there is a need in Britain to re-examine its colonial past and examines the impact that imperial past has had on Britain’s current multicultural identity.
31 December 1998
Featuring: Catherine Hall, Linda Colley
The Brothers Grimm
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm and what they can tell us about the German imagination and 19th-century romantic nationalism.
5 February 2009
Featuring: Juliette Wood, Marina Warner, Tony Phelan
The Cavendish Family in Science
Melvyn Bragg and guests Jim Bennett, Simon Schaffer and Patricia Fara explore the scientific achievements of the Cavendish family, from the 17th to the 19th century.
20 May 2010
Featuring: Jim Bennett, Patricia Fara, Simon Schaffer
The City in the 20th Century
Melvyn Bragg discusses the artistic, cultural and innovative developments of the city in the 20th century. How cities changed since 1900, and what have is their future?
12 November 1998
Featuring: Peter Hall, Doreen Massey
The Congress of Vienna
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the peace plan for Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, with the redrawing of borders and balancing of the great powers so that none would be dominant.
19 October 2017
Featuring: Tim Blanning, Kathleen Burk, John Bew
The Corn Laws
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Corn Laws, cause of one of the most explosive political debates in the 19th century.
24 October 2013
Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Boyd Hilton, Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey
The Curies
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the scientific achievements of the Curie family, Marie and Pierre and their daughter Irene Joliot-Curie, all three of whom won Nobel Prizes.
26 March 2015
Featuring: Patricia Fara, Robert Fox, Steven T Bramwell
HistoryWomen Nobel laureatesUniversity of Paris alumniLegion of Honour refusalsFormer Roman CatholicsDiscoverers of chemical elementsHonorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Recipients of the Matteucci MedalBurials at the Panthéon, ParisNaturalized citizens of FranceCorresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesCorresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)Nobel laureates in PhysicsWomen nuclear physicistsExperimental physicistsAcademic staff of the University of Paris19th-century French chemistsFrench Nobel laureatesWomen inventorsFrench agnosticsFrench women physicistsFrench atheistsNobel laureates in Chemistry19th centuryFranceThe Decadent Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influence of Baudelaire and Walter Pater on writers and artists in Britain in the 1890s, pursuing art for its own sake and not with moral aims.
18 November 2021
Featuring: Neil Sammells, Kate Hext, Alex Murray
The Electron
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of this atomic particle in 1897 and what our growing knowledge of electrons has revealed about our world and may yet reveal.
29 September 2022
Featuring: Victoria Martin, Harry Cliff, Frank Close
The Emancipation of the Serfs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tsar Alexander II's 1861 decree that freed 30 million Russians from serfdom, an act of reform that followed Russia's defeat in the Crimean War.
17 May 2018
Featuring: Sarah Hudspith, Simon Dixon, Shane O'Rourke
The Enclosures of the 18th Century
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th and 19th century enclosure movement which divided the British countryside both literally and figuratively.
1 May 2008
Featuring: Rosemary Sweet, Murray Pittock, Mark Overton
The Fibonacci Sequence
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Fibonacci Sequence, an infinite string of numbers to be found in Renaissance paintings, modern architecture and the structure of flowers.
29 November 2007
Featuring: Marcus du Sautoy, Jackie Stedall, Ron Knott
The Four Humours
Melvyn Bragg discusses the four humours, a medical theory that saw the body as a concoction of four essential juices.
20 December 2007
Featuring: David Wootton, Vivian Nutton, Noga Arikha
The Gettysburg Address
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of 1863, one of the most influential statements of national purpose.
26 May 2016
Featuring: Catherine Clinton, Susan-Mary Grant, Tim Lockley
The Gold Standard
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the age of gold, from 1870, when many nations tied their currencies to gold in the hope of economic stability and increasing trade around the world
20 January 2022
Featuring: Catherine Schenk, Helen Paul, Matthias Morys
The Great Exhibition of 1851
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 1851 Great Exhibition. Housed in the magnificent Crystal Palace, the exhibition showcased Victorian Britain's technical ingenuity and industrial might.
27 April 2006
Featuring: Jeremy Black, Hermione Hobhouse, Clive Emsley
The Great Irish Famine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why so many were vulnerable to the failure of the potato crops in Ireland in the 1840s, what relief was given and why so many died or left.
4 April 2019
Featuring: Cormac O'Grada, Niamh Gallagher, Enda Delaney
The Great Reform Act
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Great Reform Act of 1832, a landmark in British political history.
27 November 2008
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Michael Bentley, Catherine Hall
The Great Stink
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of the terrible stench of sewage in the Thames in central London in the hot summer of 1858 and the work of Joseph Bazalgette to fix it.
29 December 2022
Featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Stephen Halliday, Paul Dobraszczyk
The Haitian Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804.
23 October 2014
Featuring: Kate Hodgson, Tim Lockley, Karen Salt
The Haymarket Affair
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the bombing at a Chicago workers' rally in 1886 and the trial, execution and subsequent pardoning of anarchists blamed for inciting the attack.
3 October 2024
Featuring: Ruth Kinna, Christopher Phelps, Gary Gerstle
The Indian Mutiny
Melvyn Bragg and guests Faisal Devji, Shruti Kapila and Chandrika Kaul discuss the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the rebellion which followed.
18 February 2010
Featuring: Chandrika Kaul, Faisal Devji, Shruti Kapila
The Industrial Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Industrial Revolution, a period of rapid technological development which brought widespread social and intellectual change to Britain.
23 December 2010
Featuring: Jeremy Black, Pat Hudson, William Ashworth
The Kalevala
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Finnish epic poem, compiled by Elias Lönnrot in 1835 from runic songs, which helped the cause of Finland's independence from the Russian Empire.
28 March 2024
Featuring: Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi, Thomas A. DuBois, Daniel Abondolo
The Later Romantics
Melvyn Bragg discusses the poetry and idealism of Byron, Shelley and Keats, who all had unconventional lifestyles, strong affinities with southern Europe and classical Greece, and who all died young.
15 April 2004
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Robert Woof, Jennifer Wallace
The Measurement of Time
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the measurement of time and the various methods used for doing so over millennia of human history.
29 March 2012
Featuring: Kristen Lippincott, Jim Bennett, Jonathan Betts
The Mexican-American War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1846-48 American war against Mexico, in which America won over a million square kilometres of Mexican territory, including California.
28 June 2018
Featuring: Frank Cogliano, Jacqueline Fear-Segal, Thomas Rath
HistoryHistory of the foreign relations of the United States1848 in California, Pre-statehood history of CaliforniaConflicts in 1848Wars fought in Arizona, Wars fought in TexasUnited States Marine Corps in the 18th and 19th centuriesWars involving the United StatesMilitary history of the United States, United States involvement in regime changeHistory of United States expansionism19th centuryAmericaThe Mokrani Revolt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss when Algerians tried to take advantage of French defeat in Europe in 1871 and drive the colonists out, inspiring the later independence movement.
7 March 2024
Featuring: Natalya Benkhaled-Vince, Hannah-Louise Clark, Jim House
The Morant Bay Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why people in Jamaica protested in 1865, why the British governor killed so many in response and what then changed on both sides of the Atlantic.
3 November 2022
Featuring: Matthew J Smith, Diana Paton, Lawrence Goldman
The Opium Wars
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Opium Wars, a series of conflicts in the 19th Century which had a profound effect on British Chinese relations for generations.
12 April 2007
Featuring: Yangwen Zheng, Lars Laamann, Xun Zhou
The Oxford Movement
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Oxford Movement which asserted the Catholic tradition of the Church of England in the 19th century.
13 April 2006
Featuring: Sheridan Gilley, Frances Knight, Simon Skinner
The Peterloo Massacre
Melvyn Bragg discusses The Peterloo Massacre on 16 August 1819, when British cavalry charged a vast crowd of protestors in Manchester.
15 December 2005
Featuring: Jeremy Black, Sarah Richardson, Clive Emsley
The Poor Laws
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th century legislation intended to discourage poor people from seeking relief instead of work, with handouts replaced by the workhouse
20 December 2018
Featuring: Emma Griffin, Samantha Shave, Steven King
The Renaissance
Melvyn Bragg explores the veracity of modern claims about the Renaissance and whether our current perceptions about its role in cultural history stem from a 19th century historian.
8 June 2000
Featuring: Francis Ames-Lewis, Peter Burke, Evelyn Welch
The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation
Melvyn Bragg and guests Saul David, Shula Marks and Saul Dubow discuss the rise and fall of the Zulu Nation.
15 April 2010
Featuring: Saul David, Saul Dubow, Shula Marks
The Romantics
Melvyn Bragg discusses the ideals and legacy of Romanticism, a literary and artistic movement at the turn of the 19th century which gave rise to the great poetry of Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats.
12 October 2000
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Rosemary Ashton, Nicholas Roe
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 3
The 19th century blooms scientifically with numerous alternative, specialist learned societies and associations, all threatening the Royal Society's pre-eminence.
6 January 2010
Featuring
Royal Society1660 establishments in EnglandSocial history of the United KingdomLearned societies of the United Kingdom, Members of the International Council for Science, Members of the International Science Council, National academies of sciences, Non-profit organisations based in London, Organisations based in London with royal patronage, Organizations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Professional associations based in the United Kingdom, Scientific organizations established in 166019th centuryThe Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a collection of Persian poetry translated into English in the 19th century by Edward FitzGerald.
22 May 2014
Featuring: Charles Melville, Daniel Karlin, Kirstie Blair
The Samurai
Melvyn Bragg and guests Gregory Irvine, Nicola Liscutin and Angus Lockyer discuss the history of the Samurai and the role of their myth in Japanese national identity.
24 December 2009
Featuring: Angus Lockyer, Nicola Liscutin, Gregory Irvine
The Siege of Paris (1870-71)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Prussian siege of Paris from 1870 and the Commune which emerged, until that was violently suppressed by French forces in 1871
16 January 2020
Featuring: Karine Varley, Robert Gildea, Julia Nicholls
The Sikh Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise of the Sikh empire under Ranjit Singh, who became Maharaja of the Punjab at Lahore in 1801 and united most of the Sikh kingdoms.
7 April 2016
Featuring: Gurharpal Singh, Chandrika Kaul, Susan Stronge
The Spanish-American War 1898
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the imperial war in which the US took the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico from Spain and gained greater influence over newly-independent Cuba.
2 April 2026
Featuring: Frank Cogliano, Mary Vincent, Stephen Wilkinson
The Taiping Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Taiping Rebellion, a Chinese civil war which claimed around 20 million lives in the 19th century.
24 February 2011
Featuring: Rana Mitter, Frances Wood, Julia Lovell
The Temperance Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the British experience of teetotalism from the early 19th Century when abstaining from alcohol was a way for the new urban workers to get on in life.
3 February 2022
Featuring: Annemarie McAllister, James Kneale, David Buckingham
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's story of the mysterious Helen Graham who seeks a new independent life as an artist after escaping her abusive, alcoholic husband.
30 September 2021
Featuring: Alexandra Lewis, Marianne Thormählen, John Bowen
The Waltz
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the waltz changed the relationship between music, people and the wider culture in Britain from its arrival in the early 19th century onwards.
14 March 2024
Featuring: Susan Jones, Derek B. Scott, Theresa Buckland
The War of 1812
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the War of 1812, the conflict between America and Great Britain which is sometimes referred to as the second American War of Independence.
31 January 2013
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Lawrence Goldman, Frank Cogliano
Thomas Edison
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of Thomas Edison, one of the great inventors and cultural figures of modern America.
9 December 2010
Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Kathleen Burk, Iwan Morus
ScienceHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesPeople associated with electricityAmerican people of Dutch descentAmerican electrical engineers, People from ManhattanAmerican people of English descentAmerican deistsCongressional Gold Medal recipientsHonorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Recipients of the Matteucci Medal19th-century American businesspeopleMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyRecipients of Franklin Medal20th-century American inventors, Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences19th century20th centuryThomas Hardy's Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's poems, which he prized far above the novels which made him famous and rich, and his ambition to be ranked alongside Shelley and Byron.
13 January 2022
Featuring: Mark Ford, Jane Thomas, Tim Armstrong
CultureFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureBritish male poetsEnglish short story writersAlumni of King's College London20th-century English male writers19th-century English poets19th-century English novelistsEnglish male novelistsEnglish male short story writersMembers of the Order of MeritPantheistsVictorian novelists19th-century British short story writersBurials at Westminster AbbeyVictorian poets19th century20th centuryPoetryThomas Paine's Common Sense
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, which was published in 1776 and bolstered support for American independence.
21 January 2016
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Nicholas Guyatt, Peter Thompson
HistoryHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesAmerican philosophers of educationRadicalsAmerican philosophers of culture19th-century male writersUniversal basic income writersEnglish libertariansAmerican male non-fiction writersAmerican deistsAnti-monarchists18th-century philosophersWriters about activism and social changeAmerican political philosophersNaturalized citizens of France19th-century American writers18th-century English male writers19th-century American philosophersEnglish inventorsAmerican philosophers of religionClassical liberalismDeist philosophers18th-century American male writers, American foreign policy writers18th-century English peopleTheorists on Western civilizationPhilosophers of history18th-century English writersCritics of JudaismPolitical activists from PennsylvaniaAmerican nationalists, American religious skeptics18th-century American writers, Founding Fathers of the United States, People of the American Enlightenment19th-century English writersEnlightenment philosophersSocial philosophersMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyDeputies to the French National ConventionEnglish republicansBritish deists18th century19th centuryAmericaThoreau and the American Idyll
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the American 19th century writer and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau
15 January 2009
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Tim Morris, Stephen Fender
PhilosophyHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesAmerican philosophers of cultureAmerican male essayists, American male poetsAmerican lecturersUnderground Railroad peoplePhilosophers of loveAnarchist writersAmerican male non-fiction writersCritics of work and the work ethicAmerican spiritual writersSimple living advocatesAmerican political philosophers19th-century American poets19th-century American philosophersAnti-consumerists19th-century American non-fiction writersAmerican philosophers of mind, American philosophers of sciencePhilosophers of historyPhilosophers from Massachusetts19th-century deaths from tuberculosis19th-century American essayistsPantheists19th centuryAmericaTime
Melvyn Bragg examines the history of mankind’s attempt to understand the nature of time. Does it exist independently of our perception of it, or is it merely a figment of our imagination?
30 December 1999
Featuring: Neil Johnson, Lee Smolin
Tocqueville: Democracy in America
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville and his study of the American democratic system, written as an example to France of how democracy might develop there.
22 March 2018
Featuring: Robert Gildea, Susan-Mary Grant, Jeremy Jennings
HistoryWriters from ParisFrench Roman CatholicsMembers of the Académie FrançaiseFrench sociologistsFrench male non-fiction writersPhilosophers of lawHistorians of the French Revolution19th-century French male writersKnights of the Legion of Honour19th-century French philosophersEconomic sociologistsNatural law ethicistsFrench philosophers of historyFrench political writersFrench political scientistsFrench political philosophersFrench philosophers of cultureUniversity of Paris alumni19th centuryAmericaFranceTolstoy
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and times of the 19th century Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, whose novels such as War and Peace gave expression to the compelling moral and social questions of their day.
25 April 2002
Featuring: A. N. Wilson, Catriona Kelly, Sarah Hudspith
Philosophers of cultureRussian anarchistsPhilosophers of mindPhilosophers of religion19th-century dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire, 19th-century short story writers from the Russian Empire, 20th-century Russian dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Russian short story writers, Novelists from the Russian Empire, Philanthropists from the Russian Empire, Russian male dramatists and playwrights, Russian male novelists, Russian opinion journalists, Russian-language writersAnarchist writersRussian male journalistsChristian vegetariansWriters about activism and social changeCorresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesEpistemologistsPhilosophers of education19th-century essayistsMetaphysiciansPolitical philosophersHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesGeorgistsPhilosophers of history19th-century non-fiction writers from the Russian EmpireOntologistsSocial philosophersChristian anarchists, Nonviolence advocates20th-century letter writers20th-century essayistsMembers of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsPhilosophers of literature19th century20th centuryLanguageMedicineRussiaTsar Alexander II's assassination
Melvyn Bragg discusses the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, by a gang of Russian terrorists, which led to start of the revolutionary era in Russia.
6 January 2005
Featuring: Orlando Figes, Dominic Lieven, Catriona Kelly
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', the bestselling American novel of the 19th century which has slavery as its central theme.
8 June 2006
Featuring: Celeste-Marie Bernier, Sarah Meer, Clive Webb
Victorian Pessimism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Victorian Pessimism, from Matthew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach to the malign universe of Thomas Hardy’s novels.
10 May 2007
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Rosemary Ashton, Peter Mandler
Victorian Realism
Melvyn Bragg discusses Victorian realism and its focus on the ordinariness of life which contained a complexity and depth previously unseen.
14 November 2002
Featuring: Philip Davis, A. N. Wilson, Dinah Birch
Vigée Le Brun
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the woman who painted Marie Antoinette around 30 times and became arguably the most successful portraitist of her age throughout Europe
25 June 2026
Featuring: Rosalind Polly Blakesley, Robert Wenley, Francesca Whitlum-Cooper
Vitalism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Vitalism, an 18th and 19th century quest for the spark of life and the science behind Frankenstein.
16 October 2008
Featuring: Patricia Fara, Andrew Mendelsohn, Pietro Corsi
Wagner
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life, and legacy of the German composer Richard Wagner, mentor of Nietzsche and disciple of Schopenhauer, who changed the face of 19th century opera.
20 June 2002
Featuring: John Deathridge, Lucy Beckett, Michael Tanner
German music critics19th-century German male musiciansLeipzig University alumni19th-century German essayistsGerman male essayistsGerman Romantic composers, German male opera composers, German opera composersGerman theatre directors19th-century German composers, 19th-century classical composersGerman opera librettistsGerman autobiographers19th centuryGermanyMusicWalt Whitman
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the innovative 19th-century poet, who broke away from European literary traditions to become a key figure in the development of American culture.
27 April 2023
Featuring: Sarah Churchwell, Peter Riley, Mark Ford
CultureHall of Fame for Great Americans inductees19th-century American poets19th-century American male writersAmerican spiritual writersAmerican people of Dutch descentAmerican nationalists, American religious skepticsAmerican people of English descent19th-century American essayistsAmerican male journalistsAmerican male essayists, American male poets19th-century pseudonymous writersAmerican LGBTQ poetsAmerican male novelists19th-century American novelists, Novelists from New York (state)Pantheists19th-century mysticsWar writersAmerican humanists19th centuryAmericaWeber's The Protestant Ethic
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Max Weber's book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
27 March 2014
Featuring: Peter Ghosh, Sam Whimster, Linda Woodhead
HistoryUniversity of Göttingen alumniMembers of the Bavarian Academy of SciencesGerman nationalistsGerman philosophers of historyEconomic sociologistsEconomic historians, German sociologistsCritics of work and the work ethicWriters about activism and social changeAcademic staff of the Humboldt University of BerlinGerman political philosophersPeople from the Province of SaxonyGerman philosophers of culture19th-century German writersHumboldt University of Berlin alumniGerman philosophers of science19th-century German philosophersGerman philosophers of technologyContinental philosophers20th-century German philosophersUniversity of Strasbourg alumniDeaths from pneumonia in GermanyHeidelberg University alumni19th-century German male writersPhilosophers of economicsMax Weber19th century20th centuryEconomicsGermanyWilberforce
In an unusual edition of In Our Time, marking the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade, Melvyn Bragg leaves the studio to examine the life of William Wilberforce.
22 February 2007
Featuring
ReligionBritish MPs 1784–1790, British MPs 1790–1796Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts18th-century evangelicalsEnglish AnglicansChristian radicalsEnglish religious writersUK MPs 1818–1820, UK MPs 1820–1826Anglican saintsEnglish philanthropistsEnglish abolitionists19th-century Anglicans19th-century English male writersAnglican writersAlumni of St John's College, CambridgeBritish MPs 1780–1784, Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies19th-century English non-fiction writers19th-century English politiciansBritish reformersEnglish male non-fiction writersBurials at Westminster Abbey18th century19th centuryWilliam James's The Varieties of Religious Experience
Melvyn Bragg and guests Jonathan Ree, John Haldane and Gwen Griffith-Dickson discuss The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James.
13 May 2010
Featuring: Jonathan Rée, John Haldane, Gwen Griffith-Dickson
Philosophy19th-century American philosophersCorresponding fellows of the British AcademyAnalytic philosophersMembers of the American Academy of Arts and LettersWilliam JamesPsychologists of religionAmerican philosophers of religion20th-century American philosophersPhilosophers of deathAmerican philosophers of mind, American philosophers of sciencePhilosophers of war19th-century American writersExistentialistsOntologistsPhilosophers of history19th century20th centuryAmericaPsychologyWilliam Morris
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the many aspects of William Morris: his activism, poetry and prose and his ideas on arts, crafts and work in an industrial world.
5 July 2018
Featuring: Ingrid Hanson, Marcus Waithe, Jane Thomas
CultureEnglish fantasy writersEnglish male novelistsSocial Democratic Federation membersMythopoeic writersEnglish libertariansVictorian poetsBritish male poetsEpic poetsArtists' Rifles soldiers19th-century English poetsEnglish printers, Translators of VirgilBritish socialistsVictorian novelists19th-century British short story writersBritish botanical illustratorsEnglish short story writersTranslators of HomerEnglish male short story writers19th-century English architectsPeople educated at Marlborough CollegeEnglish atheistsLibertarian socialistsArts and Crafts movement artistsEnglish socialistsArtist authors19th century20th centuryWilliam and Caroline Herschel
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the pioneering brother and sister who, between them, discovered Uranus, comets, double stars and infrared light at the end of the 18th century.
11 November 2021
Featuring: Monica Grady, Carolin Crawford, Jim Bennett
ScienceRecipients of the Copley MedalMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesClassical-period composersGerman male classical composers19th-century German male musicians18th-century classical composersHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences18th-century German astronomersGerman LutheransGerman classical composers18th-century keyboardistsBritish scientific instrument makersFellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences18th-century German composersFellows of the Royal Society18th century19th centuryAstronomyGermanyMusicWuthering Heights
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Bronte's story of Heathcliff and Cathy, of love, hatred, revenge and self-destruction across two generations in a remote moorland home.
28 September 2017
Featuring: Karen O'Brien, John Bowen, Alexandra Lewis
CultureNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideBritish Gothic novelsVictorian novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsNovels set in YorkshireFiction with unreliable narratorsBritish novels adapted into filmsNovels adapted into operasNonlinear narrative novelsNovels set in the 18th century1847 British novelsLove stories1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsNovels about revengeFrame storiesWorks published under a pseudonym18th century19th centuryBookYeats and Irish Politics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poet W.B. Yeats and Irish politics from the suspension of home rule to the division of Ireland.
17 April 2008
Featuring: Roy Foster, Fran Brearton, Warwick Gould
CultureFellows of the Royal Society of Literature19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poets, Symbolist dramatists and playwrightsAnglican poetsAnthologists20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsModernist theatreIrish AnglicansFormalist poetsIrish expatriates in FranceIrish male dramatists and playwrightsIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poetsAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersSonneteersNobel laureates in LiteratureVictorian writersIrish male poetsAbbey Theatre, Alumni of the National College of Art and Design, Burials in the Republic of Ireland, Butler Yeats family, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Independent members of Seanad Éireann, Irish Dominion League, Irish folklorists, Irish occult writers, Irish occultists, Members of the 1922 Seanad, Members of the 1925 Seanad, Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, People educated at The High School, Dublin, People from Sandymount, People from West Kensington, Protestant Irish nationalists, Symbolist poets, W. B. Yeats, William Blake scholars19th century20th centuryIrelandYeats and Mysticism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and beliefs of the Irish Poet W B Yeats and explores how a passion for magic and mysticism served and stood alongside his poetry.
31 January 2002
Featuring: Roy Foster, Warwick Gould, Brenda Maddox
ReligionFellows of the Royal Society of Literature19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poets, Symbolist dramatists and playwrightsAnglican poetsAnthologists20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsModernist theatreIrish AnglicansFormalist poetsIrish expatriates in FranceIrish male dramatists and playwrightsIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poetsAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersSonneteersNobel laureates in LiteratureVictorian writersIrish male poetsAbbey Theatre, Alumni of the National College of Art and Design, Burials in the Republic of Ireland, Butler Yeats family, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Independent members of Seanad Éireann, Irish Dominion League, Irish folklorists, Irish occult writers, Irish occultists, Members of the 1922 Seanad, Members of the 1925 Seanad, Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, People educated at The High School, Dublin, People from Sandymount, People from West Kensington, Protestant Irish nationalists, Symbolist poets, W. B. Yeats, William Blake scholars19th century20th centuryIrelandYouth
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of concepts and ideas on youth including the ancient Greeks, who sought to control it, the Renaissance celebration of its ideals, and today’s youth culture.
24 April 2003
Featuring: Tim Whitmarsh, Thomas Healy, Deborah Thom
