British novels adapted into films
Shopaholic is a series of novels written by the UK author Sophie Kinsella, who also writes under her real name Madeleine Wickham. The books follow protagonist Rebecca Bloomwood, an idealistic, but intelligent and hard-working financial journalist through her adventures in shopping and life.
19 episodes
Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:
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
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsVictorian novelsNovels set in LondonBritish novels adapted into television shows1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsNovels adapted into operasNovels adapted into balletsChapman & Hall booksBritish novellasBooks illustrated by Arthur RackhamNovels set in the 19th centuryNovels about time travelBritish novels adapted into playsAlice'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
Animal Farm
4 Extra Debut. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's Animal Farm, which he struggled to publish in WW2 as the USSR was an ally. From 2016.
29 September 2016
Featuring: Steven Connor, Mary Vincent, Robert Colls
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish satirical novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsAllegoryEnglish novelsCensored booksDystopian novelsNovels adapted into comicsBritish novellasRoman à clef novelsNovels adapted into radio programsBritish political novels, Novels about propaganda, Novels about revolutionaries, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels by George Orwell, Secker & Warburg booksBritish novels adapted into playsDecline and Fall
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Decline and Fall, published when the author was 25.
21 February 2013
Featuring: David Bradshaw, John Bowen, Ann Pasternak Slater
Emma
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Austen's novel Emma, which features, according to Austen, 'a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like'.
19 November 2015
Featuring: Janet Todd, John Mullan, Emma Clery
Fielding's Tom Jones
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henry Fielding's influential comic novel in which the hero Jones has such a fundamentally good nature that even his critics forgive his faults.
13 June 2024
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Henry Power, Charlotte Roberts
Frankenstein
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's story of Victor Frankenstein and the creature he makes from cadavers and then rejects - only for the monster to take his revenge
16 May 2019
Featuring: Karen O'Brien, Michael Rossington, Jane Thomas
CultureFrame storiesWorks published anonymouslyNovels about revengeDisability in the artsNovels adapted into video gamesNovels adapted into balletsEpistolary novelsNovels adapted into radio programsBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsNovels set in the 18th centuryBritish novels adapted into playsNovels set in GermanyBritish science fiction novelsCensored booksBritish Gothic novels1818 British novelsVegetarianism in fictionNovels adapted into comicsHeart 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
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
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsVictorian novels1847 British novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish bildungsromansHarper & Brothers booksBritish Gothic novelsNovels adapted into balletsSmith, Elder & Co. booksWorks published under a pseudonymFemale characters in literatureNovels set in the 19th centuryFiction about suicideLove storiesBritish novels adapted into playsMrs Dalloway
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway, published in 1925.
3 July 2014
Featuring: Hermione Lee, Jane Goldman, Kathryn Simpson
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orwell's dystopian novel where the state rewrites history, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength - and Big Brother is watching you
15 September 2022
Featuring: David Dwan, Lisa Mullen, John Bowen
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsNovels set in LondonBritish novels adapted into television showsEnglish novelsBritish science fiction novelsCensored booksNovels adapted into operasNovels set in fictional countriesNovels adapted into balletsDystopian novelsSocial science fictionNovels adapted into radio programsBritish political novels, Novels about propaganda, Novels about revolutionaries, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels by George Orwell, Secker & Warburg booksBritish novels adapted into playsPersuasion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Austen's final completed novel: the story of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, their broken engagement and their chance meeting 8 years later.
22 December 2022
Featuring: Karen O'Brien, Fiona Stafford, Paddy Bullard
Robinson Crusoe
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe's seminal novel Robinson Crusoe. Published in 1719, it was an immediate success and is considered the classic adventure story.
22 December 2011
Featuring: Karen O'Brien, Judith Hawley, Bob Owens
Silas 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
Tess 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 Riddle of the Sands
Melvyn Bragg discusses the prescient thriller ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ and the decline Anglo-German relations before the First World War.
12 June 2008
Featuring: Richard J. Evans, Rosemary Ashton, T. C. W. Blanning
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 Time Machine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and anxieties in late Victorian London, explored by HG Wells in his story of time travel, evolution and a planet unfit for humans.
17 October 2019
Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Amanda Rees, Simon James
Wuthering 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
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsVictorian novels1847 British novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsFrame storiesNonlinear narrative novels1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsNovels adapted into operasBritish Gothic novelsNovels set in the 18th centuryNovels adapted into balletsNovels set in YorkshireNovels about revengeWorks published under a pseudonymFiction with unreliable narratorsFiction about suicideLove stories