Culture
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327 episodes
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
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
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Tudor courtier who found a way to write extraordinary and enduring poetry while under the intense scrutiny of Henry VIII's machinery of state.
09 May 2024
Featuring: Brian Cummings, Susan Brigden, Laura Ashe
Bertolt Brecht
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works and ideas of this great German playwright from the Weimar Republic to his exile under the Nazis and return to Berlin after World War Two.
25 April 2024
Featuring: Laura Bradley, David Barnett, Tom Kuhn
CultureModernist theatreMarxist theoristsGerman Marxist writersProtestants in the German ResistanceGerman opera librettistsExilliteratur writersGerman literary criticsGerman theatre directorsBurials at the Dorotheenstadt CemeteryNaturalised citizens of AustriaGerman male poets, German male dramatists and playwrightsLysistrata
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristophanes' outrageous comedy from 411BC in which the women of Athens and Sparta bring their warring husbands to peace by staging a sex strike.
11 April 2024
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Sarah Miles, James Robson
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 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
Alice'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
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great comedies of world literature in which love and desire in Illyria sit uneasily alongside thwarted dreams and compromise.
28 December 2023
Featuring: Pascale Aebischer, Michael Dobson, Emma Smith
Vincent van Gogh
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the career of the Dutch artist celebrated after his death for his paintings of sunflowers and starry nights but selling only one work in his life.
21 December 2023
Featuring: Christopher Riopelle, Martin Bailey, Frances Fowle
Edgar 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 inducteesAmerican male non-fiction writers19th-century pseudonymous writersAmerican people of English descentEpic poets19th-century American poetsRomantic poetsWriters of Gothic fiction19th-century American male writers19th-century American essayistsSurrealist writers19th-century American non-fiction writersAmerican male novelistsUnited States Military Academy alumniWriters from BaltimoreAmerican male essayists, American male poetsNovelists from New York (state), 19th-century American novelistsGhost story writers, 19th-century American short story writersAmerican male dramatists and playwrights, American literary criticsWriters from Philadelphia, Recreational cryptographers, Writers from BostonMarguerite de Navarre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Marguerite, Queen of Navarre (1492 – 1549), author of the Heptaméron, a major literary landmark in the French Renaissance.
23 November 2023
Featuring: Sara Barker, Emily Butterworth, Emma Herdman
The Theory of the Leisure Class
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thorstein Veblen's critique of wasteful capitalism, as he saw it, in America's Gilded Age with conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption.
16 November 2023
Featuring: Matthew Watson, Bill Waller, Mary Wrenn
Germinal
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
The Seventh Seal (1000th program)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ingmar Bergman's influential film from 1957 in which a knight plays chess with Death in the hope of living long enough to do something meaningful
21 September 2023
Featuring: Jan Holmberg [sv], Laura Hubner, Claire Thomson
Death in Venice
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mann's infamous novella of 1912, exploring the link between creativity and self-destruction.
15 June 2023
Featuring: Karolina Watroba, Erica Wickerson, Sean Williams
Oedipus Rex
Melvyn Bragg and guests on Sophocles' tragedy, sometimes called the best play ever written. With Edith Hall, Nick Lowe and Fiona Macintosh.
08 June 2023
Featuring: Nick Lowe, Fiona Macintosh, Edith Hall
Virgil's Georgics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet's celebration of agriculture and rural life composed in 29BC after a civil war, when questions of land ownership were contested.
18 May 2023
Featuring: Katharine Earnshaw, Neville Morley, Diana Spencer
Walt 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
CulturePantheistsHall of Fame for Great Americans inductees19th-century pseudonymous writersAmerican people of English descent19th-century American poets19th-century American male writersAmerican humanists19th-century American essayistsAmerican male journalists19th-century mysticsWar writersAmerican male novelistsAmerican spiritual writersAmerican people of Dutch descentAmerican LGBTQ poetsAmerican male essayists, American male poetsNovelists from New York (state), 19th-century American novelistsAmerican religious skeptics, American nationalistsA Room of One's Own
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Virginia Woolf's highly influential essay about women and literature: "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
30 March 2023
Featuring: Hermione Lee, Michele Barrett, Alexandra Harris
The Ramayana
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Sanskrit epic, one of the greatest works of world literature, which is still seen as a sacred and influential text by Hindus today.
9 March 2023
Featuring: Jessica Frazier, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Naomi Appleton
Stevie Smith
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the writer best known for her poem Not Waving But Drowning, whose success has arguably overshadowed her wider work as a poet and novelist.
16 Feb 2023
Featuring: Jeremy Noel-Tod, Noreen Masud, Will May
John Donne
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the extraordinary life and work of one of England's finest love poets and, as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, most remarkable preachers.
12 January 2023
Featuring: Mary Ann Lund, Sue Wiseman, Hugh Adlington
CultureAnglican saintsWriters about activism and social changeEnglish male poetsPhilosophers of religionSonneteersCritics of the Catholic ChurchEnglish male non-fiction writers17th-century English male writersLiteracy and society theorists16th-century English poets17th-century English poetsLiterary theoristsLutheran saintsPeople celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendarAnglican poetsChristian poetsEnglish satiristsPeople from the City of LondonEnglish people of Welsh descentMetaphor theoristsWriters from LondonEpigrammatistsPamphleteers16th-century English male writers17th-century Anglican theologiansAlumni of Hart Hall, OxfordIndependent scholarsMetaphysical poetsPoet priestsPersuasion
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
Citizen Kane
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orson Welles' 1941 film, long celebrated as one of the greatest ever made, which went on to influence generations of film-makers
15 December 2022
Featuring: Stella Bruzzi, Ian Christie, John David Rhodes
The Nibelungenlied
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic German poem of Siegfried and Kriemhild against Gunther and Brunhilda, two powerful couples whose friendship turns to rivalry and revenge.
1 December 2022
Featuring: Sarah Bowden, Mark Chinca, Bettina Bildhauer
Bauhaus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the short-lived German combined art and crafts school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 which became highly influential around the world.
10 November 2022
Featuring: Robin Schuldenfrei, Alan Powers, Michael White
Wilfred Owen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Britain's greatest war poets, who published only 5 poems in his short life yet whose works became seen as a warning of the futility of wars.
27 October 2022
Featuring: Jane Potter, Fran Brearton, Guy Cuthbertson
CultureEnglish male poets20th-century English poets20th-century English male writersEnglish people of Welsh descentWar writersArtists' Rifles soldiersBritish Army personnel of World War IPeople with post-traumatic stress disorderEnglish LGBTQ poets20th-century English LGBTQ peopleEnglish writers with disabilitiesLost Generation writersEnglish World War I poets, Recipients of the Military CrossBerthe 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
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 filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsNovels adapted into operasCensored booksNovels adapted into balletsNovels adapted into radio programsEnglish novelsBritish science fiction novelsDystopian novelsNovels set in LondonNovels set in fictional countriesSocial science fictionNovels about revolutionaries, Secker & Warburg books, Novels by George Orwell, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels about propaganda, British political novelsJohn Bull
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Arbuthnot's satirical figure, created in 1712 as an anthropomorphised bull, and its role as a representation of an English or British everyman.
30 June 2022
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Miles Taylor, Mark Knights
Dylan Thomas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works and ideas of this celebrated Welsh poet, from his teenage success to his tours of America via Under Milk Wood.
16 June 2022
Featuring: Nerys Williams, John Goodby, Leo Mellor
Tang Era Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most celebrated poets of 8th-century China, Li Bai and Du Fu, and their influence from the Tang Era to the present day.
12 May 2022
Featuring: Tim Barrett, Tian Yuan Tan, Frances Wood
Olympe de Gouges
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and works of the Frenchwoman who wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Woman in 1791 during the French Revolution
21 April 2022
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, Sanja Perovic
Culture18th-century philosophersFrench political philosophersFrench women philosophersWomen religious writersExecuted philosophersDeist philosophersExecuted writers18th-century French women writersFrench deists18th-century French philosophersWomen in the French RevolutionFrench abolitionistsFrench women dramatists and playwrightsFrench people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution, Executed French womenPolidori'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.
07 April 2022
Featuring: Nick Groom, Samantha George, Martyn Rady
CultureEnglish male non-fiction writersWriters of Gothic fiction19th-century English non-fiction writers19th-century male writers19th-century British short story writersAlumni of the University of EdinburghSuicides by cyanide poisoningBurials at St Pancras Old ChurchPolidori-Rossetti family, British people of Italian descent, English people of Italian descentThe Sistine Chapel
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss this extraordinary achievement of Michelangelo in the Vatican with frescoes from Genesis on the ceiling and The Last Judgement on the altar wall.
31 March 2022
Featuring: Catherine Fletcher, Sarah Vowles, Matthias Wivel
Antigone
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Sophocles' tragedy of dilemmas, where King Creon threatens death to anyone who buries a traitor and that traitor's sister, Antigone, defies him.
24 March 2022
Featuring: Edith Hall, Oliver Taplin, Lyndsay Coo
Romeo and Juliet
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and power of Shakespeare's tragedy of two young lovers in Verona, their families divided by a bitter feud
17 February 2022
Featuring: Helen Hackett, Paul Prescott, Emma Smith
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
Culture20th-century French novelistsFrench women novelistsFrench LGBTQ novelistsBurials at Père Lachaise Cemetery20th-century French women writersBisexual novelistsBisexual journalistsGrand Officers of the Legion of Honour19th-century French novelists, 19th-century French women writersFrench bisexual women, French bisexual writers20th-century French LGBTQ people, 19th-century French LGBTQ peopleBisexual memoirists, Bisexual women writersThomas 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
CultureBurials at Westminster AbbeyPantheists19th-century English poetsEnglish male novelistsVictorian novelists19th-century English novelistsEnglish male short story writersVictorian poets20th-century English male writersMembers of the Order of Merit19th-century British short story writersEnglish short story writersFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureAlumni of King's College LondonBritish male poetsFritz Lang
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Fritz Lang, the director behind films such as Metropolis, Mabuse the Gambler and M in Weimar Germany and Fury and The Big Heat in Hollywood.
30 December 2021
Featuring: Stella Bruzzi, Joe McElhaney, Iris Luppa
CultureNaturalized citizens of the United States20th-century American male writersAustrian atheistsAustrian emigrants to GermanyCommanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of GermanyEyepatch wearersAustro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I, Austrian people of Jewish descentA 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 filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsNovels adapted into operasVictorian novelsNovels adapted into balletsBritish novellasNovels set in LondonChapman & Hall booksBooks illustrated by Arthur RackhamNovels about time travelNovels set in the 19th century1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsThe 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 Song of Roland
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic reimagining of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778AD when Charlemagne's rearguard was ambushed and his knight Roland fought and died.
4 November 2021
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Miranda Griffin, Luke Sunderland
Iris Murdoch
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the growing prominence of the philosophy of one of the most celebrated novelists of the 20th century, who developed her ideas in response to WWII.
21 October 2021
Featuring: Anil Gomes, Anne Rowe, Miles Leeson
CulturePhilosophy writersFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesPhilosophers of literaturePhilosophers of historyPhilosophers of cultureAtheist philosophers20th-century atheistsAnalytic philosophersVirtue ethicists20th-century British philosophersAlumni of Newnham College, CambridgeBritish ethicistsAlumni of Somerville College, OxfordBritish socialistsJames Tait Black Memorial Prize recipientsBritish historians of philosophyBritish atheistsBritish women philosophers20th-century British non-fiction writersBritish parodistsBritish people of Irish descentPlatonistsThe 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
Herodotus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer whose Histories aimed to 'preserve the great and marvellous deeds of Greeks and barbarians, especially why they fought each other'.
23 September 2021
Featuring: Tom Harrison, Esther Eidinow, Paul Cartledge
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 154 sonnets collected and printed in 1609 of which some are famous, many are glorious, most are inspiring and several are unsettling.
24 June 2021
Featuring: Hannah Crawforth, Don Paterson, Emma Smith
Edward Gibbon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of the writer of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, one of the most celebrated works of its kind.
17 June 2021
Featuring: David Womersley, Charlotte Roberts, Karen O'Brien
CultureFellows of the Royal SocietyTheorists on Western civilizationEnglish essayistsEnglish male non-fiction writersBritish male essayists18th-century English male writersBritish critics of religionsIrony theoristsRhetoric theorists18th-century English non-fiction writersAlumni of Magdalen College, Oxford18th-century English historiansBritish MPs 1774–1780English ProtestantsEnglish rhetoriciansFreemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of EnglandPeople educated at Westminster School, LondonMembers of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies, British MPs 1780–1784Journey to the West
Melvyn Bragg discusses the much loved Chinese novel from 1592, featuring Monkey, Tripitaka, Sandy and Pigsy, as they travel to India to bring back Buddhist texts.
20 May 2021
Featuring: Julia Lovell, Chiung-yun Evelyn Liu, Craig Clunas
Ovid
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet whose influence is arguably greater than any poet of the classical age, besides Homer, even though his writing led to his exile.
29 April 2021
Featuring: Maria Wyke, Gail Trimble, Dunstan Lowe
The Bacchae
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great tragedy by Euripides, where Dionysus takes revenge on Thebans who denied his divinity, their king torn to shreds by his mother.
18 March 2021
Featuring: Edith Hall, Emily Wilson, Rosie Wyles
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Coleridge's poem of a grim voyage in which a sailor shoots an albatross and is forced to tell the story of his crime forever.
4 March 2021
Featuring: Sir Jonathan Bate, Tom Mole, Rosemary Ashton
The Rosetta Stone
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the role of Champollion in deciphering the hieroglyphs on The Rosetta Stone, when the written culture of ancient Egypt opened to the modern world.
11 February 2021
Featuring: Penelope Wilson, Campbell Price, Richard Bruce Parkinson
The Great Gatsby
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great American novels of the 20th Century, where inexplicably rich Jay Gatsby aims to win Daisy Buchanan from her millionaire husband.
14 January 2021
Featuring: Sarah Churchwell, Philip McGowan, William Blazek
CultureNovels adapted into operasNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into balletsNovels adapted into radio programsModernist novelsNovels about adulteryMetafictional novelsMurder–suicide in fictionAmerican novels adapted into films, American novels adapted into plays, American novels adapted into television showsFernando Pessoa
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works and life of one of Portugal's greatest poets, who wrote in his own name and in those of several rounded characters he created.
3 December 2020
Featuring: Cláudia Pazos-Alonso, Juliet Perkins, Paulo de Medeiros
Albrecht Dürer
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dürer, the creator of some of the most memorable images in the late Renaissance from his woodcut of a rhinoceros to his stunning self portraits.
12 November 2020
Featuring: Susan Foister, Giulia Bartrum, Ulinka Rublack
Piers Plowman
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Langland's exploration of what it means to live a good life, written when the Black Death had overturned many of the old certainties.
29 October 2020
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Lawrence Warner, Alastair Bennett
Macbeth
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's tragedy of ambition where Macbeth saves his King from one revolt only to murder and replace him, to fulfil a witches' prophecy.
1 October 2020
Featuring: Emma Smith, Kiernan Ryan, David Schalkwyk
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 pseudonymous writersLegion of Honour refusalsPseudonymous women writersFrench women novelistsFrench LGBTQ novelistsFrench socialists19th-century French letter writers19th-century French novelists, 19th-century French women writersFrench bisexual women, French bisexual writersCatullus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Catullus - some of the greatest verse of his time, and some of the most scurrilous - and his influence on Roman and later poetry
11 January 2020
Featuring: Gail Trimble, Simon Smith, Maria Wyke
Auden
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss WH Auden's life and poetry from Europe before WWII, reflecting on his travels to Spain, China and Germany and the rise of totalitarianism.
19 December 2019
Featuring: Mark Ford, Janet Montefiore, Jeremy Noel-Tod
CultureEnglish male poetsEnglish essayistsEnglish male non-fiction writersBritish male essayistsModernist theatreAmerican male non-fiction writersEnglish male dramatists and playwrights20th-century English poetsAnglican poets20th-century English male writersNaturalized citizens of the United StatesMembers of the American Academy of Arts and Letters20th-century American male writersEnglish LGBTQ poetsAlumni of Christ Church, OxfordEnglish emigrants to the United StatesEnglish literary criticsFormalist poetsAmerican lecturersAmerican LGBTQ poetsGay academics20th-century American essayists20th-century English non-fiction writersLGBTQ AnglicansAmerican male essayists, American male poetsAmerican male dramatists and playwrights, American literary criticsGay poets, Gay dramatists and playwrightsCrime and Punishment
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dostoevsky's novel in which Raskolnikov is mediocre but thinks he's superior and his future more important than the lives of the women he kills
14 November 2019
Featuring: Sarah Huspith, Oliver Ready, Sarah Young
Robert Burns
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Ayrshire farmer whose 'Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect' (1786) set him on the way to a worldwide reputation as one of the great poets.
24 October 2019
Featuring: Robert Crawford, Fiona Stafford, Murray Pittock
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
Lorca
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work of Federico Garcia Lorca, author of Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba, executed by Franco's forces, his body unrecovered.
4 July 2019
Featuring: Maria Delgado, Federico Bonaddio, Sarah Wright
Sir Thomas Browne
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and language of Browne (1605-82), a doctor sharing his personal views on science, history and religion at a time of great change
6 June 2019
Featuring: Claire Preston, Jessica Wolfe, Kevin Killeen
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
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsCensored booksNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into balletsNovels adapted into radio programsFrame storiesNovels adapted into video gamesWorks published anonymouslyBritish science fiction novelsEpistolary novelsBritish Gothic novelsNovels about revenge1818 British novelsVegetarianism in fictionNovels set in GermanyNovels set in the 18th centuryDisability in the artsA Midsummer Night's Dream
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas behind Shakespeare's comedy with its intertwining plots of royal marriage, crossed lovers, quarreling fairies and rude mechanicals
18 April 2019
Featuring: Helen Hackett, Tom Healy, Alison Findlay
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
Antarah ibn Shaddad
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Antarah (525-608AD), his historical context before Islam, how his work relates to other poets in that period, and his legacy
28 February 2019
Featuring: James Montgomery, Marlé Hammond, Harry Munt
Judith beheading Holofernes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how artists such as Gentileschi, Caravaggio and Klimt responded to this Bible story of the widow who killed an enemy general to save her people.
14 February 2019
Featuring: Susan Foister, John Gash, Ela Nutu Hall
Samuel Beckett
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the author of Waiting for Godot, who lived in Paris and wrote in French as he found that more difficult than writing in English
17 January 2019
Featuring: Steven Connor, Laura Salisbury, Mark Nixon
CultureFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesNobel laureates in LiteratureExistentialistsModernist writers20th-century essayistsAlumni of Trinity College DublinPhilosophers of pessimismScholars of Trinity College DublinWriters from Dublin (city)Absurdist writersIrish male novelistsFrench Resistance membersBurials at Montparnasse CemeteryPrix Italia winnersAcademics of Trinity College DublinAnti-natalistsFormer AnglicansPeople with Parkinson's diseaseIrish male dramatists and playwrights, Irish expatriates in France20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poetsPeople educated at Portora Royal School, Irish writers in FrenchIrish male short story writers, 20th-century Irish short story writers, 20th-century Irish novelistsSir Gawain and the Green Knight
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poem of the knight who interrupts King Arthur's Christmas celebrations, challenging someone to chop off his head if he can do the same in return
13 December 2018
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Ad Putter, Simon Armitage
Horace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Horace, one of the greatest poets of his age, the origin of phrases such as carpe diem, nil desperandum and dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
15 November 2018
Featuring: Emily Gowers, William Fitzgerald, Ellen O'Gorman
Is Shakespeare History? The Romans
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's treatment of Roman history, where he had scope to explore ideas too threatening for English histories.
18 October 2018
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Catherine Steel, Patrick Gray
Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's treatment of English Plantagenet history from Richard II to Richard III and all the Henrys in between, written under Elizabeth I.
11 October 2018
Featuring: Emma J. Smith, Gordon McMullan, Katherine Lewis
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 poetsMembers of the American Academy of Arts and LettersGerman–English translatorsKnights of the Legion of HonourAmerican autobiographers20th-century American women writersNovelists from New York (state), 19th-century American novelistsGhost story writers, 19th-century American short story writers19th-century American women writers, American women poetsThe Iliad
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the story of a crucial 40 days in the 10-year battle for Troy, framed by Achilles' anger first at his leader Agamenmon and then at his enemy Hector.
13 September 2018
Featuring: Edith Hall, Barbara Graziosi, Paul Cartledge
William 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
Culture19th-century English poetsEnglish male novelistsVictorian novelistsEpic poetsEnglish male short story writersVictorian poetsEnglish atheistsEnglish socialists19th-century British short story writersEnglish short story writersEnglish fantasy writersEnglish libertariansLibertarian socialistsArtists' Rifles soldiersBritish socialistsArtist authorsTranslators of HomerMythopoeic writersBritish male poets19th-century English architectsArts and Crafts movement artistsBritish botanical illustratorsPeople educated at Marlborough CollegeSocial Democratic Federation membersEnglish printers, Translators of VirgilHenrik Ibsen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Norwegian playwright whose middle-class tragedies include A Doll's House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler and An Enemy of the People.
31 May 2018
Featuring: Tore Rem, Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, Dinah Birch
The Mabinogion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Welsh stories of Arthurian romance and Celtic mythology created in the oral tradition for centuries before being written down in the Middle Ages.
10 May 2018
Featuring: Sioned Davies, Helen Fulton, Juliette Wood
Middlemarch
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.
18 April 2018
Featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Kathryn Hughes, John Bowen
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
Hamlet
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the inspiration for Shakespeare's Hamlet, the play's context and meaning, and why it has fascinated audiences from its first performance.
28 December 2017
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Carol Rutter, Sonia Massai
Ludwig van 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
CultureAge of Enlightenment18th-century classical composers19th-century German male musicians18th-century German composers18th-century keyboardistsGerman Roman CatholicsNational anthem writers19th-century classical composers, German Romantic composers, German opera composers, German male opera composers, 19th-century German composersMoby 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
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
Culture18th-century philosophersWriters from ParisFrench Roman CatholicsFrench women philosophersConversationalistsFrench feministsFrench women novelists19th-century French philosophersFrench literary critics18th-century French women writersWomen in the French RevolutionFrench salon-holders19th-century French letter writersPeople of the First French EmpireFrench travel writers19th-century French novelists, 19th-century French women writersRomantic philosophers, Converts to Roman Catholicism from CalvinismPicasso's Guernica
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Pablo Picasso's Guernica, which he painted in 1937 soon after the bombing of that Basque town in the Spanish Civil War, and its wider context.
2 November 2017
Featuring: Mary Vincent, Gijs van Hensbergen, Dacia Viejo Rose
Aphra Behn
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Aphra Behn, known for her plays for the Restoration stage such as The Rover and for her novel Oroonoko.
12 October 2017
Featuring: Janet Todd, Ros Ballaster, Claire Bowditch
CultureBurials at Westminster AbbeyEnglish women poets17th-century English poets17th-century English writersEnglish women novelists17th-century English dramatists and playwrightsFeminism and history17th-century English women writersEnglish women dramatists and playwrightsEnglish spiesTory poetsEnglish feminists, English feminist writersWuthering 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 filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsNovels adapted into operasVictorian novelsNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideFrame storiesLove storiesWorks published under a pseudonymBritish Gothic novelsNovels about revengeNonlinear narrative novelsNovels set in YorkshireNovels set in the 18th century1847 British novelsFiction with unreliable narrators1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsEugene 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
Christine de Pizan
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Christine de Pizan (c1364-1430) who, according to Simone de Beauvoir, was the first woman to 'take up her pen in defence of her sex'.
8 June 2017
Featuring: Helen Swift, Miranda Griffin, Marilynn Desmond
Emily 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
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
North 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
Seneca the Younger
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Seneca: philosopher, playwright, tutor to Nero, one of the first great writers born in the new Roman empire after the fall of the Republic.
23 February 2017
Featuring: Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards, Alessandro Schiesaro
Culture1st-century RomansExecuted philosophersMale essayistsExecuted writersSilver Age Latin writersLetter writers in Latin1st-century writersSuffect consuls of Imperial RomeRoman-era Stoic philosophersSuicides in Ancient RomeAncient Roman satirists1st-century executionsForced suicidesPeople executed by the Roman EmpirePeople from Córdoba, SpainAncient Roman encyclopedistsJohn 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
Four Quartets
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss TS Eliot's Four Quartets, written just before and during World War II as meditations on humanity's relationship with time.
21 December 2016
Featuring: David Moody, Fran Brearton, Mark Ford
The Fighting Temeraire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner's painting of a famous ship from the Battle of Trafalgar on its way to a breakers' yard on the Thames.
10 November 2016
Featuring: Susan Foister, David Blayney Brown, James Davey
Epic of Gilgamesh
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Gilgamesh Epic, often described as the earliest surviving great work of literature, with origins in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC.
3 November 2016
Featuring: Andrew George, Frances Reynolds, Martin Worthington
The 12th Century Renaissance
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and impact of the philosophical, scientific, religious and architectural changes of the 12th century in western Europe.
20 October 2016
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Elisabeth van Houts, Giles Gasper
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 novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsCensored booksNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into radio programsEnglish novelsAllegoryBritish novellasRoman à clef novelsDystopian novelsBritish satirical novelsNovels about revolutionaries, Secker & Warburg books, Novels by George Orwell, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels about propaganda, British political novelsSongs of Innocence and of Experience
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Blake's illustrated collection of poems, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.
23 June 2016
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Sarah Haggarty, Jon Mee
The Muses
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Muses in Greek mythology, goddesses who presided over the civilised arts and the life of the mind including poetry, song, music and dance.
19 May 2016
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Angie Hobbs, Penelope Murray
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
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
Rumi's Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Rumi, the Persian scholar and Sufi mystic of the 13th century, whose great poetic works are the Masnavi and the Divan.
11 February 2016
Featuring: Alan Williams, Carole Hillenbrand, Lloyd Ridgeon
Tristan and Iseult
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tristan and Iseult, as told by Thomas of Britain and Beroul in the 12th century and reworked by Gottfried of Strasbourg and others, including Wagner.
31 December 2015
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Juliette Wood, Mark Chinca
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
Holbein at the Tudor Court
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hans Holbein's role in the Tudor Court, painting Henry VIII as he asserted himself as supreme head of the Church during the Reformation.
15 October 2015
Featuring: Susan Foister, John Guy, Maria Hayward
Frida Kahlo
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work, life and times of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
9 July 2015
Featuring: Patience Schell, Valerie Fraser, Alan Knight
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 filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsVictorian novelsNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideLove storiesWorks published under a pseudonymFemale characters in literatureBritish Gothic novelsNovels set in the 19th centuryHarper & Brothers books1847 British novelsBritish bildungsromansSmith, Elder & Co. booksRabindranath 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
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
CultureEnglish essayists19th-century English novelistsEnglish women poetsEnglish women novelistsEnglish satiristsConversationalists19th-century English women writersWriters from London19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsEnglish pamphleteersBritish women essayists18th-century English novelistsStreathamites18th-century English diarists18th-century English women writersEnglish women dramatists and playwrightsWriters from King's LynnSappho
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Greek poet Sappho, one of antiquity's greatest exponents of lyric poetry.
9 April 2015
Featuring: Edith Hall, Margaret Reynolds, Dirk Obbink
Beowulf
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the epic poem Beowulf, one of the masterpieces of Anglo-Saxon literature.
5 March 2015
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Clare Lees, Andy Orchard
Bruegel's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bruegel's painting The Fight Between Carnival and Lent.
15 January 2015
Featuring: Louise Milne, Jeanne Nuechterlein, Miri Rubin
Kafka's The Trial
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Franz Kafka's novel The Trial.
27 November 2014
Featuring: Elizabeth Boa, Steve Connor, Ritchie Robertson
Aesop
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aesop, legendary author of the famous collection of fables.
20 November 2014
Featuring: Pavlos Avlamis, Lucy Grig, Simon Goldhill
Rudyard 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
CultureBurials at Westminster AbbeyNobel laureates in LiteratureEnglish people of Scottish descent19th-century English poetsEnglish male novelistsVictorian novelists19th-century English novelistsEnglish male short story writers20th-century English poets20th-century English male writers19th-century English non-fiction writersEnglish Nobel laureates20th-century English novelistsFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureBritish Nobel laureatesMythopoeic writersPeople of the Victorian era19th-century English short story writersMaritime writersEnglish-language poets from India20th-century English memoiristsDeaths from ulcersEnglish children's writersEnglish hymnwritersEnglish science fiction writersFreemasons of the United Grand Lodge of EnglandRectors of the University of St AndrewsEnglish anti-fascistsMrs 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
The Bluestockings
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Bluestockings, a group of prominent women intellectuals in 18th-century England.
5 June 2014
Featuring: Karen O'Brien, Elizabeth Eger, Nicole Pohl
The 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 Tale of Sinuhe
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Tale of Sinuhe, one of the most celebrated works of ancient Egyptian literature.
1 May 2014
Featuring: Richard B. Parkinson, Roland Emmarch, Aidan Dodson
Tristram Shandy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's comic novel Tristram Shandy.
24 April 2014
Featuring: Judith Hawley, John Mullan, Mary Newbould
CultureNovels adapted into operasNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into radio programsPicaresque novels18th-century British novelsMetafictional novelsNonlinear narrative novelsBritish satirical novels1759 novelsSelf-reflexive novelsIrish novels adapted into plays, Irish novels adapted into filmsThe Tempest
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's last and richest plays.
14 November 2013
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Erin Sullivan, Katherine Duncan-Jones
Pascal
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the French polymath Blaise Pascal.
19 September 2013
Featuring: David Wootton, Michael Moriarty, Michela Massimi
CultureAphoristsChristian humanistsCatholic philosophersCritics of atheismFrench physicistsPeople with hypochondriasisRoman Catholic mysticsFrench Roman Catholic writersConverts to Roman CatholicismChristian apologists17th-century Christian mysticsCartesianismFrench mathematicians, French fluid dynamicists, French probability theoristsThe Invention of Radio
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the invention of radio.
4 July 2013
Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Elizabeth Bruton, John Liffen
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Romance of the Three Kingdoms, widely regarded as one of the greatest works of Chinese literature.
27 June 2013
Featuring: Frances Wood, Craig Clunas, Margaret Hillenbrand
Queen Zenobia
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Queen Zenobia, Empress of the Palmyrene Empire and leader of a rebellion against Ancient Rome.
30 May 2013
Featuring: Edith Hall, Kate Cooper, Richard Stoneman
Lévi-Strauss
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss.
23 May 2013
Featuring: Adam Kuper, Christina Howells, Vincent Debaene
CultureOntologistsTheorists on Western civilizationPhilosophers of mindWriters about activism and social changePhilosophers of religionMetaphysiciansMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyWriters about religion and scienceAtheist philosophersPhilosophers of social scienceForeign associates of the National Academy of Sciences20th-century atheistsJewish philosophersMetaphilosophersWriters from ParisFrench atheistsUniversity of Paris alumniMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesLiteracy and society theorists20th-century French philosophersPhilosophers of languageMembers of the Académie Française20th-century essayistsFrench philosophers of educationFrench philosophers of historyFrench philosophers of scienceMetaphysics writersWriters about globalizationFrench male non-fiction writersPhenomenologistsCritical theoristsJewish atheistsLycée Condorcet alumniFrench epistemologistsGrand Cross of the Legion of HonourIntellectual historyPhilosophers of linguisticsAcademic staff of the Collège de FranceThe New School faculty20th-century French memoiristsJewish historians20th-century French male writersCorresponding fellows of the British AcademyFrench essayistsLinguists from FranceWriters about communismFrench philosophers of culture, French sociologistsIcelandic Sagas
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Icelandic sagas.
9 May 2013
Featuring: Carolyne Larrington, Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, Emily Lethbridge
Montaigne
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Michel de Montaigne. Best known for his influential Essays, Montaigne is regarded as the father of modern sceptical thought.
25 April 2013
Featuring: David Wootton, Terence Cave, Felicity Green
The Amazons
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Amazons, formidable female warriors of classical myth.
11 April 2013
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Chiara Franceschini, Caroline Vout
Japan's Sakoku Period
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Japan's Sakoku period, the years when the country chose to isolate itself from the rest of the world.
4 April 2013
Featuring: Richard Bowring, Andrew Cobbing, Rebekah Clements
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
CultureModernist theatre19th-century non-fiction writers from the Russian EmpireRussian atheists20th-century deaths from tuberculosisBurials at Novodevichy CemeteryPositivists19th-century short story writers from the Russian Empire, 20th-century Russian short story writers, Russian opinion journalists, Philanthropists from the Russian Empire, Novelists from the Russian Empire, 20th-century Russian dramatists and playwrights, Russian-language writers, Russian male novelists, Russian male dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century dramatists and playwrights from the Russian EmpireDecline 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
Romulus and Remus
Melvyn Bragg and guests Mary Beard, Peter Wiseman and Tim Cornell discuss Romulus and Remus, the foundation myth of Rome.
24 January 2013
Featuring: Mary Beard, Peter Wiseman, Tim Cornell
Le Morte d'Arthur
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory's epic medieval tale of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.
10 January 2013
Featuring: Helen Cooper, Helen Fulton, Laura Ashe
Shahnameh of Ferdowsi
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the epic poem the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the 'Book of Kings', which has been at the heart of Persian culture for the past thousand years.
13 December 2012
Featuring: Narguess Farzad, Charles Melville, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
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
Caxton and the Printing Press
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss printer William Caxton and the impact of the printing press in England.
18 October 2012
Featuring: Richard Gameson, Julia Boffey, David Rundle
Gerald of Wales
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval scholar Gerald of Wales, the author of colourful and influential works about his journeys around Ireland and Wales.
4 October 2012
Featuring: Henrietta Leyser, Michelle Brown, Huw Pryce
The Druids
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Druids, the mysterious priests of ancient Britain, Gaul and Ireland.
20 September 2012
Featuring: Barry Cunliffe, Miranda Aldhouse-Green, Justin Champion
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 non-fiction writersWomen mysticsEnglish socialists19th-century English women writersVictorian writersEnglish women activistsEnglish people of Irish descentEnglish suffragistsVictorian women writersEnglish activistsNew Age predecessorsBritish women's rights activistsFormer AnglicansSocial Democratic Federation membersFounders of Indian schools and collegesBritish reformersEnglish feminists, English feminist writersJames Joyce's Ulysses
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss James Joyce's celebrated novel Ulysses.
14 June 2012
Featuring: Steven Connor, Jeri Johnson, Richard Brown
The Trojan War
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Trojan War, one of the central events of Ancient Greek mythology.
31 May 2012
Featuring: Edith Hall, Ellen Adams, Susan Sherratt
Voltaire's Candide
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Voltaire's satirical novel Candide, first published in 1759.
3 May 2012
Featuring: David Wootton, Nicholas Cronk, Caroline Warman
Moses Mendelssohn
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work of Moses Mendelssohn, one of the greatest thinkers of the German Enlightenment.
22 March 2012
Featuring: Christopher Clark, Abigail Green, Adam Sutcliffe
Vitruvius and De Architectura
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Vitruvius's De Architectura, the first major treatise on architecture.
15 March 2012
Featuring: Serafina Cuomo, Robert Tavernor, Alice König
Lyrical Ballads
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Lyrical Ballads, the 1798 volume of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
8 March 2012
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Jonathan Bate, Peter Swaab
Benjamin Franklin
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the scientist, writer, printer, diplomat and American founding father Benjamin Franklin.
1 March 2012
Featuring: Simon Middleton, Simon Newman, Patricia Fara
CultureFellows of the Royal SocietySocial philosophersPhilosophy writersFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesPhilosophers of literatureTheorists on Western civilizationWriters about activism and social changePhilosophers of historyPhilosophers of scienceMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyWriters about religion and scienceRecipients of the Copley MedalAphoristsAge of EnlightenmentHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesAmerican male non-fiction writersAmerican people of English descentSimple living advocatesPhilosophers of technologyPeople associated with electricityRhetoric theoristsAmerican political philosophersIndependent scientistsAmerican male journalistsHumor researchers18th-century pseudonymous writersActivists for African-American civil rightsAmerican slave ownersAmerican autobiographersAmerican philosophers of educationAmerican deistsAmerican philosophers of cultureAmerican philosophers of religionIndependent scholarsMasonic grand mastersPolitical activists from PennsylvaniaCreators of writing systemsPhilosophers from Massachusetts18th-century American writers, Founding Fathers of the United States, People of the American EnlightenmentWriters from Philadelphia, Recreational cryptographers, Writers from Boston18th-century American politicians, Signers of the United States Constitution, American FreemasonsThe Kama Sutra
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Kama Sutra, one of the most celebrated and often-misunderstood texts of Indian literature.
2 February 2012
Featuring: Julius Lipner, Jessica Frazier, David Smith
The Safavid dynasty
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Safavid Dynasty, the rulers of early modern Persia, who had a profound impact on the cultural and religious identity of Iran.
12 January 2012
Featuring: Robert Gleave, Emma Loosley, Andrew Newman
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
Christina 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
CultureAnglican saintsSonneteersEnglish women poetsVictorian poets19th-century English women writersEnglish fantasy writersWriters from the London Borough of CamdenVictorian women writersBurials at Highgate CemeteryEnglish hymnwriters19th-century British writersPoets from LondonPolidori-Rossetti family, British people of Italian descent, English people of Italian descentDelacroix'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
The Etruscan Civilisation
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Etruscans, an ancient civilisation which flourished in central Italy for five hundred years before the emergence of the Roman Republic.
29 September 2011
Featuring: Phil Perkins, David Ridgway, Corinna Riva
Tennyson's In Memoriam
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam.
30 June 2011
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Seamus Perry, Jane Wright
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss a masterpiece of 17th-century medicine and literature: Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy.
12 May 2011
Featuring: Julie Sanders, Mary Ann Lund, Erin Sullivan
The Medieval University
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval universities: why they were founded and what they taught.
17 March 2011
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Ian Wei, Peter Denley
Aristotle's Poetics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristotle's Poetics, the first and arguably most influential work of literary theory in history.
27 January 2011
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Nick Lowe, Stephen Halliwell
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the poem that made Byron famous.
6 January 2011
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Jane Stabler, Emily Bernhard Jackson
History of Metaphor
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of metaphor - the device of using one thing to describe another.
25 November 2010
Featuring: Steven Connor, Tom Healy, Julie Sanders
The Unicorn
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and mythology of the unicorn.
28 October 2010
Featuring: Juliette Wood, Lauren Kassell, David Ekserdjian
Sturm und Drang
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 18th-century German artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang, whose best-known exponents included Goethe and Schiller.
14 October 2010
Featuring: T. C. W. Blanning, Susanne Kord, Maike Oergel
Al-Biruni
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Central Asian polymath al-Biruni and his 11th-century book India, one of the first scholarly works about the country.
10 June 2010
Featuring: James Montgomery, Hugh Kennedy, Amira Bennison
CultureIslamic philosophersAlchemists of the medieval Islamic worldCritics of deismAstronomical instrument makersPsychology in the medieval Islamic worldAstronomers of the medieval Islamic worldExplorers of AsiaMuslim critics of atheism, AsharisMedieval Iranian pharmacologists, Transoxanian Islamic scholarsGiorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lives of the Artists, the great biographer Giorgio Vasari's study of Renaissance painters, sculptors and architects.
27 May 2010
Featuring: Evelyn Welch, David Ekserdjian, Martin Kemp
The Great Wall of China
Melvyn Bragg and guests Julia Lovell, Rana Mitter and Frances Wood discuss The Great Wall of China.
29 April 2010
Featuring: Julia Lovell, Rana Mitter, Frances Wood
Roman Satire
Melvyn Bragg and guests Mary Beard, Denis Feeney and Duncan Kennedy discuss Roman satire.
22 April 2010
Featuring: Mary Beard, Denis Feeney, Duncan Kennedy
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
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
Boudica
Melvyn Bragg and guests Miranda Aldhouse-Green, Juliette Wood and Richard Hingley discuss the life and mythologisation of Boudica.
11 March 2010
Featuring: Juliette Wood, Richard Hingley, Miranda Aldhouse-Green
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
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 Silk Road
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Silk Road, the trade routes which spanned Asia for over a thousand years, carrying Buddhism to China and paper-making and gunpowder westwards.
3 December 2009
Featuring: Frances Wood, Tim Barrett, Naomi Standen
Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce's groundbreaking 1916 novel about growing up in Catholic Ireland.
26 November 2009
Featuring: Roy Foster, Katherine Mullin, Jeri Johnson
CultureLiterary theoristsModernist writersModernismIrony theoristsTrope theoristsIrish male poetsMetaphor theoristsSurrealist writersHumor researchersIrish male novelistsEyepatch wearersDeaths from ulcers20th-century letter writersIrish satiristsIrish male dramatists and playwrights, Irish expatriates in France20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsIrish male short story writers, 20th-century Irish short story writers, 20th-century Irish novelistsSparta
Melvyn Bragg and guests Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Angie Hobbs discuss Sparta, the militaristic Ancient Greek city-state, and the political ideas it spawned.
19 November 2009
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall, Angie Hobbs
The Death of Elizabeth I
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the death of Queen Elizabeth I and its immediate impact, as a foreign monarch became King in the face of plots and plague.
15 October 2009
Featuring: John Guy, Clare Jackson, Helen Hackett
CultureBurials at Westminster AbbeyEnglish AnglicansPeople of the Elizabethan eraEnglish women poetsPeople excommunicated by the Catholic ChurchEnglish people of Welsh descentPrisoners in the Tower of LondonFounders of English schools and colleges16th-century queens regnant16th-century English translatorsHouse of TudorAkhenaten
Melvyn Bragg and guests Elizabeth Frood, Richard Parkinson and Kate Spence discuss Akhenaten, the ruler who brought revolutionary change to ancient Egypt.
1 October 2009
Featuring: Richard Parkinson, Elizabeth Frood, Kate Spence
Elizabethan Revenge
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why revenge tragedy was so popular with Elizabethan theatre goers, from Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy to Shakespeare's Hamlet.
18 June 2009
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Julie Sanders, Janet Clare
The Augustan Age
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political regime and cultural influence of the Roman Emperor Augustus.
11 June 2009
Featuring: Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards, Duncan Kennedy
Culture1st-century RomansJulio-Claudian dynastyAncient Roman adopteesJulii CaesaresRoman pharaohs1st-century Roman emperorsPeople in the canonical gospelsDeified Roman emperorsFounding monarchsAugustusPeople of the War of MutinaCharacters in Book VI of the AeneidShipwreck survivors1st-century BC Roman consuls, 1st-century BC Roman augursBurials at the Mausoleum of Augustus, Ancient Roman military personnelThe Whale - A History
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the evolutionary history of the whale, examining how this leviathan of the deep evolved from a small land-based mammal with cloven hoofs.
21 May 2009
Featuring: Steve Jones, Eleanor Weston, Bill Amos
The Magna Carta
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Magna Carta, the charter issued by King John in 1215 that is often seen as the basis of English liberties.
7 May 2009
Featuring: Nicholas Vincent, David Carpenter, Michael Clanchy
The Building of St Petersburg
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the building of St Petersburg, Peter the Great's showcase city for a modern, European Russia.
23 April 2009
Featuring: Simon Dixon, Janet Hartley, Anthony Cross
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aldous Huxley's dystopian 1932 novel Brave New World and its vision of a future of test tube babies, free love and round-the-clock surveillance.
9 April 2009
Featuring: David Bradshaw, Daniel Pick, Michèle Barrett
CulturePhilosophers of literatureEnglish male poetsEnglish essayistsEnglish male novelistsAnti-consumeristsEnglish male short story writersEnglish agnosticsPhilosophers of technologyEnglish travel writersEnglish satiristsMale essayists20th-century English philosophersBritish philosophers of mind20th-century English novelistsEnglish short story writersJames Tait Black Memorial Prize recipientsEnglish emigrants to the United StatesNew Age predecessors20th-century British essayists20th-century mysticsDuke University facultyLost Generation writersAlumni of Balliol College, OxfordEnglish science fiction writersPeople educated at Eton CollegeEnglish pacifists, British philosophers of cultureThe School of Athens
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael's depiction of Plato and Aristotle and what it tells us about both the subjects and the painter.
26 March 2009
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Valery Rees, Jill Kraye
The Waste Land and Modernity
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
Swift's A Modest Proposal
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jonathan Swift's satirical 1729 pamphlet A Modest Proposal, which reveals much about attitudes to the Irish and the poor in 18th-Century Britain.
29 January 2009
Featuring: John Mullan, Judith Hawley, Ian McBride
CultureEnglish male poetsEnglish AnglicansEnglish male novelistsEnglish male short story writersEnglish satiristsAlumni of Trinity College DublinIrish male poetsEnglish short story writersAnglican writersEnglish fantasy writersNeoclassical writersEnglish pamphleteers18th-century pseudonymous writers18th-century English novelists17th-century Anglo-Irish peopleEnglish political writersAlumni of Hart Hall, OxfordPeople educated at Kilkenny CollegeIrish satiristsJonathan SwiftAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writers18th-century Anglo-Irish people, 18th-century Irish writers, 18th-century Irish male writersThe Baroque Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the culture of the Baroque, from Bach and Caavaggio to the Colonnades of St Peter’s.
20 November 2008
Featuring: T. C. W. Blanning, Nigel Aston, Helen Hills
Dante's Inferno
Melvyn Bragg discusses Dante’s ‘Inferno’ - a journey through the nine circles of Hell. Dante was a medieval Italian poet and the Inferno, his greatest work, is a masterpiece of world literature.
23 October 2008
Featuring: Margaret Kean, John Took, Claire Honess
Tacitus and the Decadence of Rome
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman historian Tacitus, whose portrayal of Roman decadence influences the way we see Rome today.
10 July 2008
Featuring: Catharine Edwards, Ellen O'Gorman, Maria Wyke
The Metaphysical Poets
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Metaphysical poets John Donne, Andrew Marvell and George Herbert, examining their rich and strange metaphors of sex, death and love.
3 July 2008
Featuring: Thomas Healy, Julie Sanders, Tom Cain
The Music of the Spheres
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the music of the spheres, the idea that the revolution of the planets generates a celestial harmony of profound beauty
19 June 2008
Featuring: Peter Forshaw, Jim Bennett, Angela Voss
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 Library at Nineveh
Melvyn Bragg discusses one of the greatest archaeological finds ever discovered – the Assyrian Library at Nineveh.
15 May 2008
Featuring: Eleanor Robson, Karen Radner, Andrew R. George
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
Yeats 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
CultureSonneteersNobel laureates in LiteratureModernist theatreAnglican poetsIrish male poetsFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureIrish AnglicansVictorian writersFormalist poetsAnthologistsIrish male dramatists and playwrights, Irish expatriates in France20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poets19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, Symbolist dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poetsMembers of the 1925 Seanad, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Irish occultists, Protestant Irish nationalists, Irish occult writers, Irish folklorists, Irish Dominion League, W. B. Yeats, Burials in the Republic of Ireland, People from West Kensington, William Blake scholars, People educated at The High School, Dublin, Symbolist poets, Independent members of Seanad Éireann, Members of the 1922 Seanad, Butler Yeats family, Alumni of the National College of Art and Design, Abbey Theatre, People from Sandymount, Members of the Irish Republican BrotherhoodThe Norman Yoke
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ‘the Norman Yoke’ – the idea that the Battle of Hastings sparked years of cruel Norman oppression for the Anglo Saxons.
10 April 2008
Featuring: Sarah Foot, Richard Gameson, Matthew Strickland
The Greek Myths
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Greek myths from Achilles to Zeus.
13 March 2008
Featuring: Nick Lowe, Richard Buxton, Mary Beard
Lear
Melvyn Bragg discusses Shakespeare’s King Lear, a shocking and violent vision of a broken family in a godless world.
28 February 2008
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Katherine Duncan-Jones, Catherine Belsey
The Statue of Liberty
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Statue of Liberty, given by France to America as a token of revolutionary kinship.
14 February 2008
Featuring: Robert Gildea, Kathleen Burk, John Keane
Rudolph II
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the coterie of brilliant thinkers gathered by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II at his court in Prague.
31 January 2008
Featuring: Peter Forshaw, Howard Hotson, Adam Mosley
The Fisher King
Melvyn Bragg and guests will be delving into the world of medieval myth and legend in pursuit of the powerful and enigmatic Fisher King.
17 January 2008
Featuring: Carolyne Larrington, Stephen Knight, Juliette Wood
Camus
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Nobel Prize winning Algerian-French writer and existentialist philosopher Albert Camus.
3 January 2008
Featuring: Peter Dunwoodie, David Walker, Christina Howells
CultureAtheist philosophers20th-century atheistsNobel laureates in LiteratureFrench atheistsExistentialists20th-century French philosophersModernist writersLegion of Honour refusals20th-century French novelistsPhilosophers of deathFrench socialistsFrench Nobel laureatesPhilosophers of pessimismLibertarian socialistsAbsurdist writers20th-century French male writersFrench male essayistsAnti-Stalinist leftFrench anarchists, French anti-fascists, French anti-capitalistsFrench humanists, 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights20th-century French essayists, 20th-century French short story writersThe Prelude
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Wordsworth’s, The Predule, one of the greatest poems in the English language.
22 November 2007
Featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Stephen Gill, Emma Mason
Taste
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th century obsession with good and bad taste
25 October 2007
Featuring: Amanda Vickery, John Mullan, Jeremy Black
The Arabian Nights
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Arabian Nights - an ever shifting sea of stories across Asia and Europe.
18 October 2007
Featuring: Robert Graham Irwin, Marina Warner, Gerard van Gelder
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
Siegfried Sassoon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war poet Siegfried Sassoon; a homosexual war hero who became a bitter opponent of the First World War and a devout Catholic.
7 June 2007
Featuring: Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Fran Brearton, Max Egremont
Culture20th-century English poets20th-century English male writers20th-century English novelistsLGBTQ Roman CatholicsEnglish Catholic poetsRoman Catholic writersWar writersBritish Army personnel of World War IPeople with post-traumatic stress disorderEnglish LGBTQ poets20th-century English LGBTQ peopleJames Tait Black Memorial Prize recipientsEnglish Roman CatholicsBisexual male writersPeople educated at Marlborough College20th-century English memoiristsBisexual military personnelBisexual poetsDeaths from stomach cancer in EnglandEnglish World War I poets, Recipients of the Military CrossVictorian 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
Greek and Roman Love Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Greek and Roman love poetry, from the Greek poet Sappho and her erotic descriptions of romance to the love-hate poems of the Roman writer Catullus.
26 April 2007
Featuring: Nick Lowe, Edith Hall, Maria Wyke
Bismarck
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
CultureGerman LutheransHumboldt University of Berlin alumniUniversity of Göttingen alumniGerman nationalistsGrand Cross of the Legion of HonourPeople from the Province of SaxonyMilitary personnel from Saxony-AnhaltGerman monarchistsKnights of the Golden Fleece of Spain, Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of HungaryEpistolary Literature
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 18th Century fashion for epistolary literature including Aphra Benn, Samuel Richardson and Jane Austen.
15 March 2007
Featuring: John Mullan, Karen O'Brien, Brean Hammond
Heart 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
Jorge Luis Borges
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the Argentinian master of the short story, Jorge Luis Borges.
4 January 2007
Featuring: Edwin Williamson, Efraín Kristal, Evelyn Fishburn
CulturePhilosophers of literaturePhilosophers of mindPhilosophers of cultureSonneteersAphoristsPhilosophers of mathematicsLiteracy and society theoristsPhilosophers of artLiterary theorists20th-century essayistsTrope theoristsMetaphysics writersMetaphor theoristsPhilosophers of pessimismSurrealist writersLecturers20th-century translatorsPhilosophers of timeJerusalem Prize recipients20th-century mysticsAnthologistsBlind writersCommanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of GermanySpanish-language poetsHaiku poetsMagic realism writersPhilosophers of identityBlind poetsHell
Melvyn Bragg discusses the idea of Hell and its changing appearance in literature and the visual arts from Ancient Egypt to today.
21 December 2006
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Margaret Kean, Neil MacGregor
Pope
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the satirist Alexander Pope. One of the greatest poets of the English language, his brilliant satires have made him popular in our age but not in his own.
9 November 2006
Featuring: John Mullan, Jim McLaverty, Valerie Rumbold
CultureEnglish male poetsEnglish essayistsEnglish male non-fiction writersBritish male essayistsPeople from the City of London18th-century English male writersEnglish Catholic poetsNeoclassical writersRoman Catholic writers18th-century English non-fiction writersTranslators of HomerEnglish Roman Catholics18th-century British essayistsFreemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of EnglandTory poetsTuberculosis deaths in England18th-century English poetsThe Encyclopédie
Melvyn Bragg discusses the French encyclopédie, one of the great achievements of the Enlightenment with contributors such as Voltaire, Rousseau, D’Alembert and Dennis Diderot.
26 October 2006
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Caroline Warman, David Wootton
Comedy in Ancient Greek Theatre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss theatre comedy in Ancient Greece including Aristophanes and Menander and their lasting legacy.
13 July 2006
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall, Nick Lowe
Pastoral Literature
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss pastoral literature which looks at tensions between nature and art, the real and the ideal, the actual and the mythical.
6 July 2006
Featuring: Helen Cooper, Laurence Lerner, Julie Sanders
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
Mathematics and Music
Melvyn Bragg discusses the mathematical structures that lie within the heart of music. From mathematical formulations used to create early music to the music of the 20th century.
25 May 2006
Featuring: Marcus du Sautoy, Robin Wilson, Ruth Tatlow
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
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
CulturePhilosophy writersPhilosophers of literatureTheorists on Western civilizationWriters about activism and social changeEnlightenment philosophersGerman male non-fiction writersPhilosophers of social sciencePantheists19th-century German male writers19th-century German philosophersGerman male essayistsGerman political philosophersGerman philosophers of historyNatural philosophersPhilosophers of sexualityLiteracy and society theoristsGerman philosophers of artGerman philosophers of cultureEpic poetsLiterary theorists19th-century German essayistsRomantic poetsLeipzig University alumni18th-century German male writersGerman philosophers of languageGerman philosophers of scienceMembers of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences19th-century German non-fiction writersMembers of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and HumanitiesFabulistsFreethought writersEpigrammatists19th-century German novelistsGerman FreemasonsUniversity of Strasbourg alumniPhilosophers of linguisticsGerman untitled nobilityGerman librariansGerman travel writers19th-century travel writersColor scientistsGerman autobiographers19th-century German historiansGerman philosophers of education, German ethicists18th-century German philosophers, 18th-century essayistsGerman male poets, German male dramatists and playwrights19th-century historians, 18th-century historians, 19th-century German educators, 18th-century German educatorsSturm und Drang, Johann Wolfgang von GoetheGerman bibliophiles, 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights, 18th-century travel writers, Writers from Weimar, 19th-century German diplomats, 18th-century German novelists, German diplomats, 18th-century German historians, German male novelists, 19th-century German poets, People from Weimar, Scientists from Weimar, 18th-century German dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century German civil servants, Writers from Frankfurt, 18th-century German poets, 18th-century German civil servantsThe Carolingian Renaissance
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Emperor Charlemagne, the first of the Holy Roman Emperors, and the Carolingian Renaissance.
30 March 2006
Featuring: Matthew Innes, Julia Smith, Mary Garrison
Don Quixote
Melvyn Bragg discusses the importance, originality and enduring appeal of Cervantes’ classic 17th century Spanish novel Don Quixote, a cornerstone of Western literature.
16 March 2006
Featuring: Barry Ife, Edwin Williamson, Jane Whetnall
Friendship
Melvyn Bragg discusses the concept of friendship, considered in antiquity as being an essential constituent of both a good society and a good life.
2 March 2006
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Mark Vernon, John Mullan
Chaucer
Melvyn Bragg discusses Geoffrey Chaucer who immortalised the medieval pilgrimage and the diversity of 14th century English society, in his Canterbury Tales.
9 February 2006
Featuring: Carolyne Larrington, Helen Cooper, Ardis Butterfield
Seventeenth Century Print Culture
Melvyn Bragg discusses 17th century print culture, the new technology of printed text reflected controversy in every area of politics, society and religion.
26 January 2006
Featuring: Kevin Sharpe, Ann Hughes, Joad Raymond
The Oresteia
Melvyn Bragg discusses the ‘Oresteia’, the first of the Classical tragedies that come out of fifth century Athens. It is a tale of homecoming, murder, bloody vengeance and the establishment of Law.
29 December 2005
Featuring: Edith Hall, Simon Goldhill, Tom Healy
Johnson
Melvyn Bragg discusses Samuel Johnson, a giant of 18th century literature, language and letters, and perhaps the most quotable Englishman to have ever lifted a pen.
27 October 2005
Featuring: John Mullan, Jim McLaverty, Judith Hawley
CultureAnglican saintsEnglish essayistsBurials at Westminster AbbeyEnglish AnglicansEnglish travel writers18th-century English male writersConversationalistsMale essayists18th-century English writersEnglish literary criticsStreathamitesEnglish biographersEnglish sermon writersPeople with mood disorders18th-century English poets18th-century lexicographers, 18th-century writers in LatinMarlowe
Melvyn Bragg discusses Christopher Marlowe; a forger, a brawler, a spy, but above all a playwright, a poet and the most celebrated writer of his generation.
7 July 2005
Featuring: Katherine Duncan-Jones, Jonathan Bate, Emma J. Smith
CultureEnglish male poetsEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsPeople of the Elizabethan era16th-century English poetsLatin–English translators16th-century English male writersEnglish spies16th-century English translatorsEnglish Renaissance dramatists, 16th-century English dramatists and playwrightsDeaths by stabbing in England, People murdered in England, English murder victimsMerlin
Melvyn Bragg discusses Merlin, prophet, magician, king maker and the original mad man of the woods, distraught at the death of his lord in battle.
30 June 2005
Featuring: Juliette Wood, Stephen Knight, Peter Forshaw
The Scriblerus Club
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Scriblerus Club which included some of the sharpest satirists of the 18th century.
9 June 2005
Featuring: John Mullan, Judith Hawley, Marcus Walsh
Abelard and Heloise
Melvyn Bragg discusses the story of Abelard and Heloise, a medieval tale of literature and philosophy, love and scandal in the high Middle Ages.
5 May 2005
Featuring: A. C. Grayling, Henrietta Leyser, Michael Clanchy
The Aeneid
Melvyn Bragg discusses ‘The Aeneid’, Virgil’s great epic poem that formed a founding narrative of Rome.
21 April 2005
Featuring: Edith Hall, Philip Hardie, Catharine Edwards
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
CultureEnglish essayistsEnglish people of Scottish descentCritics of work and the work ethicAnti-consumeristsMale essayistsEnglish fantasy writersEnglish philosophersArtists' Rifles soldiers19th-century British economistsAlumni of Christ Church, OxfordAlumni of King's College LondonArts and Crafts movement artistsEnglish children's writersArchitectural theoreticiansAnglo-ScotsCritics of political economy19th-century British journalistsAngels
Melvyn Bragg discusses the heavenly host of Angels, so popular with so many believers and so problematic for philosophers and theologians.
24 March 2005
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Valery Rees, John Haldane
Modernist Utopias
Melvyn Bragg discusses the mad, bad world of modern utopias where babies are hatched from test tubes, where women live without men, where machines have taken over, and where the poor are exterminated.
10 March 2005
Featuring: John Carey, Steven Connor, Laura Marcus
The Roman Republic
Melvyn Bragg discusses the rise and eventual downfall of the Roman Republic which survived for 500 years.
30 December 2004
Featuring: Greg Woolf, Catherine Steel, Tom Holland
Faust
Melvyn Bragg discusses the myth of Faustus and the dangers of liaising with the forces of evil in pursuit of power, youth and supreme knowledge.
23 December 2004
Featuring: Juliette Wood, Osman Durrani, Rosemary Ashton
Sartre
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and works of French novelist, playwright and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.
7 October 2004
Featuring: Jonathan Rée, Benedict O'Donohoe, Christina Howells
CultureOntologistsPhilosophy writersFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesPhilosophers of literatureTheorists on Western civilizationPhilosophers of mindMetaphysiciansAphoristsAtheist philosophersPhilosophers of social science20th-century atheistsWriters from ParisNobel laureates in LiteratureFrench atheistsPhilosophers of sexualityExistentialistsFrench political philosophers20th-century French philosophersLegion of Honour refusalsFrench philosophers of educationFrench philosophers of historyFrench philosophers of science20th-century French novelistsPhilosophers of deathFrench socialistsÉcole Normale Supérieure alumniPhenomenologistsFrench Nobel laureatesLibertarian socialistsFrench literary criticsCritical theoristsFrench epistemologistsFrench Resistance membersBurials at Montparnasse CemeteryFrench communistsFrench philosophers of artLycée Henri-IV alumniBlind writersFrench scientists with disabilitiesScholars of antisemitismPhilosophers of nihilismContinental philosophersFree love advocatesFrench philosophers of culture, French sociologistsFrench anarchists, French anti-fascists, French anti-capitalistsFrench ethicists, French biographersFrench Marxists, French anti-war activistsFrench humanists, 20th-century French dramatists and playwrightsPoliteness
Melvyn Bragg discusses politeness, the revolution in manners that transformed the social scene in eighteenth century Britain.
30 September 2004
Featuring: Amanda Vickery, David Wootton, John Mullan
The Odyssey
Melvyn Bragg discusses Homer’s Odyssey, the epic story of the Greek hero Odysseus’ journey back from Troy, and its foundational position in the history of western literature and ideas.
9 September 2004
Featuring: Simon Goldhill, Edith Hall, Oliver Taplin
Washington and the American Revolution
Melvyn Bragg discusses the first President of the United States, George Washington, and the people and ideas that saw the American Revolution overthrow British rule in 1775.
24 June 2004
Featuring: Carol Berkin, Simon Middleton, Colin Bonwick
CultureFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesAmerican male non-fiction writersAmerican people of English descentAmerican slave ownersCongressional Gold Medal recipients18th-century American writers, Founding Fathers of the United States, People of the American EnlightenmentCommanding Generals of the United States Army, Presidents of the United States18th-century American male writers, American foreign policy writers18th-century American politicians, Signers of the United States Constitution, American FreemasonsBabylon
Melvyn Bragg discusses the truth behind Babylon, the world’s oldest and most enigmatic of empires; from the the Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens to the Whore of Babylon.
3 June 2004
Featuring: Eleanor Robson, Irving Finkel, Andrew George
Tea
Melvyn Bragg discusses tea, the first truly global commodity which helped define class and gender, and perhaps more than any other substance has created the culture of modern Britain.
29 April 2004
Featuring: Huw Bowen, James Walvin, Amanda Vickery
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 Norse Gods
Melvyn Bragg discusses the theology that inspired the Vikings and the role that myths and religion played in their daily lives.
11 March 2004
Featuring: Carolyne Larrington, Heather O'Donoghue, John Hines
The Sublime
Melvyn Bragg discusses a transcendental idea that 18th century British artists, poets, philosophers and scientists seized upon and adapted to the intellectual and physical landscape.
12 February 2004
Featuring: Janet Todd, Annie Janowitz, Peter de Bolla
The Alphabet
Melvyn Bragg discusses the feat of astonishing intellectual engineering which provides us with millions of words in hundreds of languages. How did it develop and conquer three quarters of the globe?
18 December 2003
Featuring: Eleanor Robson, Alan Millard, Rosalind Thomas
Sensation
Melvyn Bragg discusses the novels of sensation, a literary phenomenon which swept through the Victorian era.
6 November 2003
Featuring: John Mullan, Lyn Pykett, Dinah Birch
Robin Hood
Melvyn Bragg discusses the centuries old myth of the most romantic noble outlaw. Was he a yeoman, an aristocrat, an anarchist or the figment of a collective imagination?
30 October 2003
Featuring: Stephen Knight, Thomas Hahn, Juliette Wood
Bohemianism
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
The Aristocracy
Melvyn Bragg discusses the emergence, power and influence of the British aristocracy, what made it one of the most successful power elites in the world and what brought about its decline.
19 June 2003
Featuring: David Cannadine, Rosemary Sweet, Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Roman Britain
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Romans in Britain, a history of 400 years of occupation. Do those four centuries still colour our national life and character today?
1 May 2003
Featuring: Greg Woolf, Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards
Youth
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
Proust
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
CulturePhilosophers of literatureAphorists20th-century atheistsWriters from ParisFrench atheists19th-century atheists20th-century French philosophersModernist writers20th-century French novelistsConversationalistsFormer Roman CatholicsFrench male non-fiction writersFrench LGBTQ novelistsBurials at Père Lachaise CemeteryLGBTQ Roman Catholics19th-century French philosophersFrench literary critics19th-century mysticsPeople with hypochondriasisLycée Condorcet alumniFrench philosophers of artFrench Roman Catholic writers20th-century mysticsFrench short story writersFrench essayists20th-century French LGBTQ people, 19th-century French LGBTQ peoplePrix Goncourt winners, Deaths from pneumonia in France20th-century French essayists, 20th-century French short story writersOriginality
Melvyn Bragg discusses the creative force of originality. How far is it to do with origins? And is original important or is tradition more significant?
20 March 2003
Featuring: John Deathridge, Jonathan Rée, Catherine Belsey
The Aztecs
Melvyn Bragg discusses the creation, power and legacy of the Aztec Empire, arguably the most ruthless, pre-Hispanic empire in North America which, at its zenith, ruled over 6 million people.
27 February 2003
Featuring: Alan Knight, Adrian Locke, Elizabeth Graham
The Epic
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the epic form, from it's creation by Homer to its more modern incarnations in the hands of James Joyce, J R R Tolkien and Philip Pullman.
6 February 2003
Featuring: John Carey, Karen Edwards, Oliver Taplin
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
Heritage
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
Cultural Imperialism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the idea that a dominating power such as ancient Greece, Persia, Rome, Islam, Britain and now America can exert a cultural and imitative influence.
27 June 2002
Featuring: Linda Colley, Phillip Dodd, Mary Beard
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
CultureGerman male essayists19th-century German essayistsLeipzig University alumni19th-century German male musiciansGerman opera librettistsGerman autobiographersGerman theatre directorsGerman music critics19th-century classical composers, German Romantic composers, German opera composers, German male opera composers, 19th-century German composersThe 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 Grand Tour
Melvyn Bragg discusses the origins of the 18th century vogue for extensive European tourism for the younger aristocracy and the impact of these travels on British ideas about art and culture.
30 May 2002
Featuring: Chloe Chard, Jeremy Black, Edward Chaney
Tolstoy
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
CultureSocial philosophersOntologistsPhilosophers of literaturePhilosophers of mindWriters about activism and social changePhilosophers of historyPhilosophers of religionMetaphysiciansPhilosophers of cultureEpistemologistsPhilosophers of educationHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesPolitical philosophers20th-century essayistsMembers of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts19th-century essayists19th-century non-fiction writers from the Russian EmpireAnarchist writersCorresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesGeorgistsRussian anarchistsChristian vegetarians20th-century letter writersRussian male journalists19th-century short story writers from the Russian Empire, 20th-century Russian short story writers, Russian opinion journalists, Philanthropists from the Russian Empire, Novelists from the Russian Empire, 20th-century Russian dramatists and playwrights, Russian-language writers, Russian male novelists, Russian male dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century dramatists and playwrights from the Russian EmpireNonviolence advocates, Christian anarchistsBohemia
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the ancient kingdom of Bohemia containing myriad religious, national and ethnic ideologies, and how it was divided up to form the states of modern Central Europe.
11 April 2002
Featuring: Norman Davies, Karin Friedrich, Robert Pynsent
The Artist
Melvyn Bragg discusses the rise of the idea of the artist and the claims made for it, and examines the role that aristocratic patronage of the arts has played in changing the status of the artist.
28 March 2002
Featuring: Emma Barker, Thomas Healy, Tim Blanning
Marriage
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the institution of marriage from ancient Greeks and Babylonian times to today, and examines how monogamy came to be the favoured mode in the West.
21 March 2002
Featuring: Janet Soskice, Frederik Pedersen, Christina Hardyment
Milton
Melvyn Bragg examines the literary and political career of the 17th century poet John Milton, examining work such as Paradise Lost as well as his role as propagandist during the English Civil War.
7 March 2002
Featuring: John Carey, Lisa Jardine, Blair Worden
CultureSocial philosophersWriters about activism and social changeEnglish male poetsEnlightenment philosophersSonneteersCritics of the Catholic ChurchEnglish essayistsChristian humanists17th-century English male writersEnglish non-fiction writersLiteracy and society theoristsEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsEpic poets17th-century English poetsLiterary theorists17th-century English writersAnglican poetsChristian poetsPeople from the City of London17th-century writers in LatinRhetoric theorists17th-century English dramatists and playwrightsMale essayistsMetaphor theoristsWriters from London17th-century English philosophersEnglish republicansEnglish political philosophersNeoclassical writersPamphleteersEnglish writers with disabilitiesEnglish educational theoristsCalvinist and Reformed poetsMythopoeic writersAnglican philosophersBritish free speech activistsBlind writersDeaths from kidney failure in the United KingdomEnglish Anglican theologians17th-century English educatorsRhetoriciansBritish philosophers of religionEnglish DissentersAlumni of Christ's College, CambridgeBlind poetsEnglish theologiansAnti-Catholicism in the United KingdomThe Celts
Melvyn Bragg discusses the culture and legacy of the Celts of pre-Roman Britain and examines what we know of them through archaeology and the records of their enemies.
21 February 2002
Featuring: Barry Cunliffe, Alistair Moffat, Miranda Aldhouse Green
Yeats 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
CultureSonneteersNobel laureates in LiteratureModernist theatreAnglican poetsIrish male poetsFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureIrish AnglicansVictorian writersFormalist poetsAnthologistsIrish male dramatists and playwrights, Irish expatriates in France20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poets19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, Symbolist dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poetsMembers of the 1925 Seanad, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Irish occultists, Protestant Irish nationalists, Irish occult writers, Irish folklorists, Irish Dominion League, W. B. Yeats, Burials in the Republic of Ireland, People from West Kensington, William Blake scholars, People educated at The High School, Dublin, Symbolist poets, Independent members of Seanad Éireann, Members of the 1922 Seanad, Butler Yeats family, Alumni of the National College of Art and Design, Abbey Theatre, People from Sandymount, Members of the Irish Republican BrotherhoodSensibility
Melvyn Bragg discusses the philosophy of the 18th century literary cult of sensibility, how it merged into romanticism and why it was so often connected with illness, melancholia and nerves.
3 January 2002
Featuring: Claire Tomalin, John Mullan, Hermione Lee
Food
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of food in Modern Europe, a cultural as well as a culinary story.
27 December 2001
Featuring: Rebecca Spang, Ivan Day, Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Rome and European Civilization
Melvyn Bragg discusses the role Rome has played in European civilization, from republicanism and imperialism to being the Catholic Heart of the Christian Church.
20 December 2001
Featuring: Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards, Greg Woolf
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
CultureAphoristsVictorian novelistsVictorian poetsWriters of Gothic fictionAlumni of Trinity College DublinConversationalistsIrish male poetsBurials at Père Lachaise CemeteryLGBTQ Roman CatholicsLibertarian socialistsBisexual novelistsAlumni of Magdalen College, OxfordScholars of Trinity College DublinWriters from Dublin (city)Irish male novelistsBisexual male writersBisexual journalistsLGBTQ AnglicansConverts to Roman Catholicism from AnglicanismFreemasons of the United Grand Lodge of EnglandFin de siècleBisexual poetsInfectious disease deaths in FranceIrish male dramatists and playwrights, Irish expatriates in FranceAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writers19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, Symbolist dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poetsPeople convicted for homosexuality in the United Kingdom, People who have received posthumous pardonsPeople educated at Portora Royal School, Irish writers in FrenchIrish Freemasons, Irish people of English descent, Irish libertariansSurrealism
Melvyn Bragg discusses surrealism, the art of the unconscious, repression, desire and sex.
15 November 2001
Featuring: Dawn Adiss, Malcolm Bowie, Darian Leader
The 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
Byzantium
Melvyn Bragg discusses the culture, history and legacy of the eastern Byzantine Empire, and examines why it has so often been sidelined and undermined by historians.
19 July 2001
Featuring: Charlotte Roueché, John Julius Norwich, Liz James
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
CultureWriters about activism and social changeEnglish male poetsCritics of the Catholic ChurchEnglish male non-fiction writersBurials at Westminster AbbeyEnglish AnglicansBritish male essayists19th-century English poetsEnglish male novelistsVictorian novelistsLiteracy and society theoristsEnglish male dramatists and playwrights19th-century English novelists19th-century pseudonymous writersEnglish male short story writersEnglish travel writersWriters of Gothic fictionEnglish satirists19th-century English non-fiction writersBritish critics of religionsTrope theorists19th-century British short story writers19th-century British philanthropistsEnglish philanthropistsAnglican writers19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsWriters from the London Borough of CamdenBritish social reformersLecturers19th-century English essayists19th-century travel writersEnglish reformersEnglish prisoners and detaineesPeople from Somers Town, London19th-century British journalistsEnglish historical novelists, 19th-century English historiansExistentialism
Melvyn Bragg discusses existentialism, a twentieth century philosophy of everyday life concerned with the individual, and his or her place within the world.
28 June 2001
Featuring: A. C. Grayling, Christina Howells, Simon Critchley
The Sonnet
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Sonnet, the most enduring form in the poet’s armoury, from Petrarch and Shakespeare, to Milton, Wordsworth and Heaney.
21 June 2001
Featuring: Frank Kermode, Phillis Levin, Jonathan Bate
Literary Modernism
Melvyn Bragg discusses literary modernism. The literary movement that embraced Joyce, DH Lawrence, TS Eliot, Virginia Woolf in the early decades of the twentieth century.
26 April 2001
Featuring: John Carey, Laura Marcus, Valentine Cunningham
Shakespeare's Life
Melvyn Bragg discusses what we know about the life of William Shakespeare, a tantalising conundrum that has exercised minds since the day the playwright died.
15 March 2001
Featuring: Katherine Duncan-Jones, John Sutherland, Grace Ioppolo
CultureEnglish male poetsSonneteers17th-century English male writersEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsPeople of the Elizabethan era16th-century English poets17th-century English poets17th-century English dramatists and playwrightsEnglish Renaissance dramatists, 16th-century English dramatists and playwrightsBurials in Warwickshire, Shakespeare family, English male stage actors, People educated at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, 17th-century English male actors, Writers from Warwickshire, 16th-century English male actors, Male actors from Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare, King's Men (playing company)Money
Melvyn Bragg examines whether economic factors are really behind all historical events.
1 March 2001
Featuring: Niall Ferguson, Richard J. Evans, Jane Humphries
The Enlightenment in Britain
Melvyn Bragg examines the part British thinkers played in the Enlightenment in the 18th century, and examines whether the shifts of thought in those years provided the platform for the modern world.
18 January 2001
Featuring: Roy Porter, Linda Colley, Jeremy Black
Gothic
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what inspired the 18th century anti-enlightenment Gothic movement, and examines how it has managed to secure itself a permanent position in popular culture even today.
4 January 2001
Featuring: Chris Baldick, A. N. Wilson, Emma Clery
Psychoanalysis and Literature
Melvyn Bragg assesses whether Freudian theory reinvents our appreciation of literature before Freud, and explores how important Freudian analysis is to understanding the great works of literature.
9 November 2000
Featuring: Adam Phillips, Malcolm Bowie, Lisa Appignanesi
The Tudor State
Melvyn Bragg discusses the role of the Tudor dynasty in reshaping the British state and whether their government of England laid the political foundations of our own age.
26 October 2000
Featuring: John Guy, Christopher Haigh, Christine Carpenter
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
London
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of London from its beginnings in the late Neolithic period, to the international, digitalised capital city of today, examining its past glories and darker times.
28 September 2000
Featuring: Peter Ackroyd, Claire Tomalin, Iain Sinclair poet
Biography
Melvyn Bragg examines why the literary studies of often long dead characters make such popular books and whether the role of the biographer is truthful chronicler or inevitably biased re-inventor.
22 June 2000
Featuring: Richard Holmes, Nigel Hamilton, Amanda Foreman
Inspiration and Genius
Melvyn Bragg examines the true meaning of genius and whether it is born or made. What circumstances are necessary for the great leaps of consciousness that inspire the development of science and art?
15 June 2000
Featuring: Arthur I. Miller, Michael Howe, Juliet Mitchell
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 American Ideal
Melvyn Bragg examines what underwrites the idealism of America that has driven its enormous cultural, economic and diplomatic influence across the globe. Was it ever ideal and is it ideal any longer?
1 June 2000
Featuring: Christopher Hitchens, John Keane, Susan Sontag
Shakespeare's Work
Melvyn Bragg discusses whether the work of William Shakespeare is 'not of an age but for all time' or increasingly irrelevant museum pieces embalmed in out of reach language.
11 May 2000
Featuring: Frank Kermode, Michael Bogdanov, Germaine Greer
CultureEnglish male poetsSonneteers17th-century English male writersEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsPeople of the Elizabethan era16th-century English poets17th-century English poets17th-century English dramatists and playwrightsEnglish Renaissance dramatists, 16th-century English dramatists and playwrightsBurials in Warwickshire, Shakespeare family, English male stage actors, People educated at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, 17th-century English male actors, Writers from Warwickshire, 16th-century English male actors, Male actors from Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare, King's Men (playing company)Death
Melvyn Bragg discusses the development of Western philosophy on the subject of death and examines how it has helped to shape our culture, literature, attitudes and rituals.
4 May 2000
Featuring: Jonathan Dollimore, Thomas Lynch, Marilyn Butler
Englishness
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the characteristics of the English identity. What is Englishness and is it possible to define it in anything more than the loosest and baggiest terms?
20 April 2000
Featuring: Paul Langford, Peter Mandler, Lola Young
Materialism and the Consumer
Melvyn Bragg examines the development and future of material culture. Are we hopelessly manipulated by materialism, or has the market developed to better our condition?
23 March 2000
Featuring: Rachel Bowlby, William Gibson
Metamorphosis
Melvyn Bragg explores the enduring appeal of the Roman poet Ovid’s masterpiece Metamorphoses, examining its wide sweep through Roman and Greek mythology and its influence on subsequent writers.
2 March 2000
Featuring: A. S. Byatt, Catherine Bates
Reading
Melvyn Bragg explores the history of reading from the prayer wheel of medieval England to the electronic book, and discusses whether what we read is essential or peripheral to the people we become.
17 February 2000
Featuring: Kevin Sharpe, Jacqueline Pearson
Masculinity in Literature
Melvyn Bragg discusses the changing archetypes of masculinity in 20th century literature, from Hemingway to Hornby, and examines whether the British ideal is at odds with its American counterpart.
20 January 2000
Featuring: Martin Amis, Cora Kaplan
Tragedy
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the ancient genre of tragedy and examines whether we have a psychological need for it, either as catharsis or Schadenfreude.
2 December 1999
Featuring: George Steiner, Catherine Belsey
The Novel
Melvyn Bragg discusses the development and the future of the novel. This must be the most prolific of novel-producing ages, but are they as good as they used to be?
11 November 1999
Featuring: D. J. Taylor, Gillian Beer
Maths and Storytelling
Melvyn Bragg discusses the similar origins of mathematics and storytelling which both require a shape and structure to make any sense. But is it possible to apply mathematical logic to literature?
30 September 1999
Featuring: John Allen Paulos, Marina Warner
Truth, Lies and fiction
Melvyn Bragg discusses the case of an acclaimed holocaust memoir that was later exposed as fiction, and examines whether authenticity is the right measure for excellence in literature.
15 July 1999
Featuring: Elena Lappin, Nick Groom
Africa
Melvyn Bragg discusses the roots of Africa's current political, economic and social crises and explores likely outcomes. Are western ideas of democracy at odds with Africa's patriarchal structures?
8 July 1999
Featuring: Henry Louis Gates Jr, Anthony Sampson
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
The Monarchy
Melvyn Bragg discusses the changing face of the British monarchy through the 20th century. How has it survived since the execution of Charles I and what relevance does it have in Britain today?
10 June 1999
Featuring: David Cannadine, Bea Campbell
Memory and Culture
Melvyn Bragg discusses how our ways of remembering have changed and explores whether memory itself can remain forever unchanged in its role within our psychology.
27 May 1999
Featuring: Malcolm Bowie, Nancy Wood
Multiculturalism
Melvyn Bragg examines whether it is possible to define how attitudes to race and identity have changed in the 20th century, given its vast shifts of population, cultures and peoples.
13 May 1999
Featuring: Stuart Hall, Avtar Brah
Writing and Political Oppression
Melvyn Bragg discusses how two writers’ work has been shaped by political oppression and examines whether writers have a political role in modern society.
8 April 1999
Featuring: Nadine Gordimer, Ariel Dorfman
Architecture in the 20th Century
Melvyn Bragg discusses the rise in so-called spectacular architecture at the end of the 20th century and examines the new challenges faced by architecture in the 21st century.
25 March 1999
Featuring: Daniel Libeskind, Richard Weston
Shakespeare and Literary Criticism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the enduring popular and academic appeal of Shakespeare and examines whether literary criticism and the academic institution ruins the pleasure of reading.
4 March 1999
Featuring: Harold Bloom, Jacqueline Rose
CultureEnglish male poetsSonneteers17th-century English male writersEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsPeople of the Elizabethan era16th-century English poets17th-century English poets17th-century English dramatists and playwrightsEnglish Renaissance dramatists, 16th-century English dramatists and playwrightsBurials in Warwickshire, Shakespeare family, English male stage actors, People educated at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, 17th-century English male actors, Writers from Warwickshire, 16th-century English male actors, Male actors from Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare, King's Men (playing company)The Avant Garde's Decline and Fall in the 20th Century
Melvyn Bragg examines the social and aesthetic impact of the Avant Garde and discusses whether it has failed in making painting relevant in the 20th century.
25 February 1999
Featuring: Eric Hobsbawm, Frances Morris
Language and the Mind
Melvyn Bragg discusses whether the formation of language is innate or cultural and examines how ideas about language are being radically challenged and altered in the 20th century.
11 February 1999
Featuring: Jonathan Miller, Steven Pinker
Modern Culture
Melvyn Bragg discusses whether contemporary culture is evidence of a moral and aesthetic decline in our civilisation in the 20th century or if it shows a society richer and more diverse than ever.
21 January 1999
Featuring: Will Self, Roger Scruton
Feminism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the rise of Feminism and the subsequent empowerment of women. What have been the most lasting changes for women in the last century and what is there still left to achieve?
7 January 1999
Featuring: Helena Cronin, Germaine Greer
The American Century
Melvyn Bragg examines whether ideals of democracy and freedom have been forged in the world as a result of American influence, or if American oppression has made a bigger impact in the 20th century.
17 December 1998
Featuring: Harry Evans, John Lloyd
Cultural rights in the 20th Century
Melvyn Bragg examines the impact of globalisation on human rights. How possible is it to place one set of societal traditions within another and what does that do to the identity of both groups?
10 December 1998
Featuring: Homi Bhabha, John N. Gray
Work in the 20th Century
Melvyn Bragg discusses the way attitudes to work and the work ethic itself have changed over the century. Has our understanding of the nature and function of work changed as radically as we imagine?
26 November 1998
Featuring: Richard Sennett, Theodore Zeldin, Melanie Phillips
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
