English male poets
The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England, United Kingdom, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known.
16 episodes
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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 cultureAuden
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 playwrightsDickens
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 historiansGerard 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
John Clare
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Clare, the 'Northamptonshire peasant poet', whose writing was as celebrated as his life was humble.
9 February 2017
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Mina Gorji, Simon Kövesi
John 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 priestsMarlowe
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 victimsMilton
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 KingdomPope
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 poetsShakespeare 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)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)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)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
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 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
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 Cross