Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

Fairy tale stock characters

In fairy tales, a fairy godmother (French: fée marraine) is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies. In Perrault's "Cinderella", he concludes the tale with the moral that no personal advantages will suffice without proper connections.

3 episodes

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  1. Dragons

    Dragons have breathed fire into folklore, literature and popular culture from the ancient world to the Christian Bible, the tales of Tolkien to The Game of Thrones.

    26 June 2025

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    Featuring: Kelsey Granger, Daniel Ogden, Juliette Wood

     
  2. 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

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    Featuring: Juliette Wood, Diane Purkiss, Nicola Bown

     
  3. The Unicorn

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and mythology of the unicorn.

    28 October 2010

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    Featuring: Juliette Wood, Lauren Kassell, David Ekserdjian