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Wales

6 episodes

1. George Herbert

   Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of 'the most beautiful poem in the world' whose works on his relationship with God offered comfort to Charles I when he faced execution.

   7 November 2024

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   Featuring: Helen Wilcox, Victoria Moul, Simon Jackson

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   CulturePoet priestsAnglican poetsAnglican saintsTuberculosis deaths in England17th-century English poets17th-century Christian mysticsPeople celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendarAlumni of Trinity College, CambridgeProtestant mysticsAnglo-Welsh poets17th-century deaths from tuberculosisSonneteers17th-century English male writersEnglish male poets17th-century English Anglican priestsAnglican writersPeople educated at Westminster School, LondonLutheran saints17th centuryWales

2. 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

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   Featuring: Henrietta Leyser, Michelle Brown, Huw Pryce

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   CultureChristian hagiographers1140s births12th-century writers in Latin13th-century writers in Latin12th century13th centuryWales

3. 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   Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works of Hopkins, unpublished in his lifetime, who FR Leavis called 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age and the greatest'.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

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   Featuring: Catherine Phillips, Jane Wright, Martin Dubois

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   CulturePoet priests19th-century English poetsEnglish Catholic poetsAlumni of Balliol College, OxfordAnglo-Welsh poetsSonneteersEnglish male poetsConverts to Roman Catholicism from AnglicanismVictorian poets19th centuryWales

4. 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

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   Featuring: Sioned Davies, Helen Fulton, Juliette Wood

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   CultureWelsh mythologyPigs in literatureWorks of unknown authorshipWales

5. The Welsh Marches

   Misha Glenny and guests discuss four centuries of Norman warlord rule in much of Wales almost independent from the kings with one law for the English and another for the Welsh.

   28 May 2026

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   Featuring: Rhun Emlyn, Helen Fulton, Huw Pryce

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   Wales

6. 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

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   Featuring: Laura Ashe, Juliette Wood, Mark Chinca

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   CultureWelsh mythologyArthurian charactersLiterary duosLove stories12th centuryWales