Dinah Birch
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Cultural Engagement and Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool
14 episodes
Covers topics in categories such as:
A Christmas Carol
From Bah Humbug to God Bless Us Every One: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Dickens' story of Scrooge's salvation by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come.
16 December 2021
Also featuring: Juliet John, Jon Mee
CultureNovels adapted into balletsVictorian novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novellasBooks illustrated by Arthur Rackham1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsBritish novels adapted into filmsNovels adapted into operasChapman & Hall booksNovels about time travelNovels set in the 19th centuryNovels set in LondonBritish novels adapted into plays19th centuryBookHenrik 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
Also featuring: Tore Rem, Kirsten Shepherd-Barr
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
Also featuring: Sally Shuttleworth, Jenny Uglow
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
Also featuring: Francis O'Gorman, Jane Thomas
Jane Eyre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell.
18 June 2015
Also featuring: Karen O'Brien, Sara Lyons
CultureNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideBritish Gothic novelsVictorian novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsHarper & Brothers booksBritish bildungsromansBritish novels adapted into films1847 British novelsLove storiesFemale characters in literatureNovels set in the 19th centurySmith, Elder & Co. booksBritish novels adapted into playsWorks published under a pseudonym19th centuryBookChristina Rossetti
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti.
1 December 2011
Also featuring: Rhian Williams, Nicholas Shrimpton
CultureEnglish hymnwriters19th-century English women writersBurials at Highgate CemeteryWriters from the London Borough of CamdenAnglican saintsVictorian women writersEnglish fantasy writersPoets from LondonSonneteersEnglish women poetsBritish people of Italian descent, English people of Italian descent, Polidori-Rossetti family19th-century British writersVictorian poets19th centuryTennyson's In Memoriam
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam.
30 June 2011
Also featuring: Seamus Perry, Jane Wright
Octavia Hill
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian reformer Octavia Hill, pioneer of social housing and campaigner for public open spaces.
7 April 2011
Also featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Gillian Darley
Silas Marner
Melvyn Bragg and guests Rosemary Ashton, Dinah Birch and Valentine Cunningham discuss George Eliot's 1861 novel Silas Marner.
28 January 2010
Also featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Valentine Cunningham
The Great Reform Act
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Great Reform Act of 1832, a landmark in British political history.
27 November 2008
Also featuring: Michael Bentley, Catherine Hall
Victorian 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
Also featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Peter Mandler
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
Also featuring: Keith Hanley, Stefan Collini
English philosophers19th-century British journalistsEnglish essayistsArchitectural theoreticiansArtists' Rifles soldiersAnglo-ScotsAlumni of King's College LondonAnti-consumeristsAlumni of Christ Church, OxfordEnglish fantasy writersEnglish children's writersArts and Crafts movement artistsEnglish people of Scottish descentMale essayistsCritics of political economy19th-century British economistsCritics of work and the work ethic19th centuryEconomicsSensation
Melvyn Bragg discusses the novels of sensation, a literary phenomenon which swept through the Victorian era.
6 November 2003
Also featuring: John Mullan, Lyn Pykett
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
Also featuring: Philip Davis, A. N. Wilson