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
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 novelsHenrik 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
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. booksChristina 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
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 descentTennyson'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
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 journalistsSensation
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