Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

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Emma Smith

Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford

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8 episodes

Appears in multiple episodes with: Lucy Munro

Covers topics in categories such as:

CultureEnglish male poets17th-century English male writersEnglish Renaissance playsBritish plays adapted into filmsEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsPlays adapted into operasFiction about suicidePeople of the Elizabethan eraEnglish satiristsPeople from the City of London17th-century English dramatists and playwrights16th-century English poetsEnglish Renaissance dramatistsPlays adapted into television showsLove storiesShakespearean tragedies16th-century English dramatists and playwrightsShakespearean comediesPlays adapted into radio programsFiction about regicide1600s plays1590s playsLiterary duosFiction about poisoningsPlays set in ItalySonnetsPlays about witches and witchcraftFiction set in the Late Middle Ages, Plays by William Shakespeare, Propaganda in the United Kingdom, Shakespearean histories16th-century English male writers16th-century English translatorsEnglish spiesLatin–English translatorsDeaths by stabbing in England, English murder victims, People murdered in England

  1. Henry IV Part 1

    Misha Glenny and guests discuss why Shakespeare's play with Falstaff, Hotspur and Prince Hal was so popular with his Tudor audience with its theme of what makes a ruler legitimate.

    5 February 2026

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    Also featuring: Lucy Munro, Laurence Publicover

    wikipedia article ↗
     
    CultureEnglish Renaissance playsBritish plays adapted into filmsBook

  2. Thomas Middleton

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the star writers for the London stage in the age of Shakespeare, much in demand for his own work and for rewriting the work of others.

    20 March 2025

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    Also featuring: Lucy Munro, Michelle O’Callaghan

    wikipedia article ↗
     
    CultureEnglish satiristsEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsPeople from the City of London17th-century English male writersEnglish male poets17th-century English dramatists and playwrightsEnglish Renaissance dramatists17th century

  3. Twelfth Night, or What You Will

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great comedies of world literature in which love and desire in Illyria sit uneasily alongside thwarted dreams and compromise.

    28 December 2023

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    Also featuring: Pascale Aebischer, Michael Dobson

    wikipedia article ↗
     
    Culture1600s playsEnglish Renaissance playsBritish plays adapted into filmsShakespearean comediesBook

  4. Romeo and Juliet

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and power of Shakespeare's tragedy of two young lovers in Verona, their families divided by a bitter feud

    17 February 2022

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    Also featuring: Helen Hackett, Paul Prescott

    wikipedia article ↗
     
    CulturePlays adapted into operasPlays adapted into television showsFiction about suicide1590s playsEnglish Renaissance playsLiterary duosPlays adapted into radio programsFiction about poisoningsLove storiesPlays set in ItalyBritish plays adapted into filmsShakespearean tragediesBook

  5. Shakespeare's Sonnets

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 154 sonnets collected and printed in 1609 of which some are famous, many are glorious, most are inspiring and several are unsettling.

    24 June 2021

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    Also featuring: Hannah Crawforth, Don Paterson

    wikipedia article ↗
     
    CultureSonnets17th century2nd centuryPoetry

  6. Macbeth

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's tragedy of ambition where Macbeth saves his King from one revolt only to murder and replace him, to fulfil a witches' prophecy.

    1 October 2020

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    Also featuring: Kiernan Ryan, David Schalkwyk

    wikipedia article ↗
     
    CulturePlays adapted into operasPlays adapted into television showsFiction about suicideFiction about regicideEnglish Renaissance playsBritish plays adapted into filmsPlays about witches and witchcraftShakespearean tragediesBook

  7. Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's treatment of English Plantagenet history from Richard II to Richard III and all the Henrys in between, written under Elizabeth I.

    11 October 2018

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    Also featuring: Gordon McMullan, Katherine Lewis

    wikipedia article ↗
     
    CultureFiction set in the Late Middle Ages, Plays by William Shakespeare, Propaganda in the United Kingdom, Shakespearean historiesBook

  8. Marlowe

    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

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    Also featuring: Katherine Duncan-Jones, Jonathan Bate

    wikipedia article ↗
     
    16th-century English poets16th-century English male writersEnglish male dramatists and playwrights16th-century English dramatists and playwrights16th-century English translatorsPeople of the Elizabethan eraEnglish male poetsEnglish spiesLatin–English translatorsEnglish Renaissance dramatistsDeaths by stabbing in England, English murder victims, People murdered in England16th century