Emma Smith
Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford
4 episodes
Covers topics in categories such as:
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
Also featuring: Pascale Aebischer, Michael Dobson
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
Also featuring: Helen Hackett, Paul Prescott
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
Also featuring: Hannah Crawforth, Don Paterson
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
Also featuring: Kiernan Ryan, David Schalkwyk