BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time: Culture Podcast - Popular culture, poetry, music and visual arts and the roles they play in our society. - Updated: occasionally - Episodes available: indefinitely

****************

back  to  home  page ...

2024-01-27

This web page was created by the braintumorguy, in Athens, GREECE.

===

the US produces aircraft. Germany produces cars. Greece produces saints and the braintumorguy …  BRAIN TUMOR, HOMELESS, in Athens, GREECE, please make a small Donation,

( 1 Euro ... ), ( 1 U.S. dollar $ ... ), ( 1 U.K. Pound £ ... ), ...

my Brain Tumor is Growing, for more information about me, please visit my MEDICAL web page ...  


BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time: Culture Podcast - Popular culture, poetry, music and visual arts and the roles they play in our society. - Updated: occasionally - Episodes available: indefinitely

==

All MP4s are in ...   

ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time - Culture Podcast - Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCqXkwjigY4&list=PLH99V1T9pDs5iQX-WfSTqKP1h1b27NLca

AND

ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time - Culture Podcast - Part 2

==> Your attention please ... is not ready yet ... it will be after a few days of weeks !

==

All MP3s  are ...    from   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01drwny/episodes/downloads?page=1

and from   https://sites.google.com/view/my-gallery-of-bbc-radio-4-podc/1-culture-podcast

and from   https://sites.google.com/view/bbc-radio-4---culture-podcast    <== this is for duplicate reasons only !

==

Culture Podcast

Popular culture, poetry, music and visual arts and the roles they play in our society.

Updated: occasionally

Episodes available: indefinitely

 

276 Episodes – 2024-01-28


WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE 28 EPISODE -> In Our Time is now first on BBC Sounds

 

==========

1

Episodes to download


 

Twelfth Night, or What You Will

Thu 28 Dec 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's great comedy of love, desire and marriage.

Download

Choose your file

 

Vincent van Gogh

Thu 21 Dec 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Dutch painter of Sunflowers and Starry Nights.

Download

Choose your file

 

Edgar Allan Poe

Thu 30 Nov 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of the Fall of the House of Usher.

Download

Choose your file

 

Marguerite de Navarre

Thu 23 Nov 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss writer and Renaissance queen Marguerite de Navarre.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Theory of the Leisure Class

Thu 16 Nov 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Veblen on conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure.

Download

Choose your file

 

Germinal

Thu 26 Oct 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emile Zola's novel, set in a French miners' strike.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Seventh Seal

Thu 21 Sep 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bergman's iconic film of a knight playing chess with Death

Download

Choose your file

 

Death in Venice

Thu 15 Jun 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Mann's novella of 1912.

Download

Choose your file

 

Oedipus Rex

Thu 8 Jun 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests on Sophocles' tragedy, sometimes called the best play ever written

Download

Choose your file

 

Virgil's Georgics

Thu 18 May 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet's celebration of agriculture and rural life

Download

Choose your file

 

A Room of One's Own

Thu 30 Mar 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Virginia Woolf's essay on women and literature.

Download

Choose your file

 

Stevie Smith

Thu 16 Feb 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the writer best known for her poem Not Waving But Drowning

Download

Choose your file

 

John Donne

Thu 12 Jan 2023

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the priest who was one of England's finest love poets.

Download

Choose your file

 

Persuasion

Thu 22 Dec 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Austen's last complete novel, published after her death.

Download

Choose your file

 

Citizen Kane

Thu 15 Dec 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orson Welles' celebrated and influential film from 1941.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Nibelungenlied

Thu 1 Dec 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval German epic The Song of the Nibelungs.

Download

Choose your file

 

Bauhaus

Thu 10 Nov 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential German school founded by Walter Gropius.

Download

Choose your file

 

Wilfred Owen

Thu 27 Oct 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the outstanding poets of the First World War.

Download

Choose your file

 

Berthe Morisot

Thu 13 Oct 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the innovative artist at the heart of French impressionism

Download

Choose your file

 

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Thu 15 Sep 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orwell's novel on totalitarianism, truth and surveillance.

Download

Choose your file

 

John Bull

Thu 30 Jun 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and evolution of the satirical everyman figure

Download

Choose your file

 

Dylan Thomas

Thu 16 Jun 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems, plays and persona of the prominent Welsh writer

Download

Choose your file

 

Tang Era Poetry

Thu 12 May 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Li Bai and Du Fu from the Golden Age of Chinese Poetry.

Download

Choose your file

 

Olympe de Gouges

Thu 21 Apr 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791

Download

Choose your file

 

Polidori's The Vampyre

Thu 7 Apr 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1819 work that inspired two centuries of vampire tales

Download

Choose your file

 

The Sistine Chapel

Thu 31 Mar 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Michelangelo's iconic frescoes in Renaissance Rome.

Download

Choose your file

 

Antigone

Thu 24 Mar 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Sophocles' tragedy of an autocrat who defies family ties.

Download

Choose your file

 

In Our Time is now first on BBC Sounds

Fri 4 Mar 2022

New episodes will now be available first on Sounds for 28 days before other podcast apps.

Download

Choose your file

 

Romeo and Juliet

Thu 17 Feb 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's tragedy of young star-crossed love in Verona

Download

Choose your file

 

Colette

Thu 27 Jan 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a major force in French culture in the 20th century.

Download

==========

2

Episodes to download

 

30


 

Thomas Hardy's Poetry

Thu 13 Jan 2022

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's goal of being a great poet and how he succeeded.

Download

Choose your file

 

Fritz Lang

Thu 30 Dec 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a giant of cinema in Weimar Germany and Hollywood.

Download

Choose your file

 

A Christmas Carol

Thu 16 Dec 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Dickens' celebrated story of Scrooge's redemption.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Decadent Movement

Thu 18 Nov 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Beardsley, Wilde and art for art's sake in the 1890s.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Song of Roland

Thu 4 Nov 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a masterpiece of French epic poetry from the 12th century.

Download

Choose your file

 

Iris Murdoch

Thu 21 Oct 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of the celebrated author of The Bell.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Thu 30 Sep 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's novel of a woman's fight for independence.

Download

Choose your file

 

Herodotus

Thu 23 Sep 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer known as the father of history.

Download

Choose your file

 

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Thu 24 Jun 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the greatest and most challenging poems in English

Download

Choose your file

 

Edward Gibbon

Thu 17 Jun 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Download

Choose your file

 

Journey to the West

Thu 20 May 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great novel from the Ming Era, with its heroic Monkey.

Download

Choose your file

 

Ovid

Thu 29 Apr 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential poets of Rome's Augustan Age.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Bacchae

Thu 18 Mar 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revenge of Dionysus on Thebes in Euripides' tragedy.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Thu 4 Mar 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Coleridge's famous poem of a sailor who shot an albatross.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Rosetta Stone

Thu 11 Feb 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the deciphering of hieroglyphs, secret for 1,500 years.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Great Gatsby

Thu 14 Jan 2021

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Fitzgerald's celebrated novel of the Jazz Age.

Download

Choose your file

 

Fernando Pessoa

Thu 3 Dec 2020

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Portuguese poet and his many literary personas.

Download

Choose your file

 

Albrecht Dürer

Thu 12 Nov 2020

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and timeless works of the great German artist.

Download

Choose your file

 

Piers Plowman

Thu 29 Oct 2020

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Langland's celebrated poem, written around 1370.

Download

Choose your file

 

Macbeth

Thu 1 Oct 2020

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies.

Download

Choose your file

 

George Sand

Thu 6 Feb 2020

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated French novelist, her life and work.

Download

Choose your file

 

Catullus

Thu 9 Jan 2020

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems of Catullus from the late Roman Republic

Download

Choose your file

 

Auden

Thu 19 Dec 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss WH Auden's life and his poetry from the 1930s.

Download

Choose your file

 

Crime and Punishment

Thu 14 Nov 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dostoevsky's novel. The hero thinks he's above the law....

Download

Choose your file

 

Robert Burns

Thu 24 Oct 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry, ideas and life of Robert Burns (1759-1796).

Download

Choose your file

 

The Time Machine

Thu 17 Oct 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science and ideas in HG Wells' story of time travel.

Download

Choose your file

 

Lorca

Thu 4 Jul 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish poet and playwright's work, life and death.

Download

Choose your file

 

Sir Thomas Browne

Thu 6 Jun 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the physician with a curious mind in dangerous times

Download

Choose your file

 

Frankenstein

Thu 16 May 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a monster brought to life

Download

Choose your file

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Thu 18 Apr 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's comedy, one of his most popular plays

Download

==========

3

Episodes to download

60


 

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Thu 21 Mar 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age'.

Download

Choose your file

 

Antarah ibn Shaddad

Thu 28 Feb 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and context of this pre-Islamic Arabian knight

Download

Choose your file

 

Judith beheading Holofernes

Thu 14 Feb 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how this Bible story has inspired artists for centuries.

Download

Choose your file

 

Samuel Beckett

Thu 17 Jan 2019

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and novelist, author of Waiting for Godot

Download

Choose your file

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Thu 13 Dec 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest poems from medieval England

Download

Choose your file

 

Horace

Thu 15 Nov 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Horace, who flourished under Augustus.

Download

Choose your file

 

Is Shakespeare History? The Romans

Thu 18 Oct 2018

Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 2 of 2).

Download

Choose your file

 

Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets

Thu 11 Oct 2018

Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 1 of 2)

Download

Choose your file

 

Edith Wharton

Thu 4 Oct 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Iliad

Thu 13 Sep 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic poem on the wrath of Achilles in the Trojan War.

Download

Choose your file

 

William Morris

Thu 5 Jul 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a great cultural figure of the 19th century.

Download

Choose your file

 

Henrik Ibsen

Thu 31 May 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and his tragedies of middle-class life.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Mabinogion

Thu 10 May 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval Welsh stories of Celtic mythology.

Download

Choose your file

 

Middlemarch

Thu 19 Apr 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's greatest novel, published 1871-72.

Download

Choose your file

 

Anna Akhmatova

Thu 18 Jan 2018

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the celebrated Russian poet.

Download

Choose your file

 

Hamlet

Thu 28 Dec 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's best known, longest and most quoted play.

Download

Choose your file

 

Beethoven

Thu 21 Dec 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and influence of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Download

Choose your file

 

Moby Dick

Thu 7 Dec 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most popular idea sent in by listeners.

Download

Choose your file

 

Germaine de Stael

Thu 16 Nov 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and works of the great woman of letters.

Download

Choose your file

 

Picasso's Guernica

Thu 2 Nov 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events behind and impact of Picasso's iconic work.

Download

Choose your file

 

Aphra Behn

Thu 12 Oct 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aphra Behn (1640-1689): playwright, poet, spy.

Download

Choose your file

 

Wuthering Heights

Thu 28 Sep 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights.

Download

Choose your file

 

Eugene Onegin

Thu 22 Jun 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Pushkin's masterpiece, Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse.

Download

Choose your file

 

Christine de Pizan

Thu 8 Jun 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Christine de Pizan (c1364-1430).

Download

Choose your file

 

Emily Dickinson

Thu 11 May 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), celebrated American poet.

Download

Choose your file

 

Hokusai

Thu 30 Mar 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

Download

Choose your file

 

North and South

Thu 9 Mar 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South from 1855.

Download

Choose your file

 

Seneca the Younger

Thu 23 Feb 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works, life and times of Seneca the Younger.

Download

Choose your file

 

John Clare

Thu 9 Feb 2017

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Clare, poet and farm labourer.

Download

Choose your file

 

Four Quartets

Thu 22 Dec 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss TS Eliot's Four Quartets, known as his great last work.

Download

Choose your file

==========

4

Episodes to download

 

90


 

The Fighting Temeraire

Thu 10 Nov 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire.

Download

Choose your file

 

Epic of Gilgamesh

Thu 3 Nov 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Gilgamesh, the great epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia.

Download

Choose your file

 

The 12th Century Renaissance

Thu 20 Oct 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a period of great change in western Europe.

Download

Choose your file

 

In Our Time - Animal Farm

Thu 29 Sep 2016

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Download

Choose your file

 

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Thu 23 Jun 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

Download

Choose your file

 

The Muses

Thu 19 May 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Muses in Greek mythology and after.

Download

Choose your file

 

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Thu 5 May 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

Download

Choose your file

 

Aurora Leigh

Thu 24 Mar 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Download

Choose your file

 

Rumi's Poetry

Thu 11 Feb 2016

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Rumi (1207-1273).

Download

Choose your file

 

Tristan and Iseult

Thu 31 Dec 2015

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the story of Tristan and Iseult.

Download

Choose your file

 

Emma

Thu 19 Nov 2015

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emma, the novel by Jane Austen.

Download

Choose your file

 

Holbein at the Tudor Court

Thu 15 Oct 2015

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Holbein at the court of Henry VIII.

Download

Choose your file

 

Frida Kahlo

Thu 9 Jul 2015

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Frida Kahlo.

Download


 

Jane Eyre

Thu 18 Jun 2015

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, first published in 1847.

Download


 

Tagore

Thu 7 May 2015

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rabindranath Tagore.

Download


 

Fanny Burney

Thu 23 Apr 2015

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the 18th-century writer Fanny Burney.

Download


 

Sappho

Thu 9 Apr 2015

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek poet Sappho.

Download


 

Beowulf

Thu 5 Mar 2015

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.

Download


 

Bruegel's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent

Thu 15 Jan 2015

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bruegel's painting The Fight Between Carnival and Lent.

Download


 

Kafka's The Trial

Thu 27 Nov 2014

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Trial, by Franz Kafka.

Download


 

Aesop

Thu 20 Nov 2014

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aesop, legendary author of the famous collection of fables

Download


 

Rudyard Kipling

Thu 16 Oct 2014

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Rudyard Kipling.

Download


 

Mrs Dalloway

Thu 3 Jul 2014

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway.

Download


 

The Bluestockings

Thu 5 Jun 2014

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 18th-century Bluestocking Society.

Download


 

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Thu 22 May 2014

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

Download


 

The Tale of Sinuhe

Thu 1 May 2014

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Egyptian poem The Tale of Sinuhe.

Download


 

Tristram Shandy

Thu 24 Apr 2014

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's comic novel Tristram Shandy.

Download


 

The Tempest

Thu 14 Nov 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Download


 

Pascal

Thu 19 Sep 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the French thinker Blaise Pascal.

Download


 

The Invention of Radio

Thu 4 Jul 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the invention of radio.

Download

==========

5

Episodes to download

 

120

 


 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Thu 27 Jun 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Chinese book Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Download


 

Queen Zenobia

Thu 30 May 2013

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Queen Zenobia, who led a rebellion against Ancient Rome.

Download


 

Lévi-Strauss

Thu 23 May 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss.

Download


 

Icelandic Sagas

Thu 9 May 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Icelandic sagas.

Download


 

Montaigne

Thu 25 Apr 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the great French writer Michel de Montaigne.

Download


 

The Amazons

Thu 11 Apr 2013

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Amazons, formidable female warriors of classical myth.

Download


 

Chekhov

Thu 14 Mar 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Russian writer Anton Chekhov.

Download


 

Decline and Fall

Thu 21 Feb 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Decline and Fall.

Download


 

Le Morte d'Arthur

Thu 10 Jan 2013

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Malory's epic medieval tale Le Morte d'Arthur.

Download


 

Shahnameh of Ferdowsi

Thu 13 Dec 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi.

Download


 

The Anarchy

Thu 1 Nov 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Anarchy, the 12th-century English civil war.

Download


 

Caxton and the Printing Press

Thu 18 Oct 2012

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Caxton and the influence of the printing press.

Download


 

Gerald of Wales

Thu 4 Oct 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval scholar Gerald of Wales.

Download


 

The Druids

Thu 20 Sep 2012

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Druids of ancient Europe.

Download


 

Annie Besant

Thu 21 Jun 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 19th-century writer and campaigner Annie Besant.

Download


 

James Joyce's Ulysses

Thu 14 Jun 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss James Joyce's celebrated novel Ulysses.

Download


 

Voltaire's Candide

Thu 3 May 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Voltaire's satirical novel Candide, published in 1759.

Download


 

Moses Mendelssohn

Thu 22 Mar 2012

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.

Download


 

Benjamin Franklin

Thu 1 Mar 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Benjamin Franklin.

Download


 

The Kama Sutra

Thu 2 Feb 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Kama Sutra.

Download


 

The Safavid Dynasty

Thu 12 Jan 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Safavid Dynasty of early modern Iran.

Download


 

Robinson Crusoe

Thu 22 Dec 2011

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe's seminal novel Robinson Crusoe.

Download


 

Christina Rossetti

Thu 1 Dec 2011

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti.

Download


 

Tennyson's In Memoriam

Thu 30 Jun 2011

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam.

Download


 

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Thu 12 May 2011

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Robert Burton's book The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Download


 

The Medieval University

Thu 17 Mar 2011

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the foundation of the medieval universities.

Download


 

Aristotle's Poetics

Thu 27 Jan 2011

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristotle's Poetics.

Download


 

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Thu 6 Jan 2011

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Byron's poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

Download


 

History of Metaphor

Thu 25 Nov 2010

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of metaphor.

Download


 

The Unicorn

Thu 28 Oct 2010

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and mythology of the unicorn.

Download

==========

6

Episodes to download

 

150

 


 

Sturm und Drang

Thu 14 Oct 2010

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the German artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang.

Download


 

al-Biruni

Thu 10 Jun 2010

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Central Asian scientist and historian al-Biruni.

Download

Choose your file

 

Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists

Thu 27 May 2010

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists.

Download


 

Roman Satire

Thu 22 Apr 2010

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Roman satire.

Download


 

Munch and The Scream

Thu 18 Mar 2010

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Edvard Munch and his most famous painting, The Scream.

Download


 

Silas Marner

Thu 28 Jan 2010

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's 1861 novel Silas Marner.

Download


 

The Samurai

Christmas Eve 2009

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and myth of the Samurai.

Download


 

Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Thu 26 Nov 2009

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Download


 

Elizabethan Revenge

Thu 18 Jun 2009

Melvyn Bragg discusses why revenge tragedy was so popular with Elizabethan theatre goers.

Download


 

The Whale - A History

Thu 21 May 2009

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the evolutionary history of the whale.

Download


 

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Thu 9 Apr 2009

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aldous Huxley's dystopian 1932 novel Brave New World.

Download


 

The School of Athens

Thu 26 Mar 2009

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Raphael's depiction of Plato and Aristotle.

Download


 

The Waste Land and Modernity

Thu 26 Feb 2009

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss TS Eliot's seminal poem The Waste Land.

Download


 

The Brothers Grimm

Thu 5 Feb 2009

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm.

Download


 

Swift's A Modest Proposal

Thu 29 Jan 2009

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jonathan Swift's satirical 1729 pamphlet A Modest Proposal

Download


 

The Baroque Movement

Thu 20 Nov 2008

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the culture of the Baroque.

Download


 

Dante's Inferno

Thu 23 Oct 2008

Melvyn Bragg examines Dante’s ‘Inferno’, a medieval journey through Hell’s nine circles

Download


 

The Metaphysical Poets

Thu 3 Jul 2008

Melvyn Bragg examines the Metaphysical poets, including John Donne and Andrew Marvell.

Download


 

The Music of the Spheres

Thu 19 Jun 2008

Melvyn Bragg explores the ancient astrological idea of the music of the spheres.

Download


 

The Riddle of the Sands

Thu 12 Jun 2008

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prescient thriller about Anglo-German relations.

Download


 

The Library at Nineveh

Thu 15 May 2008

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a treasure house of Assyrian ideas.

Download


 

Yeats and Irish Politics

Thu 17 Apr 2008

Melvyn Bragg examines the effect of Irish politics on the work of the poet W.B. Yeats.

Download


 

The Greek Myths

Thu 13 Mar 2008

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek myths from Achilles to Zeus.

Download


 

Lear

Thu 28 Feb 2008

Melvyn Bragg and guests examine Shakespeare’s bloodthirsty tragedy, King Lear.

Download


 

Rudolph II

Thu 31 Jan 2008

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rudolph II and his Renaissance Court in Prague.

Download


 

The Fisher King

Thu 17 Jan 2008

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enigmatic myth of the Fisher King.

Download


 

Camus

Thu 3 Jan 2008

The life ad work of the Algerian-French writer and philosopher, Albert Camus.

Download


 

The Prelude

Thu 22 Nov 2007

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Wordsworth’s poem, The Prelude.

Download


 

Taste

Thu 25 Oct 2007

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th century obsession with taste.

Download


 

The Arabian Nights

Thu 18 Oct 2007

Melvyn Bragg discusses the myths, tales and legends of the Arabian Nights.

Download

==========

7

Episodes to download

 

180

 


 

Madame Bovary

Thu 12 Jul 2007

Melvyn Bragg discusses the 1857 trial of Gustave Flaubert's novel, Madame Bovary

Download


 

Siegfried Sassoon

Thu 7 Jun 2007

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war poet Siegfried Sassoon.

Download


 

Victorian Pessimism

Thu 10 May 2007

Melvyn Bragg discusses the high pessimism of Victorian culture.

Download


 

Greek and Roman Love Poetry

Thu 26 Apr 2007

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Greek and Roman love poetry.

Download


 

Epistolary Literature

Thu 15 Mar 2007

Melvyn Bragg discusses epistolary literature from Aphra Benn to Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Download


 

Heart of Darkness

Thu 15 Feb 2007

Melvyn Bragg discusses Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness.

Download


 

Hell

Thu 21 Dec 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Hell and its representation in the arts.

Download


 

Pope

Thu 9 Nov 2006

The life and work of the brilliant, acerbic and unpopular poet Alexander Pope.

Download


 

The Encyclopédie

Thu 26 Oct 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great achievements of the Enlightenment.

Download


 

Comedy in Ancient Greek Theatre

Thu 13 Jul 2006

Melvyn Bragg explores comedy in Ancient Greek theatre including Aristophanes and Menander.

Download


 

Pastoral Literature

Thu 6 Jul 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss pastoral literature from Virgil to Dylan Thomas.

Download


 

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Thu 8 Jun 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th century anti-slavery novel, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'.

Download


 

Mathematics and Music

Thu 25 May 2006

Melvyn Bragg examines the mathematical structures that lie within the heart of music.

Download


 

Fairies

Thu 11 May 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 5000 year cultural history of fairies.

Download


 

Jorge Luis Borges

Thu 6 Apr 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Jorge Luis Borges.

Download


 

Goethe

Thu 6 Apr 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great German polymath, Johann Wolfgang Goethe.

Download


 

The Carolingian Renaissance

Thu 30 Mar 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Emperor Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance.

Download


 

Don Quixote

Thu 16 Mar 2006

Melvyn Bragg considers the importance of the 17th century Spanish novel Don Quixote.

Download


 

Friendship

Thu 2 Mar 2006

Melvyn Bragg explores the concept of friendship; ‘a single soul dwelling in two bodies’.

Download


 

Chaucer

Thu 9 Feb 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English literature.

Download


 

Seventeenth Century Print Culture

Thu 26 Jan 2006

Melvyn Bragg examines the controversy and scandal of 17th century print culture.

Download


 

The Oresteia

Thu 29 Dec 2005

Melvyn Bragg examines the ‘Oresteia’, the seminal trilogy of tragedies by Aeschylus.

Download


 

Johnson

Thu 27 Oct 2005

The life and work of Samuel Johnson, a giant of 18th century literature.

Download


 

Marlowe

Thu 7 Jul 2005

Melvyn Bragg examines the life of glittering Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe.

Download


 

Merlin

Thu 30 Jun 2005

Melvyn Bragg examines Merlin, prophet, magician, king maker and the mad man of the woods.

Download


 

The Scriblerus Club

Thu 9 Jun 2005

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the satirical 18th century Scriblerus Club.

Download


 

Abelard and Heloise

Thu 5 May 2005

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval tale of Abelard and Heloise.

Download


 

The Aeneid

Thu 21 Apr 2005

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ‘The Aeneid’, Virgil's great epic poem about Rome.

Download


 

John Ruskin

Thu 31 Mar 2005

The life and work of one of the most influential figures of the Victorian era.

Download


 

Angels

Thu 24 Mar 2005

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the heavenly host of Angels.

Download

==========

8

Episodes to download

 

210

 


 

Modernist Utopias

Thu 10 Mar 2005

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the mad, bad world of modern utopias.

Download


 

Faust

Thu 23 Dec 2004

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the myth of Faustus and temptation by evil.

Download


 

Sartre

Thu 7 Oct 2004

The life and work of French novelist, playwright and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

Download


 

Politeness

Thu 30 Sep 2004

Melvyn Bragg examines the cultural effect of the eighteenth century idea of Politeness.

Download


 

The Odyssey

Thu 9 Sep 2004

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the monster filled epic, Homer’s Odyssey.

Download


 

The Later Romantics

Thu 15 Apr 2004

Melvyn Bragg examines the poetry, tragedy and idealism of Byron, Shelley and Keats.

Download


 

The Norse Gods

Thu 11 Mar 2004

Melvyn Bragg examines the myths and theology that inspired the Vikings.

Download


 

The Sublime

Thu 12 Feb 2004

Melvyn Bragg explores a transcendental idea that took hold on the Age of Enlightenment.

Download


 

Sensation

Thu 6 Nov 2003

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the novels of sensation, a Victorian literary phenomenon.

Download


 

Robin Hood

Thu 30 Oct 2003

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the centuries old myth of the most romantic noble outlaw.

Download


 

Bohemianism

Thu 9 Oct 2003

Melvyn Bragg examines the 19th century Parisian philosophy of life lived for art.

Download


 

Youth

Thu 24 Apr 2003

Melvyn Bragg examines the history of concepts and ideas on youth from antiquity to today.

Download


 

Proust

Thu 17 Apr 2003

The life and work of the celebrated 20th century French novelist Marcel Proust.

Download


 

Originality

Thu 20 Mar 2003

Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the creative force of originality.

Download


 

The Epic

Thu 6 Feb 2003

The history of the epic, from Homer's Odyssey to Joyce’s Ulysses.

Download


 

Victorian Realism

Thu 14 Nov 2002

Melvyn Bragg explores Victorian realism and its focus on the ordinariness of life.

Download


 

Cultural Imperialism

Thu 27 Jun 2002

Melvyn Bragg examines how a dominant power can exert a cultural influence on its empire.

Download


 

Wagner

Thu 20 Jun 2002

Melvyn Bragg examines the position of Richard Wagner and his music in German culture.

Download


 

The Grand Tour

Thu 30 May 2002

The origins and cultural impact of 18th century tourism.

Download


 

Tolstoy

Thu 25 Apr 2002

Melvyn Bragg explores the life and work of the 19th century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.

Download


 

The Artist

Thu 28 Mar 2002

Melvyn Bragg explores the history and changing the status of the artist.

Download


 

Marriage

Thu 21 Mar 2002

The history of marriage from ancient Greek and Babylonian times to today.

Download


 

Milton

Thu 7 Mar 2002

Melvyn Bragg examines both the literary and political careers of the poet John Milton.

Download


 

Yeats and Mysticism

Thu 31 Jan 2002

Melvyn Bragg explores the strange and mystical world of the Irish poet W B Yeats.

Download


 

Sensibility

Thu 3 Jan 2002

Melvyn Bragg examines the ideas behind the 18th century literary cult of sensibility.

Download


 

Food

Thu 27 Dec 2001

The cultural history of food in Modern Europe since the Renaissance.

Download


 

Oscar Wilde

Thu 6 Dec 2001

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Oscar Wilde, his literary legacy and the Aesthetes.

Download


 

Surrealism

Thu 15 Nov 2001

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss surrealism, the art of the unconscious.

Download


 

Dickens

Thu 12 Jul 2001

The achievements and legacy of the 19th century literary giant Charles Dickens.

Download


 

Existentialism

Thu 28 Jun 2001

Melvyn Bragg and guests examine the 20th century philosophy of existentialism

Download

==========

9

Episodes to download

 

240

 


 

The Sonnet

Thu 21 Jun 2001

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Sonnet, the most enduring form in the poet’s armoury.

Download


 

Literary Modernism

Thu 26 Apr 2001

Melvyn Bragg examines the movement that embraced Joyce, DH Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.

Download


 

Shakespeare's Life

Thu 15 Mar 2001

Melvyn Bragg and guests consider the enigma of the life of William Shakespeare

Download


 

Gothic

Thu 4 Jan 2001

Melvyn Bragg examines the origins and significance of the 18th century Gothic movement.

Download


 

Psychoanalysis and Literature

Thu 9 Nov 2000

Melvyn Bragg assesses the role of Freudian analysis in understanding literature.

Download


 

The Romantics

Thu 12 Oct 2000

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideals, exponents and legacy of Romanticism.

Download


 

London

Thu 28 Sep 2000

The history of London from its Neolithic origin to the digitalised capital city of today.

Download


 

Biography

Thu 22 Jun 2000

Melvyn Bragg examines why the public is fascinated with the private lives of individuals.

Download


 

Inspiration and Genius

Thu 15 Jun 2000

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the true meaning of genius and whether it is born or made.

Download


 

The Renaissance

Thu 8 Jun 2000

Melvyn Bragg explores the veracity of modern claims about the culture of the Renaissance.

Download


 

The American Ideal

Thu 1 Jun 2000

Melvyn Bragg and guests examine the ideals that underwrite the idealism of America.

Download


 

Shakespeare's Work

Thu 11 May 2000

Melvyn Bragg examines what it is about Shakespeare’s work that makes it universal.

Download


 

Death

Thu 4 May 2000

Melvyn Bragg examines the development of Western rituals and attitudes to death.

Download


 

Englishness

Thu 20 Apr 2000

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the characteristics of the English identity.

Download


 

Materialism and the Consumer

Thu 23 Mar 2000

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development and future of material culture.

Download


 

Metamorphosis

Thu 2 Mar 2000

Melvyn Bragg explores the enduring appeal of the Roman poet Ovid’s work Metamorphoses.

Download


 

Reading

Thu 17 Feb 2000

The history of the politics, practice and process of reading.

Download


 

Masculinity in Literature

Thu 20 Jan 2000

Melvyn Bragg investigates the changing ideals of masculinity in 20th century literature.

Download


 

Tragedy

Thu 2 Dec 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines whether the ancient genre of tragedy has a place in our own time.

Download


 

The Novel

Thu 11 Nov 1999

Melvyn Bragg and guests consider the development and the future of the novel.

Download


 

Maths and Storytelling

Thu 30 Sep 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines whether it is possible to apply mathematical logic to literature.

Download


 

Truth, Lies and Fiction

Thu 15 Jul 1999

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether it matters if memoirs aren’t entirely truthful.

Download


 

Capitalism

Thu 24 Jun 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines the history of capitalism from Marx to the collapse of Communism.

Download


 

The Monarchy

Thu 10 Jun 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines the enduring strengths and current role of the British monarchy.

Download


 

Memory and Culture

Thu 27 May 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines how our collective and individual ways of remembering have changed.

Download


 

Multiculturalism

Thu 13 May 1999

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 20th century’s vast population and cultural shifts.

Download


 

Writing and Political Oppression

Thu 8 Apr 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines whether writers have a political role in modern society.

Download


 

Architecture in the 20th Century

Thu 25 Mar 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines what the architecture of the 20th century says about the age.

Download


 

Shakespeare and Literary Criticism

Thu 4 Mar 1999

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enduring popular and academic appeal of Shakespeare.

Download


 

The Avant Garde's Decline and Fall in the 20th Century

Thu 25 Feb 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines the history and legacy of 20th Century Avant Garde painting.

Download

==========

10

Episodes to download

 

270


 

Language and the Mind

Thu 11 Feb 1999

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether the formation of language is innate or cultural.

Download

271


 

Modern Culture

Thu 21 Jan 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines the definition and state of modern culture in the 20th century.

Download

 

272


 

Feminism

Thu 7 Jan 1999

Melvyn Bragg examines the development of the empowerment of women in the 20th century.

Download

 

273


 

The American Century

Thu 17 Dec 1998

Melvyn Bragg examines how legitimate it is to call the 20th century the American century.

Download

 

274


 

Cultural Rights in the 20th Century

Thu 10 Dec 1998

Melvyn Bragg examines what impact globalisation has had on human rights.

Download

 

275


 

Work in the 20th Century

Thu 26 Nov 1998

Melvyn Bragg examines the changing ideas about the function of work in the 20th century.

Download

276


 

The City in the 20th Century

Thu 12 Nov 1998

Melvyn Bragg looks at the innovative developments of the city in the 20th century.

Download

==========