1. Culture Podcast
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
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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.
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Thu 21 Dec 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Dutch painter of Sunflowers and Starry Nights.
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Thu 30 Nov 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of the Fall of the House of Usher.
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Thu 23 Nov 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss writer and Renaissance queen Marguerite de Navarre.
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The Theory of the Leisure Class
Thu 16 Nov 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Veblen on conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure.
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Thu 26 Oct 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emile Zola's novel, set in a French miners' strike.
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Thu 21 Sep 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bergman's iconic film of a knight playing chess with Death
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Thu 15 Jun 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Mann's novella of 1912.
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Thu 8 Jun 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests on Sophocles' tragedy, sometimes called the best play ever written
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Thu 18 May 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet's celebration of agriculture and rural life
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Thu 30 Mar 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Virginia Woolf's essay on women and literature.
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Thu 16 Feb 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the writer best known for her poem Not Waving But Drowning
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Thu 12 Jan 2023
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the priest who was one of England's finest love poets.
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Thu 22 Dec 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Austen's last complete novel, published after her death.
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Thu 15 Dec 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orson Welles' celebrated and influential film from 1941.
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Thu 1 Dec 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval German epic The Song of the Nibelungs.
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Thu 10 Nov 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential German school founded by Walter Gropius.
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Thu 27 Oct 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the outstanding poets of the First World War.
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Thu 13 Oct 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the innovative artist at the heart of French impressionism
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Thu 15 Sep 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orwell's novel on totalitarianism, truth and surveillance.
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Thu 30 Jun 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and evolution of the satirical everyman figure
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Thu 16 Jun 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems, plays and persona of the prominent Welsh writer
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Thu 12 May 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Li Bai and Du Fu from the Golden Age of Chinese Poetry.
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Thu 21 Apr 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791
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Thu 7 Apr 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1819 work that inspired two centuries of vampire tales
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Thu 31 Mar 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Michelangelo's iconic frescoes in Renaissance Rome.
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Thu 24 Mar 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Sophocles' tragedy of an autocrat who defies family ties.
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Thu 17 Feb 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's tragedy of young star-crossed love in Verona
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Thu 27 Jan 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a major force in French culture in the 20th century.
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2
Episodes to download
30
Thu 13 Jan 2022
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's goal of being a great poet and how he succeeded.
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Thu 30 Dec 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a giant of cinema in Weimar Germany and Hollywood.
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Thu 16 Dec 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Dickens' celebrated story of Scrooge's redemption.
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Thu 18 Nov 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Beardsley, Wilde and art for art's sake in the 1890s.
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Thu 4 Nov 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a masterpiece of French epic poetry from the 12th century.
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Thu 21 Oct 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of the celebrated author of The Bell.
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Thu 30 Sep 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's novel of a woman's fight for independence.
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Thu 23 Sep 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer known as the father of history.
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Thu 24 Jun 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the greatest and most challenging poems in English
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Thu 17 Jun 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
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Thu 20 May 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great novel from the Ming Era, with its heroic Monkey.
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Thu 29 Apr 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential poets of Rome's Augustan Age.
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Thu 18 Mar 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revenge of Dionysus on Thebes in Euripides' tragedy.
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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.
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Thu 11 Feb 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the deciphering of hieroglyphs, secret for 1,500 years.
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Thu 14 Jan 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Fitzgerald's celebrated novel of the Jazz Age.
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Thu 3 Dec 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Portuguese poet and his many literary personas.
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Thu 12 Nov 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and timeless works of the great German artist.
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Thu 29 Oct 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Langland's celebrated poem, written around 1370.
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Thu 1 Oct 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies.
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Thu 6 Feb 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated French novelist, her life and work.
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Thu 9 Jan 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems of Catullus from the late Roman Republic
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Thu 19 Dec 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss WH Auden's life and his poetry from the 1930s.
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Thu 14 Nov 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dostoevsky's novel. The hero thinks he's above the law....
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Thu 24 Oct 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry, ideas and life of Robert Burns (1759-1796).
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Thu 17 Oct 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science and ideas in HG Wells' story of time travel.
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Thu 4 Jul 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish poet and playwright's work, life and death.
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Thu 6 Jun 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the physician with a curious mind in dangerous times
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Thu 16 May 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a monster brought to life
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Thu 18 Apr 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's comedy, one of his most popular plays
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3
Episodes to download
60
Thu 21 Mar 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age'.
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Thu 28 Feb 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and context of this pre-Islamic Arabian knight
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Thu 14 Feb 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how this Bible story has inspired artists for centuries.
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Thu 17 Jan 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and novelist, author of Waiting for Godot
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Thu 13 Dec 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest poems from medieval England
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Thu 15 Nov 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Horace, who flourished under Augustus.
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Is Shakespeare History? The Romans
Thu 18 Oct 2018
Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 2 of 2).
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Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
Thu 11 Oct 2018
Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 1 of 2)
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Thu 4 Oct 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age.
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Thu 13 Sep 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic poem on the wrath of Achilles in the Trojan War.
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Thu 5 Jul 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a great cultural figure of the 19th century.
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Thu 31 May 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and his tragedies of middle-class life.
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Thu 10 May 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval Welsh stories of Celtic mythology.
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Thu 19 Apr 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's greatest novel, published 1871-72.
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Thu 18 Jan 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the celebrated Russian poet.
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Thu 28 Dec 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's best known, longest and most quoted play.
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Thu 21 Dec 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and influence of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
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Thu 7 Dec 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most popular idea sent in by listeners.
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Thu 16 Nov 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and works of the great woman of letters.
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Thu 2 Nov 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events behind and impact of Picasso's iconic work.
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Thu 12 Oct 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aphra Behn (1640-1689): playwright, poet, spy.
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Thu 28 Sep 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights.
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Thu 22 Jun 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Pushkin's masterpiece, Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse.
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Thu 8 Jun 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Christine de Pizan (c1364-1430).
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Thu 11 May 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), celebrated American poet.
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Thu 30 Mar 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.
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Thu 9 Mar 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South from 1855.
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Thu 23 Feb 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works, life and times of Seneca the Younger.
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Thu 9 Feb 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Clare, poet and farm labourer.
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Thu 22 Dec 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss TS Eliot's Four Quartets, known as his great last work.
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4
Episodes to download
90
Thu 10 Nov 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire.
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Thu 3 Nov 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Gilgamesh, the great epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia.
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Thu 20 Oct 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a period of great change in western Europe.
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Thu 29 Sep 2016
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
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Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Thu 23 Jun 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
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Thu 19 May 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Muses in Greek mythology and after.
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Thu 5 May 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
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Thu 24 Mar 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
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Thu 11 Feb 2016
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Rumi (1207-1273).
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Thu 31 Dec 2015
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the story of Tristan and Iseult.
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Thu 19 Nov 2015
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emma, the novel by Jane Austen.
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Thu 15 Oct 2015
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Holbein at the court of Henry VIII.
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Thu 9 Jul 2015
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Frida Kahlo.
Thu 18 Jun 2015
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, first published in 1847.
Thu 7 May 2015
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rabindranath Tagore.
Thu 23 Apr 2015
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the 18th-century writer Fanny Burney.
Thu 9 Apr 2015
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek poet Sappho.
Thu 5 Mar 2015
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.
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.
Thu 27 Nov 2014
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Trial, by Franz Kafka.
Thu 20 Nov 2014
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aesop, legendary author of the famous collection of fables
Thu 16 Oct 2014
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Rudyard Kipling.
Thu 3 Jul 2014
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway.
Thu 5 Jun 2014
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 18th-century Bluestocking Society.
Thu 22 May 2014
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Thu 1 May 2014
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Egyptian poem The Tale of Sinuhe.
Thu 24 Apr 2014
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's comic novel Tristram Shandy.
Thu 14 Nov 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Thu 19 Sep 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the French thinker Blaise Pascal.
Thu 4 Jul 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the invention of radio.
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Episodes to download
120
Thu 27 Jun 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Chinese book Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Thu 30 May 2013
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Queen Zenobia, who led a rebellion against Ancient Rome.
Thu 23 May 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss.
Thu 9 May 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Icelandic sagas.
Thu 25 Apr 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the great French writer Michel de Montaigne.
Thu 11 Apr 2013
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Amazons, formidable female warriors of classical myth.
Thu 14 Mar 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Russian writer Anton Chekhov.
Thu 21 Feb 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Decline and Fall.
Thu 10 Jan 2013
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Malory's epic medieval tale Le Morte d'Arthur.
Thu 13 Dec 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi.
Thu 1 Nov 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Anarchy, the 12th-century English civil war.
Thu 18 Oct 2012
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Caxton and the influence of the printing press.
Thu 4 Oct 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval scholar Gerald of Wales.
Thu 20 Sep 2012
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Druids of ancient Europe.
Thu 21 Jun 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 19th-century writer and campaigner Annie Besant.
Thu 14 Jun 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss James Joyce's celebrated novel Ulysses.
Thu 3 May 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Voltaire's satirical novel Candide, published in 1759.
Thu 22 Mar 2012
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.
Thu 1 Mar 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Benjamin Franklin.
Thu 2 Feb 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Kama Sutra.
Thu 12 Jan 2012
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Safavid Dynasty of early modern Iran.
Thu 22 Dec 2011
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe's seminal novel Robinson Crusoe.
Thu 1 Dec 2011
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti.
Thu 30 Jun 2011
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam.
Thu 12 May 2011
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Robert Burton's book The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Thu 17 Mar 2011
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the foundation of the medieval universities.
Thu 27 Jan 2011
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristotle's Poetics.
Thu 6 Jan 2011
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Byron's poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
Thu 25 Nov 2010
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of metaphor.
Thu 28 Oct 2010
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and mythology of the unicorn.
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6
Episodes to download
150
Thu 14 Oct 2010
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the German artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang.
Thu 10 Jun 2010
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Central Asian scientist and historian al-Biruni.
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Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists
Thu 27 May 2010
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists.
Thu 22 Apr 2010
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Roman satire.
Thu 18 Mar 2010
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Edvard Munch and his most famous painting, The Scream.
Thu 28 Jan 2010
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's 1861 novel Silas Marner.
Christmas Eve 2009
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and myth of the Samurai.
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.
Thu 18 Jun 2009
Melvyn Bragg discusses why revenge tragedy was so popular with Elizabethan theatre goers.
Thu 21 May 2009
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the evolutionary history of the whale.
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
Thu 9 Apr 2009
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aldous Huxley's dystopian 1932 novel Brave New World.
Thu 26 Mar 2009
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Raphael's depiction of Plato and Aristotle.
Thu 26 Feb 2009
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss TS Eliot's seminal poem The Waste Land.
Thu 5 Feb 2009
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm.
Thu 29 Jan 2009
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jonathan Swift's satirical 1729 pamphlet A Modest Proposal
Thu 20 Nov 2008
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the culture of the Baroque.
Thu 23 Oct 2008
Melvyn Bragg examines Dante’s ‘Inferno’, a medieval journey through Hell’s nine circles
Thu 3 Jul 2008
Melvyn Bragg examines the Metaphysical poets, including John Donne and Andrew Marvell.
Thu 19 Jun 2008
Melvyn Bragg explores the ancient astrological idea of the music of the spheres.
Thu 12 Jun 2008
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prescient thriller about Anglo-German relations.
Thu 15 May 2008
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a treasure house of Assyrian ideas.
Thu 17 Apr 2008
Melvyn Bragg examines the effect of Irish politics on the work of the poet W.B. Yeats.
Thu 13 Mar 2008
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek myths from Achilles to Zeus.
Thu 28 Feb 2008
Melvyn Bragg and guests examine Shakespeare’s bloodthirsty tragedy, King Lear.
Thu 31 Jan 2008
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rudolph II and his Renaissance Court in Prague.
Thu 17 Jan 2008
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enigmatic myth of the Fisher King.
Thu 3 Jan 2008
The life ad work of the Algerian-French writer and philosopher, Albert Camus.
Thu 22 Nov 2007
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Wordsworth’s poem, The Prelude.
Thu 25 Oct 2007
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th century obsession with taste.
Thu 18 Oct 2007
Melvyn Bragg discusses the myths, tales and legends of the Arabian Nights.
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7
Episodes to download
180
Thu 12 Jul 2007
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 1857 trial of Gustave Flaubert's novel, Madame Bovary
Thu 7 Jun 2007
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war poet Siegfried Sassoon.
Thu 10 May 2007
Melvyn Bragg discusses the high pessimism of Victorian culture.
Thu 26 Apr 2007
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Greek and Roman love poetry.
Thu 15 Mar 2007
Melvyn Bragg discusses epistolary literature from Aphra Benn to Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Thu 15 Feb 2007
Melvyn Bragg discusses Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness.
Thu 21 Dec 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Hell and its representation in the arts.
Thu 9 Nov 2006
The life and work of the brilliant, acerbic and unpopular poet Alexander Pope.
Thu 26 Oct 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great achievements of the Enlightenment.
Comedy in Ancient Greek Theatre
Thu 13 Jul 2006
Melvyn Bragg explores comedy in Ancient Greek theatre including Aristophanes and Menander.
Thu 6 Jul 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss pastoral literature from Virgil to Dylan Thomas.
Thu 8 Jun 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th century anti-slavery novel, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'.
Thu 25 May 2006
Melvyn Bragg examines the mathematical structures that lie within the heart of music.
Thu 11 May 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 5000 year cultural history of fairies.
Thu 6 Apr 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Jorge Luis Borges.
Thu 6 Apr 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great German polymath, Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
Thu 30 Mar 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Emperor Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance.
Thu 16 Mar 2006
Melvyn Bragg considers the importance of the 17th century Spanish novel Don Quixote.
Thu 2 Mar 2006
Melvyn Bragg explores the concept of friendship; ‘a single soul dwelling in two bodies’.
Thu 9 Feb 2006
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English literature.
Seventeenth Century Print Culture
Thu 26 Jan 2006
Melvyn Bragg examines the controversy and scandal of 17th century print culture.
Thu 29 Dec 2005
Melvyn Bragg examines the ‘Oresteia’, the seminal trilogy of tragedies by Aeschylus.
Thu 27 Oct 2005
The life and work of Samuel Johnson, a giant of 18th century literature.
Thu 7 Jul 2005
Melvyn Bragg examines the life of glittering Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe.
Thu 30 Jun 2005
Melvyn Bragg examines Merlin, prophet, magician, king maker and the mad man of the woods.
Thu 9 Jun 2005
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the satirical 18th century Scriblerus Club.
Thu 5 May 2005
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval tale of Abelard and Heloise.
Thu 21 Apr 2005
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ‘The Aeneid’, Virgil's great epic poem about Rome.
Thu 31 Mar 2005
The life and work of one of the most influential figures of the Victorian era.
Thu 24 Mar 2005
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the heavenly host of Angels.
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Episodes to download
210
Thu 10 Mar 2005
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the mad, bad world of modern utopias.
Thu 23 Dec 2004
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the myth of Faustus and temptation by evil.
Thu 7 Oct 2004
The life and work of French novelist, playwright and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.
Thu 30 Sep 2004
Melvyn Bragg examines the cultural effect of the eighteenth century idea of Politeness.
Thu 9 Sep 2004
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the monster filled epic, Homer’s Odyssey.
Thu 15 Apr 2004
Melvyn Bragg examines the poetry, tragedy and idealism of Byron, Shelley and Keats.
Thu 11 Mar 2004
Melvyn Bragg examines the myths and theology that inspired the Vikings.
Thu 12 Feb 2004
Melvyn Bragg explores a transcendental idea that took hold on the Age of Enlightenment.
Thu 6 Nov 2003
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the novels of sensation, a Victorian literary phenomenon.
Thu 30 Oct 2003
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the centuries old myth of the most romantic noble outlaw.
Thu 9 Oct 2003
Melvyn Bragg examines the 19th century Parisian philosophy of life lived for art.
Thu 24 Apr 2003
Melvyn Bragg examines the history of concepts and ideas on youth from antiquity to today.
Thu 17 Apr 2003
The life and work of the celebrated 20th century French novelist Marcel Proust.
Thu 20 Mar 2003
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the creative force of originality.
Thu 6 Feb 2003
The history of the epic, from Homer's Odyssey to Joyce’s Ulysses.
Thu 14 Nov 2002
Melvyn Bragg explores Victorian realism and its focus on the ordinariness of life.
Thu 27 Jun 2002
Melvyn Bragg examines how a dominant power can exert a cultural influence on its empire.
Thu 20 Jun 2002
Melvyn Bragg examines the position of Richard Wagner and his music in German culture.
Thu 30 May 2002
The origins and cultural impact of 18th century tourism.
Thu 25 Apr 2002
Melvyn Bragg explores the life and work of the 19th century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.
Thu 28 Mar 2002
Melvyn Bragg explores the history and changing the status of the artist.
Thu 21 Mar 2002
The history of marriage from ancient Greek and Babylonian times to today.
Thu 7 Mar 2002
Melvyn Bragg examines both the literary and political careers of the poet John Milton.
Thu 31 Jan 2002
Melvyn Bragg explores the strange and mystical world of the Irish poet W B Yeats.
Thu 3 Jan 2002
Melvyn Bragg examines the ideas behind the 18th century literary cult of sensibility.
Thu 27 Dec 2001
The cultural history of food in Modern Europe since the Renaissance.
Thu 6 Dec 2001
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Oscar Wilde, his literary legacy and the Aesthetes.
Thu 15 Nov 2001
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss surrealism, the art of the unconscious.
Thu 12 Jul 2001
The achievements and legacy of the 19th century literary giant Charles Dickens.
Thu 28 Jun 2001
Melvyn Bragg and guests examine the 20th century philosophy of existentialism
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Episodes to download
240
Thu 21 Jun 2001
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Sonnet, the most enduring form in the poet’s armoury.
Thu 26 Apr 2001
Melvyn Bragg examines the movement that embraced Joyce, DH Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.
Thu 15 Mar 2001
Melvyn Bragg and guests consider the enigma of the life of William Shakespeare
Thu 4 Jan 2001
Melvyn Bragg examines the origins and significance of the 18th century Gothic movement.
Thu 9 Nov 2000
Melvyn Bragg assesses the role of Freudian analysis in understanding literature.
Thu 12 Oct 2000
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideals, exponents and legacy of Romanticism.
Thu 28 Sep 2000
The history of London from its Neolithic origin to the digitalised capital city of today.
Thu 22 Jun 2000
Melvyn Bragg examines why the public is fascinated with the private lives of individuals.
Thu 15 Jun 2000
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the true meaning of genius and whether it is born or made.
Thu 8 Jun 2000
Melvyn Bragg explores the veracity of modern claims about the culture of the Renaissance.
Thu 1 Jun 2000
Melvyn Bragg and guests examine the ideals that underwrite the idealism of America.
Thu 11 May 2000
Melvyn Bragg examines what it is about Shakespeare’s work that makes it universal.
Thu 4 May 2000
Melvyn Bragg examines the development of Western rituals and attitudes to death.
Thu 20 Apr 2000
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the characteristics of the English identity.
Thu 23 Mar 2000
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development and future of material culture.
Thu 2 Mar 2000
Melvyn Bragg explores the enduring appeal of the Roman poet Ovid’s work Metamorphoses.
Thu 17 Feb 2000
The history of the politics, practice and process of reading.
Thu 20 Jan 2000
Melvyn Bragg investigates the changing ideals of masculinity in 20th century literature.
Thu 2 Dec 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines whether the ancient genre of tragedy has a place in our own time.
Thu 11 Nov 1999
Melvyn Bragg and guests consider the development and the future of the novel.
Thu 30 Sep 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines whether it is possible to apply mathematical logic to literature.
Thu 15 Jul 1999
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether it matters if memoirs aren’t entirely truthful.
Thu 24 Jun 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines the history of capitalism from Marx to the collapse of Communism.
Thu 10 Jun 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines the enduring strengths and current role of the British monarchy.
Thu 27 May 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines how our collective and individual ways of remembering have changed.
Thu 13 May 1999
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 20th century’s vast population and cultural shifts.
Writing and Political Oppression
Thu 8 Apr 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines whether writers have a political role in modern society.
Architecture in the 20th Century
Thu 25 Mar 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines what the architecture of the 20th century says about the age.
Shakespeare and Literary Criticism
Thu 4 Mar 1999
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enduring popular and academic appeal of Shakespeare.
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.
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10
Episodes to download
270
Thu 11 Feb 1999
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether the formation of language is innate or cultural.
271
Thu 21 Jan 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines the definition and state of modern culture in the 20th century.
272
Thu 7 Jan 1999
Melvyn Bragg examines the development of the empowerment of women in the 20th century.
273
Thu 17 Dec 1998
Melvyn Bragg examines how legitimate it is to call the 20th century the American century.
274
Cultural Rights in the 20th Century
Thu 10 Dec 1998
Melvyn Bragg examines what impact globalisation has had on human rights.
275
Thu 26 Nov 1998
Melvyn Bragg examines the changing ideas about the function of work in the 20th century.
276
Thu 12 Nov 1998
Melvyn Bragg looks at the innovative developments of the city in the 20th century.
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