2010

January

• The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 1 4 Jan
  As part of the BBC’s year of science programming, Melvyn Bragg looks at the history of the oldest scientific learned society of them all: the Royal Society.
  500 Science
• The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 2 5 Jan
  As part of the BBC’s year of science programming, Melvyn Bragg looks at the history of the oldest scientific learned society of them all: the Royal Society.
  500 Science
• The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 3 6 Jan
  As part of the BBC’s year of science programming, Melvyn Bragg looks at the history of the oldest scientific learned society of them all: the Royal Society.
  500 Science
• The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 4 7 Jan
  As part of the BBC’s year of science programming, Melvyn Bragg looks at the history of the oldest scientific learned society of them all: the Royal Society.
  500 Science
• The Frankfurt School 14 Jan
  This group of influential left-wing German thinkers set out, in the wake of Germany’s defeat in the First World War, to investigate why their country had not had a revolution, despite the apparently revolutionary conditions that spread through Germany in the wake of the 1918 Armistice.
  190 Modern Western Philosophy
• The Glencoe Massacre 21 Jan
  On a winter night in 1692, a company of soldiers quartered with the MacDonalds of Glencoe rose early and slaughtered their hosts.
  940 History of Europe
• Silas Marner 28 Jan
  George Eliot’s novel Silas Marner.
  820 English and Old English literatures

February

• Ibn Khaldun 4 Feb
  Ibn Khaldun was a North African statesman who retreated into the desert in 1375.
  180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy
• Mathematics’ Unintended Consequences 11 Feb
  In his book The Mathematician’s Apology (1941), the Cambridge mathematician GH Hardy expressed his reverence for pure maths, and celebrated its uselessness in the real world.
  510 Mathematics
• The Indian Mutiny 18 Feb
  On 10th May 1857 Indian soldiers from the Bengal section of the East India Company’s army rose up and shot their British officers.
  950 History of Asia
• Calvinism 25 Feb
  the ideas of the religious reformer John Calvin - the theology known as Calvinism, or Reformed Protestantism - and its impact.
  280 Christian denominations

March

• The Infant Brain 4 Mar
  what new research reveals about the infant brain.
  150 Psychology
• Boudica 11 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and mythologisation of Boudica.
  930 History of the Ancient World
• Munch and The Scream 18 Mar
  the work of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, focusing on his most famous painting, The Scream.
  750 Painting
• The City - a history, part 1 25 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg presents the first of a two-part discussion about the history of the city.
  300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology

April

• The City - a history, part 2 1 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg presents the second of a two part discussion about the history of the city.
  300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• William Hazlitt 8 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of William Hazlitt.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• The Zulu Nation’s Rise and Fall 15 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and fall of the Zulu Nation.
  960 History of Africa
• Roman Satire 22 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Roman Satire.
  870 Latin and Italic literatures
• The Great Wall of China 29 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Great Wall of China.
  950 History of Asia

May

• The Cool Universe 6 May
  The Cool Universe is the name astronomers give to the matter between the stars.
  520 Astronomy
• William James’s ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’ 13 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’ by William James.
  200 Religion
• The Cavendish Family in Science 20 May
  From the 1600s to the 1800s, scientific research in Britain was not yet a professional, publicly-funded career.
  500 Science
• Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Artists 27 May
  Melvyn Bragg discusses ‘Lives of the Artists’ - the great biographer Giorgio Vasari’s study of Renaissance painters, sculptors and architects.
  700 Arts

June

• Edmund Burke 3 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the eighteenth-century philosopher, politician and writer Edmund Burke.
  320 Political science
• al-Biruni 10 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Central Asian polymath al-Biruni and his eleventh-century book the India.
  950 History of Asia
• The Neanderthals 17 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Neanderthals.
  560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• Antarctica 24 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of Antarctica.
  990 History of other areas

July

• Athelstan 1 Jul
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the reign of King Athelstan.
  940 History of Europe
• Pliny’s Natural History 8 Jul
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Pliny’s Natural History.
  030 Encyclopedias and books of facts

September

• Imaginary Numbers 23 Sep
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss imaginary numbers.
  510 Mathematics
• The Delphic Oracle 30 Sep
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Delphic Oracle, the most important source of prophecies in the ancient world.
  290 Other religions

October

• The Spanish Armada 7 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Spanish Armada.
  940 History of Europe
• Sturm und Drang 14 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang.
  830 German and related literatures
• Logic 21 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of logic.
  160 Philosophical logic
• The Unicorn 28 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the unicorn.
  390 Customs, etiquette and folklore

November

• Women and Enlightenment Science 4 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the role played by women in Enlightenment science.
  500 Science
• The Volga Vikings 11 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Volga Vikings.
  940 History of Europe
• Foxe’s Book of Martyrs 18 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss John Foxe and his book Actes and Monuments, better known today as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.
  270 History of Christianity
• History of Metaphor 25 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of metaphor.
  800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism

December

• Cleopatra 2 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Cleopatra.
  930 History of the Ancient World
• Thomas Edison 9 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the innovations and influence of Thomas Edison, one of the architects of the modern age.
  620 Engineering
• Daoism 16 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daoism.
  290 Other religions
• The Industrial Revolution 23 Dec
  In the first of two programmes, Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Industrial Revolution.
  330 Economics
• Consequences of the Industrial Revolution 30 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the far-reaching consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
  330 Economics