2022

January

• Thomas Hardy’s Poetry 13 Jan
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Hardy (1840 -1928) and his commitment to poetry, which he prized far above his novels.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• The Gold Standard 20 Jan
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the system that flourished from 1870 when gold became dominant and more widely available, following gold rushes in California and Australia.
  330 Economics
• Colette 27 Jan
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the outstanding French writers of the twentieth century.
  840 French and related literatures

February

• The Temperance Movement 3 Feb
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the momentum behind teetotalism in 19th Century Britain, when calls for moderation gave way to complete abstinence in pursuit of a better life.
  340 Law
• Walter Benjamin 10 Feb
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most celebrated thinkers of the twentieth century.
  190 Modern Western Philosophy
• Romeo and Juliet 17 Feb
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, written in the early 1590s after a series of histories and comedies.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• Peter Kropotkin 24 Feb
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Russian prince who became a leading anarchist and famous scientist.
  320 Political science

March

• The Arthashastra 3 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Sanskrit text the Arthashastra, regarded as one of the major works of Indian literature.
  320 Political science
• Seismology 10 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the study of earthquakes.
  550 Earth sciences and geology
• Charisma 17 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of charismatic authority developed by Max Weber (1864-1920) to explain why people welcome some as their legitimate rulers and follow them loyally, for better or worse, while following others only dutifully or grudgingly.
  320 Political science
• Antigone 24 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what is reputedly the most performed of all Greek tragedies.
  880 Classical and modern Greek literatures
• The Sistine Chapel 31 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing work of Michelangelo (1477-1564) in this great chapel in the Vatican, firstly the ceiling with images from Genesis (of which the image above is a detail) and later The Last Judgement on the altar wall.
  700 Arts

April

• Polidori’s The Vampyre 7 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential novella of John Polidori (1795-1821) published in 1819 and attributed first to Lord Byron (1788-1824) who had started a version of it in 1816 at the Villa Diodati in the Year Without A Summer.
  800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• Homo erectus 14 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of our ancestors, Homo erectus, who thrived on Earth for around two million years whereas we, Homo sapiens, emerged only in the last three hundred thousand years.
  570 Biology
• Olympe de Gouges 21 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French playwright who, in 1791, wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.
  940 History of Europe
• Early Christian Martyrdom 28 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the accounts by Eusebius of Caesarea (c260-339 AD) and others of the killings of Christians in the first three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus.
  270 History of Christianity

May

• The Davidian Revolution 5 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of David I of Scotland (c1084-1153) on his kingdom and on neighbouring lands.
  940 History of Europe
• Tang Era Poetry 12 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss two of China’s greatest poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, who wrote in the 8th century in the Tang Era.
  890 Other literatures
• Comenius 19 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Czech educator Jan Amos Komensky (1592-1670) known throughout Europe in his lifetime under the Latin version of his name, Comenius.
  370 Education
• Hegel’s Philosophy of History 26 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 - 1831) on history.
  900 History

June

• Shakespeare’s Sonnets 2 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the collection of poems published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe: Shakespeare’s Sonnets, “never before imprinted”.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• The Death of Stars 9 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the abrupt transformation of stars after shining brightly for millions or billions of years, once they lack the fuel to counter the force of gravity.
  520 Astronomy
• Dylan Thomas 16 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953).
  820 English and Old English literatures
• Angkor Wat 23 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the largest and arguably the most astonishing religious structure on Earth, built for Suryavarman II in the 12th Century in modern-day Cambodia.
  950 History of Asia
• John Bull 30 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origin of this personification of the English everyman and his development as both British and Britain in the following centuries.
  940 History of Europe

September

• Nineteen Eighty-Four 15 Sep
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell’s (1903-1950) final novel, published in 1949, set in a dystopian London which is now found in Airstrip One, part of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania which is always at war and where the protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth as a rewriter of history: ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• Plato’s Atlantis 22 Sep
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato’s account of the once great island of Atlantis out to the west, beyond the world known to his fellow Athenians, and why it disappeared many thousands of years before his time.
  100 Philosophy
• The Electron 29 Sep
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an atomic particle that’s become inseparable from modernity.
  530 Physics

October

• The Knights Templar 6 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the military order founded around 1119, twenty years after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem.
  940 History of Europe
• Berthe Morisot 13 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the influential painters at the heart of the French Impressionist movement: Berthe Morisot (1841-1895).
  750 Painting
• The Fish-Tetrapod Transition 20 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest changes in the history of life on Earth.
  570 Biology
• Wilfred Owen 27 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated British poet of World War One.
  820 English and Old English literatures

November

• The Morant Bay Rebellion 3 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rebellion that broke out in Jamaica on 11th October 1865 when Paul Bogle (1822-65) led a protest march from Stony Gut to the courthouse in nearby Morant Bay.
  970 History of North America
• Bauhaus 10 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bauhaus which began in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, as a school for arts and crafts combined, and went on to be famous around the world.
  700 Arts
• Demosthenes’ Philippics 17 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the speeches that became a byword for fierce attacks on political opponents.
  930 History of the Ancient World
• The Challenger Expedition 1872-1876 24 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the voyage of HMS Challenger which set out from Portsmouth in 1872 with a mission a to explore the ocean depths around the world and search for new life.
  550 Earth sciences and geology

December

• The Nibelungenlied 1 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Song of the Nibelungs, a twelfth century German epic, full of blood, violence, fantasy and bleakness.
  830 German and related literatures
• The Irish Rebellion of 1798 8 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the momentum behind rebellion in Ireland in 1798, the people behind the rebellion and the impact over the next few years and after.
  940 History of Europe
• Citizen Kane 15 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orson Welles’ film, released in 1941, which is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, films yet made.
  790 Recreational and performing arts
• Persuasion 22 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Austen’s last complete novel, which was published just before Christmas in 1817, five months after her death.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• The Great Stink 29 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the stench from the River Thames in the hot summer of 1858 and how it appalled and terrified Londoners living and working beside it, including those in the new Houses of Parliament which were still under construction.
  620 Engineering