2022

January

February

March

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Sanskrit text the Arthashastra, regarded as one of the major works of Indian literature.
    290 Other religions
  • 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
  • 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

  • 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.
    820 English and Old English literatures
  • 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.
    590 Animals (Zoology)
  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French playwright who, in 1791, wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.
    840 French and related literatures
  • 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

June

September

  • 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
  • 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.
    000 Computer science, knowledge and systems
  • The Electron 29 Sep
    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an atomic particle that’s become inseparable from modernity.
    530 Physics

October

November

December

  • 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
  • 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 Sports, games and entertainment
  • 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
  • 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.
    630 Agriculture