Merlin

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

• 45 mins

Marlowe

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

• 45 mins

Marx

The life and ideas of Karl Marx who changed the world with his Communist Manifesto.

• 45 mins

Magnetism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and mysterious force of magnetism.

• 45 mins

The Field of the Cloth of Gold

Melvyn Bragg examines the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and Tudor conspicuous consumption.

• 45 mins

Mammals

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise of the mammals which began 65 million years ago.

• 45 mins

Cynicism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Cynics, the performance artists of philosophy.

• 45 mins

Johnson

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

• 45 mins

Asteroids

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the unique properties of asteroids.

• 45 mins

Greyfriars and Blackfriars

Melvyn Bragg looks at the religious orders of the Dominicans and the Franciscans.

• 45 mins

Pragmatism

Melvyn Bragg and guests examine the American philosophy of pragmatism.

• 45 mins

The Graviton

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the search for the Graviton particle in physics.

• 45 mins

Hobbes

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

• 45 mins

Artificial Intelligence

Melvyn Bragg investigates artificial intelligence; can a computer imitate the human mind?

• 45 mins

The Peterloo Massacre

Melvyn Bragg examines the 1819 Peterloo Massacre and the brutality of the British state.

• 45 mins

Heaven

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ideas of heaven and the afterlife.

• 45 mins

The Oresteia

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

• 45 mins

The Oath

Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the importance of the oath in the Classical World.

• 45 mins

Prime Numbers

Melvyn Bragg examines prime numbers and their mysterious role in the universe of numbers.

• 45 mins

Relativism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss relativism; a philosophy with no absolute truths.

• 45 mins

Seventeenth Century Print Culture

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

• 45 mins

The Abbasid Caliphs

Melvyn Bragg examines the Abbasid Caliphs, rulers of the Islamic world for 200 years.

• 45 mins

Chaucer

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

• 60 mins

Human Evolution

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the six million year old story of human evolution.

• 45 mins

Catherine the Great

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Empress who transformed and modernized Russia.

• 45 mins

Friendship

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

• 45 mins

Negative Numbers

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss negative numbers, a history of mystery and suspicion.

• 45 mins

Don Quixote

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

• 45 mins

The Royal Society

The history of the formation of the Royal Society, the oldest scientific academy.

• 45 mins

The Carolingian Renaissance

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

• 45 mins