Kubla Khan: A vision in a dream

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic is one of the most famous poems in the English language

• 40 mins

The alphabet of chemistry

The history of the Periodic Table of the elements

• 40 mins

Boudica: Warrior queen

The Iron Age English warrior queen who led a rebellion against the Romans

• 39 mins

Chinua Achebe: Rewriting the African story

The life and work of the ground-breaking Nigerian author

• 40 mins

The Little Prince: Lessons from an aviator’s life

Who was Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and how did he come to write The Little Prince?

• 40 mins

Magellan: First Man Round the Globe?

The story of the man whose voyage accidently circumnavigated the globe

• 40 mins

Dante’s Inferno: The poetry of Hell

The imagined poetic voyage through Hell that explores the meaning of human existence

• 40 mins

The original Goths

The ancient tribe which shaped Europe's history

• 40 mins

Herman Melville: Moby Dick

The 19th Century epic novel on a vengeful sailor’s battle with the great ‘white whale’

• 40 mins

Yves Saint Laurent: Fashion revolutionary

Bridget Kendall and guests on the glamorous world of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

• 39 mins

Lawrence of Arabia

The life of T.E Lawrence renowned for his involvement with the Arab Revolt during WW1

• 40 mins

From Straw Poll to Opinion Poll

With us since the 1930s, polls help forecast elections and conduct market research

• 40 mins

Votes for Women: the Global Story

The extraordinary stories of the women around the world who won the right to vote

• 40 mins

What is Zoroastrianism?

The history of a venerable religion

• 40 mins

Sugar: A Sweet Menace

How sugar travelled across the world and seduced all on its path

• 40 mins

Plastic: How it Changed the World

Experts from the world of science discuss the story of plastic with presenter Rajan Datar

• 40 mins

Machu Picchu: The secrets of a forgotten city

The enigma of the Inca mountain retreat

• 40 mins

Material World: Making the Modern Factory

The global factory story

• 40 mins

Catherine the Great of Russia

A woman and a foreigner who usurped her way to the throne in 18th century Russia

• 40 mins

Simone de Beauvoir: Feminist thinker for modern times

How a philosophical thinker radically changed the way we see women

• 39 mins

The piano: Hitting the right keys

Bridget Kendall and guests lift the lid on 300 years of the piano

• 40 mins

The tales of Timbuktu

How a remote desert town in Mali became world famous

• 40 mins

J. William Fulbright: Scholarships and Soft Power

The man behind the renowned scholarship programme

• 40 mins

The life and works of William Blake

Radical visionary, artist and poet

• 40 mins

The invention of numbers

How numbers and counting shaped our world

• 40 mins

Pioneers of surgical hygiene

The painful route to cleanliness in 19th century hospitals

• 40 mins

Mark Twain: The 'father of American literature'

Bridget Kendall and guests discuss the life, work and legacy of Mark Twain

• 40 mins

Vincent van Gogh: The struggling artist

Charting the highs and lows of the influential Dutch post-Impressionist painter

• 40 mins

Christina of Sweden: Queen of surprises

The rebellious monarch who scandalised 17th-century Europe

• 39 mins

Waiting for Godot: The play that changed the rules of theatre

How a play in which nothing happens created a revolution in contemporary theatre

• 40 mins