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Culture Podcast

Popular culture, poetry, music and visual arts and the roles they play in our society.

Updated: occasionally
Episodes available: indefinitely

Episodes to download

  •

    Shakespeare's Sonnets

    Thu 24 Jun 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the greatest and most challenging poems in English

  • Edward Gibbon

    Thu 17 Jun 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

  • Journey to the West

    Thu 20 May 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great novel from the Ming Era, with its heroic Monkey.

  • Ovid

    Thu 29 Apr 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential poets of Rome's Augustan Age.

  • The Bacchae

    Thu 18 Mar 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revenge of Dionysus on Thebes in Euripides' tragedy.

  • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

    Thu 4 Mar 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Coleridge's famous poem of a sailor who shot an albatross.

  • The Rosetta Stone

    Thu 11 Feb 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the deciphering of hieroglyphs, secret for 1,500 years.

  • The Great Gatsby

    Thu 14 Jan 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Fitzgerald's celebrated novel of the Jazz Age.

  • Fernando Pessoa

    Thu 3 Dec 2020

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Portuguese poet and his many literary personas.

  • Albrecht D眉rer

    Thu 12 Nov 2020

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and timeless works of the great German artist.

  • Piers Plowman

    Thu 29 Oct 2020

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Langland's celebrated poem, written around 1370.

  • Macbeth

    Thu 1 Oct 2020

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies.

  • George Sand

    Thu 6 Feb 2020

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated French novelist, her life and work.

  • Catullus

    Thu 9 Jan 2020

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems of Catullus from the late Roman Republic

  • Auden

    Thu 19 Dec 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss WH Auden's life and his poetry from the 1930s.

  • Crime and Punishment

    Thu 14 Nov 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dostoevsky's novel. The hero thinks he's above the law....

  • Robert Burns

    Thu 24 Oct 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry, ideas and life of Robert Burns (1759-1796).

  • The Time Machine

    Thu 17 Oct 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science and ideas in HG Wells' story of time travel.

  • Lorca

    Thu 4 Jul 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish poet and playwright's work, life and death.

  • Sir Thomas Browne

    Thu 6 Jun 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the physician with a curious mind in dangerous times

  • Frankenstein

    Thu 16 May 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a monster brought to life

  • A Midsummer Night's Dream

    Thu 18 Apr 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's comedy, one of his most popular plays

  • Gerard Manley Hopkins

    Thu 21 Mar 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age'.

  • Antarah ibn Shaddad

    Thu 28 Feb 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and context of this pre-Islamic Arabian knight

  • Judith beheading Holofernes

    Thu 14 Feb 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how this Bible story has inspired artists for centuries.

  • Samuel Beckett

    Thu 17 Jan 2019

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and novelist, author of Waiting for Godot

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    Thu 13 Dec 2018

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest poems from medieval England

  • Horace

    Thu 15 Nov 2018

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Horace, who flourished under Augustus.

  • Is Shakespeare History? The Romans

    Thu 18 Oct 2018

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 2 of 2).

  • Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets

    Thu 11 Oct 2018

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 1 of 2)

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