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The Emancipation of the Serfs

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the freeing of a third of Russians from serfdom in 1861.

• 49 mins

Margaret of Anjou

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Queen of England at the start of the Wars of the Roses

• 50 mins

Henrik Ibsen

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and his tragedies of middle-class life.

• 49 mins

Persepolis

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Achaemenid Empire's great ceremonial capital.

• 51 mins

Montesquieu

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss republicanism, despotism and the separation of powers.

• 49 mins

Echolocation

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how some animals sense their world with sound not sight.

• 51 mins

The Mexican-American War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1846-48 war that cost Mexico half its territory.

• 49 mins

William Morris

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a great cultural figure of the 19th century.

• 53 mins

The Iliad

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic poem on the wrath of Achilles in the Trojan War.

• 48 mins

Automata

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of machines imitating living beings.

• 52 mins

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German theologian, killed for plotting against Hitler

• 49 mins

Edith Wharton

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age.

• 49 mins

Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets

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

• 51 mins

Is Shakespeare History? The Romans

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

• 42 mins

The Fable of the Bees

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mandeville's work on the public benefit of private vices.

• 42 mins

Free Radicals

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the molecules linked to cell functioning and ageing

• 42 mins

Marie Antoinette

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess, guillotined as Queen of France.

• 49 mins

Horace

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

• 48 mins

Hope

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope - a weakness or a strength?

• 53 mins

The Long March

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Red Army's retreat across China, from October 1934

• 50 mins

The Thirty Years War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the devastating war across the Holy Roman Empire 1618-1648

• 50 mins

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

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

• 51 mins

The Poor Laws

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Poor Law of 1834 and the rise of the workhouse

• 50 mins

Venus

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet closest to Earth, sometimes called Earth's twin

• 50 mins

Papal Infallibility

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that Popes cannot err in exercise of their office

• 51 mins

Samuel Beckett

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

• 48 mins

Emmy Noether

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of one of the great 20th-century mathematicians.

• 48 mins

Owain Glyndwr

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight for Welsh independence in the early 15th century

• 48 mins

Aristotle's Biology

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scientific study of life, originated by Aristotle.

• 50 mins

Judith beheading Holofernes

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

• 49 mins