The Essay

The case for doubt in politics

The series is being broadcast Mon 9 - Fri 13 April on BBC Radio 3 at 22:45 BST
Monday: Mark Vernon on doubt in politics
Tuesday: Baroness Susan Greenfield on doubt in science
Wednesday: Madeleine Bunting on doubt in religion
Thursday: Jennifer Michael Hecht on the virtues of doubt
Friday: Alastair Campbell on self-doubt

See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17625652

Alastair Campbell on self-doubt:

http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2012/04/13/the-case-for-self-doubt-my-radio...

Monday, August 13th, 2012 on BBC Radio Three from 10:45pm to 11:00pm

Aspects of Grainger: Series of programmes devoted to Australian-born composer and pianist Percy Grainger. Writer and Cheltenham Music Festival director Meurig Bowen explores the composer's passion for folksong, how he used it, how it influenced his music and how it compared with other composers' incorporation of folksongs. Including a recording, made by Grainger himself in 1906, of a folksong sung by a farm bailiff and an exploration of how Grainger used the song in one of his most poignant arrangements.

From Monday:

John Dee

Five Portraits of Science Episode 1 of 5

Duration: 15 minutes
First broadcast: Monday 14 January 2013

The Essay considers how five real-life scientists have been portrayed in culture, examining along the way ideas of genius, inspiration and authority.

In this edition, the cultural historian Jonathan Sawday explores how, despite having no scientific law or theory named after him, and despite not really being a scientist as we understand the term today, the Elizabethan alchemist and astrologer John Dee has gripped our imaginations for centuries, and inspired literary characters like Victor Frankenstein, Prospero and Dr Strangelove. Dee's cultural afterlife is a contradictory one - on the one hand, he's been seen as the archetypal 'mad' scientist, meddling with things best left alone, yet in the 1970s he became a countercultural hero, appearing in the work of Michael Moorcock and Derek Jarman as a representative of ancient wisdom and an icon of a kind of alternative science.

Monday 6th May 2013 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Antarcticans.

Series about living and working in the Antarctic, marking the centenary of Roald Amundsen's arrival at the South Pole. 1. Unveiling Antarctica: Glaciologist Professor David Drewry describes the extraordinary human feats undertaken to measure the depth of the Antarctic ice cap and what lies beneath it.

Wednesday 22nd May 2013
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Wagner's Philosophers.

Series exploring the philosophical influences on Wagner. 3. Wagner and Schopenhauer: Professor Christopher Janaway focuses on Wagner's life-changing encounter with the pessimistic philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, whom he discovered in 1854.

Monday 17th June 2013 (starting in 1 day)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Writer's Dickens.

Series in which contemporary novelists examine the craft of Charles Dickens's prose, and reflect on how the giant of British 19th-century fiction is both a role model and a shadow looming over their own writing. 1. Tessa Hadley - Rooms and Reality: Taking as her starting point the description of the Clenhams' house in Little Dorritt, Tessa Hadley explores how Dickens paints the reality of his world through his characters' houses, and reflects on how significant houses are her own writing.

Monday 24th June 2013 (starting in 1 day)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Happily Ever After.

Series in which contemporary children's authors and editors each explore a fictional family in literature. 1: Anthony Horowitz discusses Roald Dahl's badly-parented Matilda, and considers how normal dysfunctional family life probably is. Despite this, he argues that it is essential for all of us to have some sense of family. Horowitz reflects on how his own place in his eccentric and sometimes unhappy family led to his escaping into books, and creative success.

Wednesday 13th November 2013 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Existential Me.

Marking the centenary of the birth of writer Albert Camus, a series in which people working in different disciplines discuss the impact of existentialism on their work and lives. 3. Novelist and poet Michele Roberts considers the existentialism of the work of French writers Simone de Beauvoir and Madeleine Bourdouxhe revealing the ideas that she has picked up from them.

Monday 21st April 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

In Praise of the Midlands.

Series exploring the distinctive history and culture of the English Midlands. 1. DH Lawrence and the Men of the Midlands: Using his own formative experiences and impressions of literature, television, local accents and footballing affiliations, novelist and journalist Geoff Dyer asks what is the true home of the Midlander. Is there one and if so can it be easily defined?

Monday 26th May 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Explaining the Explicit.

Series in which writers considers the motivations for and challenges in writing about sex. 1. Julian Barnes asks 'Is writing about sex the same as writing about anything?', and 'what words do you use and what effect are you trying to have?'.

Wednesday 6th August 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:25 to 23:00 (35 minutes long)

Anglo-Saxon Portraits.

Broadcaster and historian Michael Wood introduces portraits of significant figures from the Anglo-Saxon era. With a portrait of King Alfred the Great and his unfairly overlooked daughter, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians.

Wednesday 17th September 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Samuel Beckett - Happy Days. Episode 3.

Series of essays about playwright Samuel Beckett recorded in front of an audience at the 2014 Happy Days International Beckett Festival in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. 3. Editing Samuel Beckett: Dr Mark Nixon, an authority on Beckett, talks about editing Echo's Bones, the writer's short story recently published 80 years after it was written.
(Part 3)

Thursday 25th September 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Music in Its Time. Episode 4.

Stephen Johnson considers how five seminal pieces of music would have been appreciated by the audiences who heard them first. He examines the societies and cultures that shaped the experience of those original listeners to reveal what modern ears might be missing. 4. Bach - St Matthew Passion: Stephen explores the impact of Bach's St Matthew Passion on its first audiences in Leipzig. How differently would Bach's music have fired imaginations in the provincial churchgoers of 18th-century Leipzig?

Friday 26th September 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Music in Its Time. Episode 5.

Stravinsky: The Firebird. Stephen Johnson considers how five seminal pieces of music would have been appreciated by the audiences who heard them first. He examines the societies and cultures that shaped the experience of those original listeners to reveal what modern ears might be missing. 5. The Firebird: Stephen focuses on Stravinsky's first ballet score, The Firebird.

Thursday 9th October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Brahms Experience. Episode 4.

Series of essays about 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms, recorded in front of an audience at St George's Bristol as part of Radio 3's exploration of his life and music. 4. Brahms and Freud: Writer Lesley Chamberlain asks what can be learnt by comparing the lives and work of Brahms and Freud.

Friday 10th October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Brahms Experience. Episode 5.

Series of essays about 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms, recorded in front of an audience at St George's Bristol as part of Radio 3's exploration of his life and music. 5. Brahms and the Future: Pianist and writer Natasha Loges discusses Brahms's views on the future, including recording technology, piano design and the composer's own place in the future of music.

Monday 20th October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Book that Changed Me: Series in which five people discuss the books that inspired them in their chosen careers. 1. Former home secretary Alan Johnson describes how David Copperfield by Charles Dickens mirrored his poor and troubled childhood in West London. After the death of his mother, the discovery of this great novel gave him the hope to build a happy and secure adult life.

Tuesday 21st October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Book that Changed Me: Series in which five people discuss the books that inspired them in their chosen careers. 2. Singer Tracey Thorn describes how as a rebellious teenager she seized on the feminist classic The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer. She explains how the book was a deep influence on the lyrics she wrote for her band Everything but the Girl. But when she became a mother herself, Thorn began to question Greer's attitudes to parenting.

Thursday 23rd October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Book that Changed Me: Series in which five people discuss the books that inspired them in their chosen careers. 4. Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman reveals how Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple legitimised her need to be a writer.

Monday 27th October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Existential Me. Episode 2.

Series in which people working in different disciplines discuss the impact of existentialism on their work and lives. 1. Young theatre director Paul Hart draws on his experience of staging productions of Sartre and Zuckmayer as well as other theatre work to consider the power and veracity of existentialist ideas.

Tuesday 28th October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Existential Me. Episode 3.

Series in which people working in different disciplines discuss the impact of existentialism on their work and lives. 2. Novelist and poet Michele Roberts considers the existentialism of the work of French writers Simone de Beauvoir and Madeleine Bourdouxhe, revealing the ideas that she has picked up from them.

Wednesday 29th October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Existential Me. Episode 4.

Series in which people working in different disciplines discuss the impact of existentialism on their work and lives. 3. Film-maker Gary Walkow reflects on how existential thinking has influenced his work, from his adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground to his film on the beat writers.

Thursday 30th October 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Existential Me. Episode 5.

Series in which people working in different disciplines discuss the impact of existentialism on their work and lives. 5. Psychotherapist Emmy van Deurzen reflects on how existentialist philosophy has shaped her life and work. She grew up in the Netherlands, but studied philosophy and psychotherapy in France. Her work in the two fields led her to want to follow an existentialist path in which she pursued a form of therapy rooted in philosophy. She now lives and teaches in England, where she works with clients on using moments of crisis in their lives for positive action.

Monday 24th November 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Shaping the Air - Writers and Radio. Episode 1.

Series of essays on the voice and radio recorded in front of an audience at the British Academy in London, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dylan Thomas. 1. Actor Samuel West explores the art of performance and declarative language. How should an actor speak? What is the best way to read poetry on the radio? How does radio drama get by without images? Are the pictures really better?

Monday 15th December 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Living Abroad. Episode 1.

Oscar-winning writer Frederic Raphael reads five new and personal essays about his time living abroad across Europe since the 1940s. 1. England: Uprooted from New York City as a young boy, Frederic paints a child's-eye portrait of wartime Britain, with all its class-conscious peculiarities, but seen through the eyes of a young American boy used to waffles, zips and Buicks.

Thursday 18th December 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Living Abroad. Episode 4.

Oscar-winning writer Frederic Raphael reads five new and personal essays about his time living abroad across Europe since the 1940s. 4. Italy: Frederic recalls living in early 1960s Italy, where he mixed ancient Roman history with a very personal experience of some of the key players in the Italian film industry.

Tuesday 23rd December 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

I've Never Told Anyone This Before. Episode 2.

Five writers reveal something they have never told anyone before. 2: Kei Miller - Because Some Things Just Can't Be Said (By Me to You). The Forward Prize-winning Jamaican poet, novelist and critic explores some of the unarticulated territory and unwritten rules that lie between a black writer and a white audience.

Monday 29th December 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

World War I Round the World. Episode 1.

Series of essays giving an international perspective on the First World War. 1. Paris - The Christmas Truce: In front of an audience in Paris, film director Christian Carion asks what the mud and degradation of the war did to the idea of heroism.
(Part 1)

Wednesday 31st December 2014 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:45 to 21:00 (15 minutes long)

World War I Round the World. Episode 3.

Series of essays giving an international perspective on the First World War. 3. London - Shell Shock and the Shock of Shells: In a talk from the Imperial War Museum in London, Joanna Bourke considers the emotional, cultural and physical impact of shell shock - and the shells themselves - on soldiers.

Monday 19th January 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Book that Changed Me: Series in which people in the arts discuss the books that inspired them in their careers. 1. Steve Earle on In Cold Blood: Musician and singer Steve Earle discusses In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, describing how it captured his imagination as a 12-year-old boy. He explains how Capote's story inspired his decades-long campaign against the death penalty and how the book led him to feel empathy for the killers at the centre of the tale.

Tuesday 20th January 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Book that Changed Me: Series in which people in the arts discuss the books that inspired them in their careers. 2. Jude Kelly on Little Women: Jude Kelly, artistic director of the Southbank Centre in London, talks about how Little Women by Louisa May Alcott mirrored her own experiences growing up in a lively Liverpool home. Like the March family, Kelly grew up surrounded by sisters and with a father who was often absent. She was inspired by the way Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy grew throughout the novel.

Wednesday 21st January 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Book that Changed Me: Series in which people in the arts discuss the books that inspired them in their careers. 3. Jon Ronson on What a Carve Up!: Journalist and writer Jon Ronson discusses the book What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe and how it led him to understand how politics affects everyday life.

Thursday 22nd January 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Book that Changed Me: Series in which people in the arts discuss the books that inspired them in their careers. 4. Lolita Chakrabarti on A Tale of Two Cities: Actress and playwright Lolita Chakrabarti discusses A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She describes how it affected her at a pivotal moment in her life and how its account of the French Revolution mirrored the tumult of the politics of the mid-1980s.

Friday 23rd January 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Book that Changed Me: Series in which people in the arts discuss the books that inspired them in their careers. 5. Sir Paul Nurse on Conjectures and Refutations: Geneticist and president of the Royal Society Sir Paul Nurse discusses Conjectures and Refutations by Karl Popper and how it rescued his career as a research scientist.

Monday 23rd February 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Fear Itself. Episode 1.

Five essays on different aspects of the emotion of fear. 1. Writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet uncovers the tragic history of the Little Albert experiment, for which in the 1920s psychologist John B Watson conditioned a toddler to recoil from a white rat and, eventually, any white fluffy object.

Tuesday 24th February 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Fear Itself. Episode 2.

Five essays on different aspects of the emotion of fear. 2. Writer and founder of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies Kier-La Janisse reflects on how educational films like Dark and Lonely Water, The Finishing Line and Signal 30 have scared more children more deeply than any horror feature film. She explains how in mid-20th-century America fear was exploited to create an educational film boom.

Monday 2nd March 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Classical Music's Unsung Heroines. Episode 1.

In the week leading up Radio 3's celebration of International Women's Day, a series of essays celebrating five women who have been unacknowledged movers and shakers in the world of classical music down the ages. 1. Nadezhda von Meck: Author and journalist Vanora Bennett tells the story of Russian patron of the arts Nadezhda von Meck, who was Tchaikovsky's benefactor for 13 years on the condition that they never met.

Tuesday 24th March 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Secret Admirers. Episode 2.

Radio 3 classical music presenters celebrate lesser-known composers of whom they are 'secret admirers'. 2. Arnold Bax: Tom Service celebrates a composer whose music has particularly inspired him, Arnold Bax, whose music reflects his love of the remarkable landscape of north west Scotland where Tom spent his childhood summer holidays.

Thursday 26th March 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Secret Admirers. Episode 4.

Radio 3 classical music presenters celebrate lesser-known composers of whom they are 'secret admirers'. 4. Malcolm Arnold: Martin Handley celebrates a composer whose music has particularly inspired him, Malcolm Arnold, creator of symphonies of great emotional depth and complexity - as Martin discovered as a teenage violinist, playing Arnold's Second Symphony with the composer conducting.

Am I the only one to find this programme a little odd?

Not that I have any criticism of any individual episode, but I find it odd to see fairly typical Radio 3 music programmes like 'Secret Admirers' or 'The Brahms Experience' under the same banner as 'The Book that Changed Me', 'The Existential Me' or 'Five Portraits of Science'. It's as if the series doesn't quite know what it wants to be.

ETA - I suppose it strikes me as untidy.

Monday 18th May 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Meaning of Trees.

Fiona Stafford, professor of literature at Somerville College, Oxford, explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises of five common UK trees. 1. Horse Chestnut: Fiona discusses the horse chestnut, a tree imported from Balkans. A showy, ornamental variety, it has little use apart from conkers.

Monday 25th May 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Why I Write. Episode 1.

Series of recordings made in front of an audience at the 2015 Hay Festival, taking the title of George Orwell's essay Why I Write as a starting point. 1. A contribution by editor and translator Daniel Hahn.

Monday 8th June 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Wb Yeats at 150.

Marking the 150th anniversary of his birth in June 1865, five of Ireland's leading cultural figures reflect on their relationship with the work of the poet, dramatist and prose writer William Butler Yeats. 1. Yeats by Heart: Celebrated actress and director Fiona Shaw explains the lasting impact of her childhood introduction to the work of Yeats.
(Episode 1)

Tuesday 9th June 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Wb Yeats at 150.

Marking the 150th anniversary of his birth in June 1865, five of Ireland's leading cultural figures reflect on their relationship with the work of the poet, dramatist and prose writer William Butler Yeats. 2. Not Liking Yeats: Writer and cultural commentator Fintan O'Toole explains that it is not always necessary to like everything about the man himself to appreciate the wonder of Yeats's poetry.

Monday 15th June 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Napoleon and Me.

Series in which people explore how aspects relating to Napoleon have affected them. 1. Author Julia Blackburn tells an extraordinary tale of searching for the ghost of Napoleon on St Helena, the island where he died in exile.

Monday 22nd June 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Minds at War.

Series exploring how great artists and thinkers responded to World War I in individual works of art. 1. Rabindranath Tagore: Santanu Das, a reader in English at King's College, London, discusses the Nobel lectures of Indian thinker Rabindranath Tagore.

Wednesday 24th June 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Minds at War.

Series exploring how great artists and thinkers responded to World War I in individual works of art. 3. Woolf's Mrs Dalloway: Professor Gillian Beer considers how Virginia Woolf and her great novel Mrs Dalloway were shaped by the 1914-18 conflict.

Monday 10th August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Retreating Roar.

Journalist Madeleine Bunting explores the decline of Christianity in Britain. 1. The Loss of God: Madeleine discusses the loss of God as a defining feature of Western democracy.

Tuesday 11th August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Retreating Roar.

Journalist Madeleine Bunting explores the decline of Christianity in Britain. 2. Sin: Madeleine discusses the notion of sin.

Thursday 13th August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

The Retreating Roar.

Journalist Madeleine Bunting explores the decline of Christianity in Britain. 3. Salvation: Madeleine discusses the loss of the notion of salvation.

Wednesday 19th August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Georgian Portraits.

Series exploring key figures of the Georgian era. 3. Historian Amanda Vickery explores the life of Elizabeth Parker Shackleton, member of the lesser gentry and mercantile elite of 18th-century Lancashire.

Thursday 20th August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Georgian Portraits.

Series exploring key figures of the Georgian era. 4. Writer and cartoonist Martin Rowson discusses the satiric genius of William Hogarth and his lasting influence on the development of the political cartoon.

Wednesday 26th August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Music in Its Time.

Stephen Johnson considers how five seminal pieces of music would have been appreciated by the audiences who heard them first. He examines the societies and cultures that shaped the experience of those original listeners to reveal what modern ears might be missing. 3. Scenes from Childhood: Stephen explores how Schumann's Scenes from Childhood were listened to by their first audiences.

Thursday 27th August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Music in Its Time.

Stephen Johnson considers how five seminal pieces of music would have been appreciated by the audiences who heard them first. He examines the societies and cultures that shaped the experience of those original listeners to reveal what modern ears might be missing. 4. Bach - St Matthew Passion: Stephen explores the impact of Bach's St Matthew Passion on its first audiences in Leipzig. How differently would Bach's music have fired imaginations in the provincial churchgoers of 18th-century Leipzig?

Friday 28th August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Music in Its Time.

Stephen Johnson considers how five seminal pieces of music would have been appreciated by the audiences who heard them first. He examines the societies and cultures that shaped the experience of those original listeners to reveal what modern ears might be missing. 5. The Firebird: Stephen focuses on Stravinsky's first ballet score, Stravinsky: The Firebird.

Monday 31st August 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Cities on the Brink.

Series in which BBC news correspondents present personal perspectives on the capital cities of the major European powers that, later in 1914, would face each other in the First World War. 1. Stephen Evans evokes Berlin in 1914, seen as the Silicon Valley of its time. While it was a highly innovative city whose industry drew in many immigrants, the wealth it created came at a price. Workers felt alienated and criticised Germany's alleged neglect of traditional home virtues.

Tuesday 1st September 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Cities on the Brink.

Series in which BBC news correspondents present personal perspectives on the capital cities of the major European powers that, later in 1914, would face each other in the First World War. 2. Steve Rosenberg finds a revealing connection between the St Petersburg of 1914 and its counterpart of today. Foreshadowing the conflict to come across the European continent, he tells the remarkable story of the Grand International Masters' Chess Tournament of 1914, with its starring cast of Russian, German, French, British and American competitors and its dramas of who won and who lost. But the tournament also demonstrated the Russian passion for chess that continues to this day and helps define its national identity as well as the fierce competition with other countries.

Friday 4th September 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Cities on the Brink.

Series in which BBC news correspondents present personal perspectives on the capital cities of the major European powers that, later in 1914, would face each other in the First World War. 3. Emma Jane Kirby discusses London, aided by Macdonald Gill's Wonderground Tube map. She considers the idea of Britain which London presented to both the wider world and Britons themselves in 1914, as well as assessing how far these attitudes still resonate today.

Wednesday 30th September 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

About Average.

Novelist and critic Ian Sansom explores the meaning of 'the average', a key term of the modern age in economics, relationships, politics and art. 3. Working 9 to 5: Ian considers the changing concept of the average working week in an age of zero hours contracts. Is the idea of an average working week now as redundant and old-fashioned as the idea of the tea-drinking, bowler-hatted man on the Clapham omnibus, with his 2.4 children living comfortably in suburbia, in a nation of shopkeepers?
(Episode 3)

Monday 12th October 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:45 to 23:00 (15 minutes long)

Staging Arthur Miller.

Marking the centenary of Arthur Miller's birth, five theatrical practitioners reflect on what his work means to them and describe their personal connection with the playwright and his work. 1: Director Richard Eyre recalls conversations with Arthur Miller about the House Un-American Activities hearings, the first production of Death of a Salesman and his experience of directing The Crucible on Broadway and reflects on Miller's impact on British theatre.
(Episode 1)