Widely regarded as a national treasure, broadcaster and parliamentarian Melvyn Bragg spent his 60-year career dismantling the barriers between "high" and "low" culture. I used to watch episodes of The South Bank Show as a teenager living in a rural area that didn’t have much access to anything artsy beyond what I could find on television. It thrilled me to discover opera mixed with rock & roll, his interview with painter Francis Bacon alongside ones with pop star George Michael and filmmaker Ken Russell. But I only recently rediscovered him after I tuned in to episodes of the long-running BBC Radio programme In Our Time. Since then, I’ve been hooked.
Bragg presented In Our Time for 27 years before retiring in 2025, and can proudly boast of recording more than 1,000 episodes of this singular series. As author and columnist Caitlin Moran, a well-known fan, explained: “It’s basically a 40-minute, frantic, all-you-can-eat buffet of stories, facts, discoveries, history, and people.” She called Bragg a “big, brainy Gandalf” who guides us as we “briskly sprint through all the fascinating things that humanity has ever studied.”
Guy Garvey, the lead singer of the band Elbow, who is another huge fan, has said that he loved the 2020 episode on solar eclipses so much it inspired a song that he wrote. "After the Eclipse" begins with the lyric, "A shadow raced across the Earth," which was spoken by one of the guests, scientist and scholar Lucie Green. How's that for unexpected impact?
Personally, I appreciate the scope of the research and profound knowledge being accessed, but I confess that my husband and I keep listening to the In Our Time for a more pedestrian reason. It helps us fall asleep. My partner is a brainy university professor in his own right, and when he's writing an essay for an academic publication, he has a difficult time shutting down his synapses and falling asleep. We've tried cognitive shuffling and other tricks and tips, but the most effective solution has been listening to esoteric topics covered in In Our Time. So now it's our nightly ritual to ask: "What Melvyn will we listen to tonight?"
We scroll through topics that span everything from enzymes and Einstein to Dickens and Greek mythology. We've listened to hundreds of them by now—many of them repeatedly since one of us inevitably falls asleep during Bragg's calm recitation. The one on slime mould, of all things, kept us both captivated. Part of that is due to Bragg's infectious enthusiasm and his ability to keep everything on track without wild tangents by the three experts. At times, I've been too enthralled to doze off and had to follow up with another that can ease me into slumber.
Since incorporating Melvyn into our lives, I've learned that Bragg has a slew of other books—both fiction and non-fiction—and is releasing Another World: The Oxford Years this month. It's the second instalment of his memoirs, following his critically acclaimed Back in the Day. I'm looking forward to listening to more from this fascinating human, whether it's narrated by him or someone else, since he's become a trusted companion to both educate and tuck us in.
By the way, Caitlin Moran's favourite episode was on English medieval mystic Margery Kempe. So far, I've pressed play at least a dozen times on that one, and despite being fascinating, it never fails to put me to sleep.
In Our Time collections
More listens by Melvyn Bragg
