Classicist Mary Beard picks Tacitus as a figure who still has relevance if we're thinking about satire, power and celebrity. Shahidha Bari is joined by Mary, historian Helen Carr, who co-edited What is History Now? political sketch-writer from The Times newspaper Tom Peck and Konnie Huq, writer and former presenter of the children's TV show Blue Peter. On April 21st 1964, the tv channel BBC 2 launched with an episode for children of Play School and programmes like Bluey and Peppa Pig, have been making headlines so what do we want from kids TV? Plus - poet Lord Byron died 200 years ago this week - scholar Dr Corin Throsby has been reading the fan mail he received.
Listen out for Mary Beard and the new series of Being Roman coming to BBC Radio 4 in May - and the first series is available on BBC Sounds. And if you're a fan of Oliver Postgate - The Clangers, Bagpuss and Noggin you can find a Free Thinking episode exploring those programmes.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Manager: Tim Heffer
Chocolate
Chocolate
The Greenwich Outrage
Picnics
Iris Murdoch's The Sovereignty of Good
On The Silver Globe
East West religious connections
Secrets, Lies & Irish History
Holocaust history
The Kyoto School
Heidegger & Antisemitism
What is normal?
Shakespeare's Women
Dust, dirt and domesticity
Octavia Butler's Kindred
Essay writing
Travel, pleasure and peril
Dickens, Disney and copyright
New Thinking: Carols and Convents
Greek myth, goddesses and art
Create your
podcast in
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It is Free
The Modern West
Global News Podcast
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
The Infinite Monkey Cage
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins