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
Prize Winners 2023
Harry Belafonte
Margaret Cavendish
Narnia and CS Lewis
Humboldt, soil, gardens and Frank Walter
New Thinking: Disability in Music and Theatre
Kadare, Gospodinov, Kafka and Dickens
Libraries
Lorca
AS Byatt and The Children's Book
Post-War Germany
Sam Selvon and The Lonely Londoners
New Thinking: Rediscovering women making film and sculpture
Ursula Le Guin and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Women, art and activism
Shakespeare as inspiration
New Thinking: The Box Office Bears project
New Thinking: How and why we talk
The Imperial War Museum Remembrance discussion 2023
New Thinking: Playhouses and opera-going
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