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
Betty Miller and Marghanita Laski
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Black Atlantic
The Red Shoes
Queer history, new narrative in San Fransisco
Wolfson Prize 2023
Writing and Place: The Cairngorms
Writing and Place: Cornwall
The Black Country past and present
Landladies
Depicting AIDS in Drama
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Dark Places
ETA Hoffmann
My Neighbour Totoro
Oliver Postgate
The Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath
Glenda Jackson on filming Sunday Bloody Sunday
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