Wonderful radio

I am always impressed by Radio 4’s In Our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg. It is as the blurb says “the history of ideas discussed by Melvyn Bragg and guests including philosophy, science, literature, religion and the influence these ideas have on us today.” Which can be reached at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-our-time/


And now all this week he investigates how the written word, a technology originally used for accountancy, gave rise to all of human literature. He charts the emergence of poetry and history writing in the ancient world, inspects an ancient Egyptian precursor to Hamlet, and discovers how Greek literary traditions reached this country in the Middle Ages at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b018xw60


And if that wasn’t enough there was also yesterday Black is a Country, a series exploring the extraordinary underground music generated by the Black Power and Black Arts movement of the late Sixties, which can be listened to all week at at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_fourfm


Picture; from the BBC Radio 4 listings