Episodes
Saturday Dec 30, 2023
Justine Picardie - If The Spirit Moves You
Saturday Dec 30, 2023
Saturday Dec 30, 2023
Her sister died of breast cancer and Justine just couldn't accept that her much loved sister had gone.
This is conversation about grief and loss but it also about the lengths the bereaved will go to to re establish a link with the departed loved one.
Despite being a journalist Justine tried everything and everybody. Mediums, spiritualists and people who really thought that there could be communication with the dead via a computer spell check.
So what belief is Justine left with?
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Richard Dawkins - Growing up in the Universe
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
It's Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution time again. This year the subject is artificial intelligence.
Way back in 1991 the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins was the lecturer and his subject was Growing Up in the Universe.
He talked to David Freeman about the experience.
Monday Dec 18, 2023
George Alagiah - A Passage to Africa
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Monday Dec 18, 2023
George Alagiah died on July 24 2023
Before George Alagiah was known as a BBC newsreader he was a working TV journalist.
In this conversation recorded more than 20 years ago he recounts what Rwanda meant to him. Not a near perfect place to be deported to, but a country that had experienced the most horrendous genocide.
He recounts the effect of constant propaganda. How people can be turned against each other by daily repetition of untruths.
Couldn't ever happen here ......... could it?
George Alagiah reveals himself to be both thought provoking and wise.
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
Sir Martin Gilbert - Never Again - history of the Holocaust
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on December 10th 1948.
We now live in a world where the rights agreed in that document are widely ignored and some politicians openly seek to remove the UK from enforcing them.
Plus racial intolerance is on the march . The horrible spectre of antisemitism is looming over the news as is denial of the rights of Palestinians.
A good time to listen to the words of the late Sir Martin Gilbert.
Sir Martin Gilbert is known as Churchill's biographer, but also as the historian of the Holocaust.
This conversation with David Freeman took place when his book Never Again was published. Sir Martin's thoughts on war are sadly relevant.
Sir Martin died in 2015.
Friday Dec 01, 2023
Friday Dec 01, 2023
Emeritus Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe is an academic archaeologist who writes enthusiastically and engagingly about his passions.
In this interview he talks to me about his book which tells the whole of African human history focussing on the Sahara.
Sir Barry takes the story of us from our evolution through to the present day. Is he optimistic about our survival?
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Alison Weir - Henry VIII : King and Court
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Although this account of the life lead by Henry VIII was first published at the turn of the century it is still selling well.
Alison Weir thinks the key to understanding the famous Tudor King is to realise that he was never alone. Even a conjugal visit to his wife or a trip to the loo were attended by courtiers.
Popular accessible history at it's entertaining best.
Thursday Nov 23, 2023
Spike Milligan
Thursday Nov 23, 2023
Thursday Nov 23, 2023
The King looked uncomfortable riding in a horse drawn coach and reading a speech he clearly didn't agree with.
As a man of a certain age he is known for having an anarchic sense of humour which makes him a friend of, among others, Billy Connolly and the late Spike Milligan.
In this episode Spike Milligan talks to David Freeman about his life in comedy, The Goons, and the mental health problems that dogged his life after he was blown up by a wartime bomb.
Saturday Nov 18, 2023
Saturday Nov 18, 2023
The Beatles are chart toppers again. In this episode David Freeman talks to Beatles Historian Mark Lewisohn about his mammoth history of the Fab Four.
Thomasina Lowe talks about her fathers photographs of the Kennedy presidential years and science writer Marcus Chown talks about his book "What a Wonderful World". that endeavours to explain almost everything.
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Clementine Taylor - Something About Her
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Monday Nov 13, 2023
A brand new novel by first time author Clementine Taylor.
It is the story of two young women Aisling and Maya and their love. Of course it isn't a simple story. The complications and obstacles are engagingly told. The book is a real page turner.
Both women are charismatic characters and as a reader you are supporting both of them ...... so how does it end?
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Sir Stanley Wells, Ellen Apsten.
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
The Shakespeare First Folio was published 400 years ago.
In this interview recorded in 2003 the Shakespeare scholar Sir Stanley Wells talks to David Freeman about Shakespeare the man and Shakespeare the writer.
Russian history is all too relevant. Ellen Apsten tells David Freeman about the second novel in her series telling the stories of the powerful Russian women who lived remarkable lives in the 18th century.
The Tsarina's Daughter is about Elizabeth the beautiful daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine. This is the couple that Putin has studied and have influenced his world view.