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Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words

John Mullen

Jonty Claypole

Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words: Episode 2: The Grand Experiment

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Episode 2

Episode 2: The Grand Experiment

The Grand Experiment

BBC Four - Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words, The Grand Experiment

Series featuring great minds of the 20th century using film from the BBC's archive.

Series featuring great minds of the 20th century using film from the BBC's archive, including Isaiah Berlin, Bertrand Russell and William Beveridge.

The question of how to run a good society has puzzled intellectuals for centuries. Should we allow governments to secure a better country, or place our trust in the individual? 

In the 20th century, political and economic thinkers were able to take to our screens to preach their ideas on how they thought Britain should be run. This film features political and economic thinkers who were united by the belief that, for the first time in history, they'd at last found THE KEY to running a good society. And with the advent of broadcasting, these scholars even became national celebrities.

The series mines the BBC archive for footage of the great minds of the modern age - presenting these thinkers in their own words, and the film reveals these thinkers in a new and surprising light. It shows an emotional Isaiah Berlin describing seeing the horrors of the Russian Revolution first hand, as well as a furious Bertrand Russell raging against the nuclear arms race and previously unseen footage of William Beveridge, founder of the Welfare State. 

From the feminism of Germaine Greer to the right-wing economics of Friedrich Hayek, this is a unique opportunity to hear some of the most famous thinkers of our times.

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Series which looks at important thinkers through the broadcasts they made for the BBC.

Series which looks at important thinkers through the TV and radio broadcasts they made for the BBC. Includes rare and never-seen archive of Freud, Jung and Bertrand Russell.

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Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words

Episode 2: The Grand Experiment

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