Discover 11,128,835 listings and 279,694 playable programmes from the BBC
1 hour
First broadcast: on BBC FourLatest broadcast: on BBC Four
Available for years
Professor Jerry Brotton uncovers how maps are snapshots of a moment in history and offer visions of distant lands, tempting explorers to plunder and conquer. Show more
58 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC FourLatest broadcast: on BBC Four HD
Available for years
Jerry Brotton shows how maps can be tools of power and snapshots of history. Henry VIII's maps of the British coast helped him exert control over the world. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Tim Marlow begins his exploration of Britain's response to Europe's most lavish art movement with the moment Charles I lost his head under a Rubens masterpiece on 30 January 1649. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra
From the London stage, the Elizabethan fascination with Islam, particularly by Shakespeare and Marlowe. Read by Derek Jacobi. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra
4 Extra Debut. Queen Elizabeth I's fascination with the Orient and the origins of our taste for imports from there. Read by Derek Jacobi. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra
One merchant voyage ends in tragedy when the English crew are captured and turned into galley slaves. Read by Derek Jacobi. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra
The sights and sounds of a royal pageant held in Whitehall in the year 1600 for the Moroccan ambassador. Read by Derek Jacobi. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra
Queen Elizabeth I's advisers debate how to satisfy the sultan of Turkey's demands for elaborate presents. Read by Derek Jacobi. Show more
30 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Oscar Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland on The Picture of Dorian Gray, utopias in fiction, Conor O'Brien aka Villagers and the wild men of rock and ads. Show more
30 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood on paintings; we look at problems of adapting Shakespeare for film; Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do reviewed; Danish writer Peter Hoeg. Show more
30 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Alan Cumming on his new film, Any Day Now; the verdict on a bold new staging of Marlowe's Edward II; how female comics make feminism funny; new art inspired by the Victorians. Show more
59 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC FourLatest broadcast: on BBC Four HD
Jerry Brotton shows how maps can reveal the fears and prejudices of their age, from medieval religious passion to Victorian obsession with poverty and disease. Show more
30 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Hidden Figures reviewed, Eleanor Bergstein on 30 years of Dirty Dancing, Simon Armitage on Branwell Bronte, Muslim Othello. Show more
45 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3
Available for over a year
Rana Mitter explores links between Elizabethan England and the Islamic world with Jerry Brotton and Elif Shafak. Plus John Breuilly on nationalism, and author Gillian Slovo. Show more
