Cultural discussion programme. Andrew Marr discusses the 19th-century novel with David Bellos, Dinah Birch, Simon Callow and Barbara Hannigan. Show more

David Bellos explores why Les Miserables is 'France's greatest gift'. He reveals its inspirations and its resonance now, while describing Victor Hugo's life as he penned his epic. Show more

While narrating Victor Hugo's fall from grace in France, Bellos begins to decode his epic, exploring the meaning of colours and money in the context of Hugo's time. Show more

Hugo finds himself in exile in the Channel Islands and returns to the manuscript he had begun more than a decade earlier - a novel of the poor, with a working title of Les Miseres. Show more

Still exiled on Guernsey, as the author Victor Hugo tries to reconstruct Paris from memory, distance also complicates the revision and delivery of his final manuscript to Brussels. Show more

As Victor Hugo finishes the book and it is launched to huge acclaim, David Bellos offers insights into the politics and morality of a novel as serious and complex as it is popular. Show more

Anne McElvoy discusses the relationship between France and its former colonies. Plus research about bird mating systems and the lessons to be learned from Roman emperor Augustus. Show more