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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Rudi Zygadlo

‘I’d been fired once; it didn’t hurt’: Melvyn Bragg on breakdowns, bust ups and 1,000 episodes of In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg Gore Vidal Paul McCartney Roger Scruton WILL SELF Podcast
Melvyn Bragg
Determined to make culture accessible to all … Melvyn Bragg. Photograph: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images

Did you know that America was discovered by accident because of a solar eclipse? That Frankenstein was written because of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia? Or that Seneca and Jean-Paul Marat both died in the bath? For 25 years, one place has been a font of far-reaching facts, a stage for the sharpest of minds, a university course for the masses – a live radio show devoted to subjects from every conceivable field of knowledge with one steadfast voice at the helm.

I’m shepherded up an elevator and down several corridors before reaching an anonymous, tiny, soundproof room. There to discuss BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time on the eve of its 1,000th episode is its host, Melvyn Bragg, the 83-year-old veteran broadcaster with improbably dense hair.

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