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Melvyn Bragg: Wigton to Westminster

An intimate portrait of the working-class boy from Cumbria who crossed the class divide to become an establishment figure. With contributions from a wealth of well-known figures.

A surprising, revealing and intimate portrait of the working class boy from Cumbria who crossed the class divide to become an establishment figure.

Melvyn Bragg is an inexhaustible broadcaster and champion of the arts and has variously been called a polymath and the nation's schoolmaster. Bragg is best known for the South Bank Show, the country's longest-running arts programme, which has profiled many of the world's most notable writers, actors, artists and musicians. With innumerable other television series to his name, he is also a constant presence on 大象传媒 Radio 4 and has written 22 novels, numerous works of non-fiction, plays and film scripts, and in 1998, he entered the House of Lords and became Lord Bragg of Wigton. He has been a familiar figure in our living rooms for the past 50 years, but what's less well known is his private persona. With contributions from a wealth of well-known figures - from Dame Judi Dench to Tony Blair and his childhood friends - this documentary reveals a man still deeply embedded in his working-class Cumbrian roots and struggling to come to terms with an event that occurred over 40 years ago - the tragic suicide of his first wife.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Fri 7 Aug 2015 00:35

Credits

Role Contributor
Producer Anne Elletson
Executive Producer Stuart Prebble
Director Olivia Lichtenstein
Producer Olivia Lichtenstein
Participant Melvyn Bragg
Participant Judi Dench
Participant Tony Blair
Participant Marie-Elsa Bragg
Participant John Humphreys
Participant Joan Bakewell
Participant Grayson Perry
Participant Chris Evans
Participant Howard Jacobson
Correspondent Neil Hannon
Participant Julian Fellowes
Participant John Birt
Participant Will Self
Participant Cate Haste
Participant Sol Campbell
Participant MR James
Participant Joan Martos
Participant Brian Campbell
Participant Brian Henderson
Participant William Ismay
Participant Humphrey Burton
Participant Tracey Emin
Participant Tom Morris
Participant Philippa Browning
Participant Justin Wark
Participant Steve Cowley

Broadcasts