Melvyn Bragg examines new coinages, puns and wordplay; how accents and social class are entwined; swear words; attempts to stop the evolution of language in its tracks; and, finally, the many varieties of English that are spoken around the world today.

This thirteenth collection of the antidote to panel games finds Jack Dee giving regular panellists Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden silly things to do-along with special guests Jeremy Hardy, Sandi Toksvig, Rob Brydon and David Mitchell. Highlights include Uxbridge English Dictionary, One Song to the Tune of Another, Sound Charades,...

In this episode taken from the BBC Radio 4 series, Melvyn Bragg voyages to Tasmania to find out what a sentence of transportation to Van Diemen's Land really meant to those who survived the journey 'beyond the seas'. We hear the forgotten voices of people such as Joseph Lingard, a respectable Derbyshire man who was wrongfully convicted of the theft...

Melvyn Bragg looks at dialects from around Britain: the Pitmatic of Northumberland, the dialect of (London/Derry), the increasingly elusive Cornish dialect, Pidgin, and Shropshire dialect, and then finishing up with a speculation on the future of English dialects.

In this episode taken from the BBC Radio 4 series, Melvyn Bragg travels to the historic dockyard of Chatham to explore the life of a seaman in Nelson's navy. Our popular image of the 18th century sailor below decks is one of a downtrodden, press-ganged man who was a victim of regular beatings. While Bragg finds some evidence to support this view, h...

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. We are extremely lucky to have an exceptional eyewitness account of a plague outbreak in...

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. In the decade following the conquest, the north of England was one of the main focuses of...

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. At the beginning of his reign, King Charles I faced a perennial problem for English monar...

In this episode taken from the BBC Radio 4 series, Melvyn Bragg is in urban Lancashire to explore the warp and weft of the Industrial Revolution-how the upheavals of the new mechanisation affected workers who found their traditional trades, like hand-loom weaving, superseded and marginalised by the growth of industrialisation and mechanisation. He...

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. The upheavals and turmoil of the sixteenth century transformed many aspects of religious...

The story of British Tommies sent 'over the top' to fight the Germans in the trenches of the First World War is a vivid emblem of powerlessness in the face of military discipline-and social pressures-that required young men to join up and do their duty. As the voices of the powerless become truly audible with the dawn of the recording era, we trav...

As a starting point in making the world a better place, Mark will free you from sin. It's a big task, but he thinks it's going to go really well. Mark Watson is not only a fantastic stand-up comedian, but he may also be the best chance we have to overcome sin. He's got a plan to teach us everything we need to know about the Six Deadly Sins (he know...

Continuing to make the world a better place, this is the second series for Mark to free you from sin. Mark Watson is not only a fantastic stand-up comedian, but he may also be the best chance we have to overcome sin. He's got a plan to teach us everything we need to know about the Six Deadly Sins (he knows it's usually seven, but he's doing Greed a...

Features the Christmas Special, called I'm Sorry I Haven't a Christmas Carol, broadcast on Christmas Day 2003. Rather than being the normal quiz show, the regulars will be telling the story of Ebenezer Scrumph and his poor assistant Crotchet with the help of the regular guests - Jeremy Hardy, Sandi Toksvig, Tony Hawks, Andy Hamilton, Linda Smith, a...

Another two hours of inspired rib-cracking ad-libbery. Spectacularly clueless as ever are Chairman Humphrey Lyttelton and panellists Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Willie Rushton (not forgetting the scorer, the lovely Samantha). It's the authentic antidote to panel games. This compilation includes Willie Rushton's last two shows.

A compilation of hare-brained games including the legendary `Mornington Crescent' from the much-loved `antidote to panel games' chaired by Humphrey Lyttelton. Panellists Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden are joined by special guests Stephen Fry, Jeremy Hardy, Paul Merton and Sandi Toksvig.

Another helping of inspired ad-libbery from the multi award-winning BBC Radio 4 series. 'The funniest comedy quiz show of them all.' Sue Arnold, Observer. Chairman Humphrey Lyttelton presides over regulars Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden in another four shows from the antidote to panel games. Accept no substitutes.

A seventh helping of inspired ad-libbery from the multi award-winning BBC Radio 4 series. Chairman Humphrey Lyttelton presides over regulars Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden in four shows from the the 2001/2002 series of the antidote to panel games. Accept no substitutes.

The special New Year's Day 2011 edition of BBC Radio 4's Beyond Westminster, in which Andrew Rawnsley considers the lessons of history for Britain's coalition government-and its opponents. Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers are busily advancing their ambitious political and economic agenda-albeit amid parliamentary revolts and embarrassin...

The complete first series of the panel show, hosted by Angus Deayton and devised by the panellists. 'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus D...

During the lunch interval on the Saturday of every Test in England, BBC Radio's Test Match Special used to invite a well-known guest into the commentary box for a chat with Brian Johnston about themselves and their passion for cricket. Some turned out to be able cricketers, but they all had stories to tell about matches they had seen and cricketers...