Podcast appearances and mentions of philip dodd

We're releasing this episode (our Season 1 finale) on a Sunday rather than the regular Tuesday, for a very good reason indeed: 1st December 2024 is the 57th anniversary of the amazing Jimi Hendrix performing in the Central Theatre, Chatham, another milestone in the long, rich history of Medway's music scene.The Hendrix Experience were headlining a package tour of seven bands - the kind of tour that was very popular in the US in the 1950s, but quite unusual in the UK by the late 60s. Second on the bill were Pink Floyd, who'd only just released their first album. So we went to talk to Nick Mason, the Floyd drummer, about his memories of being on the tour with Jimi. In his wry, understated way, he gives us a real insight to what it meant to him musically and personally.We also talk to John Campbell, the lead guitarist and singer in Europe's best Hendrix tribute band, Are You Experienced?, about channelling Hendrix for audiences in the 2020s. And illustrator and typographer Will Hill tells us about going - aged 12 - to his first-ever gig: Jimi Hendrix in Washington DC in August 1967, only a few months before he came to Chatham…Finally, Phil chats to Rob about the times he got to play piano with both the then surviving members of the Hendrix Experience - bassist Noel Redding in County Cork, and drummer Mitch Mitchell in the Hard Rock Café on Piccadilly.And we've added a Christmas bonus: a teaser for Series 2 with Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens.Thanks for listening - and a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!With thanks to John Campbell from Are You Experienced? Instagram: @‌JimiJon4Facebook: Are You Experienced?To purchase a copy of Victorian Christmas by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley visit the Charles Dickens Museum shop or Store 104, RochesterWe Did It Medway is supported by the Medway Council Shared Prosperity Fund from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and The City of Rochester Society. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.ukWe Did it Medway is presented by Philip Dodd and Rob Flood. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper at Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd. Additional sound design elements for this episode were sourced from Freesound.org: Sleigh bells courtesy of GowlerMusic and soundstack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us for a walk through Chatham Intra, as Rob reveals the rich history of the LGBTQIA+ community in Medway, and in particular the huge importance of The Ship Inn on the High Street in Intra, possibly the oldest gay pub in the country. For decades The Ship has been at the heart of the gay scene in the area – during the dark days when homosexuality was still illegal and necessarily underground, till today when Medway Pride is a vibrant highlight of a Medway summer. In the snug of the Ship itself, we meet Peter Moorcraft, a regular at the pub since 1966. Hilary Cooke, the Chair of Medway Pride, is a key equality champion. And we hear from the delightfully funny Derek Arrowsmith, a 90-year-old gay activist, interviewed by Rob as part of Medway Pride Fringe in August.Intra ArtsChatham IntraThe Story of Intra High Street in six places blogRob and Phil discuss Michi Masumi's work on display at Intra at the time of recording. Visit Michi's Instagram or website to find out more about Michi's work. During the Medway Pride section you hear the talents of Kent samba band Bloco Fogo, recorded live at Rochester Castle Gardens during the Pride 2024 event.We Did It Medway is supported by the Medway Council Shared Prosperity Fund from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and The City of Rochester Society. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.ukWe Did it Medway is presented by Philip Dodd and Rob Flood. It is produced and edited by Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two locations for this episode: first we're at the Watts Almshouses on Maidstone Road in Rochester, for a round table discussion about the heritage of charity in Medway. We're joined by Martin Sissons, CEO of the Watts Charity, which is nearly 450 years old and still as relevant and needed as ever. We're also with Janet Fischer, Chief Executive of Live Music Now, which brings music to vulnerable communities, and John Portman, who is an award-winning organiser of many different activities designed to help those with dementia. Then we head out on the streets with Neil and Tracy Charlick of the Gillingham Street Angels at their weekly community kitchen, on the ground on a very windy afternoon! It's charity in the raw.Richard Watts Charities Almshouses https://www.richardwatts.org.uk/An open day is being held at Watts Almshouses on Saturday, September 14. Find more information here: https://www.richardwatts.org.uk/copy-of-july-2023Live Music Now website https://www.livemusicnow.org.uk/For more information about Rochester Dementia Cafe visit https://www.medway.gov.uk/directory_record/279279/rochester_dementia_memory_cafeGillingham Street Angels https://www.thestreet-angels.org/If you would like to volunteer to support any of the charities you've heard about in this episode. Please click the relevant link and contact them. They are always looking for new people to join their teams.With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.ukWe Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A highlight for both of us: a wonderful long May Bank Holiday weekend enjoying the wealth of music, tradition and fun that the Sweeps Festival brings to Rochester every year, with morris dancing ‘sides' descending to perform all along the High Street and up in the Castle Grounds.Around all that centuries-old tradition there's also a booming world music/folk/roots festival in venues across Rochester. This year we loved the French Celtic energy of Sur Les Docks and local legends the Singing Loins at the Rising Sun, as well as the Balkan gypsy folk of Balamuc, and Staggered Ray (featuring Chris Weller and Rob Shepherd from our pod jingle).The Sweeps Festival was part of Rochester life for centuries - celebrated by Charles Dickens - until common sense and health & safety stopped chimney sweeps sending young boys up chimneys… In the early 1980s it was Gordon Newton who began the renaissance of the Festival and has overseen it grow and grow to become a central plank of Rochester culture and music. Gordon tells us the whole story, and throws in a bit of melodeon playing to boot.So join us out on the streets of Rochester, chatting to musicians and Morris dancers to capture the flavour of the whole event. How SWEEP is YOUR love?!!Medway Council Rochester Sweeps Festival page https://www.medway.gov.uk/sweepsfestivalSweeps Festival Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RochesterSweepsFestival/With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.ukWe Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Moored at Gillingham Pier, there's a boat which has an astonishing history: the paddle steamer the Medway Queen. In the 1920s and 30s she transported thousands of holidaymakers from the Medway towns for day trips to resorts like Sheerness and Margate, Clacton and Southend. But when the Second World War came she was transformed into a minesweeper, and then in 1940 crisscrossed the Channel to Dunkirk seven times in seven days, saving over 7000 Allied troops, becoming one of the stars of the flotilla of Little Ships.In this episode we talk to Alan Cook, whose grandfather was the captain on those perilous Dunkirk crossings, and meet the inspirational volunteers of the Medway Queen Preservation Society, who from the 1980s have worked tirelessly to turn the wreck she had become into the gloriously renovated boat we can visit today. And during the celebrations on the actual day of her 100th birthday we hear from Admiral Lord West and ask, Will the Medway Queen ever be able to head back into open waters under her own steam?Find out how you can visit this historic, heroic paddle steamer at https://www.medwayqueen.co.uk/With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.ukWe Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Medway is definitely Dickens country - we're proud of the fact he grew up in Chatham as a boy, used the money from his novels to buy his house Gad's Hill over in Higham, and drew huge inspiration from the people, the buildings and the stories of Rochester in particular, as well as the other Medway towns.In this episode we find out all about his love of acting, and why he went on the road in later life performing extracts from his most famous works, including A Christmas Carol and the murder of Nancy by Bill Sykes - usually fortified by a cocktail of booze and raw eggs we really don't recommend. And we explore the truth behind his relationship with Rochester-born actress Nelly Ternan.We recorded the session live in the delightfully idiosyncratic Deaf Cat café down on Rochester High Street (it's named after one of Dickens' pets) with three incredibly informed and passionate experts. This is a bumper edition - 50 minutes of auditory pleasure!Emma Harper is Curator at the Charles Dickens Museum in London https://dickensmuseum.com/ You can hear more from her on their podcast Inimitable: Uncovering Charles Dickens Dr Jeremy Clarke is Education Office at the Guildhall Museum Rochester Visiting times and more information at https://www.medway.gov.uk/directory_record/671/the_guildhall_museumJohn O'Connor performs regularly as Charles Dickens. Find his next performance at http://europeanarts.co.uk/With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.ukWe Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, local football teams play at Strood Leisure Centre on pitches called ‘Messi', ‘Pochettino' and ‘Batistuta' - but do they know why? In this episode we're telling the story of Isaac Newell, a Strood lad who left Medway as a teenager in the 1860s for far-off Argentina, taking the beautiful game with him. The team he inspired, Newell's Old Boys, has nurtured some of the very best footballing talent of all time..Joining us to talk about Isaac Newell's impact and his fame in Argentina and beyond are the ‘Legendinho' himself, the BBC's South American football correspondent Tim Vickery - co-host of 5 Live's World Football Phone-in - and local football fan and tireless campaigner, Adrian Pope.Find out more about the campaign to raise a statue to Isaac Newell in Strood on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064806066148With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.ukWe Did it Medway is presented by Philip Dodd and Rob Flood. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Travel, Places, Culture, Society, History - Rob Flood, Philip Dodd

Join us this week down on Rochester Esplanade at the Suffrage Sensory Garden. Created in honour of local Suffragist leader Vera Conway Gordon, it celebrates her campaign to get women the vote over 100 years ago. Natalie Poulton, the driving force behind the garden, is passionate about Vera's life and her legacy in Medway.But women still face challenges in politics today. We also speak to the two leading female candidates for Rochester and Strood in the upcoming General Election: Kelly Tolhurst former MP (Conservative) and her Labour opponent Lauren Edwards. It's refreshing to hear Lauren and Kelly join together as women in politics, rather than slugging it out over immigration, inflation or the NHS.Visit the Suffrage Sensory Garden on Rochester Esplanade, or join their Facebook page www.facebook.com/SuffrageSensoryGardenWith thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.ukFollow the We Did It Medway Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558961044581We Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper for Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greg Cholmondeley, Keypoint Intelligence's Principal Analyst of Production Workflow Software, explores pioneering sustainability practices in the UK commercial printing industry with a pair of guests, Philip Dodd of Healey's Printers and Anthony Rowell of Tradeprint. Listen as they discuss their approaches to reducing environmental impact while maintaining high quality and customer satisfaction through innovative practices and software solutions. This episode is appropriate for anyone in the printing industry or interested in sustainable business practices.

A Baltic forest in 1913, Soho and the suburbs of Liverpool and the Jewish community that grows up there are the settings for Linda Grant's new novel The Story of the Forest. She joins presenter John Gallagher, Rachel Lichtenstein and Julia Pascal for a conversation about writing and Jewish identity in the North West as we also hear about Julia Pascal's play Manchester Girlhood and look at the re-opening of the Manchester Jewish Museum with curator Alex Cropper . Producer in Salford: Nick Holmes https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/ has re-opened after a £6 million redevelopment Dr Rachel Lichtenstein is a writer, curator who teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester's Centre for Jewish Studies http://www.juliapascal.org/ has links to Julia's new play You can find other Free Thinking discussions about Jewish history and identity including Jonathan Freedland, Hadley Freeman, Howard Jacobson and Bari Weiss on Jewish Identity in 2020 Simon Schama and Devorah Baum on Jewish history and jokes Howard Jacobson delivering a lecture on Why We Need The Novel and talking to Philip Dodd about his dystopian novel J Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger and New Generation Thinker Brendan McGeevor from the Pears Institute discussing stereotypes and also anti-Semitism Matthew Sweet in conversation with David Grossman Jonathan Freedland exploring Jewish identity in fiction from Amos Oz, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen & Jonathan Safran Foer Linda Grant alongside AD Miller, Boris Dralyuk, and Diana Vonnak discussing Odessa Stories and the writing of Isaac Babel

How does France look when viewed from different places and at different times? Graham Robb knows France well from his academic career and decades of travels and offers an alternative route through French history in his new book. Hannah Scott has looked at the role of low-brow music in forming an idea of ‘Britishness' for the French at the height of cross-channel rivalry in the last century. Tash Aw has translated the latest work of biographical writing by Édouard Louis. Professor Ginette Vincendeau is currently co-editing a book on Paris in the cinema. They join Anne McElvoy to explore ideas of France and the French through it's history and culture. Graham Robb has published widely on French literature and history and was a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. His latest book is France: An Adventure History Hannah Scott is an academic track fellow at the University of Newcastle. She is the author of Singing the English: Britain in the French Musical Lowbrow 1870-1904 Ginette Vincendeau is a Professor in Film Studies at King's College, University of London. She is is currently co-editing a book on Paris in the cinema. She has recently published on ethnicity in contemporary French cinema and is researching popular French directors of the 1950s and 1960s. A Woman's Battles and Transformations by Édouard Louis (author)and translated by Tash Aw is out now. Édouard Louis's earlier book Who Killed My Father has been adapted into a stage drama by Ivo Van Hove. You can see that at the Young Vic in London between 7th September and the 24th September and you can hear Édouard talking to Philip Dodd about street protest, gilets jaunes and his own upbringing in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0704m92 Producer: Ruth Watts

The Italian architect and engineer, Renzo Piano, talks to Philip Dodd about his career from the Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers) to the Shard in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. 50 years of his work are being marked in an exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts from the 15th of September to the 20th of January 2019. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

Commentator Douglas Murray, journalist Bari Weiss and writer Ed Husain join Philip Dodd to explore the 'Intellectual Dark Web'. Their YouTube videos and podcasts receive millions of views and downloads. They sell out theatres across the US. But these aren't rock stars or the latest pop sensation. They are a collection of public intellectuals, scientists, political columnists, and stand up-comedians who are at the front line of the raging 'culture wars'. As two of its leading figures, neuroscience Sam Harris and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson, prepare for a UK tour, Philip Dodd finds out more about this popular movement. The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray is out now. The House of Islam: A Global History by Ed Husain is out now. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

From BBC Radio 3's archive, another opportunity to hear an interview with Philip Roth (1933 - 2018), author of books including Portnoy's Complaint & American Pastoral. Recorded in New York in 2008, Philip Roth talked to Philip Dodd about his life and work and about his 29th book Indignation. The Pulitzer Prize winning Roth has been called provocative, playful and angry and many of his themes remained consistent since he began writing in the late 1950's. He and his fictional alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, cast an often satirical eye over post World War America, notably with a string of now classic late novels such as I Married a Communist, American Pastoral, The Human Stain and The Plot against America.The novel Indignation is set in 1951, the second year of the Korean War, and tells the story of the son of a kosher butcher who escapes a crushing New Jersey Jewish environment to attend a conservative College in Ohio. It is a tale about work and careers, about sexual discovery, anti-Semitism, families and the bizarre nature of fate and memory. In this interview Philip Roth talks about the role of fiction in his life and about his own impact on America. He describes the attraction of mixing fiction with elements of autobiography and about the expectations people have of the writer. He talks about sex, the male body, the ageing process and about his enduring need to write. Presenter: Philip Dodd

Self help, identity politics and the influence of postmodernists are on the agenda as Philip Dodd meets the YouTube star and Canadian clinical psychologist, Jordan B. Peterson. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson is out now. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

Former Bishop Richard Holloway, author of My Father's Wake Kevin Toolis and palliative care consultant Kathryn Mannix join Philip Dodd to consider mortality. “In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes” Benjamin Franklin once wrote, but as we face the final curtain what can death teach us about ourselves and the ones we love?Richard Holloway is a writer, broadcaster and cleric, formerly Bishop of Edinburgh. His books include A Little History of Religion and Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt. Kathryn Mannix is a pioneer of palliative medicine, who has worked in hospices, hospitals and patients' homes, helping enhance people's quality of life as they near death. Kathryn started the UK's first CBT clinic exclusively for palliative care patients. Her new book With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial explores the process of dying.Kevin Toolis is a BAFTA winning filmmaker who has encountered death often in his work as a foreign correspondent in places of famine, war and plague all around the world. In his memoir My Father's Wake: How the Irish Teach us to Live, Love and Die Kevin asks ‘Why have we lost our way with death?' He offers both an intimate account of his father's death and a history of the Irish way of dying. Producer: Debbie Kilbride

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Afua Hirsch and Tarjinder Gill debate activism, social change and identity with Philip Dodd.Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a journalist and broadcaster who regularly comments on immigration, diversity, and multiculturalism. She's a founding member of British Muslims for Secular Democracy and the author of books including, Exotic England: The Making of A Curious Nation and Refusing The Veil. Afua Hirsch is a writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a barrister, as the West Africa correspondent for the Guardian, and as social affairs editor for Sky news. Brit(ish) is her first book and was awarded a RSL Jerwood Prize for Nonfiction. Tarjinder Wilkinson is a primary school teacher working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Birmingham, Leicester and London. She blogs on race, culture and identity at All In Britain and writes on the failure of left-wing progressive methods in education, making the case for a more traditional, academic approach for all. Producer: Zahid Warley

As the BBC screens its new arts series, Civilisations, one of the presenters, David Olusoga, joins presenter Philip Dodd, anthropologist Kit Davis and the historian Kenan Malik to consider our different notions of world history from the dawn of human civilisation to the present day. David Olusoga is a historian, writer and broadcaster who has presented several TV documentaries including A House Through Time; The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire and the BAFTA award-winning Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners. His most recent book is Black and British: A Forgotten History.Dr Kit Davis is a lecturer in social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies who has written about travels across Europe and about Rwanda. She is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Review. Kenan Malik's books include From Fatwa to Jihad and The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics. Kenan is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster who presented Nightwaves on BBC Radio 3 and has written and presented radio and TV documentaries including Disunited Kingdom, Are Muslims Hated?, Islam, and Mullahs and the Media.Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival.Producer: Fiona McLean

Leading economic expert, Linda Yueh, delivers her vision for restoring faith in the free market to an audience at Sage Gateshead. Chaired by Philip Dodd. We live in a world where experts of all stripes are struggling to win over the confidence of the general population. Last year, the Bank of England said it was stepping up its efforts to minimise a ‘twin deficit' of public understanding and trust in an area that has come under particular fire recently: economics. In a timely defence of her profession, and by drawing on ideas put forward by several titans of economic theory, Linda Yueh, the former Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News, opens the Free Thinking festival 2018 with a unique take on how we fix the globalised free market to benefit the one and the many. Linda Yueh is Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School and Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University as well Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics IDEAS research centre. She is the author of The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today.Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival.Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

We should ignore newspaper headlines, believe that things are getting better and defend Enlightenment values. That's the message from Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He debates his defence of progress and his optimistic outlook with Philip Dodd. Plus culture wars in Britain. Are the divisions we are seeing today different to previous culture wars? Eliza Filby, Alex Massie & Tarjinder Gill debate. Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker is out now. Eliza Filby is the author of God and Mrs Thatcher and a Visiting Lecturer at Kings College, London. Alex Massie is Scotland Editor of The Spectator and a columnist for The Times and The Sunday Times Tarjinder Gill is a writer and teacher who blogs on race and identity issues at AllinBritain. Producer: Robyn Read

Philip Dodd talks to Michael Ignatieff about the political landscape of central Europe.

Writer Bea Campbell, artist Scottee, historian Emma Griffin, journalist Simon Jenkins & economist Guy Standing join Philip Dodd to consider the working class in culture. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class by Guy Standing is available now Scottee's Working Class Dinner Party is at Camden People's Theatre on 28 April as part of the Common People Festival from 17 to 28 April and his show Bravado continues to tour in April End of Equality by Beatrix Campbell is available now Emma Griffin's Liberty's Dawn: A People's History of the Industrial Revolution is out nowProducer: Debbie Kilbride

Craig Brown, Afua Hirsch, Robert Jobson, A. N. Wilson and New Generation Thinker Joe Moshenska discuss the monarchy as the Royal Academy and the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace stage exhibitions exploring the painting collections of Charles I and II. How has patronage changed and, in this year of another Royal Wedding, what impact are depictions in TV dramas such as The Crown and biographies including Craig Brown's Ma'am Darling having on our view of royalty? Philip Dodd presents. Charles I King and Collector runs at the Royal Academy, London from January 27th until April 15th Charles II: Art & Power is running at the Queen's Gallery Buckingham Palace until May 13th Ma'am Darling 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown is out nowBRIT(ish) by Afua Hirsch is out this week Dr Joe Moshenska is the author of A Stain in the Blood: The Remarkable Voyage of Sir Kenelm DigbyA. N. Wilson's Victoria: A Life is available nowDiana: Closely Guarded Secret by Robert Jobson is out nowRadio 3's Early Music Show on Sun 11th Feb at 1400. Lucie Skeaping presents a concert recorded at Windsor Castle with flautist Ashley Solomon, double-bass player ChiChi Nwanoku and harpsichordist Julian Perkins.Repertoire including Handel, Telemann, Dragonetti, and Barsanti, played on instruments from the Royal Collection. The instruments are a porcelain flute probably owned by George III, a chamber bass bequeathed to Prince Albert by Dragonetti and a harpsichord owned by Frederick Prince of Wales.Producer: Debbie Kilbride

Amit Chaudhuri, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Daniel Mendelsohn and Emily Wilson join Philip Dodd to explore translating, rewriting and using Homer's epic work to frame a memoir. Emily Wilson has published a new translation of The Odyssey Daniel Mendelsohn has written An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and An Epic Karen McCarthy Woolf wrote Nightshift as part of a BBC Radio 4's Odyssey Project which commissioned ten writers to create a contemporary response. Her most recent collection is called Seasonal Disturbances. Amit Chaudhuri has written a novel called Odysseus Abroad which draws on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and The Odyssey.

Philip Dodd is joined by Roger Scruton, Haroon Mirza, Kevin Davey and Kirsty Gunn to explore writing, modernism and experiment from T. S. Eliot onwards. Roger Scruton's books include 'How to be a Conservative' and 'England: An Elegy'. His most recent is 'Where We Are'. Kevin Davey's novel 'Playing Possum' was shortlisted for the 2017 Goldsmiths Prize - a prize for writing which embodies the spirit of invention Kirsty Gunn is the author of novels including 'The Big Music' and 'The Boy and the Sea'Haroon Miza has new work at the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne from 20th January-8th April Producer: Debbie Kilbride Main Image: L-R: Kevin Davey, Haroon Mirza, Kirsty Gunn, Roger Scruton and presenter Philip Dodd.

Philip Dodd discusses the significance of David Storey's groundbreaking 1960 novel with social historian Juliet Gardiner, journalist Rod Liddle, writer Anthony Clavane and the author's daughter Kate Storey.

Masha Gessen has traced the lives of 4 Russians born as the Soviet Union crumbled. Daniel Beer won the Cundill History Prize for his history of punishment in Tsarist times. Mary Dejevsky writes and reports on Russian politics now. Philip Dodd presents. Masha Gessen's book is called The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. Daniel Beer's prize winning book is The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile under the Tsars

The Rt Hon Lord David Willetts talks to Philip Dodd about universities. The UK Minister for Universities and Science from 2010 to 2014, his new book considers both the history and the global role they now play. Plus a discussion about scandal old and new - is it a driving force for social change or once the outrage has passed does everything revert to the status quo. Historian and New Generation Thinker Tom Charlton, journalist Michael White and biographer Frances Wilson, author of lives of Thomas De Quincey and royal courtesan Harriette Wilson look at scandals past and present.

Philip Dodd looks at 2000 years of Arab Christians, at the modern rise of Pentecostalism and a novel depicting a man who decides to build a new church. Laura Premack from Lancaster University researches pentecostalism in Brazil, Nigeria and the USA. Neil Griffiths is author of a novel called As a God Might Be. Aurélie Clemente-Ruiz is Director of Exhibitions Department at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris where Eastern Christians: 2000 Years of History is on until January 14th 2018. It then tours to the MuBA Eugene Leroy, Fine Arts Museum of Tourcoing from 22nd February to 12 June 2018.

David Hendy, Glyn Maxwell, Kate Kennedy and Lucy Walker with Philip Dodd and an audience at Aldeburgh in a discussion exploring Britten's relationship with radio in Britain and in America, with his subjects as varied as mountaineering (with words from Christopher Isherwood), a dramatisation of Homer's Odyssey and short stories by D.H. Lawrence (with a young W.H. Auden). But why was Britten so reluctant to accept a job at the BBC's Music department in the 1930s? David Hendy is a historian of the BBC and Professor of Media and Cultural History at the University of Sussex.Glyn Maxwell is a poet and librettist who has traced the journey of Auden and MacNeice to Iceland.Kate Kennedy is a biographer and editor of the forthcoming ‘Literary Britten'Lucy Walker is Director of Programmes and Learning at the Britten-Pears Foundation. Recorded in front of an audience as part of the Britten on the Radio weekend at the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings.Producer: Fiona McLean.

Yanis Varoufakis discusses economics and Marxist analysis with Philip Dodd and Ruth Lea. Plus the new play from Richard Bean and Clive Coleman - the team behind One Man, Two Guvnors. which stars Rory Kinnear stars as the 32-year-old Karl Marx hiding out in Dean Street, Soho. And poet Tara Bergin on her version of Eleanor Marx. Young Marx by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman opens Nicholas Hytner's new London base The Bridge Theatre running until December 31st. It will be streamed in cinemas as National Theatre Live on December 7th. Yanis Varoufakis' new book has just published Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism. Tara Bergin's collection The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx was shortlisted for this year's Forward Poetry Prize. Producer: Zahid Warley.

Simon Schama and Devorah Baum join Philip Dodd for a conversation ranging from the expulsion of Jewish people from Spain in 1492 to Jewish jokes today. Plus, poet Michael Longley considers his preoccupations with The Great War, The Troubles and the natural world. Belonging: The Story of the Jews 1492-1900 is the title of Simon Schama's latest book. Devorah Baum teaches at the University of Southampton and has written Feeling Jewish (A Book for Just About Anyone) and The Jewish Joke. Michael Longley is the recipient of the 2017 PEN Pinter Prize. His latest collection is called Angel Hill. The Pen Pinter prize is awarded annually to a writer from Britain, the Republic of Ireland or the Commonwealth who, in the words of Harold Pinter's Nobel Literature Prize speech, casts an 'unflinching, unswerving gaze upon the world' and shows a 'fierce intellectual determination...to define the real truth of our lives and our societies.' Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

Niall Ferguson talks to Philip Dodd about a less hierarchical history. Jane Munro looks at Degas's depictions of the human body. Sarah Lamb describes dancing MacMillan's ballets. The Square and the Tower: Networks, hierarchies and the struggle for global power by Niall Ferguson is out now. Degas - A Passion for Perfection runs at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until January 14th 2018. Jane Munro has edited a catalogue containing essays to mark the centenary of Degas's death which is published by Yale University Press. Kenneth MacMillan - A National Celebration - featuring 6 ballet companies from across Britain - takes place at the Royal Opera House between October 18th and November 1st. Producer: Robyn Read

Philip Dodd and guests explore the art of negotiation and discuss JT Rogers' play Oslo which opens at the National Theatre this week. It draws on the experiences of Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul and her husband, social scientist Terje Rød-Larsen who fixed secret meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Sir John Jenkins is a former diplomat and Executive Director of The International Institute for Strategic Studies - Middle East. He's been HM Consul-General in Israel, and Ambassador to Syria, Iraq and Saudia Arabia. Gabrielle Rifkind is a senior consultant to the Middle East Programme, which she founded and directed until 2015. She is the Director of the Oxford Process, an independent preventive diplomacy initiative pioneered through her dialogue work with Oxford Research Group (ORG). Michael Burleigh is a historian and author of books including A Cultural History of Terrorism; Small Wars, Far Away Places: The Genesis of the Modern World and Moral Combat: A History of World War Two. Dr Beyza Unal is a research fellow with the International Security Department at Chatham House. She specializes in nuclear weapons policies and leads projects on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons. Dr Unal is also conducting research on cybersecurity. Oslo plays at the National Theatre from 5 - 23 September. It opens in the West End at the Harold Pinter Theatre from 2 October to 30 December. Producer: Eliane Glaser.

Philip Dodd and Joanna Kavenna discuss the challenges of art in an age of irony as the work of Käthe Kollwitz goes on display in Birmingham at the Ikon Gallery. Lawrence Norfolk pays tribute to the work of the great American poet, John Ashbery, who died last week. Plus a discussion of social conservatism in the USA, Europe and the UK with Sophie Gaston from the think tank, Demos and the political commentators, Tim Stanley and Charlie Wolf. Kollwitz was born in Königsberg in East Prussia in 1867 and the show gathers together 40 of her drawings and prints under the themes of social and political protest, self-portraits and images she made in response to the death of her son Peter in October 1914. Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz A British Museum and Ikon Partnership Exhibition runs from 13 September 26 November 2017 with a fully illustrated catalogue.John Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) is the author of collections including Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 Image: Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) Self Portrait, (1924) Woodcut Copyright: The Trustees of the British MuseumProducer: Zahid Warley

Public pools, the "steamie" and the Turkish bath; debates about hygiene and the role and revival of these public spaces are explored by Matthew Sweet and guests as Scottish theatres host a 30th anniversary tour of Tony Roper's play depicting 1950s Glasgow women washing their clothes in a public washhouse. Joining Matthew will be Chris Renwick, author of 'Bread for All: The Origins of the Welfare State', and Claire Launchbury, who has studied women's use of public baths in Middle Eastern cities. We'll also be introduced to the joy of the shmeiss at London's Porchester Spa with columnist and steam-rooms enthusiast Matthew Norman. Following the announcement today of the death of Peter Hall, we'll hear an extract from an interview he recorded with Philip Dodd for Night Waves in 2011, and David Warner remembers being directed by Peter Hall in a landmark production of Hamlet in 1965. The full recording of Peter Hall's interview with Philip Dodd is available on the Free Thinking website.The Steamie tours to Kirckaldy, Aberdeen, Dundee, Ayr, Inverness, Stirling, Glasgow and Edinburgh between September 6th and November 11th. It features Libby McArthur, Mary McCusker, Steven McNicoll, Carmen Pieraccini and Fiona Wood.Producer: Luke Mulhall

Philip Dodd explores the influence of Canadian history and the difference between stand up and performing a one man show. Katherine Ryan is based in the UK and about to perform at summer festivals and in an autumn tour. The French Canadian playwright, performer and opera director Robert Lepage recently staged his autobiographical "memory play", 887, at the Barbican in London. He has directed a ring cycle for the Metropolitan Opera which was featured in a 2012 documentary Wagner's Dream and productions of Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and has also worked on shows for Cirque Du Soleil. http://www.katherineryan.co.uk/ http://lacaserne.net/index2.php/robertlepage/ Part of Radio 3's Canada 150: a week of programmes marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of the nation. You can find links to concerts and other broadcasts on the Radio 3 website.Producer: Robyn Read

Garry Kasparov talks to Philip Dodd about being defeated by a supercomputer in the chess match he played in 1997 and how this affected his view of AI. 100 years ago, Wyndham Lewis was first commissioned as a war artist; Richard Slocombe, curator of a new exhibition and art historian Anna Grueztner Robins discuss his art with John Keane who was a war artist in the Gulf War. 2017 New Generation Thinker Simon Beard outlines his research into overpopulation and our attitude towards death. Garry Kasparov's book is called Deep Thinking: Where Artificial Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins.Wyndham Lewis: Life, Art, War is a display of 160 artworks, books, journals and pamphlets which runs at the Imperial War Museum North in Salford from 23 June 2017 – 1 January 2018Simon Beard is based at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge researching existential risk. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio and television. You can find more on the Free Thinking website.

Arundhati Roy, the Man Booker prize winning author and campaigner is in conversation with Philip Dodd as she publishes her second novel 20 years after The God of Small Things. Arundhati Roy's new novel is called The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. It is being read on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime. Producer: Zahid Warley

The artist Tom Phillips talks to Philip Dodd about his career as he marks his 80th birthday. His works range from sculptures, like a tennis ball with his own hair, to commissions for the Imperial War Museum and Peckham, and portraits of subjects including Sir Harrison Birtwistle and the Monty Python team. His interest in literature is seen in his version of Dante's Inferno and art made from reworking the text of a Victorian novel, in addition to his post card collection, photographic diaries and his role as a Royal Academician. Plus, as scientists and policymakers gather at Kew to take stock of the world's plant diversity, Philip is joined by botanist Pippa Greenwood, conservationist Murphy Westwood, and the 'Plant Messiah' Carlos Magdalena to consider the lilies. The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World's Rarest Species by Carlos Magdalena is published on the 1st of June. Connected Works by Tom Phillips runs at the Flowers Gallery, Kingsland Road, London from May 26th to July 1st. The South London Gallery hosts the world premiere performance and an audio-visual installation of his opera Irma on the 16 and 17 September 2017, drawn from his Victorian novel artwork A Humument. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

As dramas about John Knox and Galileo open at theatres in Edinburgh and London, Philip Dodd talks to Fiona Shaw and Mark Ravenhill about performing and staging Brecht and to Edinburgh Lyceum director David Greig. He's also joined by 2017 New Generation Thinker Joanne Paul, from the University of Sussex, who researches the idea of parrhesia or 'speaking truth to power'. And satirist Nev Fountain and stand-up comedian Simon Evans discuss whether comedy is still an effective weapon with which to attack the powerful.Bertold Brecht's Life of Galileo directed by Joe Wright in a translation by John Willlett runs at the Young Vic Theatre in London from May 6th - July 1st. Glory on Earth runs at the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh from May 20th to June 10th. Written by Linda McLean the drama is directed by David Greig and stars Jamie Sives. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC with the Arts and Humanities Research Council to work with academics to turn their research into radio and television. You can find more broadcasts and films on the Free Thinking website. Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Playwright Mark Ravenhill and critic Matt Wolf debate desire and politics with Philip Dodd as Tony Kushner's Angels in America is revived at the National Theatre in London. Writer and theatre director Yaël Farber explains her vision of the story of Salomé as one set in an occupied desert country where a radical is on hunger strike and a girl's dance is at the centre of a revolution. Peggy Reynolds and Matt Cook discuss the exhibition Queer British Art 1861-9167. Salomé is at the National Theatre from May 2nd to July 15th with an NT live broadcast around the UK on June 22nd. Angels in America: part one Millennium Approaches is an NT live broadcast on July 20th and runs in rep until August 19th. Angels in America: part two Perstroika is an NT live broadcast on July 27th and runs in rep until August 19th. Queer British Art 1861-9167 runs at Tate Britain until October 1st 2017. A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages by Matt Cook is out now. Tony Kushner's drama Caroline, or Change is at the Chichester Theatre until June 3rd in a production starring Sharon D. Clarke The Russell-Cotes Museum in Bournemouth opens Refracted: Collection Highlights, which has been co-curated with members of the local LGBT+ community May 13th which runs until September 8th and includes a photography exhibition opening in August. Desire Love Identity: exploring LGBTQ histories is a free display in Room 69a which runs at the British Museum until October 15th.Producer: Fiona McLean

Professor John Carey joins New Generation Thinkers Islam Issa and Joe Moshenska and presenter Philip Dodd to discuss Milton's poem, the first version of which was published in 1667. The discussion explores the influence of Protestant thinking, the Reformation and the Renaissance on Milton's depiction of religious and political beliefs as part of Radio 3's Breaking Free series of programmes exploring the impact of Martin Luther's Revolution.Dr Islam Issa from Birmingham City University has written Milton in the Arab-Muslim World Professor John Carey has written The Essential Paradise Lost. He is an Emeritus professor at Merton, Oxford - an Honorary Professor of Liverpool University, a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature. Dr Joe Moshenska is the author of A Stain In The Blood: The Remakable Voyage of Sir Kenelm Digby and teaches at the University of Cambridge. Dr Mandy Green from Durham University is the author of Milton's Ovidian Eve. Reader: Kerry GoodersonProducer: Torquil MacLeod.

Philip Dodd interviews John Irving - author of novels including The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany. His new book is called Avenue of Mysteries and imagines the life of a crippled street-child from Mexico, Juan Diego, and his sister Lupe, who can read minds. The action cuts between Diego's present as a globe trotting, best selling writer visiting the Philippines, and his memories of his childhood in Mexico and working at a circus. The Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving is out now. Producer: Robyn Read. Original broadcast Wed 3 Feb 2016.

Poet Simon Armitage and writer Alexandra Harris explore time and place in modern Britain. Presented by Philip Dodd and recorded as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead. Simon Armitage, Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, has been described as ‘the best poet of his generation'. His latest collection The Unaccompanied explores life against a backdrop of economic recession and social division where globalisation has made alienation a common experience. He was born in West Yorkshire and lives near Saddleworth Moor. His work includes his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and books exploring the South west's coast path and the Pennine Way. Alexandra Harris is Professor of Literature at the University of Liverpool and a New Generation Thinker. She is the author of Weatherland: Writers and Artists under English Skies and Romantic Moderns. Producer: Fiona McLean

Tony Sewell and Mike Grenier discuss the challenges of education in the 21st century with Philip Dodd and an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival. Can idle curiosity, slow burning passion and a time for reflection be at the heart of our schools? Or does the increasingly rapid pace of technological change make that sort of teaching a luxury at best - or, at worst, an educational philosophy stuck in a time warp? Mike Grenier is a House Master at Eton College and the co-founder of the Slow Education Movement, educators arguing the need to make time in the classroom for creative teaching and learning. Dr Tony Sewell, CBE is the director of the London based charity, Generating Genius, which aims to help children achieve educational success. He began his career as a school teacher and, in 2012, was appointed to chair the Mayor's Education Inquiry into London schools. He works in both the UK and the Caribbean and helped to set up the Science, Maths and Information Technology Centre at Jamaica's University of the West Indies. Producer: Fiona McLean

Three leading historians, Bettany Hughes, Sir Richard J Evans and John Hall join Free Thinking presenter Philip Dodd to consider tumultuous times and how we make sense of sweeping change from classical times, through empire building and the industrial revolution to the present day. True revolutions are rare game-changers in the slow unravelling of the human story. Others fizzle out like small showy rockets, all light and no heat. But how obvious is it at the time ?Dr Bettany Hughes is well known as a TV and radio broadcaster, an award-winning historian and author specialising in ancient and medieval history and culture. Her books include Helen of Troy, The Hemlock Cup and, most recently, Istanbul: a Tale of Three Cities. Sir Richard J Evans is an academic and historian, best known for his research on the history of Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. President of Wolfson College in Cambridge, his most recent books are The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, The Third Reich in History and Memory and Altered Pasts: Counterfactual in History.Professor John Hall is IAS Fellow at University College, Durham University (Jan – March 2017). Normally based at McGill University in Montreal, Professor Hall is currently writing about Nations, States and Empires. His books include The Importance of Being Civil, The World of States, Powers and Liberties:The Causes and Consequences of the Rise of the West.Recorded as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead.Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Philip Dodd looks at the impact that mass tourism on cruise liners can have. He talks to the people who benefit from the arrival of the huge new ships, and those who are unhappy about the environmental impact.

China is a huge new market for the cruise industry. Philip Dodd cruises across the South China Sea to find out how the Chinese have taken to life on board ship. Boarding in Shanghai Philip meets the passengers and crew who will sail the coast of China down to Hong Kong. The Chinese want different things from a cruise from Westerners – they don't want to sit in the sun. What they do want though is more of a sense of community on board. Ships are now being fitted especially for the Chinese market with these requirements in mind. As well as Asia, Philip looks to see if there is an appetite for cruising on the continent of Africa. He'll be talking to the market specialists in South Africa where the numbers are on the rise. Picture: Cruise ship in Hong Kong, Credit: Philip Dodd