Arts & Ideas Folgen

Philip Dodd explores one of the classics of social history, The Making of the English Working Class by E P Thompson. Ground breaking and passionately engaged it changed the way we thought about the Industrial Revolution and the men, women and children whose hard labour drove it. Even fifty years after its publication modern historians are in dialogue with the book --arguing with its thesis, qualifying its messages and, in the case of the very bold, claiming to have improved on it. To discuss its status as a landmark of our culture Philip is joined by Maurice Glassman, the political theoretician and erstwhile guru of Ed Miliband's Labour and the historians, Alison Light, Miles Taylor and Emma Griffin.

Church Historian Diarmaid Macculloch joins Anne McElvoy to discuss the role that silence has played in the development of Christianity. David Dewing, director of The Geffrye Museum, argues that the museum sector neglects a focus on the middle classes; historian Selina Todd joins him to debate this idea. Actor Edward Petheridge and gerontologist Raymond Tallis discuss the neurological impact of the two strokes Petheridge suffered whilst rehearsing for the role of King Lear, which is the subject of a new play My Perfect Mind. And film critic Ian Christie remembers the novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Is nostalgia for an idea of the NHS is inhibiting clear-eyed debate? Samira Ahmed is joined by columnist Ian Birrell and campaigning GP Jonathon Tomlinson to discuss. Alexandra Harris reviews an exhibition of Paul Nash's work at the Pallant House Gallery. Geneticist and writer Adam Rutherford discusses his latest exploration of the origin and future of life. And the television commissioner and producer John Yorke, whose work includes Life on Mars, Shameless and EastEnders, explores television and storytelling.