Melvyn BraggEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

In this edition of Outlook , the talking newspaper for Coventry recorded on 2 September 2026, the team bring you the latest news, history, sports, and local community updates. In local news, Peter and Elaine explore five key facts about the major City Centre South regeneration project, the £20 million Pride in Place funding for Tile Hill, DEFRA’s new food waste bin rollout, and the discovery of a 100-year-old local mystery—a prehistoric hippo skull in Coundon. Hugh shares the latest updates from the Coventry Vision Hub, including a national British Blind Sport survey and an upcoming trip to see Underdog: The Other Other Brontë Sister . Sarah breaks down Coventry City FC’s Carabao Cup win against Plymouth and their 1-0 loss to Hull City, alongside updates from the US Open tennis. Finally, Margaret concludes her interview with broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, Pete shares the tragic story of Victorian dual-sport captain Andrew Stoddart, Elaine marks the centenary of Marilyn Monroe's birth, and Dave Monk takes a rare tour inside the moated 14th-century Maxstoke Castle. Episode Breakdown Introduction & Show Overview Coventry & Regional News City Centre South Regeneration: 5 essential facts about Coventry’s largest rebuild since WWII, including 1,600 new homes, ancient city wall foundations, and the relocation of George Wagstaff’s Phoenix statue. Community Funding: £20 million Pride in Place grant for Tile Hill and Camp Hill targeting youth opportunities, HS2 work placements, and Premier League stadium trips. Food Waste Rollout: Coventry City Council launches new household caddies starting 7 September 2026. Life-Saving Equipment: The Our Jay Foundation donates 11 defibrillators to West Midlands Police response cars. Regional Stories: Drought-induced pipe bursts across Warwickshire, open-water safety classes at The Wave, the reopening of the 14th-century White Friars' Old Ale House pub, and a BBC award nomination for Ukrainian community champion Peter Luxkas. Heritage & Local Lore: Heritage Open Days preview, the 100th anniversary of Coundon’s hippo skull discovery, the 10th Warwick Words History Festival, and the extinction of the adder in Warwickshire. Announcements & What's On — Local concerts, theatrical performances, and recitals across Coventry and Leamington Spa. News from the Vision Hub (with Hugh): New WhatsApp updates for service users. British Blind Sport research survey and upcoming Coventry focus group. Community theatre trip to Underdog: The Other Other Brontë Sister at the Criterion Theatre on 29 September. Sports Report: Coventry City FC: 4-2 victory over Plymouth in the Carabao Cup setting up a tie with Aston Villa, followed by a 1-0 Premier League defeat to Hull City. Local Sports & Tennis: Coventry RFC's 47-7 win over RTC, US Open tennis headlines (Novak Djokovic exit, Toby Samuel victory, Arthur Fery's ranking rise), and England men's Test cricket series victory. Postbag Micro-sculptor Dr. Willard Wigan exhibit at Broadway Museum. Memories of Monday Club line dancing. Listener calls for a 50th-anniversary celebration of Coventry Talking Newspaper (16 September). Tribute to country music legend Dolly Parton. Village History: Warmington — Elaine explores the ironstone village of Warming

In this final episode of the Series, interviewer Chloe Fox meets her interviewing hero, Melvyn Bragg and talks to the 84 year old about his Cumbrian upbringing, the solace of intellectual curiosity and what it's really like living in the 'Waiting Room'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark his 1000th episode of In Our Time, Melvyn Bragg talks to Mishal Husain for Radio 4's Today programme. Stop wasting time on brain-dead content. If you can’t handle 45 minutes of pure, unfiltered intelligence, keep scrolling. Otherwise, get on our level. 👉 GET SMARTER: LISTEN NOW

A short extract from the Melvyn Bragg interview with playwright Dennis Potter a few months before he died. recorded on 15th March 1994. "it is the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be, and I can see it.

Colin Marshall sits down in London's West End with Melvyn Bragg, Lord Bragg of Wigton, host of Sky Arts 1's The South Bank Show and BBC Radio 4's In Our Time as well as the writer of many works of fiction and nonfiction including, most recently, The Book of Books: The Radical Impact of the King James Bible and his latest novel Grace and Mary . They discuss when he began seeing culture as a whole, unstratified entity; what he learned in his working-class northern upbringing; his brief days with his own pop group; his first getting an arts program on BB2 "almost by accident," and the opportunities he realized it gave him to showcase a "rainbow" of arts, rather than a "pyramid" with opera, no matter how lousy, ever at the top; when he began as a writer at Oxford, the institution that gave him his first "proper free time"; his enjoyment of not just the act but the discipline of putting pen to paper; how he gives In Our Time an edge by doing it live, with a minimum of beforehand interaction with his invited experts on the topic of the week; how his writing feeds ideas into his radio work; why, despite losing belief in "the finer points of Christianity," he felt nonetheless compelled to write a study of the importance of the King James Bible; his love of television and radio as "scatter media," offering an education at the push of a button; how he realized culture seemed to have displaced class as a means of identification; the benefits of not worrying about what you personally like or dislike, believe in or don't believe in, but the "why" of it, understanding making for a much more interesting experience than condemnation; what he found in the stratified London in which he first arrived in the early 1960s making thirteen pounds a week; how, subsequently, "people became the culture" there; and how London, in its current cultural moment, retains its status as "quite a city."