Season 2 Episodes
4 episodes1
Lord Byron Lived Here
In the first of a series, poet PETER PORTER visits the Byron family seat at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, scene of Byron's first poems and first affairs, and discovers a different figure-the elegant and witty satirist and scourge of English society in the early years of the 19th century.
2
George Bernard Shaw Lived Here
During his life some people thought Shaw a crank, others a nuisance, others a genius. Some thought he was all of these. For almost half his life Shaw made his home the Hertfordshire village where BERNARD LEVIN describes the extraordinarily active life lived by this uniquely maddening and equally disarming genius.
3
William Wordsworth Lived Here
The Irish poet Seamus Heaney , on his first visit to the Lake District, finds new insights into the relationship between a life lived intensely and the poetry produced during the most prolific period of Wordsworth's career.
4
Thomas Carlyle Lived Here
In the mid-19th century Carlyle was to many people a saviour. He seemed to put his finger on all that was wrong with society. In an age of religious uncertainty he was the perfect ' sage,' answering to people's need for a radical social critic who expressed more than mere despair. Few people read him now, but to Malcolm Muggeridge it seems likely that before very long Carlyle will become' a cult figure, especially among the young.