The Forum

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

World Service,763 episodes

Episodes

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Chinua Achebe: Rewriting the African story
The life and work of the ground-breaking Nigerian author
03 Feb 2018,40 mins
Boudica: Warrior queen
The Iron Age English warrior queen who led a rebellion against the Romans
27 Jan 2018,39 mins
The alphabet of chemistry
The history of the Periodic Table of the elements
20 Jan 2018,40 mins
Kubla Khan: A vision in a dream
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic is one of the most famous poems in the English language
13 Jan 2018,40 mins
The story of Evita
Eva Peron rose from poverty to become one of the most powerful figures in Latin America
06 Jan 2018,41 mins
Flamenco: Darkness and light
Rajan Datar and guests explore the origins and evolution of flamenco
30 Dec 2017,40 mins
Sankara: Africa’s Revolutionary President
Thomas Sankara: why his assassination and time in power still haunts Africa to this day
23 Dec 2017,40 mins
Cotton: a Yarn with a Twist
The chequered history of the original global fabric
16 Dec 2017,40 mins
Life Support: The Story of the Red Cross
The Story of The International Committee of the Red Cross
09 Dec 2017,40 mins
Stanislavsky: Founder of modern acting
Konstantin Stanislavsky: the greatest single influence on acting today
02 Dec 2017,40 mins
Nikola Tesla’s electric dreams
A showman and a dreamer or an engineering genius well ahead of his time?
25 Nov 2017,40 mins
Adam Smith: Father of Capitalism
Exploring the work of the 18th century moral philosopher and economist Adam Smith
18 Nov 2017,40 mins
The First Skyscrapers
How America reached for the skies
11 Nov 2017,40 mins
Rain or shine? A short history of the weather forecast
A century and a half of scientific meteorology
04 Nov 2017,40 mins
The Reformation: A World Divided
How Martin Luther started a revolution that would lead to the Protestant Reformation
28 Oct 2017,40 mins
Detroit: Migration, Motors and Music
The changing fortunes of the American city of Detroit
21 Oct 2017,40 mins
Detroit: Migration Motors & Music
The changing fortunes of the American city of Detroit
21 Oct 2017,40 mins
The Real Pirates of the Caribbean
The story of the men and women who defined the ‘Golden Age’ of piracy.
14 Oct 2017,40 mins
The Real Pirates of the Caribbean
The story of the men and women who defined the ‘Golden Age’ of piracy.
14 Oct 2017,39 mins
Rumi: Sufi poet of love
The life, poetry and legacy of 13th Century Sufi poet Rumi
07 Oct 2017,40 mins
The story of the guitar
The history and popular rise of the guitar
30 Sep 2017,40 mins
The rise and fall of Julius Caesar
The ruler who revolutionised ancient Rome
23 Sep 2017,40 mins
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Bridget Kendall and guests discuss the origins and the legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula
16 Sep 2017,40 mins
Secrets of the Great Pyramid
Exploring The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt
09 Sep 2017,40 mins
First Impressions: The Printing Press
How a fifteenth century innovation changed our printed world
02 Sep 2017,40 mins
The first heart transplant
A race to make medical history
26 Aug 2017,40 mins
Picasso: Artist of reinvention
How Pablo Picasso changed our way of seeing
19 Aug 2017,40 mins
Making Scents: The story of perfume
How fine fragrance became liquid luxury in a bottle
12 Aug 2017,40 mins
Total eclipse of the Sun
A plunge into darkness
05 Aug 2017,40 mins
The One Thousand and One Nights
The power of storytelling
29 Jul 2017,40 mins