Melvyn Bragg

The anniversary this year is an extraordinary opportunity because the issue that Tyndale found was a very practical one.

So I was on a radio show once with Melvin Bragg.

Do you know Melvin Bragg? Yeah, of course.

But he said on that radio show, William Tyndale is one of the greatest people this nation has ever produced.

But Melvin Bragg isn't, well, so far as I know, still isn't, although I pray for him, is still not a Christian.

He may be, but I hope he is.

But he wasn't professing Christian.

So the best biographies recognize.

But after her parents separated when Maxine was just nine, she lived with her mother and later with her grandfather to complete her studies at high school.

When she was 21, Maxine's struggles to secure sponsorship to attend the prestigious acting school RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she had finally earned a place after multiple auditions, were featured in a 1996 episode of Melvin Bragg's TV arts programme, The South Bank Show.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

That was the theme for the South Bank show, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, played by his brother Julian.

Had he won any in this last category, he would have been one of the rare actors to win the Grand Slam of American Entertainment Awards, colloquially known as an EGOT for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

All very impressive given his background as the son of a coal miner in Wales and a career trajectory that is probably best described by his biographer, the journalist and author Melvin Bragg.

Quote, What we have to remember is the incredible journey this man took.

He set off with hardly any acting lessons and became one of the greatest actors on the London stage.

Yeah.

When Melvin Bragg, who's like, you know, 300 years of age.

Yeah.

Was still doing it.

And because, and why? Because Melvin Bragg, for better or worse, knows himself.

Yeah.

And, you know, and he knows what that show is.

It's great.

And Melvin Bragg, I had no idea was his friend, this dear friend of his.

I'd listen to In Our Time from, you know, every now and then.

Mm-hmm.

Like we all know like this didn't literally happen to him, but it's a part of...

Debussy's story.

Well, and then Melvin Bragg co-wrote that screenplay.

But it didn't seem like he got any of the blowback as much as Russell did.

Now, tell me about the film, Catriona, about the origins of what became Neil Jordan's 1996 film.

Well, there's a very interesting interview with Jordan by Melvin Bragg.

It's an entire South Bank show special in 1996 after the movie has come out.

Maybe first let's have that clip we have from the movie with Liam Neeson playing Collins speaking.

But he had already cast Liam Neeson by the mid-80s.

He had seen him in Brian Freed's translations in the first production of that, which was magnificent, I saw it too, and had been very struck by him as being the ideal person and actually asked him very soon afterwards if he got to make a movie about Michael Collins, would he play him? And Nathan Baffled said, yes, of course I will, if that ever comes about, not thinking that it would.

Now, he says in the interview with Melvin Bragg that he was interested in the consequences of using violence to achieve political ends and the failure of that ultimately.

And how do you explore that? He liked the contradictions he found in Collins's character.

In Our Time.

Melvyn Bragg retired after chairing more than 1,000 editions.

Paddy Moore, your turn for some music, and it's a Grammy-winning song from 2006.

[singing] Come on, now.

And in this case, you've got not just yourself, but all these people you've talked to over the years, and all of it's available.

You know, I think of other series like that, "In Our Time," the one that the BBC continues to run, even though, sad to say, Melvyn Bragg has stepped down because after 1,000-plus episodes and then he got old, that happens.

He decided to retire.

But I mean, my goodness, there is so much out there, so many interesting things, fascinating voices that nobody controls.