BBC Radio 4 launches new history programme hosted by Sarah Dunant
BBC Radio 4 has announced the launch of a new monthly history programme, When Greeks Flew Kites, hosted by the broadcaster and acclaimed historical novelist Sarah Dunant, with a first transmission of Sunday 30 July.
Published: 25 July 2017
For many years now it has been my passion to bring the past alive in ways that blend accurate, often startling new history, with compulsive storytelling
Throughout the first series, which has been commissioned for nine episodes, Sarah will delve into the past for stories and moments which speak to the present, bringing to life worlds that span the centuries.
Taking into account modern-day worries and anxieties as its starting point, the series will tease out how certain questions are constant, yet how they also develop and change their shape over time. Sarah’s talent for storytelling will celebrate the role of imagination in history, a role that historians themselves are increasingly interested in exploring.
And history as a discipline will be at the heart of the programme, showing how historians are continually changing the questions they ask of the past so that the emerging picture grows richer and more inclusive as new answers are incorporated. The programme will feature and highlight some of those key figures of change, alongside showcasing the latest research and discoveries of the younger generation just entering the field.
The programme takes its name from the industrialist Henry Ford who, in 1921 reportedly told the New York Times that “history is bunk” and asked: “What difference does it make how many times the ancient Greeks flew kites?”
Sarah Dunant says: “For many years now it has been my passion to bring alive the past in ways that blend accurate, often startling new, history with compulsive story telling; and along the way, through imagination, encourage understanding. I cannot think of anything more exciting than adapting that same journey from the page to the listener’s ear.”
The opening episode (Sunday 30 July at 1.30pm) will examine the commonly-held anxiety that the future for the generations to come no longer looks as good as it did for past ones. Sarah will explore the idea of generational tension and acceptance - taking us into the world of rebellious Catholic teens in Britain and Europe after the Reformation who pushed for choice (and even death) in the face of parental control; she’ll hear about the struggle from the young to marry for love, not parental approval, and celebrate the historian Lawrence Stone whose blockbuster history in the 1970s spawned a whole new interest in family history.
Outside of Britain she will visit more painful generational moments, when despite aspirational hope for their children, generations of black American parents found their hopes betrayed by institutional structures of racism in the USA. And, as we all look back to the golden age of Britain in the 1950s when it seemed that it could all get better for the generations to come, she looks at new research which suggests that the holy grail of social mobility used by politicians on both sides long after its sell-by date, was actually more complex and flawed than we have come to accept.
This first series will draw listeners into a past that is vivid and specifically of its time - yet its resonance with the present may just help us think again about our current preoccupations with issues such as mental health, security and the state, animal rights, and the expectations of our leaders.
Gwyneth Williams, Controller of BBC Radio 4, says: “These times are most characterised, perhaps, by unpredictability. This new history programme is one way to try to analyse and explore some fixed points in the past in the hope of providing greater understanding. I am delighted to welcome Sarah Dunant and her new programme to Radio 4. We need it and look forward to it.”
Sarah Dunant studied history at Newnham College, Cambridge, from where she went on to become a writer, broadcaster, teacher and critic. She has written 12 novels, including The Birth Of Venus (2004) and In The Name Of The Family (2017), four of which have been shortlisted for awards, and edited two books of essays. She worked for many years with the BBC in radio and television including presenting the BBC Two TV arts programme The Late Show and BBC Radio 3’s Night Waves.
The first series of When Greeks Flew Kites will air for nine episodes monthly from Sunday 30 July at 1.30pm and will be available as a podcast, visit bbc.co.uk/radio4
When Greeks Flew Kites is produced by Katherine Godfrey for Whistledown productions.
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