The Radio 3 Documentary

Amidst the 800 year celebrations for Magna Carta, Andrew Dickson hears about one of the more provocative theatrical attempts to commemorate the Charter from fifty years ago.

Sukhdev Sandhu introduces a rare radio-minded feature by the celebrated critic, novelist and thinker John Berger. Now in his ninth decade, Berger talks about the songs in his life and about Charlie Chaplin's radical power. Featuring Katya Berger and the music of Woody Guthrie, Cesaria Evora and Yasmin Hamdam among others. Producer: Tim Dee

Using diaries and memoirs Michael Goldfarb tells the story of the Congress of Vienna and how it still affects us 200 years later: diplomacy, Beethoven and sex... lots of sex.

The leading German writer Uwe Johnson lived in Sheerness from 1974 until his death in 1984. Patrick Wright tries to find out why he chose what he called this 'much maligned' town.

Xavier Bray is a curator on a nail-biting journey to put together the greatest exhibition of portraits by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, which opens at the National Gallery later this year

Matthew Sweet delves into the science fiction futures of Naomi Mitchison, Rose Macaulay and Margot Bennett. With music specially composed by The Vile Electrodes.

Dr Kate Kennedy appraises four female string players from different eras and locations, who were all pioneering in their own lifetimes. For International Women's Day 2015

Adam Smith unearths the roots of Nathanael West's great 1938 Hollywood novel The Day of the Locust, and tests its prophecy of fascist violence in America against postwar history.

Andrew McGregor visits Havana to investigate Cuba's classical music scene today.

Eric Ravilious is considered one of the best watercolourists of the twentieth century. Alexandra Harris explores the life of work of this elusive man and his art.

It's a story of loot, revenge and devastated beauty that looms over British-Chinese relations. Chris Bowlby uncovers the fate of the imperial summer palace in Beijing.

Stephen Johnson connects Mahler's beliefs about death to Viennese funeral customs, and particularly the idea of 'beautiful death' which was pervasive in Mahler's Vienna.

Candy Darling and Edie Sedgwick are now the stuff of legend, but many of those with first-hand experience of Warhol's Factory live on. Paul Morley hears tales to amaze and inspire.

Author Colm Tóibín profiles the Anglo-American poet Thom Gunn, self-professed lover of "loud music, bars and boisterous men", whose tightly-wrought poetry imposed control and order upon his hedonistic lifestyle.

Matthew is joined by historians and performers to explore World War 1 popular culture - from music hall to movies, theatre to night clubs and drugs. Recorded before an audience.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough journeys to northern Norway in search of the supernatural icy world that haunts the imagination of writers including Philip Pullman and A.S. Byatt.

Samira Ahmed explores the extraordinary rise and fall of the Lady Protectress Elizabeth, wife of Oliver Cromwell - a commoner who became "queen" in the 1650s.

Laura Ashe tells the story of the Black Death and discovers how plague changed our cultural landscape, and influences our responses to current emergencies such as Ebola.

Andrew Hussey travels across Paris to understand how the Eiffel Tower, and the huge World's Fair that gave birth to it, shaped French culture.

Christopher Harding explores the influence of Freud in India, China and Japan, and John Gallagher focuses on the history of the foreign language phrase book.

Frank Cottrell Boyce on the impact of the First World War on religion at home and at the Front.

Gregory Tate explores why many C19th scientists wrote poetry, as do several today. Fern Riddell rediscovers the astonishing life of Kitty Marion: singer, suffragette, firestarter.

Rana Mitter travels to Beijing to explore the recent flourishing of theatre in China and its re-invention as an art-form of youthful, urban cool.

Richard Strauss's works are staples of both concert hall and opera house, and yet relatively little is known or discussed of the man himself. What we do know about Strauss - that he was incredibly astute financially, that his relationship with the Nazis was "complicated", and that his wife Pauline was as assertive and domineering as his mother was not - is a roughly-drawn portrait of the man which...

In the final programme in the series Petroc Trelawny measures the impact and effectiveness of education in sustaining and nurturing the massive growth in Western Classical music.