In Our Time (radio series)

• 1. Introduction

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  In Our Time is a BBC Radio 4 programme that has been reshaping how Britain talks about serious ideas since the 15th of October 1998. On Thursday mornings at 9 a.m., a single presenter and three academics sit down to discuss whatever topic the week has assigned them, whether that is a battle from antiquity, a theorem in physics, or the life of a philosopher dead for centuries. The show has been acknowledged to have "transformed the landscape for serious ideas at peak listening time." More than two million people tune in each week. The question worth asking is how a programme born from a scheduling compromise, handed to a presenter who expected it to last only a few months, became one of the most listened-to discussion shows the BBC has ever produced.

• 2. The Thursday Death-Slot

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  Melvyn Bragg came to In Our Time not by design but by necessity. His decade-long run as presenter of Start the Week ended in 1998 when his appointment as a Labour life peer created a perceived conflict of interest. The BBC moved him off that show, and in its place offered him the Thursday morning slot, a time conventionally regarded as broadcasting's graveyard. Bragg described deciding he would "do what he always wanted to do" with it. He and producer Olivia Seligman hastily worked out a simple idea, both expecting the programme would survive only a few months. By September 1999, Bragg had taken a slot that had been drawing an audience of 600,000 and expanded it to 1.5 million. By 2000, what had begun as a half-hour show was extended to 45 minutes and opened up to three guest speakers per episode.

• 3. How the Show Works

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  Bragg described his preparation routine in a November 2009 interview: "I get the notes late Friday afternoon for the following Thursday morning. I find all the spare time I can for reading, get up very early on a Thursday morning, have a final two hours of nervousness, and away we go." The programme broadcasts live and unedited, running around 42 minutes. Bragg opens each episode with a brief summary of the week's topic, then introduces three academics he has characterised as "three absolutely top-class" specialists. He steers the conversation along a broadly chronological path before either concluding the show himself or handing a final observation to one of the guests. One characterisation of his method compared it to a man throwing a stick: he chucks a question forward, and if the academic fails to return it cleanly, he does not let the moment pass.

• 4. Going Digital

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  In 2004, In Our Time became the first BBC podcast made available through the BBC website and iTunes, available for one week after each broadcast. That was an early gesture toward a digital archive that would grow steadily over the following years. From 2010 onward, every episode became available as streaming audio directly from its website, making it one of the first BBC programmes to release its entire back catalogue. Since 2011, listeners have been able to download each episode individually as a podcast. Until July 2014, Bragg also sent out weekly email newsletters, mixing programme-related material with personal and intellectual observations. In 2009, selected episode transcripts were compiled into the book In Our Time: A Companion to the Radio 4 series, edited by Bragg himself.

• 5. The Philosopher Poll

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  In 2005, the programme invited listeners to vote for the greatest philosopher in history, with the winner becoming the subject of the final episode before the summer break. Thirty thousand votes were cast. Karl Marx took first place with 27.9% of the vote. David Hume came second with 12.7%, followed by Ludwig Wittgenstein at 6.8% and Friedrich Nietzsche at 6.5%. Plato and Immanuel Kant each received 5.6%, while Thomas Aquinas and Socrates each drew 4.8%, and Aristotle finished with 4.5%. The contest drew criticism for its format, but it also pulled in widespread press coverage as celebrities and news outlets championed their favourites. The result was a measurable boost in the programme's overall listenership.

• 6. Voices and Legacy

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  Among the frequent contributors since 1998 are Angie Hobbs, Simon Schaffer, Martin Palmer, Steve Jones, Paul Cartledge, Carolin Crawford, Edith Hall, A. C. Grayling, Patricia Fara, David Wootton, Jonathan Bate, and Karen O'Brien. The programme passed its 1,000th episode in September 2023, a milestone that very few radio discussion series in any country have reached. On the 3rd of September 2025, the BBC announced that Bragg had decided to retire from the programme before its next series, bringing to a close a presenting run that had lasted more than 27 years. On the 3rd of December 2025, the corporation named Misha Glenny as his successor, with Glenny taking over from the 15th of January 2026.