A.N. Wilson

Prince Consorts: In the Shadow of the Crown

No profession, no say, no freedom of expression. Life as a prince consort is not exactly pleasure taxing. No constitution ascribes any function to the husband of a queen. Nowhere does it say what he must or must not do. A life in the shadow of the crown. Can that go well?

Prince Albert: A Victorian Hero Revealed

Professor Saul David examines Prince Albert's role in shaping British culture, governmental policy and international relations in Victorian Britain.

Return to Eliotland

AN Wilson explores the life and work of TS Eliot. From The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock to The Waste Land and from Ash Wednesday to Four Quartets, Wilson traces Eliot's life story as it informs his greatest works.He explores how Eliot's realisation that he and Vivien were fundamentally incompatible influenced The Waste Land and examines how Eliot's subsequent conversion to Anglicanism coloured his later works. Wilson concludes his journey by visiting some of the key locations around which the poet structured his final masterpiece, Four Quartets. Eliot's poetry is widely regarded as complex and difficult; it takes on weighty ideas of time, memory, faith and belief, themes which Wilson argues have as much relevance today as during the poet's lifetime. And whilst hailing his genius, Wilson does not shy away from confronting the discomforting and dark side of his work - the poems now widely regarded as anti-Semitic.

Beatrix Potter with Patricia Routledge

Patricia Routledge, as patron of the Beatrix Potter Society, presents a documentary on the author's life and work.

Queen Victoria's Letters: A Monarch Unveiled

This is the story of Queen Victoria as never heard before; a psychological insight of the woman told through her own words, her experiences recounted solely through her personal diaries and letters.

Narnia's Lost Poet: The Secret Lives and Loves of C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis's biographer A.N. Wilson goes in search of the man behind Narnia, a highly secretive man whose personal life was marked by the loss of the three women he most loved.

The Genius of Josiah Wedgwood

Historian and author AN Wilson explores the life of Josiah Wedgwood. Wilson reveals the achievements of the self-made, self-educated creative giant famous for his pottery.

Tolstoy: The Man Behind Anna

An examination of the life of great Russian author Leo Tolstoy, who penned the 1877 novel Anna Karenina.

Miss Pym's Day Out

In 1977, after a fourteen year dry spell, the novelist Barbara Pym was nominated for a Booker Award for her novel, Quartet in Autumn. This drama documentary biopic sees Patricia Routledge as Pym and follows the day of the prize presentation, as she observes people and reminisces about life and love.