Melvyn Bragg

Early life Bragg was born on 6 October 1939 in Carlisle and was raised in Wigton, Cumberland, Both the Braggs and Parks, Cumberland families, were agricultural labourers, also working at collieries and in domestic service. He was given the name Melvyn by his mother after she saw the actor Melvyn Douglas at a local cinema. He was raised in the small town of Wigton, of which his father had become the landlord. He joined the production team of Huw Wheldon's Monitor arts series on BBC Television. He then edited and presented the London Weekend Television (LWT) arts programme The South Bank Show from 1978 to 2010. His interview with playwright Dennis Potter shortly before his death is regularly cited as one of the most moving and memorable television moments ever. The Routes of English (mapping the history of the English language), and In Our Time (1998 to 2025), which in March 2011 broadcast its 500th programme. Bragg's pending departure from the South Bank Show was portrayed by The Guardian as the last of the ITV grandees, speculating that the next generation of ITV broadcasters would not have the same longevity or influence as Bragg or his ITV contemporaries John Birt, Greg Dyke, Michael Grade and Christopher Bland.

In 2012 he brought The South Bank Show back to Sky Arts 1. In December 2012, he began The Value of Culture, a five-part series on BBC Radio 4 examining the meaning of culture, expanding on Matthew Arnold's landmark (1869) collection of essays Culture and Anarchy. In June 2013 Bragg wrote and presented The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England, broadcast by the BBC. This told the dramatic story of William Tyndale's mission to translate the Bible from the original languages to English. In February 2012, he began Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture, a three-part series on BBC Two examining popular media culture, with an analysis of the British social class system. Bragg appeared on the Front Row "Cultural Exchange" on May Day 2013. He nominated a self-portrait by Rembrandt as a piece of art which he had found especially interesting. In 2015, Bragg was appointed as a Vice President of the Royal Television Society.

Writing Having produced unpublished short stories since the age of 19, Bragg had decided to become a writer after university. He recognised that writing would not, initially at least, earn him a living, and he took the opportunity at the BBC that arose after he had applied for posts in a variety of industries. From 1996 to 1998 he also wrote a column in The Times newspaper; he has also occasionally written for The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Observer. The following year he was appointed by Blair to the House of Lords as the life peer Baron Bragg, of Wigton in the County of Cumbria, one of a number of Labour donors given peerages. This led to accusations of cronyism from the defeated Conservative Party. He campaigned against it on the grounds that it could affect the livelihoods of Cumbrian farmers. In August 2014, Bragg was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Bragg has occasionally commented on American politics, in 1998 agreeing with the sentiment that writer and polemicist Gore Vidal was "the greatest president America never had".

Advocacy Bragg has defended Christianity, particularly the King James Bible, although he does not claim to be a believer, seeing himself in Albert Einstein's term as a "believing unbeliever", adding that he is "unable to cross the River of Jordan which would lead me to the crucial belief in a godly eternity." In 2012, Bragg criticised what he claimed to be the "Animus and the ignorance" of the atheism debate.

In August 2016, Bragg publicly accused the National Trust of "bullying" in its "disgraceful purchase" of land in the Lake District, which could threaten the Herdwick rare breed of sheep, as well as the Lake District's historic farming system, for which the region was nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Personal life In 1961, after a short courtship, Bragg married his first wife, Marie-Elisabeth Roche (b. 1939). In 1965 they had a daughter, Marie-Elsa Bragg. Roche was a French viscountess studying painting at Oxford. In an interview with The Guardian in 1998, Bragg said, "I could have done things which helped and I did things which harmed. So yes, I feel guilt, I feel remorse." This was in part a reference to his infidelities which included Cate Haste, whom he married in 1973. Haste was also a television producer and writer, whose literary work includes editing the 2007 memoir of Clarissa Eden, widow of Anthony Eden, and collaborating with Cherie Booth, wife of Tony Blair, on a 2004 book about the wives of British prime ministers. They had a son and a daughter.

In June 2016 it was reported that Bragg and Haste had separated amicably, and that Bragg now shared a home with former film assistant Gabriel Clare-Hunt, with whom he had an affair that began in 1995. She is 16 years younger than he. Another reported affair was with Lady Jane Wellesley between 1979 and 1987.

Bragg has publicly discussed two nervous breakdowns that he has suffered, one in his teens and another in his 30s. His first breakdown began at the age of 13. Inspired by a passage in Wordsworth's The Prelude, he found ways to cope, including exploring the outdoors and the adoption of a strong work ethic, as well as meeting his first girlfriend. He traces the origin of a lifelong nervousness of public speaking to the experience of giving a reading from the lectern as a choirboy at the age of six. and Arsenal. He is the vice president of the Carlisle United Supporters Club London Branch.

Bragg is a relative of Sir William Henry Bragg and his son, Sir Lawrence Bragg, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 for their work in X-ray crystal structure analysis. He presented a Radio 4 programme on the subject in August 2013.

Positions and memberships President of the Words by the Water literary festival President of the National Campaign for the Arts (since 1986) Domus Fellow, St Catherine's College, Oxford (1990) Chairman of Border Television 1990–96 (deputy chairman 1985–90) Honorary Fellowship of Royal Society (2010) Honorary Fellowship from the University of Cumbria 2010 Honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt.), University College London (2014) President of the National Academy of Writing Vice President of the Friends of the British Library Chairman of the Arts Council Literature Panel Vice President of the Carlisle United Supporters Club London Branch Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) (2018) Honorary degree from the University of Oxford (2025).

Awards and honours Literary prizes Writers' Guild Screenplay Award (1966)

Film & television awards Broadcasting Guild Award (1984) British Academy of Film and Television Arts Dimbleby Award (1986) Best New Radio Series for Routes of English (2000) The South Bank Show Lifetime Achievement Award (2010) Sandford St.Martin Trust Personal Award (2014)