Episode 69. D H Lawrence Birthplace Museum
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Carolyn Melbourne, Curator and Collections Manager at the D H Lawrence Birthplace Museum and Dr Andrew Harrison, Director of the D. H. Lawrence Research Centre at the University of Nottingham. They talk about how growing up in a small mining town, Eastwood, influenced the writer and poet D H Lawrence and how, despite escaping it through self-imposed exile abroad, he returned to the ambience of his childhood in his late novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Episode 68. Bridget Foreman: The Devising of Plays and Community Theatre
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the playwright Dr Bridget Foreman, Associate Director of Riding Lights theatre company and Senior Lecturer in Playwriting at the University of York about her career, pioneering experience of devising community theatre and latest co-written play, His Last Report (2025) about the social researcher, Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree.
Episode 66. G. K. Chesterton
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dale Ahlquist, magazine editor and advocate of the thought of G. K. Chesterton, author, literary critic, Christian apologist, journalist and creator of the fictional detective, Father Brown.
Episode 58. Carl Jung: Psychotherapist, Pioneer, Healer
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Revd Earl Collins about the life and pioneering career of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist and psychologist.
Episode 52. Dorothy L Sayers and Creativity
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Revd Canon Michael Hampel about the detective writer and dramatist, Dorothy L Sayers and her theory of creativity.
Episode 51. Hilaire Belloc
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Chris Hare about his 2022 book, Hilaire Belloc: The Politics of Living.
Episode 50. Evelyn Underhill: Pioneer of Modern Spirituality
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Jane Shaw about the pioneer of modern spirituality, Christian mystic, retreat leader and spiritual director, Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941).
Episode 46. John Ruskin and the Guild of St George
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Mark Frost about his 2014 book, The Lost Companions and John Ruskin’s Guild of St George.
Episode 44. ‘This Blessed Plot’: Thaxted Revisited
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with film maker Marc Isaacs and screenwriter Adam Ganz about ‘This Blessed Plot’, their 2024 film which is set in the rural town of Thaxted, Essex and provides a modern take on its history..
Episode 42. Nigel Forde: Trace Elements
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the poet, playwright and broadcaster Nigel Forde about his life, career and his part in the foundation of the Riding Lights theatre company.
Episode 35. The Copper Family
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Jill and John Copper and Jon Dudley about the Copper Family which holds an honoured place in the annals of the English folk song tradition.
Episode 33. Cecil Sharp
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with David Sutcliffe about his new biography of Cecil Sharp, the English musician, lecturer, and collector of folk song and dance, who was the driving force behind the Folk Revival of the Edwardian Period.
Episode 30. Martin Shaw: ‘Morning Has Broken’
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the poet and writer Isobel Montgomery Campbell about her grandfather, Martin Shaw, the composer who is best known today for introducing the hymn, Morning Has Broken to generations of British school children.
Episode 26. Stewart Headlam
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor John Orens about the campaigner on behalf of chorus girls and the ballet, popular theatre and music hall, trade unionism, freedom of speech for atheists and secular education, the radical one-time priest and sacramental socialist, Stewart Headlam.
Episode 22. Revd Nick Flint: A Life in Sussex
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Sussex priest, Revd Nick Flint, about his Parish Ministry in Rusper, West Sussex, his tribute to Hilaire Belloc, Cautionary Pilgrim, and his troubled predecessor, Edward Synnott Fitzgerald’s controversial Five Years’ Hell in a Country Parish.
Episode 20. Lilian Baylis and Emma Cons at ‘The Old Vic’.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Elizabeth Schafer about her biography of Lilian Baylis of The Old Vic theatre, and about Lilian’s aunt, the social reformer Emma Cons.
Episode 18. The Edwardian Temperament: Writers and Intellectuals
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Jonathan Rose about his books, The Edwardian Temperament and his classic The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, and current research interests.
Episode 14. Participation in the Second Wave Folk Revival
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the folk singer and curator of the Singing Landscape project, Yvette Staelens about her childhood in multi-cultural Gloucester, her career and her mother’s childhood memories of Thaxted.
Episode 11. The Seeds of Love: Opus Anglicanum
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the engraver and expert on plain chant, John Rowlands-Pritchard, about his career, Morris dancing and Opus Anglicanum’s CD The Seeds of Love.
Episode 10. Percy Dearmer: Family Recollections
Dr Simon Machin in in conversation with Juliet Woollcombe and Timandra Nichols, the grand daughters of liturgist and Christian Socialist Percy Dearmer about the Dearmer family, including war poet, Geoffrey and Percy’s second wife, Nan.