Blithe Spirits

Title

First
Broadcast

Comments

Beasts

20010508

Joanna Pinnock explores attitudes to animals tame and wild in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. Through popular verse, she explores the biblical significance of beasts and traces the gradual emergence of animal welfare concerns.

Birds

20010507

Joanna Pinnock explores the role of wildlife in the works of the Romantic poets and asks whether they really knew their natural history.

Low Life

20010510

Joanna Pinnock tries to determine why small things, such as John Donne's flea and William Blake's fly, have often inspired great verse.

Monsters

20010509

Joanna Pinnock investigates the importance of monsters in verse and prose, such as Alfred Tennyson's kraken and John Milton's leviathan. She finds that some of these monsters are more familiar than our ancestors could have imagined.

Pets

20010511

Joanna Pinnock explores the role of pets in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and finds out why they make such good subjects for epitaphs.

Episodes

Title	First Broadcast	Comments
Beasts	20010508	Joanna Pinnock explores attitudes to animals tame and wild in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. Through popular verse, she explores the biblical significance of beasts and traces the gradual emergence of animal welfare concerns.
Birds	20010507	Joanna Pinnock explores the role of wildlife in the works of the Romantic poets and asks whether they really knew their natural history.
Low Life	20010510	Joanna Pinnock tries to determine why small things, such as John Donne's flea and William Blake's fly, have often inspired great verse.
Monsters	20010509	Joanna Pinnock investigates the importance of monsters in verse and prose, such as Alfred Tennyson's kraken and John Milton's leviathan. She finds that some of these monsters are more familiar than our ancestors could have imagined.
Pets	20010511	Joanna Pinnock explores the role of pets in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and finds out why they make such good subjects for epitaphs.