The Letters Of Ada Lovelace

Episodes

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01The Poetry Of Mathematics2015091420151013/14 (R4)All-star dramatisation of the correspondence of Ada Lovelace, revealing the intense inner world of a young Victorian Lady who anticipated our digital age.

Ada was the abandoned daughter of the romantic poet Lord Byron. Concerned that Ada might inherit her father's feckless and ‘dangerous' poetic tendencies, her single mother Lady Byron made sure she was tutored thoroughly in mathematics, and regularly prescribed ‘more maths' to improve her mental health.

When she came out in London society, Ada met the man who would change her life, but not in the way most debutantes would have imagined. The distinguished mathematician, Charles Babbage became her life-long friend and mentor: Ada was fascinated by his steam-powered calculating machines.

Supported by her husband William, she defied society's expectations, studying mathematics with extraordinary passion and determination when she was married with three small children; and later suggesting boldly to Babbage that he might like to work with her on his innovative thinking machines.

Ada Lovelace - Sally Hawkins

Lady Byron - Olivia Williams

Charles Babbage - Anthony Head

William - George Watkins

With Georgina Ferry

Producer: Anna Buckley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2015.

Georgina Ferry presents the dramatised correspondence of Ada Lovelace.

Georgina Ferry presents the correspondence of Ada Lovelace, who predicted our digital age.

02Thinking Machines2015092120151020/21 (R4)Georgina Ferry reveals the nature of the relationship between the young heiress, Ada Lovelace and the crusty mathematician, Charles Babbage, inventor of steam-powered calculating machines.

Conclusion of this dramatisation of The Letters of Ada Lovelace

Despite, (or perhaps because of), constant battles with her mental and physical health, Ada pursued her interest in Babbage's innovative engines, with zeal. She threw herself into the task of describing his Analytical Engine and writing the Notes of the engine for which she is now famous.

In an extraordinary leap of imagination, she suggested that this steam-powered engine could be used for much more than just adding and subtracting - ‘for music and art perhaps'. And grasped just how many problems - and not only mathematical ones - might one day be solved by rigorous, logical analysis.

All her life Ada struggled to escape her controlling mother, Lady Byron and the legacy of her notorious and absent father, the romantic poet Lord Byron. Babbage gave her the attention and intellectual respect that neither of her parents offered. She defied convention and produced a work of astonishing prescience, predicting how steam-powered calculating machines might one day change the world.

She was a flawed and fragile individual: a Victorian tech visionary.

Ada Lovelace - Sally Hawkins

Charles Babbage - Anthony Head

Lady Byron - Olivia Williams

Producer: Anna Buckley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2015.

Georgina Ferry presents the letters of Ada Lovelace, dramatized by an all -star cast.

Georgina Ferry presents the correspondence of Ada Lovelace, who predicted our digital age.