Beverley Knight on Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the...

HE Bates is probably best known for the Darling Buds of May and Fair Stood the Wind for France, but Alistair McGowan is surprised that he is not known for his short stories, which he believes are the best ever written. "To me it's a minor literary tragedy that he is so little kno ...  Show more

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman general best known for his military victories, but he also helped rebuild Rome, providing aqueducts, statues and the original Pantheon. Nominating him is Dr Daisy Dunn, author of The Missing Thread, who dubs him ancient Rome's king of cement. ...  Show more

Anoushka Shankar, Arooj Aftab, Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Nadine Shah talk about the role of spirituality in their music, what their sound gives the audience, and share thoughts on being women of colour in the music industry.Born in the UK, Anoushka Shankar spent her younger years in L ...  Show more

So prodigious was the polymath Rabindranath Tagore, there’s a saying in Bengal that one lifetime is not enough to consume all of his work. Poet, playwright, thinker, activist, educator, social reformer, composer, artist… the list of his talents is long. Today his name is known al ...  Show more

Have you heard sitar music, from India? Joshua Leo and Liz Waid look at the man who made this traditional music popular around the world. 

Anoushka Shankar on sitar and Kasiva Mutua on drums...two celebrated female musicians talk to Kim Chakanetsa about their paths to mastering instruments more traditionally played by men.Anoushka Shankar's father, the legendary Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar taught her to play th ...  Show more