North East Free Thinkers

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Repeated

Comments

T Dan Smith

20091026

20100830 (R3)

Four essays about free thinking figures and places in North-East England whose ideas challenged their times, recorded in front of live audiences at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking festival of ideas at The Sage Gateshead in 2009.

In the first essay writer and filmmaker Graeme Rigby looks back at the career of T Dan Smith, the Newcastle city boss whose architectural 'Brasilia of the North' captured the headlines in the 1960s. Smith's spectacular fall from grace - jailed for corruption in 1974 - has written him out of history. But do the ideas and regional ambitions of this out-of-the-ordinary politician still resonate today?

Graeme Rigby discusses T Dan Smith, former leader of Newcastle City Council.

Gertrude Bell

20091027

Free Thinking 2009

A series recorded in front of an audience as part of the Free Thinking ideas festival. It focuses on free-thinking figures and institutions in North-East England whose ideas challenged their times.

Kitty Fitzgerald gets inside the mind of the enigmatic Gertrude Bell, who was instrumental in drawing up the controversial map of modern Iraq in 1921, the consequences of which still resonate today. She was also an archaeologist, linguist and the greatest female mountaineer of her age.

Born in County Durham in 1868, she was the first woman to be given an Oxford degree and the first female army officer to work for British Military Intelligence. And yet, she was opposed to votes for women.

Kitty Fitzgerald on the life of Gertrude Bell, author of the 1921 map of modern Iraq.

William Armstrong

20091028

20100831 (R3)

The second in our series of portraits of figures from the history of North East England who challenged their age, recorded in front of audiences at Radio 3's Free Thinking festival at The Sage Gateshead in 2009. Henrietta Heald profiles the Victorian inventor, arms dealer and industrialist William Armstrong. Armstrong brought global fame to the Tyne, employing thousands in the manufacture of machinery, ships - and guns. But he also created the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. He epitomised the dynamism of his age and attracted many epithets, from 'visionary genius' to 'merchant of death'.

Henrietta Heald on the achievements of inventor and industrialist William Armstrong.

Newcastle Literary And Philosophical Society

20091029

20100901 (R3)

Free Thinking 2009

A series recorded in front of an audience as part of the Free Thinking ideas festival. It focuses on free-thinking figures and institutions in North-East England whose ideas challenged their times.

Leading poet Sean O'Brien charts the profound contribution to Newcastle's cultural life of the Literary and Philosophical Society, founded in 1793, which grew into one of the most important intellectual institutions of its age. A place of talking, thinking, reading and listening, its history and membership have long been at the heart of Tyneside culture.

Poet Sean O'Brien on Newcastle's Literary and Philosophical Society or Lit and Phil.

05 LAST

Audience Choice

20091030

20100903 (R3)

As part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival 2009 BBC Newcastle and Radio 3 audiences voted the medieval monk and chronicler The Venerable Bede as the greatest Free Thinker in the history of the North East. Professor Richard Gameson of Durham University explains why he believes Bede was a natural choice, in a talk recorded in front of an audience at The Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival of ideas.

Why the medieval monk the Venerable Bede is the great Free Thinker of the North East.

Episodes

Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Comments
01	T Dan Smith	20091026	20100830 (R3)	Four essays about free thinking figures and places in North-East England whose ideas challenged their times, recorded in front of live audiences at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking festival of ideas at The Sage Gateshead in 2009. In the first essay writer and filmmaker Graeme Rigby looks back at the career of T Dan Smith, the Newcastle city boss whose architectural 'Brasilia of the North' captured the headlines in the 1960s. Smith's spectacular fall from grace - jailed for corruption in 1974 - has written him out of history. But do the ideas and regional ambitions of this out-of-the-ordinary politician still resonate today? Graeme Rigby discusses T Dan Smith, former leader of Newcastle City Council.
02	Gertrude Bell	20091027		Free Thinking 2009 A series recorded in front of an audience as part of the Free Thinking ideas festival. It focuses on free-thinking figures and institutions in North-East England whose ideas challenged their times. Kitty Fitzgerald gets inside the mind of the enigmatic Gertrude Bell, who was instrumental in drawing up the controversial map of modern Iraq in 1921, the consequences of which still resonate today. She was also an archaeologist, linguist and the greatest female mountaineer of her age. Born in County Durham in 1868, she was the first woman to be given an Oxford degree and the first female army officer to work for British Military Intelligence. And yet, she was opposed to votes for women. Kitty Fitzgerald on the life of Gertrude Bell, author of the 1921 map of modern Iraq.
03	William Armstrong	20091028	20100831 (R3)	The second in our series of portraits of figures from the history of North East England who challenged their age, recorded in front of audiences at Radio 3's Free Thinking festival at The Sage Gateshead in 2009. Henrietta Heald profiles the Victorian inventor, arms dealer and industrialist William Armstrong. Armstrong brought global fame to the Tyne, employing thousands in the manufacture of machinery, ships - and guns. But he also created the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. He epitomised the dynamism of his age and attracted many epithets, from 'visionary genius' to 'merchant of death'. Henrietta Heald on the achievements of inventor and industrialist William Armstrong.
04	Newcastle Literary And Philosophical Society	20091029	20100901 (R3)	Free Thinking 2009 A series recorded in front of an audience as part of the Free Thinking ideas festival. It focuses on free-thinking figures and institutions in North-East England whose ideas challenged their times. Leading poet Sean O'Brien charts the profound contribution to Newcastle's cultural life of the Literary and Philosophical Society, founded in 1793, which grew into one of the most important intellectual institutions of its age. A place of talking, thinking, reading and listening, its history and membership have long been at the heart of Tyneside culture. Poet Sean O'Brien on Newcastle's Literary and Philosophical Society or Lit and Phil.
05 LAST	Audience Choice	20091030	20100903 (R3)	As part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival 2009 BBC Newcastle and Radio 3 audiences voted the medieval monk and chronicler The Venerable Bede as the greatest Free Thinker in the history of the North East. Professor Richard Gameson of Durham University explains why he believes Bede was a natural choice, in a talk recorded in front of an audience at The Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival of ideas. Why the medieval monk the Venerable Bede is the great Free Thinker of the North East.