Ben Miller on William Hazlitt
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Actor, comedian and Author Ben Miller discusses the colourful, complicated and uncompromising life of William Hazlitt.
Born in 1778 William Hazlitt is considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, but for centuries, his life and works were lost in the shadows. He was an advocate of universal rights and civil liberties, and a fierce opponent of pomp and power. He railed against slavery, believed strongly in the power of the imagination, and said, 'The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves'. But he wasn't without his own demons and fell out of public favour. Rumours of gambling, sex addiction and adultery challenged his reputation. In recent years scholars have debated his life and works and a renewed interest in his essays has emerged.
Ben Miller plays Lord Featherington in Bridgerton, and he wrote and starred in The Armstrong and Miller Show on Channel Four. With expert contributions from Dr Uttara Nataragen, a founding organiser of The Hazlitt Society and editor of The Hazlitt Review.
Presented by Matthew Parris Produced by Nicola Humphries for BBC Bristol
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself. |
| 0:03.7 | My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts. |
| 0:08.4 | I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced |
| 0:12.2 | pundits and the biggest sport stars. |
| 0:14.3 | Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players' |
| 0:18.5 | mouths. |
| 0:19.5 | But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world. |
| 0:25.0 | What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to |
| 0:28.8 | dedicated sports fans across the UK. |
| 0:31.1 | So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more. |
| 0:40.6 | As a child, today's great life reflected, I did nothing but think or dip into some |
| 0:47.7 | obstrous author or look at the sky. |
| 0:51.2 | The kind of life you might expect for someone destined himself to be an obstrous author. |
| 0:57.4 | But wait, because as an adult, his gaze switched to the world of knuckle-clenched boxing |
| 1:03.4 | matches, radical thinking and impassioned prose. |
| 1:08.1 | Our great life is critic and essayist William Hazlett. |
| 1:12.3 | He railed against slavery, believed strongly in the power of the imagination and declared |
| 1:17.7 | that there are two things that an Englishman understands, hard words and hard blows. |
| 1:25.4 | Joining him today is actor, comedian and fellow writer Ben Miller. |
| 1:29.6 | You'll know him from his radio and TV series The Armstrong and Miller Show, and most |
| 1:37.6 | recently from the hugely successful series Bridgerton, set in Regency London, exactly |
| 1:44.2 | around the time that William Hazlett would have walked those streets. |
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