John Craven on Brunel
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2014
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Countryfile presenter John Craven proposes Victorian Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, as a great life. He's joined by engineering historian Julia Elton and presenter Matthew Parris.
And where better to discuss Brunel's achievements than by the harbour in Bristol in the shadow of his magnificent steam ship the SS Great Britain. But should his creator of great machines himself be considered a great man or is finest achievement the engineering of his own reputation?
Recorded at the Food Connections Festival in Bristol.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
| 0:06.0 | What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are? |
| 0:10.0 | I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas. |
| 0:16.4 | Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth. |
| 0:23.0 | Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003. |
| 0:27.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.0 | Great Lives is a download from Radio 4. |
| 0:32.0 | We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear. Great Lives is a download from Radio 4. |
| 0:32.8 | We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear. |
| 0:35.2 | Hello and welcome to Great Lives. |
| 0:41.6 | Today we're by the harbour in Bristol, |
| 0:44.4 | and the life under discussion could not |
| 0:46.4 | be more intimately connected with the very fabric of this city. |
| 0:50.2 | From the train line that brought me here from London, |
| 0:52.4 | the station where I alighted, |
| 0:54.0 | the wrought iron steam ship moored just by us in the harbour, |
| 0:57.6 | to the elegant suspension bridge that spans Bristol's dramatic river gorge. But more on that, which is quite |
| 1:05.0 | controversial in a moment. My guest today is the journalist and broadcaster |
| 1:09.7 | John Craven. John is perhaps the greatest living exception to the rule that you should |
| 1:14.9 | never work with children or animals. He's built his long and successful career working extensively |
| 1:20.8 | with both. John Craven was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire |
| 1:25.0 | started his journalistic career as a junior reporter on the Harrogate |
... |
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