Diarmaid MacCulloch Interviewed by Mary Beard

Leading historian and broadcaster Professor Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch sheds new light on the life of Thomas Cromwell, one of the most notorious figures in English history.

MacCulloch’s biography of the 16th-century fixer who was effectively running the country for Henry VIII by the end of the 1530s is widely regarded as the most complete and persuasive written. Cromwell was central to one of the key periods in English history that saw the break with the Pope, unprecedented use of Parliament and the dissolution of the monasteries. MacCulloch overturns many previous interpretations of the man who played a central role in the making of modern England and Ireland.

‘This is the biography we have been awaiting for 400 years’ Hilary Mantel

MacCulloch is professor of the history of the Church at the University of Oxford. He is best known for his work, A History of Christianity, which won the Cundill and Hessel-Tiltman prizes and which he adapted into a six-part BBC television series. His Thomas Cranmer won the Whitbread Biography prize, the James Tait Black prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. He is a fellow of the British Academy, and this event opens a series of events presented by the British Academy on the Thursday of the festival.

Here he talks to professor of classics at the University of Cambridge and fellow broadcaster Dame Mary Beard. She is author of many books on classical subjects and on general issues and has presented several television documentaries.

The 2019 British Academy Lecture was given by Professor Ronald Hutton and the 2017 lecture by Dame Hilary Mantel.

Presented by the British Academy.