Melvyn Bragg

Bragg was born on 6 October 1939 in Carlisle and was raised in Wigton, Cumberland,https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2018/10/melvyn-bragg-qa-when-i-was-growing-wigton-seemed-paradise{{fv|date=May 2025}} the son of Stanley Bragg, a stock keeper turned publican, and Mary Ethel (née Park), who worked alongside her husband in the pub.{{cite book |last1=Bragg |first1=Melvyn |title=Back In The Day. A Memoir |date=2022 |publisher=Sceptre |location=London |isbn=9781529394467}} Both the Braggs and Parks, Cumberland families, were agricultural labourers, also working at collieries and in domestic service.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/familyhistory/3354364/Family-detective-Melvyn-Bragg.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/familyhistory/3354364/Family-detective-Melvyn-Bragg.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Family detective: Melvyn Bragg|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=8 April 2013|location=London|first=Nick|last=Barratt|date=11 August 2007}}{{cbignore}} He was given the name Melvyn by his mother after she saw the actor Melvyn Douglas at a local cinema.Melvyn Bragg: Wigton to Westminster, BBC Two, 18 July 2015 He was raised in the small town of Wigton, where he attended the Wigton primary school and later The Nelson Thomlinson Grammar School,{{fv|date=May 2025}} where he was Head Boy. He was an only child, born a year after his parents married. His father was away from home serving with the Royal Air Force for four years during the war. His upbringing and childhood experiences were typical of the working-class environment of that era.

When he was a child, he was led to believe that his mother's foster mother was his maternal grandmother. His grandmother had been forced to leave the town owing to the stigma of her daughter being born illegitimately. From the age of 8 until he left for university, his family home was above a pub in Wigton, the Black-A-Moor Hotel, of which his father had become the landlord. Into his teens he was a member of the Scouts and played rugby in his school's first team. Encouraged by a teacher who had recognised his work ethic, Bragg was one of an increasing number of working-class teenagers of the era being given a path to university through the grammar school system. He read Modern History at Wadham College, Oxford, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Bragg began his career in 1961 as a general trainee at the BBC.{{fv|date=May 2025}} He was the recipient of one of only three traineeships awarded that year. He spent his first two years in radio at the BBC World Service, then at the BBC Third Programme and BBC Home Service.Article by Melvyn Bragg in British Mensa Magazine, January 2002, p. 7. He joined the production team of Huw Wheldon's Monitor arts series on BBC Television. He presented the BBC books programme Read All About It (and was also its editor, 1976–77){{fv|date=May 2025}} and The Lively Arts, a BBC Two arts series.{{cite book |last=Bignell |first=Jonathan |title=Beckett on Screen: The Television Plays|year=2012|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0719064210}} He then edited and presented the London Weekend Television (LWT) arts programme The South Bank Show from 1978 to 2010.{{cite web|url=http://www.itv.com/Entertainment/chatandtalent/SouthBankShow/TheSouthBankShow-Factfile.html|title= ITV Fact File on The South Bank Show|publisher=Itv.com|access-date=29 September 2014}} His interview with playwright Dennis Potter shortly before his death is regularly cited as one of the most moving and memorable television moments ever. His interest in popular music as well as classical is credited with making the arts more accessible and less elitist.

He was Head of Arts at LWT from 1982 to 1990 and Controller of Arts at LWT from 1990. He has made many programmes on BBC Radio 4, including Start the Week (1988 to 1998),Simon Elmes, And Now on Radio 4: A Celebration of the World's Best Radio Station, London: Random House Books, 2007, pp. 72–73. The Routes of English (mapping the history of the English language),{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/storysofar/series1.shtml |date=2000| title=The Routes of English |publisher=BBC|access-date=28 January 2025}} and In Our Time (1998 to present), which in March 2011 broadcast its 500th programme. Bragg's pending departure from the South Bank Show was portrayed by The Guardian as the last of the ITV grandees, speculating that the next generation of ITV broadcasters would not have the same longevity or influence as Bragg or his ITV contemporaries John Birt, Greg Dyke, Michael Grade and Christopher Bland.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2009/may/06/melvyn-bragg-itv-retirement-profile |title=Melvyn Bragg, last of the ITV grandees|newspaper=The Guardian|first= Ben|last= Dowell|date= 6 May 2009}}

In 2012 he brought The South Bank Show back to Sky Arts 1.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/mar/25/melvyn-bragg-stay-sky-arts|title=Melvyn Bragg expected to stay with Sky Arts for two more years|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=25 April 2013|location=London|first=Ben|last=Dowell|date=25 March 2013}} In December 2012, he began The Value of Culture, a five-part series on BBC Radio 4 examining the meaning of culture, expanding on Matthew Arnold's landmark (1869) collection of essays Culture and Anarchy.{{cite web|url=http://folksonomy.co/?keyword=37879 |title=The Value of Culture|date=4 January 2013 |publisher=Folksonomy|access-date=4 January 2013}} In June 2013 Bragg wrote and presented The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England, broadcast by the BBC. This told the dramatic story of William Tyndale's mission to translate the Bible from the original languages to English. In February 2012, he began Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture, a three-part series on BBC Two examining popular media culture, with an analysis of the British social class system.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01cmxck/Melvyn_Bragg_on_Class_and_Culture_Episode_1 "Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture"], bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2014. Bragg appeared on the Front Row "Cultural Exchange" on May Day 2013. He nominated a self-portrait by Rembrandt as a piece of art which he had found especially interesting.{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/galleries/p0184f0y|title=Images for Melvyn Bragg's Cultural Exchange|publisher=BBC News|access-date=12 June 2013}} In 2015, Bragg was appointed as a Vice President of the Royal Television Society.{{cite web|url=https://rts.org.uk/article/royal-television-society-announces-new-appointments|title=Royal Television Society announces new appointments|website=rts.org.uk|date=24 February 2016 |access-date=6 April 2017}}

Having produced unpublished short stories since the age of 19, Bragg had decided to become a writer after university. He recognised that writing would not, initially at least, earn him a living, and he took the opportunity at the BBC that arose after he had applied for posts in a variety of industries. While at the BBC, he continued writing. Publishing his first novel in 1965, he decided to leave the BBC to concentrate full-time on writing.

A novelist and writer of non-fiction, Bragg has also written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration with Ken Russell, for whom he wrote the biographical dramas The Debussy Film (1965) and Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), as well as Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers (1970). Most of Bragg's novels are autobiographical fictions, set in and around the town of Wigton during his childhood. In 1972, he co-wrote the script for Norman Jewison's film Jesus Christ Superstar (1973). Although Bragg published several works, he was unable to make a living, forcing a return to television by the mid-1970s.

Bragg received a variety of reviews for his work, some critics declaring it outstanding and others suggesting it was lazy. Many suggested that splitting his time between writing and broadcasting was detrimental to the quality, and that his media profile and his known sensitivity to criticism made him an easy target for unjust reviews. The Literary Review{{'}}s prize mocking his writing of sex in fiction, according to The Independent, was awarded not on readers' nominations, but simply because it would be good PR.[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/profile-a-time-to-dance-back-to-cumbria-melvyn-bragg-cultural-supremo-in-a-crisis-1507044.html Profile: A time to dance back to Cumbria?: Melvyn Bragg, cultural supremo in a crisis], The Independent, 27 November 1993 From 1996 to 1998 he also wrote a column in The Times newspaper; he has also occasionally written for The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Observer.

Bragg's friends include the former Labour Party leaders Tony Blair and Neil Kinnock, and former deputy leader Roy Hattersley. He was one of 100 donors who gave the Labour Party a sum in excess of £5,000 in 1997, the year the party came to power under Blair in the general election.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/161057.stm|title="Luvvies" for Labour|publisher=BBC News|date=30 August 1998}} The following year he was appointed by Blair to the House of Lords as the life peer Baron Bragg, of Wigton in the County of Cumbria,[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/minutes/981028/ldminute.htm Minutes and Order Paper – Minutes of Proceedings] from the House of Lords, 28 October 1998.{{London Gazette |issue=55222|date=11 August 1998 |page=8731}} one of a number of Labour donors given peerages. This led to accusations of cronyism from the defeated Conservative Party.

In the Lords he takes a keen interest in the arts and education. According to The Guardian in 2004, he voted 104 times out of a possible 226 in the 2002/3 session, only once against the government, on the Hunting Act.[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/sep/17/broadcasting.politics The Guardian profile: Melvyn Bragg], The Guardian, Steven Morris, 17 September 2004 He campaigned against it on the grounds that it could affect the livelihoods of Cumbrian farmers.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1111923.stm |title=Bragg battles for hunting reprieve |publisher=BBC News |date=11 January 2001 |access-date=17 July 2015}} In August 2014, Bragg was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/07/celebrities-open-letter-scotland-independence-full-text |title=Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=7 August 2014 |access-date=26 August 2014}}

Bragg has occasionally commented on American politics, in 1998 agreeing with the sentiment that writer and polemicist Gore Vidal was "the greatest president America never had".{{Cite web |title=In Our Time - Politics in the 20th Century - BBC Sounds |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p005456z |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-GB}}

Bragg has defended Christianity, particularly the King James Bible, although he does not claim to be a believer, seeing himself in Albert Einstein's term as a "believing unbeliever", adding that he is "unable to cross the River of Jordan which would lead me to the crucial belief in a godly eternity."{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8567848/Melvyn-Bragg-My-first-steps-back-on-the-road-to-faith.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8567848/Melvyn-Bragg-My-first-steps-back-on-the-road-to-faith.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|author=Melvyn Bragg|title=Melvyn Bragg: My first steps back on the road to faith|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|date=11 June 2011}}{{cbignore}} In 2012, Bragg criticised what he claimed to be the "Animus and the ignorance" of the atheism debate.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9141951/Melvyn-Bragg-attacks-Richard-Dawkins-atheist-fundamentalism.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316030718/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9141951/Melvyn-Bragg-attacks-Richard-Dawkins-atheist-fundamentalism.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 March 2012|title=Melvyn Bragg attacks Richard Dawkins' 'atheist fundamentalism'|first=Victoria|last=Ward|date=14 March 2012|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=16 November 2019}}

In August 2016, Bragg publicly accused the National Trust of "bullying" in its "disgraceful purchase" of land in the Lake District, which could threaten the Herdwick rare breed of sheep as well as the Lake District's historic farming system, for which the region was nominated as a Unesco World Heritage site.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/30/melvyn-bragg-accuses-national-trust-of-bullying-in-farm-row|title=Melvyn Bragg accuses National Trust of bullying in farm row|author=Press Association|date=30 August 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=1 September 2016}}{{Cite news|date=30 August 2016|title=Lord Bragg attacks 'mafia style' National Trust over Lake District land purchase|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/30/lord-bragg-attacks-mafia-style-national-trust-over-lake-district/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/30/lord-bragg-attacks-mafia-style-national-trust-over-lake-district/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=16 September 2020|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}

In 1961, after a short courtship, Bragg married his first wife, Marie-Elisabeth Roche (b. 1939).{{Cite web|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/in-profile-melvyn-bragg-1651887|title=In profile: Melvyn Bragg|date=4 December 2011|website=The Scotsman}} In 1965 they had a daughter, Marie-Elsa Bragg.{{cite news|first=Daphne|last=Guinness|title=Melvyn in the Middle|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/melvyn-in-the-middle/2008/06/13/1213321586009.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=14 July 2008|access-date=14 July 2008|quote=...my first wife was an aristocrat. I didn't know that for a year.}} Roche was a French viscountess studying painting at Oxford. In 1971, Roche died by suicide.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/20/melvyn-bragg-leaves-wife-to-move-in-with-woman-16-years-his-juni/|title=Melvyn Bragg leaves wife to move in with woman 16 years his junior'|date=20 June 2016|access-date=16 November 2019|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}} In an interview with The Guardian in 1998, Bragg said, "I could have done things which helped and I did things which harmed. So yes, I feel guilt, I feel remorse."{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/Columnists/Column/0,,1500897,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109185452/http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/jun/07/bbc.broadcasting |title=Plato or Nietzsche? You choose |first=Oliver |last=Burkeman |newspaper=The Guardian |location=Manchester |date=6 June 2005 |archive-date=9 November 2012}} This was in part a reference to his infidelities which included Cate Haste, whom he married in 1973.{{Cite news |last=Billen |first=Andrew |date=2024-07-13 |title=Interview with Melvyn Bragg: my suicidal thoughts, infidelity and regrets |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/interview-with-melvyn-bragg-my-suicidal-thoughts-infidelity-and-regrets-ltsb7lcv8 |access-date=2024-07-13 |work = The Times |language=en}} Haste was also a television producer and writer, whose literary work includes editing the 2007 memoir of Clarissa Eden, widow of Anthony Eden, and collaborating with Cherie Booth, wife of Tony Blair, on a 2004 book about the wives of British prime ministers. They had a son and a daughter.{{cite web |title=Bragg, Baron, (Melvyn Bragg) (born 6 Oct. 1939) |url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-8507 |website=Who's Who & Who Was Who |year=2007 |access-date=5 May 2021 |isbn=978-0-19-954088-4 |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u8507}}

In June 2016 it was reported that Bragg and Haste had separated amicably, and that Bragg now shared a home with former film assistant Gabriel Clare-Hunt, with whom he had an affair that began in 1995. She is 16 years younger than him. The marriage between Haste and Bragg was dissolved in 2018 and Haste died from lung cancer in April 2021.{{cite news|date=6 May 2021|title=Cate Haste, writer and TV producer whose projects explored among other subjects the role of women in the 20th century – obituary|language=en-GB|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/05/06/cate-haste-writer-tv-producer-whose-projects-explored-among/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/05/06/cate-haste-writer-tv-producer-whose-projects-explored-among/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=19 May 2021|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}{{cite news|date=7 May 2021|first=Hella|last=Pick|author-link=Hella Pick|title=Cate Haste obituary|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/07/cate-haste-obituary|access-date=19 May 2021|work=The Guardian}} Another reported affair was with Lady Jane Wellesley between 1979 and 1987.

In September 2019 he married Clare-Hunt at St Bega's Church in Bassenthwaite, part of the Lake District National Park. His eldest daughter, Marie-Elsa, a priest, conducted the service. His second daughter, Alice, read a lesson, while his son, Tom, was an usher. Guests included Cumbrian mountaineer Chris Bonington and the ceremony featured the premiere of music specially written by Bragg's friend, composer Howard Goodall.{{cite web |title=Melvyn Bragg gets married at Bassenthwaite |url=https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/17915975.melvyn-bragg-gets-married-bassenthwaite/ |first=Roger |last=Lytollis|access-date=5 May 2021 |website=News and Star |date=21 September 2019}}

Bragg has publicly discussed two nervous breakdowns that he has suffered, one in his teens and another in his 30s.{{cite news |last=Guinness |first=Daphne |author-link=Daphne Guinness |title=Melvyn in the middle |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/melvyn-in-the-middle/2008/06/13/1213321586009.html?page=fullpage |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=14 June 2008 |access-date=4 October 2011}} His first breakdown began at the age of 13. Inspired by a passage in Wordsworth's The Prelude, he found ways to cope, including exploring the outdoors and the adoption of a strong work ethic, as well as meeting his first girlfriend. The second followed his first wife's suicide.{{cite news |last=Blackhurst |first=Chris |title=Melvyn Bragg: A Northern hero in our time |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/melvyn-bragg-a-northern-hero-in-our-time-9535969.html |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |date=13 June 2014}} He traces the origin of a lifelong nervousness of public speaking to the experience of giving a reading from the lectern as a choirboy at the age of six.

At the age of 75, he was profiled in the BBC Two television programme Melvyn Bragg: Wigton to Westminster, first broadcast on 18 July 2015. He lives in Hampstead, London, but still owns a house near his home town of Wigton. He is a member of the Garrick and Chelsea Arts clubs.

He also takes an interest in football, supporting both Carlisle United{{cite news |title=Melvyn Bragg: 'I Remember' |url=https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/culture/celebrities/melvyn-bragg-i-remember |work=Reader's Digest}} and Arsenal.{{cite news |title=Melvyn Bragg on becoming a fan – Arsenal, 1989 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/may/17/seven-deadly-sins-pride-arsenal-melvyn-bragg |work=The Guardian |location=London|first=Melvyn |last=Bragg |date=17 May 2009}} He is the vice president of the Carlisle United Supporters Club London Branch.{{cite news|url=https://www.carlisleunited.co.uk/news/2018/april/londonbranchhtb300/|work=Carlisle United F.C. Official Site|title=LONDON BRANCH: Hit The Bar issue 300 out this weekend|date=26 April 2018}}

Bragg is a relative of William Henry Bragg and his son Lawrence Bragg, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 for their work in X-ray crystal structure analysis. He presented a Radio 4 programme on the subject in August 2013.{{Cite web|url=https://www.leeds.ac.uk/forstaff/news/article/4011/bragg_on_the_braggs|title=Bragg on the Braggs|first=Louise|last=Garner|website=www.leeds.ac.uk|date=2 March 2017 |access-date=16 November 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0383vb0|title=Bragg on the Braggs|website=BBC Rasio 4|access-date=16 November 2019}}

• President of the Words by the Water literary festival{{cite web |title=Cumbria's Modern-Day Authors |url=https://www.sallyscottages.co.uk/blog/cumbrias-modern-day-authors |website=Sally's Cottages |access-date=13 March 2020}}
• President of the National Campaign for the Arts (since 1986)
• Domus Fellow, St Catherine's College, Oxford (1990)
• Chairman of Border Television 1990–96 (deputy chairman 1985–90)
• Honorary Fellowship from Wadham College, Oxford (1995)
• Governor of the London School of Economics (since 1997)
• Peerage – Baron Bragg (since 1998)
• Chancellor of the University of Leeds (1999–2017)
• President of the charity MIND (2002)
• Honorary Fellowship of the British Academy (2010), for "public understanding of the arts, literature and sciences"{{cite web|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2010-Bragg.cfm|title=Lord Bragg of Wigton FRS FRSL FRTS|publisher=British Academy|access-date=4 October 2011|quote=Public understanding of the arts, literature and sciences. Broadcaster, presenter, interviewer, commentator, novelist, scriptwriter.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112124436/http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2010-Bragg.cfm|archive-date=12 January 2012}}
• Honorary Fellowship of Royal Society (2010){{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/New-Fellows-2010-A-C|title=Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society|publisher=Royalsociety.org|access-date=29 September 2014}}
• Honorary Fellowship from the University of Cumbria 2010{{Cite web|url=https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/about/organisation/honorary-fellows/2010/|title=2010 | University of Cumbria|website=www.cumbria.ac.uk|access-date=16 November 2019}}
• Honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt.), University College London (2014){{Cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2014/sep/ucl-honorary-graduands-and-fellows-2014|title=UCL Honorary Graduands and Fellows 2014|date=11 September 2014|website=UCL News|access-date=16 November 2019}}
• President of the National Academy of Writing
• Vice President of the Friends of the British Library{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/supportus/pdf/friendsannrep0607.pdf |title=Friends of the British Library Annual Report 2006/07 |access-date=7 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100415020637/http://www.bl.uk/supportus/pdf/friendsannrep0607.pdf |archive-date=15 April 2010 }}
• Chairman of the Arts Council Literature Panel
• Vice President of the Carlisle United Supporters Club London Branch
• Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) (2018){{London Gazette |issue=62150 |date=30 December 2017 |page=N26 |supp=y}}

;Literary prizes

• Writers' Guild Screenplay Award (1966)
• Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Without a City Wall (1968)
• Time/Life Silver Pen Award for The Hired Man (1970)
• Northern Arts Association Prose Award (1970)
• Bad Sex in Fiction Award for A Time to Dance (1993)
• WH Smith Literary Award for The Soldier's Return (2000)
• Crossing The Lines was long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2003{{Cite web |date=2003-06-09 |title=Crossing the Lines {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/crossing-the-lines |access-date=2024-08-06 |website=thebookerprizes.com |language=en}}

;Film & television awards

• Broadcasting Guild Award (1984)
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts Dimbleby Award (1986)
• BAFTA TV Award for An Interview with Dennis Potter (1995)
• BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award (2010){{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10206838|publisher=BBC News|title=Melvyn Bragg to receive BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award|date=1 June 2010}}
• Best New Radio Series for Routes of English (2000)
• Royal Television Society Lifetime Achievement Award (2015)
• Sky Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement Award (2024)

;Other awards

• Ivor Novello Musical Award (1985)
• Honorary Degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University. (1989)
• Namesake of Millom School Drama Studio (2005){{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4348592.stm|title=Bragg opens namesake drama suite|publisher=BBC News|date=17 October 2005|access-date=4 October 2011}}
• The South Bank Show Lifetime Achievement Award (2010)
• Sandford St.Martin Trust Personal Award (2014)

• For Want of a Nail (1965)
• The Second Inheritance (1966)
• Without a City Wall (1968)
• The Cumbrian Trilogy:
• The Hired Man (1969)
• A Place in England (1970)
• Kingdom Come (1980)
• The Nerve (1971)
• Josh Lawton (1972)
• The Silken Net (1974)
• Autumn Manoeuvres (1978)
• Love and Glory (1983)
• The Maid of Buttermere (1987) (based on the life of Mary Robinson)
• A Time to Dance (1990)
• Crystal Rooms (1992)
• Credo (1996) also known as The Sword and the Miracle
• The Soldier's Return Quartet:
• The Soldier's Return (1999)
• A Son of War (2001)
• Crossing the Lines (2003)
• Remember Me... (2008)
• Grace and Mary (2013)
• Now is the Time (2015)
• Love Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard (2019)

• Speak For England (1976)
• Land of The Lakes (1983)
• Laurence Olivier (1984)
• Cumbria in Verse (editor) (1984)
• Rich: The Life of Richard Burton (1988)
• The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet) (1993)
• King Lear in New York (1994)
• On Giants' Shoulders (1998)
• Two Thousand Years Part 1: The Birth of Christ to the Crusades (1999)
• Two Thousand Years Part 2 (1999)
• The Routes of English (2001)
• The Adventure of English (2003)
• 12 Books That Changed the World (2006)
• In Our Time: A Companion to the Radio 4 series (editor) (2009)
• The Book of Books (2011)
• William Tyndale: A Very Brief History (2017)
• In Our Time: Celebrating Twenty Years of Essential Conversation (2018)
• Back In The Day. A Memoir (2022)

• A Christmas Child (1977)
• My Favourite Stories of Lakeland (editor) (1981)

• The Debussy Film (1965)
• Isadora (1968) (with Clive Exton and Margaret Drabble)
• Play Dirty (1968)
• The Music Lovers (1970) (directed by Ken Russell)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) (co-written and directed by Norman Jewison)

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=

{{cite encyclopedia| url=http://www.museum.tv/eotv/braggmelvyn.htm |title=Melvyn Bragg |first= Andrew |last=Quicke | publisher= Museum of Broadcast Communications | encyclopedia= Encyclopedia of Television |access-date=4 October 2011}}

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• {{Discogs artist}}
• {{IMDb name|0103905}}
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl In Our Time] (BBC Radio 4)
• {{commons category-inline}}
• {{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.museum.tv/eotv/braggmelvyn.htm|title=Melvyn Bragg|publisher=Museum of Broadcast Communications|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Television}}
• [http://blog.colinmarshall.org/?p=2213 An interview with Melvyn Bragg] on Notebook on Cities and Culture
• Archival material at {{wikidata|qualifier|property|P485|Q24568958|P973|format=\[%q %p\]}}

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{{s-bef|before=The Duchess of Kent}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chancellor of the University of Leeds|years=1999–2017}}

{{s-aft|after=Dame Jane Francis}}

{{s-prec|uk}}

{{s-bef|before=The Lord Ahmed}}

{{s-ttl|title=Gentlemen
Baron Bragg }}

{{s-fol|after=The Lord Sawyer}}

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{{BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award |state=collapsed}}

{{FRS 2010}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bragg, Melvyn Bragg, Baron}}

Category:1939 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century English novelists

Category:Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford

Category:BAFTA fellows

Category:BBC Radio 4 presenters

Category:English biographers

Category:English male journalists

Category:English male novelists

Category:English radio presenters

Category:English screenwriters

Category:English male screenwriters

Category:English television presenters

Category:Fellows of St Catherine's College, Oxford

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

Category:Fellows of the Royal Television Society

Category:Honorary Fellows of the British Academy

Category:Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Ivor Novello Award winners

Category:John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners

Category:Labour Party (UK) donors

Category:Labour Party (UK) life peers

Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II

Category:British male biographers

Category:Members of the Fabian Society

Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour

Category:People associated with the London School of Economics

Category:People associated with the University of Leeds

Category:People educated at the Nelson Thomlinson School

Category:People from Wigton