Charge of the Light Brigade [audio 45min]

On November 14th 1854 The Times newspaper reported on a minor cavalry skirmish in the Crimean War:"They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning sun in all the pride and splendour of war... At the distance of twelve hundred yards the whole line of the enemy belched forth, from thirty iron mouths, a flood of smoke and flame through which hissed the deadly balls. Their flight was marked by instant gaps in our ranks, by dead men and horses, by steeds flying wounded or riderless across the plain". This is the Charge of the Light Brigade, an event of no military significance that has become iconic in the British imagination. It helped to provoke the resignation of a Prime Minister, it profoundly changed British attitudes to war and the soldiers who fought in them, and it inspired Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to sit down and write"All in the Valley of Death rode the six hundred". Presenter Melvyn Bragg investigates the history of ideas and debates their application in modern life with his guests Mike Broers, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall; Trudi Tate, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge; and Saul David, Visiting Professor of Military History at the University of Hull. Baron Bragg -- historian, journalist, novelist -- is Controller of Arts for London Weekend Television.