The Essay

Fear is one of the six basic universal emotions (the others are anger, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise) and like all human emotions not easy to understand. Fear can be played upon, enjoyed, conquered. It is an obstacle to progress ("the only thing to fear is fear itself") and, as we stand at the kerb, it saves our lives every day. This series of The Essay brings you five essays on different aspects of fear.Professor Quentin Skinner of Queen Mary University of London tells the story of how 17th century British philosopher Thomas Hobbes came to believe that "fear and I were twin born" and to write fear into the heart of his political philosophy, arguing that it underpins all human motivation and action.Producer Laura Thomas.

Fear is one of the six basic universal emotions (the others are anger, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise) and like all human emotions not easy to understand. Fear can be played upon, enjoyed, conquered. It is an obstacle to progress ("the only thing to fear is fear itself") and, as we stand at the kerb, it saves our lives every day. This series of The Essay brings you five essays on different aspects of fear.Kier-La Janisse is a writer and the Founder of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, and reflects on how educational films like Dark and Lonely Water, The Finishing Line and Signal 30 have scared more children more deeply than any horror feature film, and explains how - in mid-twentieth century America - fear was exploited to create an educational film boom.Producer Laura Thomas.

Fear is one of the six basic universal emotions (the others are anger, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise) and like all human emotions not easy to understand. Fear can be played upon, enjoyed, conquered. It is an obstacle to progress ("the only thing to fear is fear itself") and, as we stand at the kerb, it saves our lives every day. This series of The Essay brings you five essays on different aspects of fear.Tonight writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet uncovers the tragic history of The Little Albert Experiment, conducted by John B Watson, a 1920s psychologist who conditioned a toddler to recoil from a white rat and, eventually, any white fluffy object.Producer Laura Thomas.

You won't find this photograph in a glossy coffee table book. It's not art and the person who took it doesn't feature in the Photographers Hall of Fame. But this picture has had an enormous impact on our legal system. In 1866 a butcher sat for his photograph in the remote town of Wagga Wagga, Australia. Three years later this likeness had Britain transfixed. Jennifer Tucker tells the story of how it was central to the longest legal battle in 19th-century England, and sparked a debate about evidence, the law, ethics and facial recognition that has continued ever since.Jennifer Tucker is Associate Professor of History and Science in Society at Wesleyan University, USA.Producer: Rosie Dawson.

You won't find this photograph in a glossy coffee table book. It's not art and the person who took it doesn't feature in the Photographers Hall of Fame. But this picture has had an enormous impact on the way Britain sees what has come to be known as its cultural heritage.The man who took the photo, W. Jerome Harrison, launched a scheme for recording the country's past in which amateur photographers up and down the land took pictures of the buildings which were important them. Wiki-buildings and English Heritage do this now on a much grander scale. But Elizabeth Edwards argues that the mass participation of people in defining what matters about the past began with Harrison, and changed the way in which a nation viewed itself.Elizabeth Edwards is Research Professor of Photographic History and Director of the Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester.Producer: Rosie Dawson.

The Dogon. Jeanne Haffner on how aerial photography changed the spaces we live in.You won't find this photograph in a glossy coffee table book. It's not art and the person who took it doesn't feature in the Photographers Hall of Fame. But this picture has had an enormous impact on the organisation of our living spaces. The birds-eye photograph of the Dogon tribe working their fields in Mali was taken by the French Africanist Marcel Griaule. He'd trained in aerial photography during the First World War and he argued that the Dogon landscape, seen from the air, revealed the patterns and secrets of the lives of its inhabitants, patterns which could teach Western city planners and architects how to build a happier society.Jeanne Haffner is lecturer in the Department of History and Science at Harvard University.Producer: Rosie Dawson.

You won't find this photograph in a glossy coffee table book. It's not art and the person who took it doesn't feature in the Photographers Hall of Fame. But this picture has had an enormous impact on our world. Today high-resolution photographs of nebulae or galaxies saturate our culture to such an extent that they are almost kitsch. But when Henry Draper took the very first pictures of a nebula in 1880 it was one of the greatest achievements of photography. Omar Nasim tells the story of how this photograph defied the imagination and raised questions not just about the size of the universe but about the very origins of humanity.Omar Nasim is lecturer in the School of History at the University of Kent.Producer: Rosie Dawson.

You won't find this photograph in a glossy coffee table book. It's not art and the person who took it doesn't feature in the Photographers Hall of Fame. But this picture has had an enormous impact on the world of medicine and our relationship with our bodies. The photograph of Anna Bertha Ludwig Rontgen's left hand taken in 1896 astounded the scientific world and alarmed the public. For the scientists it signalled the beginning of medical radiography. For the public it gave rise to fears about intrusion and privacy in much the same way as the introduction of the TSA body scanner did in 2007. From medical imaging to airport security, Kelley Wilder shows how X-ray photography changed the world.Kelley Wilder is Reader in Photographic History, De Montfort University, LeicesterProducer: Rosie Dawson.

Writers, painters and other practitioners re-visit an early piece of work. And tell us what they think about it now:5. Roger Michell, director of such films as Notting Hill and Hyde Park on Hudson, describes working for the BBC in the 1980's. He was fresh out of theatre, and making his first drama was a huge challenge - aesthetically and technically..

Writers, painters and other practitioners re-visit an early piece of work. And tell us what they think about it now:4. After deciphering some vivid dreams, singer-songwriter Stephen Coates formed a band called The Real Tuesday Weld. He also descended the depths to an underground river in London and this, too, helped with the band's formation..Producer Duncan Minshull.