In 1953 Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq was overthrown in a coup. It was billed as a popular uprising in support of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, yet behind the scenes were the British and American intelligence services. Mossadeq had swept to power only two years earlier promising to nationalise Iran’s vast oil reserves, but this, along with an apparent Communist threat, worried the two western governments whose post-war economies relied heavily on access to Iranian oil. Rajan Datar discusses the coup with Iran scholar Ervand Abrahamian, professor of modern Iranian history at St Andrews University Ali Ansari and journalist and author Azadeh Moaveni.(Photo: Rioters armed with staves shout slogans, during riots in Tehran, August 1953. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

The Russian dance impresario Sergei Diaghilev transformed not only ballet, but all the arts in the 20th century. His ground-breaking Ballets Russes burst onto the scene in Paris in 1909 and replaced stuffy set pieces with shockingly vibrant performances that brought together scenery by artists Picasso and Matisse, costumes by Coco Chanel, avant-garde music by Stravinsky and Prokofiev, and a new style of movement from innovative dancers such as Nijinsky. The Ballet Russes became the world’s leading dance company for nearly quarter of a century, and its creative impulse still influences dance, music and art today. Bridget Kendall explores Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes with Lynn Garafola, Professor of Dance at Barnard College, Columbia University in the US; Jane Pritchard, Curator of Dance at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; and the French dance writer Laura Cappelle.Photo: Portrait Of Sergei Dyagilev (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

For many people, Charlie Chaplin and the Tramp, a character he created at the start of his film career, are synonymous. This funny little man with a black moustache and a waddling gait, dressed in baggy trousers and a tight jacket, with oversized shoes and a small bowler hat, made millions of people laugh, turned Chaplin into a household name and - in his day - the highest paid entertainer in the world. But there was more to Chaplin than just a virtuoso physical comedian: he was a versatile actor, writer, musician and director. He carefully fine-tuned every aspect of his feature films, no matter how long it took or what the cost, making him - possibly - the only complete auteur in film history. He had an eye to posterity: even in the early days when films were thought of as disposable, he carefully preserved all his works. And he also had business acumen: with his brother Sydney he masterminded brilliant publicity campaigns, re-releases and lucrative deals. Bridget Kendall is joined by silent film historians Ellen Cheshire, Donna Kornhaber and Paul Duncan to explore Chaplin's world: the films that made him famous, the people who helped him become a star, and the hidden depths and contradictions behind the slapstick humour.Photo: Charlie Chaplin in the comedy film The Gold Rush (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Coal is a commodity that’s often been considered dirty, old fashioned and cheap, a humble black stone that evokes images of soot covered workers. And yet this lump of energy became the essential fuel for industrialisation all over the world, transforming societies and launching empires. But this transformative power came at a cost, as well as bringing unprecedented wealth it also brought unprecedented pollution. So how are countries dealing with coal’s legacy, and will dependence on coal carry on into the future?Joining Rajan Datar is Dr Kenneth Mathu from Gibs, University of Pretoria in Johannesburg; Dr Shellen Xiao Wu, specialist on China and author of “Empires of Coal”; the American environmental lawyer Barbara Freese who’s written “Coal: A human history”, and Darran Cowd, the manager of Kent Mining museum in South East England.Photo: coal being loaded onto a truck at a mine in China. (MichelTroncy/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images)

Toilets come in many shapes and sizes around the world: squat and throne, dry and flush, indoor and outdoor. Most of us use one every day, but over two billion people still do not have access to facilities, leading to health and sanitary problems and even risks for personal security. From the 50 seater public toilets of ancient Rome and the modern flush toilet, invented by a godson of a 16th century British monarch, this feat of human engineering is believed to date back 5000 years to the Indus Valley Civilisation. In recent years it’s become a battleground for equality, but in a world of increasing water shortages, could the flush toilet become a thing of the past?Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss the history of the toilet are Ann Koloski-Ostrow - an archaeologist specialising in Roman toilets from Brandeis University in the United States; Barbara Penner - a Professor of Architectural Humanities from University College London and the author of books on public toilets and the modern bathroom; and Dr Bindeswar Pathak - a sociologist, social activist, and Founder of the Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement. He is also the inventor of an environmentally friendly compost toilet that’s used widely around India today.Photo: A close-up of a toilet (Getty Images)

Stoicism is a school of thought over two thousand years old that asked how to live "a good life" in an unpredictable world, and how to make the best of what is in our power, while accepting the rest as it happens naturally. It trumpeted the value of reason as man's most valuable Virtue, and offered a practical guide to remaining steadfast, strong and in control.This ancient Graeco-Roman philosophy had a broad influence that reached across time and disciplines: its Virtues inspired some of the same from Christianity in the Middle Ages, its belief in Reason spoke to the works of 18th Century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and the relationship it drew between judgement and emotion went on to inspire the modern Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Movement. Bridget Kendall discusses this philosophy's key ideas and evolution, and explores what it is to live like a Stoic in the modern world with guests Massimo Pigliucci, Nancy Sherman and Donald Robertson.Photo: Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, 161-180, a practitioner of Stoicism. (Credit: Getty Images)

Around the twelfth and thirteenth century CE Angkor was thought to be one of the world's biggest cities. Its massive temple complex at Angkor Wat covered hundreds of acres adorned with majestic towers, terraces and waterways: symbols of the might of the Khmer kings who ruled the region. Angkor Wat attracts millions of tourists every year and has pride of place on the Cambodian national flag but there's much more to Angkor and the Khmer civilisation than its temples. Bridget Kendall talks about Khmer history with David Chandler, Emeritus Professor of history at Monash University in Melbourne; architectural historian Dr. Swati Chemburkar from the Jnanapravaha Arts Centre in Mumbai; anthropologist Dr. Kyle Latinis from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and former Dean of the University of Cambodia; and art historian Dr. Peter Sharrock from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.Photo: Angkor Wat temple complex. (SERENA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

The myths that have grown up around Cleopatra since her eventful reign in the first century BCE are so vivid and alluring that they seem to have taken on a life of their own. The Egyptian queen has been portrayed in art and literature as a wily temptress whose devastating beauty seduced two of Rome’s most powerful men, or as a ruthless killer who murdered her own relatives to get ahead, or as a tragic lover who took her own life using the bite from a poisonous snake. But how much of this is actually based on historical fact? There is evidence that Queen Cleopatra was in fact a clever stateswoman and scholar, who spoke multiple languages and successfully governed Egypt for over 20 years, becoming one of the most powerful female rulers in the ancient world.Bridget Kendall unpicks fact from fiction with Joyce Tyldesley, reader in Egyptology at the University of Manchester; Maria Wyke, professor of Latin at University College, London; and Christian Greco, director of the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin, Italy.Image: Cleopatra on papyrus (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

The Austrian satirical writer Karl Kraus used his forensic pen to expose the Hapsburg Empire and 20th century Vienna for its dishonesty and decay. He was the master of the punchy one liner, as well as being extremely prolific: his magazine Die Fackel ran to 922 editions, that's some 22 thousand pages, and Kraus wrote most of them. He was also full of contradictions: he could be both progressive and reactionary, sometimes profound and sometimes petty, and while he was born into affluence he remained concerned by other people's poverty. Many of his contradictions could be equally applied to the cultural world of Vienna itself in this period of turmoil and transition. And this makes Kraus - the journalist, poet, playwright, actor, lecturer and acerbic aphorist - a uniquely scathing and illuminating guide to this important historical epoch and the city at its heart. Rajan Datar talks about Kraus with Dr. Katharina Prager from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for History and Society, Dr. Simon Ganahl from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, both in Vienna, and Germanist Dr. Ari Linden from the University of Kansas.Photo: Karl Kraus (Imagno/Getty Images)

We probably know ‘cool’ when we see it, but what lies behind it and where did it originate? Most scholars agree that cool is a mode of being, an attitude or aesthetic. Some argue it arose out of a West African mode of performance, and was later developed in jazz circles by African-American musicians. Cool served to hide one’s emotions and survive confrontation with any hostile external forces – namely racism. In post-World War Two America, cool took on a new meaning, especially when its ideas were translated to white popular culture. It symbolised an individual’s rebellion, and new icons of cool emerged (especially on the silver screen) onto which people projected their deepest desires and fears. Today cool is a commodity, taken up by global brands and in some ways divorced from its rebellious roots. Bridget Kendall is joined by three cultural historians to explore the multiple meanings and emergence of cool, including Joel Dinerstein from Tulane University in New Orleans, US, Claudia Springer from Framingham State University in Massachusetts, and Carol Tulloch from Chelsea College of Arts in London.(Photo: American jazz musician Miles Davis. Credit: Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images)