Melvyn Bragg explores the dramatic story of William Tyndale and his mission to translate the Bible
into English. Melvyn reveals the story of a man whose life and legacy have been hidden from history,
but whose impact on Christianity in Britain and on the English language endures today. His radical
translation of the Bible into English made him a profound threat to the authority of the church and
state, and set him on a fateful collision course with Henry VIII's heretic hunters and those of the
pope.
Just who was the most dangerous man in Tudor England? BBC documentary comes to St Paul's
The life of the man who dared to translate the Bible into English, an extremely rare copy of which
is housed at St Paul's, is the subject of a dramatic new BBC documentary.
Broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm on Thursday 6 June, the life of William Tyndale will be explored by Lord
Melvyn Bragg in a programme entitled The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England.
The programme will explore the life and work of Tyndale, who Lord Bragg believes sits alongside
William Shakespeare as the greatest influencers of the English language as we know it.
The English translation of the Tyndale New Testament housed at St Paul's is one of only three copies
remaining in the world. In the BBC Documentary, Lord Bragg visits the Cathedral Library to see for
himself the precious and fragile book.
Simon Carter, Head of Collections at the Cathedral, said: "The book is the great treasure of the
Library Collection. However, in keeping with its earlier contraband status it arrived in the
Cathedral surreptitiously; its true nature was unappreciated at the time that it was acquired as
part of a bequest in 1783.
"The leaves of the Gospels and epistles had been deliberately intermixed to ingeniously disguise the
contents of the book, should it have been discovered. In the nineteenth-century this was curiously
thought to have been undertaken some years after the endeavours of Bishop of Durham, Cuthbert
Tunstall, to incinerate every copy, and the sheets were rearranged in proper sequence and the volume
was rebound.
"This tiny book has a huge cultural significance; it was the basis for several subsequent Standard
English translations of the Bible. Today it is still greatly admired for the lucidity of the
writing, and a surprising number of Tyndale's phrases are still in common use today, including:
'signs of the times'; 'broken-hearted'; 'eat, drink and be merry'; 'the salt of the earth'; and
into English. Melvyn reveals the story of a man whose life and legacy have been hidden from history,
but whose impact on Christianity in Britain and on the English language endures today. His radical
translation of the Bible into English made him a profound threat to the authority of the church and
state, and set him on a fateful collision course with Henry VIII's heretic hunters and those of the
pope.
Just who was the most dangerous man in Tudor England? BBC documentary comes to St Paul's
The life of the man who dared to translate the Bible into English, an extremely rare copy of which
is housed at St Paul's, is the subject of a dramatic new BBC documentary.
Broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm on Thursday 6 June, the life of William Tyndale will be explored by Lord
Melvyn Bragg in a programme entitled The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England.
The programme will explore the life and work of Tyndale, who Lord Bragg believes sits alongside
William Shakespeare as the greatest influencers of the English language as we know it.
The English translation of the Tyndale New Testament housed at St Paul's is one of only three copies
remaining in the world. In the BBC Documentary, Lord Bragg visits the Cathedral Library to see for
himself the precious and fragile book.
Simon Carter, Head of Collections at the Cathedral, said: "The book is the great treasure of the
Library Collection. However, in keeping with its earlier contraband status it arrived in the
Cathedral surreptitiously; its true nature was unappreciated at the time that it was acquired as
part of a bequest in 1783.
"The leaves of the Gospels and epistles had been deliberately intermixed to ingeniously disguise the
contents of the book, should it have been discovered. In the nineteenth-century this was curiously
thought to have been undertaken some years after the endeavours of Bishop of Durham, Cuthbert
Tunstall, to incinerate every copy, and the sheets were rearranged in proper sequence and the volume
was rebound.
"This tiny book has a huge cultural significance; it was the basis for several subsequent Standard
English translations of the Bible. Today it is still greatly admired for the lucidity of the
writing, and a surprising number of Tyndale's phrases are still in common use today, including:
'signs of the times'; 'broken-hearted'; 'eat, drink and be merry'; 'the salt of the earth'; and
