Beethoven: The Lecture

Beethoven - the statue

Taking Beethoven further

Want to find out more about the life, work and politics of Beethoven? Tune into our advice for taking Beethoven further.

Composing himself

Fittingly for a man whose Ode To Joy came to be the anthem of the European Union, his life and influence spanned the continent. Meet Beethoven.

Breaking the code

The Last Supper is the EastEnders of its day? You're 'avin a larf, aintcha? Walford and Milan are linked by Mark and Da Vinci.

Find out more about Ludwig Van Beethoven in this programme from the BBC/OU Mark Steel Lectures.

Mark Steel turns up the volume on Beethoven with his tribute to a man who was the nearest eighteenth-century Vienna got to not only Jimi Hendrix, but also Captain Sensible. Unflinchingly exposing Ludwig’s anger management issues and his dependence on Ceefax’s 888 subtitle service, Mark Steel sets Beethoven in his revolutionary context and reveals the quirks of his character the history books gloss over.

Taking in the revolutionary nature of the Freemasons, Haydn’s contractual similarity to Prince, Beethoven’s unusual fondness for semi-hemidemisemiquavers and his love-hate relationship with Napoleon, The Mark Steel Lectures once again combines unique reconstructions with inventive graphics to bring Beethoven right up to the minute.

This episode is filmed on location in Vienna.

Content last updated: 06/10/2004