After his ennoblement in 1998, he switched to presenting the new In Our Time,[4] an academic discussion radio programme, which has run to more than one thousand broadcast editions and is also a podcast.

[10] From the age of 8 until he left for university, his family home was above a pub in Wigton, the Black-A-Moor Hotel, of which his father had become the landlord.

[10] Encouraged by a teacher who had recognised his work ethic, Bragg was one of an increasing number of working-class teenagers of the era being given a path to university through the grammar school system.

[13] He then edited and presented the London Weekend Television (LWT) arts programme The South Bank Show from 1978 to 2010.

[14] His interview with playwright Dennis Potter shortly before his death is regularly cited as one of the most moving and memorable television moments ever.

This told the dramatic story of William Tyndale's mission to translate the Bible from the original languages to English.

He recognised that writing would not, initially at least, earn him a living, and he took the opportunity at the BBC that arose after he had applied for posts in a variety of industries.

Many suggested that splitting his time between writing and broadcasting was detrimental to the quality, and that his media profile and his known sensitivity to criticism made him an easy target for unjust reviews.

The Literary Review's prize mocking his writing of sex in fiction, according to The Independent, was awarded not on readers' nominations, but simply because it would be good PR.

[25] The following year he was appointed by Blair to the House of Lords as the life peer Baron Bragg, of Wigton in the County of Cumbria,[26][27] one of a number of Labour donors given peerages.

[28] In August 2014, Bragg was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

[29] Bragg has occasionally commented on American politics, in 1998 agreeing with the sentiment that writer and polemicist Gore Vidal was "the greatest president America never had".

[32] In August 2016, Bragg publicly accused the National Trust of "bullying" in its "disgraceful purchase" of land in the Lake District, which could threaten the Herdwick rare breed of sheep as well as the Lake District's historic farming system, for which the region was nominated as a Unesco World Heritage site.

[36] In September 2019 he married Clare-Hunt at St Bega's Church in Bassenthwaite, part of the Lake District National Park.

Guests included Cumbrian mountaineer Chris Bonington and the ceremony featured the premiere of music specially written by Bragg's friend, composer Howard Goodall.

Inspired by a passage in Wordsworth's The Prelude, he found ways to cope, including exploring the outdoors and the adoption of a strong work ethic, as well as meeting his first girlfriend.

[15] He traces the origin of a lifelong nervousness of public speaking to the experience of giving a reading from the lectern as a choirboy at the age of six.

[10] At the age of 75, he was profiled in the BBC Two television programme Melvyn Bragg: Wigton to Westminster, first broadcast on 18 July 2015.