A Most Magickal Encounter

Writer Tim Dee is trying to make a most extraordinary Zoom Call that will transport him across the centuries to have a most magical encounter with a scholarly looking guy with a white beard who is his namesake.

Dr John Dee was astronomer and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I. He was a wizardly necromancer with a Europe wide reputation who ended up desperately trying to converse with angels to unlock the secrets of the universe.

As attempts at making a connection go ahead, Tim also goes on a quest in search of Dr Dee. He talks with biblical scholar, former Archbishop of Canterbury and poet Rowan Williams to understand more about the importance of Angels in Dee’s time.

On the site of Dr Dee’s house by the Thames at Mortlake, he meets Ann Dingsdale, a real flesh and blood relative of the Renaissance genius. Ann is his ten times great granddaughter.

At the British Library, Tim looks over Dee’s legible and miraculously preserved Angel Diaries with the poet Camille Ralphs. Such is her fascination, Camille has written a sequence of poems in Dee’s voice and reads extracts from them.

The Royal College of Physicians has several unique volumes from Dr Dee’s library, which was the largest of its time in the whole of Europe. With Tim to peruse these, and to understand the connections between Science and Magic in the Elizabethan age, is Renaissance expert Charles Nicholl.

All this plus Dee’s voice heard at intervals coming through the ether, and a heavenly soundtrack that includes Aretha Franklin, The Who, Nina Simone, Dr John, Jimi Hendrix and The Clash.

Presenter: Tim Dee
Producer: Alastair Laurence
Executive Producer: David Prest
Sound Design: Jake Wittlin
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4