Thursday 21 September marks the 1,000th episode of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, which has been presented by Melvyn Bragg since 1998.

In the 1000th edition of In Our Time (BBC Radio 4, 21 September 9am), Melvyn and guests discuss arguably the most celebrated film of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007). It begins with an image that, once seen, stays with you for the rest of your life: the figure of Death playing chess with a Crusader on the rocky Swedish shore.

The release of this film in 1957 brought Bergman fame around the world. We see Antonius Block, the Crusader, realising he can’t beat Death but wanting to prolong this final game for one last act, without yet knowing what that act might be. As he goes on a journey through a plague ridden world, his meeting with a family of jesters and their baby offers him some kind of epiphany. Guests include Jan Holmberg (Director of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, Stockholm), Claire Thomson (Professor of Cinema History and Director of the School of European Languages, Culture and Society at University College London) and Laura Hubner (Professor of Film at the University of Winchester).

Listen to the In Our Time archive on BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qykl

Episodes are broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4 on Thursdays at 9am.