So, years ago, in a time of greater leisure, I became intrigued by what I now see has been called the Melvyn Bragg Abrupt Opener – the most magnificent examples of which are to be heard in his Radio 4 programme In Our Time. After discovering that Oliver Burkeman shared this curiosity, I became unhinged enough to start cutting together the top of the show in order to experience the full, cumulative effect of being repeatedly taken back to the year 1493 (etc) at the drop of a hat. Now that In Our Time is about to celebrate a 20th anniversary, and the New Yorker has even picked up on the "abrupt opener", I've decided to share this audio futility.