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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the Devil. In the Gospel according to John he is \\u2018a murderer from the beginning\\u2019, \\u2018a liar and the father of lies\\u2019, and Dante calls him \\u2018the ill Worm that pierces the world\\u2019s core\\u2019. But Milton\\u2019s description of him as a powerful rebel was so attractive that William Blake declared that Milton was \\u2018of the Devil\\u2019s party, without knowing it\\u2019. To ordinary folk the Devil has often been regarded as a trickster, a tempter, sometimes even a figure of fun rather than of fear. How did this contradictory character come into being? Why did it take so long for him to become an established figure in Christianity? And if the Devil did not exist, would we have had to invent him?\\xa0With Martin Palmer, theologian and Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture; Alison Rowlands, Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Essex; David Wootton, Professor of Intellectual History at Queen Mary, University of London.