Launching the new season of ITV's The South Bank Show, Lord Bragg announced a list of the Twelve Books That Changed the World, a four-part special that will be screened next April. The books span 700 years and cover subjects from religion to football, but all the authors are British.

Lord Bragg said: "When people think of things that change the world, they tend to think of extraordinary events: the assassination of leaders; the invasion of countries; the havoc wreaked by natural disasters. All extremely dramatic, but there is something less attention-grabbing but just as powerful - books."

As well as presenting the series, Lord Bragg has written and edited it as well. He hopes to demonstrate that "the lives we lead have been formed as often as not by a single book."

He starts with two tomes that helped to shape our relationship with church and state: the Magna Carta of 1215 and the King James Bible of 1611.

The only fictional writer on the list is William Shakespeare. Lord Bragg chooses to highlight the Bard's first folio of 1623 as his world-changing publication.

The most left-field inclusion is a book that has nevertheless had an indisputable impact on leisure activity around the globe. The first Rule Book of the Football Association, which was published in 1863, set out the blueprint for what has become the most famous sport in the world.

Joel Rickett, deputy editor of The Bookseller, said the series could lead to some of the titles being re-packaged and reissued by canny publishers. " We saw with the BBC's The Big Read series what an effect huge television promotion can have on old classics," he said.

The 28th season of The South Bank Show will begin later this month with a profile of "the last great British vaudevillian", Eric Sykes, who continues to perform despite being 82, virtually deaf and registered blind.

Other highlights of the season include a behind-the- scenes look at the making of the BBC's Little Britain, including interviews with the stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who are featured meeting their idol Barry Humphries.

The Leeds-born playwright Alan Bennett, who has only given one previous interview (to The South Bank Show two decades ago), holds forth on subjects from Big Brother to Tony Blair.

The season will also include a two-part special on Sir Peter Hall to mark the theatre and opera director's 50-year career.

The Books

CHARLES DARWIN, THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, 1859

The book sold out on the day it was published. Darwin was labelled the most dangerous man in England by theologians for his book, which challenged contemporary beliefs, destroying the idea that all creatures were immutably made during the seven-day Creation.

MARIE STOPES, MARRIED LOVE, 1918

Marie Stopes wrote a sex manual for women after consulting medical books which led her to realise she was a virgin despite being married a year (her husband was impotent). The first book to suggest that women should enjoy sex as much as men, it was fiercely opposed by doctors, the press and the Church.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, SPEECH TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1789

On 12 May 1789, the MP William Wilberforce made his first speech against the slave trade. He became one of the leaders of the movment despite the fact that most of his fellow Tory Party members were against any limits to the slave market.

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN, 1792

In the first great piece of feminist writing, Wollstonecraft sought to trade "soft" descriptions of women that denoted weakness, such as " susceptibility of heart" and "delicacy of sentiment" for strength. She argued intellect would always rule.

MAGNA CARTA, 1215

Rebellious British noblemen forced King John to sign a document which contained 63 clauses defining his feudal rights. From that moment, the king was no longer permitted to change anything without the barons' permission. The meaning of certain clauses is still a cause for dispute.

THE KING JAMES BIBLE, 1611

Controversial because it was a translation into the English spoken by the common people. It had a profound influence on ensuing translations and on English literature as a whole. Works by John Bunyan, John Milton, Herman Melville, John Dryden and William Wordsworth were inspired by it.

MICHAEL FARADAY, EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN ELECTRICITY, 1855

Faraday's research into electricity and magnetism established him as the foremost experimental scientist of his day. By inventing the dynamo, he made the generation of electricity possible, thereby paving the way for modern technology.

THE FIRST RULE BOOK OF THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, 1863

The first game ever played under the rules took place on 9 January 1863 at Battersea Park in south-west London. The Football Association's book regulated the game in and around London but in the provinces clubs continued to follow their local rules for some time.

PATENT SPECIFICATION FOR ARKWRIGHT'S SPINNING MACHINE, 1769

Richard Arkwright, a barber from Bolton, moved to Nottingham, and in July 1769 he enrolled the specification of his famous first patent for spinning by rollers. James Hargreaves had invented the spinning jenny in 1964, but only patented it in July 1770.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, FIRST FOLIO, 1623

The first collected edition of William Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623, contains plays we would otherwise have lost, including Macbeth and As You Like It. These plays were not attributed to Shakespeare until the date of publication, seven years after his death.

ADAM SMITH, THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, 1776

The Scottish economist Adam Smith wrote his groundbreaking thesis in the earliest phases of the Industrial Revolution and set the foundation for modern economics. He supports the theory that the less government interferes with business, the more prosperous the nation will be.

ISAAC NEWTON, PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, 1687

Generally regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science, the Principia sets out Newton's laws of motion which formed the basis for his law of universal gravitation. It also contains the Hypotheses non fingo ("I do not assert that any hypotheses are true").