A big subject, charisma, what with its 4,000-year history (the original Greek noun translates as “endowed with grace”) and its multitude of variant forms and exponents. Still, the excellent 10-part series fronted by Francine Stock of this parish (24 August to 4 September) was determined to range widely over its far-flung shores. Margery Kempe and Joan of Arc came and went; there was space for the nationalist leader, the hero-worshipper and the media celebrity (a tradition apparently established by the actress Sarah Bernhardt), and, happily, room for Stock herself who confessed that she had first begun to think about the phenomenon when stuck in a queue waiting to shake hands with Bill Clinton.The room was full of people, many of them women, practically swooning in the presence