Fetch the Smelling Salts

Move over Elizabeth and Victoria, there’s a new Queen in town. This week Kim and Alice tackle ‘The Favourite’, the darkly comic / just plain dark Queen Anne biopic. Why aren’t more period dramas set in the Stuart period? Who won the duck race? And where can we hire a naked Tory for our next party?Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Helen Hamilton / Keith NagleProducer: Helen HamiltonSourcesPodcast: Vulgar History; 'Anne, Queen of Great Britain'Article: Wilder Davies; 'The True Story Behind the Favourite'; Time Magazine, Dec 2018Article: James Anderson Wynn; 'Your Guide to Queen Anne, Last of the Stuart Monarchs'; History Extra, July 2020Article: Dr Hannah Grieg; 'Queen Anne's Feuding Favourites'; History Extra, Feb 2019Article: Alice Newbold; 'Sandy Powell On Taking a Rock and Roll Approach to Period Dress in The Favourite'; Vogue, Jan 2019

You better get to shirtless sword practice because these elephants only respect hot people! This week Kim and Alice are covering Indian epic, Jodhaa Akbar.  It’s a historical romance with all the jewellery and political intrigue you can handle, along with Kim’s favourite kind of montage… a montage of LOVE.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Helen Hamilton / Keith NagleProducer: Helen Hamilton

Ain’t no party like a cloud moon party; this week Kim and Alice are discussing the gorgeous Japanese animation, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. We reveal our preferred method of baby-making (it’s Bamboo-based), discuss some fierce Heian period fashion and congratulate Mt Fuji on sticking to her New Year’s resolutions.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith Nagle / Helen HamiltonProducer: Helen HamiltonSources'Sei Shonagon and the Heian Court'; Stuff You Missed in History Class 'Princess Kaguya'; Zusetsu.com'Slow on the draw: Takahata Isao's long road to the Tale of the Princess Kaguya'; Sight&Sound April 2015'Isao Takahata: Inspiring Visual Styles of Japanese Film & Anime Aesthetics'; Dahlan Bin Abdul Ghani, Nur Athirah Bt. Ahmad Azizi, Luqman Zulhilmi Bin Abdul 'Alim'; International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, Volume 8, Issue 11S2'

We’re jumping on our 1850s waterbed with excitement, as this week Kim and Alice are joined by Laurel from Hightailing Through History to discuss the BBC miniseries, North & South. The industrial North is in her strike era and the men are blaming women for their feelings again, but exactly how many red flags will we ignore if someone’s hot?Check out Hightailing Through History on Spotify,  Apple Podcasts and YouTube.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith NagleProducer: Helen HamiltonSources:Lancashire Textile Strikes; Encyclopedia.com"You Have Made Him What He Is": Irish Labourers and the Preston Strike in Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" by Susanne S. Cammack; New Hibernia Review Vol 20, No.4

This week Kim and Alice cover their first African-set period drama - the historical action-adventure, ‘The Woman King’. We discuss the real Agojie tribe, the sheer joy of watching some badass women kick some butts and pledge our undying allegiance to Izogie.Sound Recordist: Keith NagleEditor: Keith NagleProducer: Helen Hamilton

There are rigid thrombi all round this week, as Kim and Alice discuss the massively unsubtle 2011 movie, Hysteria.  We’re talking about the true history of the invention of the vibrator (spoiler: this isn’t it), the ongoing misdiagnosis of women’s health issues and keeping musk oil far away from our intimate areas.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith Nagle / Helen HamiltonProducer: Helen Hamilton

It’s chicken-blood time girls! While Kim’s off witching it up in another country, Alice is joined by Kirstyn and Ben from There’s Not Always a Twist. In this episode, they’re turning their attention to The Crucible; the witch-trial thriller based on Arthur Miller’s play. We’re talking about hysteria, how the play links to McCarthyism and comparing the film with the Inside No.9 episode, ‘The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge’. Plus Alice’s horrifying theatre camp experience, and Daniel Day-Lewis’ construction skills.Check out There’s Not Always a Twist on Spotify.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith NagleProducer: Helen Hamilton

Knock, knock, it’s definitely not Salieri. This week Kim and Alice are taking a look at Pitch Perfect for the Classical era: Amadeus. Why did the film clean up at the Oscars that year? Where does the line between historical truth and allegory begin? And was Mozart the bad-boy version of Hans Zimmer or a divinely talented little nerd?Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith Nagle / Helen HamiltonProducer: Helen Hamilton

We’re back lounging on the fainting couch and discussing Disney’s contribution to the period drama world. Choose your fighter: Encanto, the well-researched and sensitive celebration of culture, or Mulan, a film with a dragon named after an American take-away dish.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith Nagle / Helen HamiltonProducer: Helen Hamilton

Whew! Is it hot in here or are you a clergyman from Gloucester? This week Kim and Alice are barely keeping it together over the 2007 adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel: Northanger Abbey. There’s geeking out over the history of gothic literature and some sincere appreciation for wrist ruffs. What happens in Baaaaath, stays in Baaaaath, people!Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith Nagle / Helen HamiltonProducer: Helen Hamilton