Extraordinary Stories of Britain

This podcast tells the dramatic story of the life of Charles Dickens.  When his father was imprisoned for debt,  he had to work as a child labourer.   The excitement of his first publication,   his troubled early romance, eventual marriage, success and secret affair – and relentless campaigning to improve the life of the poor and needy

St Mary’s Bethlem was England’s first psychiatric hospital.  This podcast tells the story of the hospital, from its medieval origins to its home in a grand 17th century palace.  We follow the lives of its famous inmates: the woman who tried to kill King George III, the first documented case of paranoid schizophrenia and a brilliant Victorian artist who murdered his father.  

In 1665 plague devastated England.  The remote Derbyshire village of Eyam was spared the horror - until a tailor bought a roll of cloth from London.   To stop the pestilence spreading, the local vicar closed down Eyam -  and the villagers were locked in.  Hear the dramatic story of the plague village in this podcast.

Our history of London pubs pubcast visits the oldest tavern in London, including a pub haunted by phantasmal spirits.  Hear about Parliamentary boozers, the smallest bar in the world, the Pilgrim Fathers Mayflower pub,  and Gandalf’s riverside alehouse.

What is the oldest pub name in Britain? And the most popular pub name in the country? Where is our oldest pub?   What are the boozy origins of the nursery rhyme “Pop Goes the Weasel”? What caused the London beer flood?  And where is Britain’s most haunted pub? Find out in our latest History of Beer podcast

The story of Beer.  From Britain’s first brewer,  to ancient  ales made with psychedelic plants.     From rules on Viking drinking horns to the English king who drank himself to death.   From the rise of female brewers,   to a drunk Queen Elizabeth I.  From the legend of the ale-conner, to pubs forced to change names.  

The story of sewage:  from the Romans taxing urine,  to York's Bog on the Bridge; from Henry VIII's Groom of the Stool, to pure finders selling dog faeces.  Hear about the life of a Gong Farmer,  and how a lav affair with toilets lead to the Great Stink, which brought London's mighty Thames to a standstill.  

We investigate the history of cats:  from mummified felines in the British Museum to George the Lion who lived in the Tower of London;  from the world’s favourite pantomime cat, to the pussy who helped write an English dictionary. Hear about only cat to win the prestigious wartime Dickin Medal, and political cats  - from Churchill's mouser to the famous Downing Street Larry.  

In 1666, a stray ember turned London into a blazing inferno.  Our podcast brings to life the Great Fire of London:  dramatising the lives of the people caught up in the worst disaster the capital has ever witnessed.