Hyped!

Zoe and Tom discuss – and debate – the reasons for the precipitous drop in excellence, and narrowing of dramatic ambition, of once-great London theatre. Is it a simple case of woke killed creativity? What other forces are at play? And how can the cultural great pride of Britain and envy of the world be saved; is it showing signs of coming back to life already? Join us for this lively discussion.

How do you know if someone did the queue to see the Queen lying in state? They'll tell you about it. And that's exactly what Zoe and Tom are going to do in this episode. But fear not, queue chat is nestled within wider analysis of this extraordinary- and yet minutely planned- moment in British history and the British present. Tom brings to bear his extensive knowledge of monarchical history, Zoe brings to bear her... strong reactions to queues.  

Zoe and Tom do NOT, as a rule, watch football. In fact, until three weeks ago, neither of them even knew that the Women's European Championships were under way. Flash forward to the mesmerising final on 31 July, and a win of national, indeed international, importance. Join Tom and Zoe as they discuss what this means for women, the women's game... and their own feelings about the beautiful game. 

Zoe and Tom discuss the latest and most intensely political outing in recent memory of the campest competition in the world. May 2022 was a spectacle of European unity, in which Britain, the runner up and winner of the jury vote, was shown surprising quantities of love. Join us as we talk post-sexual absurdity, the unpopularity of male crooners, and Eurovision in historical context. 

Zoe and Tom consider the Maxwell story as told in the BBC documentary – and beyond – with particular consideration of Maxwell's Jewish background 

Zoe and Tom have seen a few things recently, and decided to take a kitchen-sink approach to discussing them. Much of what is under review here was pretty disappointing, with the exception, in Tom's view, of the West Side Story remake - find out why.  Three out of four of the things under review are remakes, and one is a sequel, prompting the duo to talk about genre, and why we're feeling... so let down by it at the moment.

Did the government manipulate us through fear to shore up its power during Covid? Are we dupes of a mass conspiracy between media, state and private enterprise? Was the threat of Covid amped up just to make us compliant because...well, why? Here Zoe and Tom pick apart Dodsworth's scary and silly Sunday Times bestseller, worth our time mainly as it encapsulates quite a big vein of anti-lockdown sentiment and Covid suspicion. We talk about her use of stats, her own manipulation of fear, and the way she lumps things together, from the War on Terror to the closure of nonessential businesses in the height of Covid uncertainty. 

Tickets were not to be had for love nor money - not even for Tom and Zoe. So they watched it via remote streaming link from Tom's sofa, beadily looking out for what made this the most-hyped Shakespeare in years. Here they discuss where the magic and the weaknesses lay, and how much of both came down to the starry leading cast: Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn, Little Women, etc etc) and James McArdle (Mare of Easttown). They also discuss the odd status of Macbeth in the pantheon of Shakespeare tragedies, and whether having stars on the stage is a good or bad thing. 

Zoe and Tom try to connect the appeal of three recent blockbusters, considering (briefly) Squid Game's emptiness, Bond's cosy moral universe and Dune's weird and sexy intergalactic or 'hieratic' appeal (at more length). 

The New Republic called Netflix's hit 2021 academic satire 'A elegy for the life of the mind'. Fair? Actually, Zoe thinks it's an elegy for the West full stop. Join Zoe and Tom – both of whom work at UK universities – as they dissect the hit series about a chaotic moment in campus life at a small US liberal arts college. How accurate, or even clever, a skewering of identitarian campus politics is this? Patchy to say the least, but one thing it does reveal is the secret of academic life: try never, ever to be Chair of your department.