Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics episodes:

• 12.20.2023

  Livia

  Livia was the first Empress of Rome, a faithful wife, excellent friend and trusted advisor. So why is she still best known as a serial killer? Natalie is joined by guests Dr Emma Southon and Professor Llewelyn Morgan to...

  
• 12.12.2023

  Athene

  Athene is charismatic and bloodthirsty, goddess of wisdom, war and...handicrafts. Owl-eyed Athene is not interested in love, although she is very fond of the hero Odysseus and gives him a leg-up whenever she can. War is Athene's thing, the...

  
• 12.05.2023

  Demeter

  Natalie tells the powerful and painful story of Demeter's fight to get justice for her daughter Persephone. Hades conspires with his siblings Zeus and Gaia to abduct Persephone and force her to live with him in the underworld...

  
• 11.28.2023

  Martial

  Epigrams, jokes, highly-polished poems in praise of the emperor. Oh, and absolute filth. These are what made the name of the first-century Roman poet Martial. It has taken nearly two thousand years for Martial's work to be considered a...

  
• 09.04.2022

  Homer: The Odyssey

  Natalie retells Homer's epic story in an extraordinary tour-de-force performance recorded in the BBC's Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House. The ancient original would most probably have been performed from memory, and Natalie does the same: twenty-four books in twenty-seven minutes....

  
• 08.28.2022

  Lucretius

  The poet Lucretius's major work is a six-book poem on epicurean philosophy and physics. Doesn’t sound exactly promising? But his contemporaries and poetic descendants RAVED about it, even Cicero, who is mean about everyone. Ovid says that ‘the...

  
• 08.21.2022

  Spartan Women

  Uniquely in the ancient world, women from Sparta had extraordinary rights and freedom. Relatively speaking. They were educated: they learnt to dance, sing, recite poetry and to keep fit, in a regime where physical beauty and feminine strength were prized....

  
• 08.14.2022

  Pompeii

  It seems that classical scholars are wrong about the date of the volcanic eruption that destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii almost two thousand years ago. It's taken a few ripe pomegranates and some squashed grapes, carbonised by pyroclastic...

  
• 06.09.2021

  Clytemnestra

  "Rock star classicist" and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. In these series she explores (historical and mythological) lives from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They are hilarious and tragic, mystifying,...

  
• 05.18.2021

  Jocasta

  "Rock star classicist" and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. In these series she explores (historical and mythological) lives from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They are hilarious and tragic, mystifying, revelatory....

  
• 05.18.2021

  Pandora

  "Rock star classicist" and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. In these series she explores (historical and mythological) lives from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They are hilarious and tragic, mystifying, revelatory....

  
• 05.18.2021

  Medusa

  "Rock star classicist" and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. In these series she explores (historical and mythological) lives from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They are hilarious and tragic,...

  
• 06.07.2020

  Penelope

  Natalie Haynes tells stories of Penelope, the clever woman and perfect wife behind The Odyssey. Penelope fends off a hundred idiot would-be suitors with an exhausting programme of weaving and un-weaving; is the ideal single mother for most...

  
• 05.31.2020

  Eurydice

  Natalie Haynes tells stories of Eurydice, whose rescue from the Underworld was bungled by her lover Orpheus. How has her story been uncovered from sources that no longer exist? Eurydice is chased by a sex-pest at her wedding,...

  
• 05.24.2020

  Penthesilea, Amazon Warrior Queen

  Natalie Haynes tells of Penthesilea, Amazon warrior queen, in charge of ‘a bunch of golden-shielded, silver-axed, man-loving, boy-killing women,’ with a natty line in ankle boots, and even trousers, a scandalous item of clothing at the time. These fighting...

  
• 05.17.2020

  Helen of Troy

  Natalie Haynes tells stories of the most beautiful woman in the world, who hatched from an egg and was the daughter of Zeus: Helen of Troy. Men fought over her from an early age, but was she really to...

  
• 02.28.2020

  Suetonius

  Natalie tells the story of Suetonius, biographer of the Caesars and friend of Pliny the Younger. She's joined by guests Professor Llewelyn Morgan and biographer and journalist Anita Anand. Classical knowledge is fragile: so much is lost. We...

  
• 02.24.2020

  Homer: The Iliad

  Natalie Haynes stands up for Homer's Iliad, in an extraordinary tour-de-force performance recorded in the BBC's Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House. The original epic story would most probably have been performed from memory, and Natalie does the same: her only...

  
• 02.24.2020

  Roman British Women: Claudia Severa.

  Natalie Haynes tells the stories of the handful of Roman-British women whose traces stay with us: a fierce queen, a slave woman freed for love, the so-called 'Ivory Bangle Lady' and Claudia Severa, whose invitation to her friend to her...

  
• 02.24.2020

  Aristotle

  Natalie Haynes stands up for Greek philosopher-scientist Aristotle, with Dr Adam Rutherford and Professor Edith Hall. This week Natalie explores why it's so easy to fall in love with Aristotle, have fun with his Nicomachean ethics and how...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Livy

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a recovering comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Each week...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Euripides

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a recovering comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Each week...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Horace

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a recovering comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Each week...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Phryne

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a recovering comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Each week...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Juvenal

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. This time Natalie...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Lucian

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Now...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Cicero

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Now...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Sappho

  Natalie Haynes and guests return for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. This...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Agrippina

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Today she stands...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Plato

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. She's standing up...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Ovid

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. She stands up...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Aristophanes

  Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. She stands up...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Aspasia

  A fresh look at the ancient world. Natalie Haynes, critic, writer and reformed stand-up comedian, brings the ancient world entertainingly up to date. In the first of four programmes, she profiles a figure from ancient Greece or Rome and...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Virgil

  Natalie Haynes, critic, writer and reformed stand-up comedian, brings the ancient world entertainingly up to date. In each episode, she profiles a figure from ancient Greece or Rome and creates a stand-up routine around them. She then goes in...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Sophocles

  A fresh look at the ancient world. Natalie Haynes, critic, writer and reformed stand-up comedian, brings the ancient world entertainingly up to date. In each of the four programmes she profiles a figure from ancient Greece or Rome and creates...

  
• 02.18.2020

  Petronius

  A fresh look at the ancient world. Natalie Haynes, critic, writer and reformed stand-up comedian, brings the ancient world entertainingly up to date. In each of the four programmes she profiles a figure from ancient Greece or Rome and creates...