Something Rhymes with Purple

By Somethin' Else

Society & Culture Arts Education Comedy

What's Something Rhymes with Purple about?

Susie Dent and Gyles Brandreth share their love of the English language, uncover its hidden origins and help you enhance your vocabulary. This show uses the power of language and explore how it defines us. A Somethin' Else production.

4.9

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Something Rhymes With Purpl...

02.27.2021

Come and see Gyles and Susie in action as Something Rhymes With Purple goes LIVE and ONLINE in 2021. After the success of last year’s live theatre show, SRWP is opening its doors once again but this time we’re streaming ...

Something Rhymes with Purple episodes:

02.27.2021 Something Rhymes With Purple LIVE – Thursday 25th March 2021 Come and see Gyles and Susie in action as Something Rhymes With Purple goes LIVE and ONLINE in 2021. After the success of last year’s live theatre show, SRWP is opening its doors once again but this time we’re streaming ...
02.23.2021 Pettifogger In this our 99th episode we’re calling our Purple People to the bar and passing judgement on the words of law! Susie tells us what a large number of judges and a large amount of food have in common, why ...
02.16.2021 Pity Me Do you know your Bournes from your Burghs, your Casters from your Chesters, your Kils from your Kirks? This week we’re having another look at place names and the fascinating stories behind some of our nationally treasured locations. Gyles and ...
02.09.2021 Protest Purple People we have been feeling flumped and slumped, so this week we’re getting pumped for Protest! And how thrilling protest can be. Whether its sedition or insurrection, riot or revolt, Susie and Gyles explore the words of protest and ...
02.02.2021 Zarf Another month, another week, another episode for our dear Purple People! Take a whiff of that petrichor and allow us to metaphorically remove the phloem from life's banana. Come join us in this wordy oasis! This week Gyles and Susie ...
01.26.2021 Purpuriam (Pp) Gyles and Susie are sticking to their New Years Resolutions and really getting out of their comfort zone this week as they focus their etymological microscope on the world of science and chemistry… so expect lots of head-scratching from our ...
01.19.2021 Torquemada Calling all cruciverbalists! Susie and Gyles have a treat in store for you as they deep-dive into the most popular word game around: the Crossword. Since its creation 108 years ago, the crossword has transfixed millions on both sides of ...
01.12.2021 Testiculos habet et bene pendentes Take a seat, recline if you’d like or perhaps, even lie down because this week Susie and Gyles are going to be exploring the wonderful wordy world of furniture. Do you know your Chaise Lounge from your Divan? The Chesterfield ...
01.05.2021 Purple Post Hello and Happy New Year! This first week of January we are reacquainting ourselves with you lovely Purple People and replying to some of the questions, queries and quibbles that you’ve emailed in. From pelmanism to punters, from Guinness to ...
12.29.2020 Words Of The Year 2020 Merry Christmas, a Festive Merrineum and a Happy New Year! It is the end of 2020; a year full of covidiots, royal viruses and quaranteenies. This week’s episode has everything you need to get you through to the New Year. ...
12.22.2020 What the Dickens? This week we are on an absolute rampage, alleviating boredom and staving off the Scrooge in the news as we acquaint ourselves with that master wordsmith, Charles Dickens. Gyles gives us a salacious biography and Susie demonstrates her aptitude for ...
12.15.2020 Stuff Get wrapped up in your cosiest cashmeres and grab a glass of velvety vino and if you haven’t cottoned on already, today we’re going to be discussing textiles and fabrics. Susie and Gyles will weave their way through our wardrobes ...
12.08.2020 Libido This episode may not be suitable for younger listeners. Parental discretion is advised. This week we’ll be boinking, bonking, and banging our way through baby-making and its associated lexicon. Whether you prefer to make the beast with two backs or ...
12.01.2020 Treacle Suffering from a festive cold or a flu? Susie and Gyles have some (questionable) remedies for you! Come delve into the wondrous (and often disgusting) world of potions and lotions on this week’s episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. Involving ...
11.24.2020 Whitehall 1212 This week, Susie and Gyles are reporting on the names and origins of London Town - of England, Europe, The World, The Universe. Come wind through the streets of Susie’s old hangout in Soho discovering its connection to battle cries ...
11.23.2020 Black Friday Merch! LIMITED OFFER: This week why not turn Black Friday Purple with a cheeky 20% off all merch on our website with the code PURPLE20. It’s not just Quality Street that’ll taste better in purple this year… head over to purple.backstreetmerch.com ...
11.17.2020 Marchioness Oh the Grand Old Duke of York, he had ten-thousand men… but was his son a Marquis or a Marquess? To find out, join us under the marquee as Gyles and Susie climb the etymological pecking order this week, giving ...
11.10.2020 Penne For Your thoughts Little Strings, Little Tongues and Butterflies… what could Gyles and Susie pasta-bly be talking about?! In this episode we’ll be lobbing a bunch of pasta terms at the wall to see what sticks. We start by delving into ancient myths ...
11.03.2020 Beatification This week we’re counting our blessings and saying our prayers as we take a look at the tales behind some of the patron saints and their language. From martyrs to miracles and from sanctity to sanctuary we unpick the blessed ...
10.27.2020 Sinister If you’re easily grossed out then probably best to cover your ears for this one… in honour of the spookiest time of the year we’re digging around words with gruesome origins. From black books to black boxes, sarcasm to travel, ...
10.20.2020 Skiving This week we’re heading back to school to discuss beaks, divs, rostrums, and to get to the bottom of why UK public schools don’t seem very open to the public. We discuss the benefits of an encyclopaedia education, why school ...
10.13.2020 Snickerdoodle P-p-p-p-p-ick up a podcast… and join us as we spill the tea (both figuratively and literally) and get busy dunking biscuits into our brew. From the Wagon Wheel to the Jammie Dodger, Susie and Gyles unpick the fascinating stories behind ...
10.06.2020 Katzenjammer According to the great philosophers Heraclitus and Gyles Brandreth, “change is the only constant”. After an absolute Katzenjammer of a week for Susie we focus on change of all kinds, from the shifting seasons to what defines the ‘new normal’. ...
10.02.2020 Introducing... The Fault Line: Bush, Blair and Iraq Hi Something Rhymes With Purple fans, we've made a show we think you'll like.... On September 11th 2001, as he faced incalculable losses after the terrorist attacks that day, President George W Bush made a call to his greatest international ...
09.29.2020 Hot Beef! “It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question” Eugene Ionesco Hopefully he’s only half right… but this week we are entirely in your hands and answering your enlightening questions that have been coming into the inbox in recent ...
09.22.2020 Cackleberry Atten-SHUN! Lace up your boots and join Privates Dent and Brandreth as we take a linguistic yomp through the world of army slang. Wearing their canteen medals with pride, Gyles and Susie travel from Civvie Street to the mess, breaking ...
09.15.2020 Vedettes Having tackled the stars in the sky, this week we’re turning our gaze to the stars who walk upon the earth. From the first celebrities to Beatle-mania via way of the inaugural ‘It Girl’ we’re tackling the full A-List of ...
09.08.2020 Nutmeg With the season kicking off on Saturday we’re lacing up our linguistic shooting boots and taking a dive (boo!) into the language of football… or should that be soccer? Either way Gyles is ‘taking one for the team’ this week ...
09.01.2020 Phylactology Pssst… yes you… how do you fancy being a birdwatcher or perhaps a sleeper ready to wake up in time for the dead drop? Well, listen in and allow Agents Brandreth and Dent to provide you with the linguistic pocket-litter ...
08.25.2020 Boffola This week’s podcast is an absolute joke… in a good way! Join Gyles and Susie as they whisk us through the history of the things that make us laugh. From the first recorded joke in history (newsflash: toilet humour is ...
08.18.2020 Dr. Johnson Dictionaries, depression, a doctorate and a 311th birthday to celebrate…can you guess? Oh yes, this week Susie and Gyles are saluting one of their literary heroes: Doctor Samuel Johnson! We will journey from Litchfield to London and whilst liaising with ...
08.11.2020 Dwile Flonking Cheers! This week we're looking for answers at the bottom of the glass as we drink in the history behind the fascinating names of the boozers of Britain. Like Chaucer's pilgrims we start at The Tabard before cantering through the ...
08.04.2020 The Milky Way 3..2..1..Get ready to launch into an episode that is out of this world as Susie and Gyles explore the language of outer space. Via the fast-flighted messenger Mercury to the saturnine tendencies of an overthrown Roman God, we explore how ...
07.28.2020 Mildred Doctor, Doctor, I’ve forgotten to listen to my favourite podcast! This week we delve into to the world of non-medical doctors… from Dr Johnson through to Dr Dolittle by way of Dr Frankenstein, we explore the fascinating world behind all ...
07.21.2020 Humpty Dumpty What do Humpty Dumpty, Contrary Mary, and Baa Baa Black Sheep all have in common? Well, you might think twice about reading them as bedtime stories, I’m afraid. This week, Gyles and Susie are delving into those centuries old Nursery ...
07.14.2020 Literally... This week we officially became the Best Entertainment Podcast of the year at the British Podcast Awards. Thank you so much to all the Purple People who listen… you make this show what it is and we couldn’t do it ...
07.07.2020 Horripilation From elite sports to class systems, it’s a hairy episode this week as Glyes and Susie delve into the history of hair which prompts Gyles to spill all on his past life’s involvement with the Porn industry. Via the astronomical, ...
06.30.2020 All That Jazz "Music makes (Purple) people, come together." That’s not the only Madonna lyric that gets mistreated in this lyrical romp through the fascinating world of musical genres and phrases. We’ll be hip-hopping our way from the house (and garage) all the ...
06.23.2020 Plings & Bangs! Join Susie and Gyles as they venture back to pre-biblical times to uncover the history of punctuation marks. This week we’ll be diving into the drama of the comma whilst teasing out the moments when the semi-colon provides the perfect ...
06.16.2020 Lethologica Aghast that Gyles still thinks ‘YOLO’ is a new word, Susie talks us through the process of creating new words and, more importantly, how to get them into the dictionary. Via oldies like ‘groupies’, ‘burtons’ and ‘velcro’ Susie discusses which ...
06.10.2020 Brand new merch! Purple People! We are very excited to announce that we have some brand new Something Rhymes With Purple merchandise out now for you… especially if you’re in need of somewhere to store your Bellytimber… it’s a wonderful canvas shopping bag! ...
06.09.2020 Edelweiss Come into the garden Purple People as we take a look at the interesting histories behind the names of the plants blooming in the beds. Find out why basil is royal, why you use more rock celery that you might ...
06.02.2020 Euphuism Join us in our linguistic dystopia as we proles explore the language of George Orwell. We’ll be discussing newspeak and oldspeak, and attempting to double-think all under the watchful eye of Big Brother… hoping that we won’t get thrown into ...
05.26.2020 Guttersnipes Roll up, roll up! Read all about it! This week we're stalking the pavements of Fleet Street to get the scoop on the lingo from the world of journalism. We'll be finding out what links an urchin to a hedgehog, ...
05.19.2020 Filer à l'anglaise This week we're speaking double Dutch, navigating a Mexican standoff, and playing Russian roulette as we investigate how different nationalities have embedded themselves into English. We'll be playing Chinese whispers, dreaming of Indian summers and hoping to receive a French ...
05.12.2020 Yakamoz This week it's all about spreading some joy as we go through words that bring us pleasure. We touch on some old favourites, words that describe joyous things, like halcyon, spindrift and sussuration, as well as words that satisfy in ...
05.05.2020 John Doe This week we're being a couple of Smart Alecs and Clever Dicks and we're exploring the world of names hidden in common phrases... and were they based on real people? Was there an original Joe Bloggs? Did he ever cross ...
04.28.2020 Alcatraz One in the hand, is worth two in the bush... This week Gyles and Susie dig into the surprisingly significant etymology of birds. From the unlucky albatross to the onomatopoeic cuckoo, find out what Professor Dumbledore has to do with ...
04.21.2020 By and large This week we’re all at sea… in a good way! We’re plumbing the depths of the ocean, nailing our colours to the mast and, by and large, dipping our toe into the etymological waters of nautical terminology. Who was Davey ...
04.15.2020 When in Rome... Sadly we’re not in Rome… Gyles is in London and Susie is in Oxford but we're still going on an etymological journey through the origins and quirks of some of our best-known proverbs. Will an apple a day really keep ...

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