Standard Issue Podcast

Would you want to predict the future, if you could? This week, Hannah is chatting to actor writer and disability activist Athena Stevens, about her play The Diagnosis, in which another Cassandra is doomed not to be believed - again. Journalist Hazel Davis gets on the Zoom to author Jenn Ashworth to talk about unreliable narrators, listening to your own books and her latest novel, Ghosted. Jen's got her eye on the Australian Open ball in Jenny Off The Blocks and we're pondering the Prime Minister's next move in BT. And last but very much not least, in Rated or Dated, we visit the stool/am dram capital of America, as we watch Waiting For Guffman.

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Most people think they've got a grasp on history when it comes to the Tudors, but how much of that knowledge comes from pop culture or male historians? This week, Hannah chats to Dr Andrea Clarke, curator of The British Library's fantastic exhibition Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens. They talk about Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, how they were similar and how they were different, and what myths about them need to go in the bin right now. Andrea talks us through some of the treasures on display, many for the first time, and has a crack at answering the eternal question: Did it really need to end with Mary's head on the chopping block?

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Fauns and fascism ahoy, as Hannah gets Yosra and Mick to watch Guillermo Del Toro’s 2006 dark fantasy, Pan’s Labyrinth, set in post-civil war Spain. It throws up a lot of questions: Just how good is Ivano Baquero? Would you trust a fairy-tale creature? Who in the 21st Century is buying little statues of Francisco Franco? And why does Mick Jagger get a mention? 

Also contains – inevitably – some history chat, and what’s possibly a revelation of Hannah’s other career as a spy. 

Finally, Mick would like to apologise to Stoke-on-Trent. It’s just a joke.

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Some of us made plans to “better ourselves” to mark the advent of 2022, so Mick got on the Zoom with our resident psychotherapist Jane Watson, to talk about why we make new year’s resolutions, why we break them and how we can all be a bit kinder to ourselves.

In Jenny Off The Blocks, Jen has a natter with two-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, about an amazing year in women's motorsports and what's coming up next.

In the Bush Telegraph there are questions of taste, responsibility and bunga bunga statues, and in Rated or Dated, we're OK, despite having watched 1992's The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.

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Northern Ireland is so often absent from our media and from the arts in the UK, so Hannah has been on the Zoom with Kate Reid, the writer of new play The 4th Country, and one of its stars, Rachael Rooney. They chat about a time of great change in the province and why England's view of it is so often wrong, as well as the highs and lows of rehearsing under the ever-present threat of a new lockdown. 

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In the first podzine of 2022, Mickey asks ‘new year, new business?’ as she catches up with Karen Campbell: marketing consultant, small business enthusiast, owner of Hotsy Totsy – a supper club and community for brilliant women – and fierce champion of female entrepreneurs. They’re chatting about why you should start your own business, the pandemic’s silver lining for small business owners, the joy of art deco, and how finding your tribe is key to success. 

Bound to get those exercise muscles twitching, Jen chats to mountain leader, and writer Anna Fleming about her new book Time On Rock, as well as the great outdoors, the many ways we can get into sport, and why rock climbing isn't all fleeces and real ale. 

And starting the year as she no doubt means to go on, there’s a cameow from Peggy, clearly delighted to see Hannah’s set her mic up again. 

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Since it’s Christmas and it’s been a while since we could all enjoy regular live shows, Hannah, Mick and Jen have each chosen a favourite gigcast from, dare we say, better times, and they’re all corkers. Yes, you did read the title correctly, and yes, we did, at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018, gather together on stage Luisa Omielan, Janeane Garofalo and SU POLLARD, alongside the boss, Sarah Millican.

What follows in this podcast is absolute carnage, of the best possible kind, as Su reveals the contents of her tiny suitcase, and our esteemed panel chat tit-covering trousers, bums, and Cher, among other things.

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Picture this: September 2017, Leicester Square Theatre, Sarah Millican, Kerry Godliman, Jenny Eclair and Olivia Colman onstage. And Mickey. Yeah, Mick could barely believe it either. So imagine her delight when it turns out she and Olivia Colman are equally disgusting.

Hannah, Mick and Jen have each chosen a favourite gigcast from, dare we say, better times, and they’re all corkers. In this one, there’s the bravest little girl in the world, cardigan judgement, dogs in pants, and Judi Dench’s bogies.

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Oh hello November 2016, nice to see you again. And, yes, we really mean it, because in a terrible month, in a terrible year, something great did happen. And that was that Hannah got to be onstage with the boss - Sarah Millican - and two titans of comedy, Jo Brand and Kathy Burke. Hannah, Mick and Jen have each chosen a favourite gigcast from, dare we say, better times, and they’re all corkers. In this one, there are falls, awards and a whole lot of Brendas.

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It's been a funny old year for, well, everything really, and sport is no exception. In this week's Sunday Chops, Jen and journalists Dr Carrie Dunn and Natasha Henry look back at women's sport in 2021. They talk about all the hot topics, including how big an impact the pandemic has had on women's sport, whether or not the success of Emma Raducanu is set to be a flash in the pan, and exactly what did Carrie do to upset Piers Morgan?

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