The Historian's Cut

Tonight is our last episode in the current series. And to mark the occasion we’ll be breaking from the usual format, by discussing a documentary film. This documentary, beloved in cycling circles, is a day in the life of a cycling race. But not just any race: the race is the Paris Roubaix, one of cycling’s most infamous events, a 280 km route across asphalt and cobbles and known variously as the "Hell of the North" and the "Queen of the Classics". And the film is Jørgen Leth’s "A Sunday in Hell", which, through the 1976 Paris-Roubaix, offers a unique glimpse into cycling community and culture. That’s why we’ve chosen A Sunday in Hell to answer today’s question: What can A Sunday in Hell tell us about professional cycling in the 1970s?

Answer this question are:

Phil Heaton, Host

Dr Morris Brodie and Dr Sam Manning, Resident Historians

And tonight’s special guest Dr Ryan Mallon, who gained his PhD in history from Queen’s University Belfast, and is now a journalist for Cycling Website Road CC and contributor to the Road CC podcast.

In 1996, tonight’s film kicked off a series of British films set in working class communities, in the north of England, as they struggled to come to terms with the decline of heavy industry. Unlike some kitchen sink dramas of 1950s and 1960s these combined earthy subject matter with comedy, romance and an eye on the transatlantic market. The Full Monty prompted the chart topping re-release of Hot Chocolate’s You Sexy Thing. Billy Elliot swept the board at the Baftas and gained three Oscar nominations and a spin off west end sensation. All of three would have been good candidates to answer tonight’s question. But this tale of a brass band beating the odds to perform at the Albert Hall set against the background of the closure of one of the largest pits in Britain, is the most beloved, at least by these podcasters and that’s a good enough reason as any for choosing Brassed Off to answer the question: What can Brassed Off tell us about deindustrialisation and working-class communities?

Host, Phil Heaton

Resident historians, Dr Morris Brodie and Dr Sam Manning

And tonight’s special guest Dr Pete Hodson, Oral Historian and Post-doctoral fellow at Trinity College Dublin, and specialist in deindustrialisation.

“Here’s looking at you kid.” “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” The film Casablanca has given cinema some of its most memorable lines, and in the case of “play it Sam” one of cinema’s most misquoted. Its critical and popular acclaim has endured throughout the eight decades since its release, still topping many best-film- ever-lists even today.

Perhaps because of its seeming “timelessness”, it is often forgotten that Casablanca is a War film. And listeners may be surprised to know that, watched with a historial perspective, Casablanca can tell us a lot about: “Europe and North Africa under the Nazis and the consequent refugee crisis” - at least this the case that historian Dr Morris Brodie will be making in today’s episode.

Based on the novel by Boris Pasternak, the 1965 film Dr Zhivago has become for many western viewers a key reference point for how and why the Russian Revolution unfolded. At over 3 hours, the film covers Russian history from the last years of the Romanov dynasty up to the rapid industrialisation of Stalin’s 5 year plans. Criss-crossing the Russian continent from the Urals to the Eastern front the film’s geographical perspective is similarly broad.

That’s why we are asking today, what can Dr Zhivago tell us about the Russian Revolution?

Please note, this episode was recorded before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In 1975, the Monty Python released their first feature-length, non-sketch based film. A loving pastiche of King Arthur and his quest for the Holy Grail, the film has since gained cult status, with generations of schoolchildren and adults recalling the best gags, insults and shrubbery purchasing advice to their friends and family.

But what can Monty Python and the Holy Grail tell us about the Arthurian legends?

For many, the 1950s represents the Golden Age of Hollywood. It might seem surprising, therefore, that a film synonymous with that era would itself be looking back to another Golden Age, one 25 years earlier, that of the birth of the talking picture. That film is Singin’ the Rain, the 1952 masterpiece co-directed, choreographed and starring Gene Kelly. And this episode’s question, featuring cinema historian Dr Sam Manning, is what can Singin’ in the Rain tell us about 1920s cinema, specifically about the switch from silent to sound.

Regular listeners may or may not have realised by now, but this podcast The Historian’s Cut was born in Belfast. The Historian’s Cut is a podcast that looks at films and asks what they can tell us about what life was like in the past. So you can imagine - a box office smash - nominated for seven Oscars - called Belfast - and about the city during the outbreak of the Troubles… well, we had to have it on the show.

Of course our local connection is not the only reason. Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, as well as being a semi-autobiography of its creator, in its inclusion of details on the social and cultural history of time, could be seen as a break with prior films on the Troubles. That’s why it more than merits, in its own right, us spending this episode asking the question: What can Belfast tell us about life at the start of the Troubles?

Special guest Professor Sean O'Connell, expert in British and Irish social history at Queen's University Belfast, joins us to answer this question.

Paddington II; Godfather Part II; Toy Story II; Aliens; The Dark Knight … From Russia with Love? Whether you think the second instalment of the Bond franchise ranks alongside other great cinema sequels will probably depend on your own view on the franchise in general. Set in the early years of the Cold War, the plot sees Bond lured to Istanbul in the hope of capturing a Russian decoding Lektor. The result is an unusually tense yet still glamorous film noir, which for many devotees represents the bar which all future instalments would be compared against. But what can From Russia with Love tell us about spies and spycraft in the Cold War? Joining us to answer this question is Dr Jonathan Best, intelligence historian and spy fiction expert.

By the early 17th century, Shakespeare had already written Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and many others of his greatest plays. And he was approaching the end of his career when he started work on King Lear, his study on the waning of power and interfamilial strife. In 1985, Akira Kurosawa was already lauded as one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers, with films to his name such as Rashomon, Throne of Blood and Seven Samurai, when he made his film adaptation of King Lear.

Shakespeare’s play is set in a mythic ancient Britain; Kurosawa chose as his setting the similarly contested and mythologised Sengoku period of Japanese history, a period of near constant civil war dominated by warring Samurai clans. Kurosawa called his adaptation Ran - literally 'chaos' or 'turmoil' in Japanese.

But what can Ran tell us about adapting Shakespeare to screen? Joining us to answer this question is special guest Nick Pearce.

In Ben Wheatley’s 2013 historical drama A Field in England viewers are dropped into the middle of a battlefield in 17th-century England, without any explanation of where this field is, who is fighting whom, who the characters are and how they relate to each other. While more information about the characters is disclosed - as well as plenty of blood and guts - as the action unfolds, many of these questions remain unanswered by the end of the film.

How successful was Ben Wheatley’s experiment in historical film-making? And despite its lack of contextual material, are there still things that the film can tell us about life in 17th-century England?

In this episode we ask Dr Tim Somers, post-doctoral fellow at Newcastle University, to answer these questions.