Tony really loves his dog Holly Berry, but does she really love him back? During lockdown there was a huge surge in the demand for dogs and the ‘pandemic puppy’ became something of a cliché. Now we are all going back to work, these dogs are being left home alone more often and the ‘post pandemic’ dog’s life is potentially very lonely. As a keen dog owner, Tony wants to know more about the history of dogs: dog evolution, keeping dogs as pets and why it is that we turn to dogs to bring us comfort in difficult times. 

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

Twitter | Instagram

Clive Wynne / Twitter @caninecognition  

Professor, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University. Clive is a behavioural scientist with a fascination for dogs and their wild relatives, he directs the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University in Tempe, he’s the Director of Research at Wolf Park in Battle Ground, Indiana, and the author of ‘Dog Is Love’. 

www.clivewynne.com     

Ingrid Tague 

Professor of History at the University of Denver. Ingrid’s recent book, Animal Companions: Pets and Social Change in Eighteenth-Century Britain explains the rise of pet keeping as a widespread phenomenon in Britain. 

Credits: 

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony was knighted for services to culture back in 2013, and it got him thinking about the concept of Knighthood: where does it come from? How and why has it changed over time? What would a medieval Sir Tony Robinson have looked like? And what would his knightly duties have been?

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

Twitter | Instagram

Featuring:

Toby Capwell / Instagram @tobiascapwell

Tobias Capwell is an independent scholar of arms and armour, curator, author, lecturer, jouster, historical advisor, mailmaker and student of the martial arts. For TV, he rode from Canterbury to London with Tony and worked on ‘Worst Jobs in History: The Lance Maker’ with Tony. Most recently, Toby has completed his three-volume study ‘Armour of the English Knight’, after twenty-three years of work.

Matt Lewis / Instagram @mattlewishistory / Twitter @mattlewisauthor

Historian, writer, presenter at History Hit and co-host of the ‘Gone Medieval’ podcast. Matt has written biographies of Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry III, and Richard III, and histories of The Anarchy and The Wars of the Roses.

Credits: 

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year is the 40th birthday of the TV show that changed Tony’s life. Since playing Baldrick in Blackadder, he’s still routinely asked in the street if he’d like a turnip. Blackadder was first broadcast on 15th June 1983, so today Tony has decided to test himself to see if he can find out something that he didn't already know about the series, with John Lloyd, who was the producer of Blackadder. John went on to create Have I got News for You and QI but, like Tony, it all started with the Adder.

Hosted by Tony Robinson

Twitter @Tony_Robinson / Instagram @sirtonyrobinson

With

John Lloyd CBE

Creator, producer and comedy writer. John’s television work includes Not the Nine O’clock News, Spitting Image, all four Blackadder series and most recently QI. Whilst at the BBC he produced and created The News Quiz, To the Manor Born and Quote…Unquote. He also co-wrote episodes of the radio series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with Douglas Adams. John also presents The Museum of Curiosity on BBC Radio 4 which he co-created.

CREDITS: 

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @melissafitzg

Exec Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today Tony has followed his nose and chosen a topic which is often overlooked: what did the past smell like? Was it bad? Are we loosing smells to history? Tony doesn’t have a brilliant sense of smell so his two guests: smell historian William Tullett, and smell designer Tasha Marks, are on hand to help him out.

Hosted by Tony Robinson @Tony_Robinson

With

Tasha Marks / Twitter @avmcuriosities / Instagram @avmcuriosities / www.avmcuriosities.com

Award-winning artist, food historian and founder of AVM Curiosities®, a creative practice that explores the relationship between art and the senses, championing the use of food and fragrance as artistic mediums. Tasha’s projects range from olfactory curation and scented installations to interactive lectures and limited-edition fragrances for institutions including the Royal Academy of Arts, Victoria & Albert Museum, The National Gallery, The British Museum and Historic Royal Palaces. She has developed a diverse portfolio from recreating an Ancient Egyptian Beer, to manufacturing the scent of human breastmilk.

William Tullett / Twitter @WillTullett / Instagram @williamtullett / www.williamtullett.com 

Dr William Tullett is Associate Professor of Sensory History at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and is currently part of the Odeuropa project. His first book Smell in Eighteenth-Century England is in paperback with Oxford University Press and his latest book, Smell and the Past, can be downloaded for free from Bloomsbury here. He is currently working on a big, bold, new history of smells from antiquity to the present for a wider audience.

CREDITS: 

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @melissafitzg

Exec Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony remembers driving a matchbox royal coach under his dining table during Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953. Ahead of King Charles’s Coronation on May 6th 2023, he’s finding out more about where this extraordinary ritual comes from and what it all stands for with historian Kate Williams and HELLO!’s Royal Editor Emily Nash.

Hosted by Tony Robinson @Tony_Robinson

With

Emily Nash / Twitter @emynash / Instagram @emilynashhello.

HELLO!'s Royal Editor, Emily has covered the birth of ten royal babies, four royal weddings, two royal funerals and has travelled across five continents on tour with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Emily is also the co-host of ‘A Right Royal Podcast’.

Professor Kate Williams @KateWilliamsme

Professor of Modern History at Reading University, Kate’s a specialist in modern history, royal and constitutional affairs. She's provided expert analysis for the State Opening of Parliament, the Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of the Coronation and the Royal Wedding. Kate is also a NYT bestselling author of six historical books.

Credits

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald       

Exec Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Jacinda Ardern stepped down from her role as Prime Minister of New Zealand in early 2023, saying she was burnt out and wasn’t able to do her job to the best of her ability anymore, it was surprising, not only because she is such a successful global leader, but the way she did it, with such humility, felt like a refreshing change. So how much harder is for women to stay at the top of their political game?  

To have this discussion, Tony has called up someone he’s always got on with: Labour MP Jess Phillips. And to give us some context and background, he’s also invited Rainbow Murray, a Professor of Politics who researches politics and gender, into the studio. 

Hosted by Tony Robinson @Tony_Robinson

Featuring:

Jess Phillips, MP @jessphillips

Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, Jess has been Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding in Keir Starmer's Opposition frontbench since 2020.

Rainbow Murray @rainbowmurray

Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London. Rainbow is an expert on gender and politics and has published widely on topics including leadership, access to politics, and parliamentary representation, in the UK and comparatively. 

Credits

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald       

Exec Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pies are one of life’s great pleasures: that delicious, crusty, warm, buttery foodstuff which Tony loves. Don’t you? Doesn’t everyone? The humble pie also has a history, and today Tony and his guests GBBO 2019 winner David Atherton and food historian Neil Buttery, are helping him get under the lid of the pie: what is it, where it comes from, how to make the best pie and they even get to eat some pie too…

Hosted by Tony Robinson @Tony_Robinson

Featuring

David Atherton @nomadbakerdavid

Food writer, Bake Off 2019 winner and co-host of Sticky Bun Boys podcast.

Neil Buttery @neilbuttery

Food historian, food writer, host of The British Food History Podcast and chef specialising in cooking food from our past. His new book ‘Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England's Most Influential Housekeeper’, was published in February 2023.

Credits

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald       

Exec Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stonehenge is Tony’s favourite piece of archaeology – he’s had so many adventures there over his long and varied career digging up history, so the second of two Cunningcast launch episodes is all about Stonehenge.

Around 5,000 years ago, ancient people began construction on this Neolithic monument and Stonehenge has been a mystery ever since - the big questions of why did they do it and how still leave us guessing. Whoever built it left no written record and few clues for us to piece together, but clues there are. In this episode, Tony is inviting some old friends onto the podcast - fellow Time Team presenter Raksha Dave, Professor Mike Parker Pearson and archaeologist Alison Sheriden - to find out more about the world’s most famous stone circle, which never stops surprising us.  

Hosted by Tony Robinson @Tony_Robinson

Featuring:

Raksha Dave @Raksha_Digs

Field Archaeologist, Public Archaeologist and Broadcaster, recently appointed as President of the Council for British Archaeology London. Raksha's experience spans prehistoric times to the Second World War with primetime documentaries and series on BBC, Channel 5 and Channel 4.

Mike Parker Pearson

Professor of British Later Prehistory, University College London. Mike specialises in British and European prehistory from the Neolithic to the Iron Age; Stonehenge and the British Neolithic; the Beaker people of Bronze Age Europe; the archaeology of the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides); the archaeology of Madagascar and the Indian Ocean; the archaeology of death and burial; public archaeology and heritage.

Dr. Alison Sheriden

Research Associate, Department of Scottish History and Archaeology, NMS; Honorary Research Fellow in Archaeology, University of Edinburgh; Vice President, Archaeology Scotland.

Credits

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald       

Exec Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year is the 40th anniversary of Blackadder, the cult TV show that changed Tony’s life. He famously played the ‘turnip brained’ Baldrick, who always had ‘a cunning plan’. To celebrate this year's special birthday, Tony welcomes fellow Blackadder alumni, and dear friend of almost 60 years, onto the launch episode of Cunningcast - yes, it’s the legend that is Miriam Margolyes.

Back in the day, before she was a national treasure, Miriam made a handful of standout appearances on Blackadder, including the Spanish Infanta in Series 1, Lady Whiteadder in Series 2, and Queen Victoria in Blackadder's Christmas Carol. In this special episode, Tony and Miriam recount stories from the series and discuss: where they first met, how she built her hugely successful career, the joys of travelling late in life, her new book, and most importantly… does she have a cunning plan?  

Health warning: this being Miriam, the language does get a little fruity at times!

Hosted by Tony Robinson @Tony_Robinson

Featuring Miriam Margolyes

Writer, political activist, TV and screen personality, Miriam Margolyes received a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993) and portrayed Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series (2002–2011). She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours for Services to Drama.

Miriam has spent many years dividing her time between the United Kingdom, Australia and Italy. She became an Australian citizen in 2013. She has also written two books, Dickens' Women (2012) and her autobiography This Much is True (2021).

Credits

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald       

Exec Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

Twitter: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

YouTube

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Robinson is best-known for playing turnip-brained Baldrick who always had 'a cunning plan' in the iconic TV show Blackadder. He's presented countless documentaries throughout his 50-year career, including 20-years on Channel 4's Time Team, inspired by his passion for history and for digging deep into the past to understand more about the present. That's his thing!

In his cunningly curated history podcast, Tony is taking the long view on the big stories of the day and delving into other weird and wonderful stories that grab him and make him want to know more about the world around us. He’s asking: Why was Stonehenge built? What did the past smell like, was it horrible? Why were pies invented? Why do our dogs love us so much? Amongst other intriguing questions.

Along the way, Tony is joined by experts and special guests, such as Miriam Margolyes, Stephen Fry, Raksha Dave and John Lloyd who help provide some answers.

So join Tony Robinson as he hosts his cunningly curated history podcast - now available on Spotify; Apple Podcasts; Acast and all good podcast apps.

X: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.