A double dose of goodness for you this evening…
Read MoreThis is a lively, fireside wander through the strange and splendid history of the mince pie. It begins in medieval kitchens where the pie was a hefty mix of meat, fruit and spice, travels through the Puritan years when it was frowned upon, and arrives in the present as the sweet little symbol of Christmas we know today. The piece explores how mince pies delight the British, baffle the Americans, and bewilder the French, especially now that Marks and Spencer has vanished from Paris. Warm, humorous and full of festive colour, it celebrates the mince pie as a tiny pastry with a very large story.
Read MoreJack’s Christmas Lights Walk begins here for a reason. Villiers Street is the perfect overture: dense with history, glowing with stories, and sprinkled with festive firsts you won’t hear anywhere else. It’s London in miniature: short, steep, and overflowing with stories. From dukes and Dickens to Kipling’s fog and railway thunder, this narrow chute between the Strand and the river is a backstage entrance to five centuries of drama. Let alone those Christmas Lights. And their stories.
Read MoreOn 7 December 1941, as Japan struck Pearl Harbor, London was deep in its third winter of war: bruised, blacked out, queueing for scraps, shrugging off sirens. In this episode of London Calling we take the city’s pulse on that day. From wardens chastening Noël Coward to milk carts pulled by dogs, from Advent sermons to Fleet Street’s midnight shock, we watch London discover the attack that would change its fate. A fogbound capital learns, almost in its sleep, that it’s no longer alone.
Read MoreIt’s a hotel, a pub, an art gallery, a very special rendezvous, a backstage pass to Westminster, a living scrapbook of political London, a motherlode of history, and a film set all rolled up into one.
Read MoreA birthday bash that’s yet another chapter in the Literary London Saga.
Read MoreOn the anniversary of his death, a rollicking, street-level wander through the life of John Gay – author of The Beggar’s Opera and Trivia – who turned London’s rogues, highways, alleys, gossip, and grit into art that still sparkles nearly three centuries later.
Read MoreShe was the woman who changed everything. Before her, the English stage was a men-only club – boys playing girls, audiences roaring for comedy but never expecting a real woman to step into the light. And then she did. This podcast tells the story of the first actress on the English stage: the mystery, the daring, the scandal, the thrill of that moment when a woman, for the first time, crossed the boards and the audience gasped. It’s a wander through Restoration London – the playhouses, the backrooms, the theatrical cut-and-thrust. On the way we meet the colourful characters who made that world sparkle. The managers, the rakes, the playwrights, the divas-to-be.
It’s a tale of courage, glamour, gossip and a little danger.
The night a woman walked onstage, she didn’t just perform.
She redefined the theatre.
And, in her way, she redefined England.
A vivid, anecdotal wander through the story of Birkbeck, London’s great evening college: born in the age of gaslight, dedicated to workers hungry for knowledge, and still humming with that after-hours magic today. The piece lifts the lid on the college that turned London’s night shift into a lecture theatre, celebrates the characters and breakthroughs it’s nurtured over two centuries, and shows why this unassuming Bloomsbury outpost is one of the capital’s quiet marvels.
Read MoreA festive flourish with extras. Nary a hint here about the extras – you’ll have to listen to the piece. But the main course is a little appetiser from Ann, a trailer if you will for her upcoming series of Eating Christmas Walks. This tasty talk’s mostly about turkeys and geese. It’s Ann so you can expect warmth, wit, history, latest goings on. Basically a generous helping of Yuletide flavour – a perfect sprinkle of Christmas cheer for your day.
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