Fetch the Smelling Salts

Join Kim and Alice as we travel back to India circa 1857 courtesy of epic historical legend, Mangal Pandey: The Rising. Back when companies had armies, dogs ate gunpowder and real men sang plot points whilst sitting on elephants. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton Sources Mangal Pandey: Film and History; Author(s): Rochona Majumdar and Dipesh...

It’s time to convene the ‘We Hate Rolf’ club and sexily tear down some flags - this week Kim and Alice are yodelling their way through the Sound of Music. We learn that while Edelweiss might be fake, the Von Trapp family singers were very real. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy this podcast, come with us on a romp through the Reg...

We’re floating about in our nightgowns this week as Kim and Alice discuss the literature and lunacy behind The Woman in White. Everyone in the story might be deeply traumatised, but trust us, the dog is fiiiiine. Also - happy Galentine’s Day; dump your toxic partner. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy this podcast, come with us on...

Send us a text In this Fainting Couch special, Alice is off to the cinema with friend of the podcast Hugh Turpin to experience 2024’s saddest Christmas movie: Small Things Like These. We’re discussing national trauma, Ireland’s evolving relationship to the past, and why you should beware the Coal Hole. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy this podca...

Send us a text This week Kim and Alice are (re)watching the ‘délicieux’ Agatha Christie classic: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. We’re talking about locked-room mysteries, glove snobbery and the haunting wail of a dying pig toy. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy this podcast, come with us on a romp through the Regency era with our si...

Send us a text Get your special jingle bells ready because this week Kim and Alice are covering the Korean historical thriller, The Handmaiden. We’re discussing colonial dynamics, erotic furniture and how too much real estate inevitably leads to murder basements. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy this podcast, come with us on a r...

Send us a text This week we’re setting sail on a kinda slutty immigrant adventure, with the beautifully understated Brooklyn. Kim and Alice enjoy all the messy drama whilst also uncovering the history of Irish immigration and why you should always go drinking with your priest. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton Sources Article: National Parks...

Send us a text We’re getting spooky this week as Kim and Alice get increasingly frustrated by gothic horror ‘Crimson Peak’. Whilst the characters are ignoring both the red flags and red ghosts, our hosts discuss gothic literature and Guillermo del Toro’s hatred of faces. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy this podcast, come with u...

Send us a text This week we’re joined by Em, host of Verbal Diorama, to discuss quite possibly the perfect movie: the 90s adventure, horror fun-time classic, The Mummy. Em explains how the film came to be (thank-you Babe: Pig in the City) whilst Kim and Alice find out that love makes you do some crazy things, like unhinge your jaw and cover Egyptians in boils. For more fascinating film history, yo...

Send us a text Come on law boys, grab your wigs and let’s hang as we enjoy the beautiful historical drama, Belle. Alice and Kim discuss what they want from a period drama, and how a glossy romantic story can be the starting point for learning about the worst parts of human history. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton Sources Website: All Things...

Send us a text We’re back! Season 2 of Fetch the Smelling Salts kicks off in style with historian Clara Chamberlain helping us make sense of dictator-funded epic dude-in-a-desert film, El Cid. We’re talking about the creation of national myths, fist-fights at a funeral and the most insane final 15 minutes of any film, ever. Find more from Clara on: Instagram: @clarabchamberlain Substack: Once Upon...

Send us a text We’re throwing our heads back, flailing our arms and running off for a summer break, but there’s still time for Kim and Alice to discuss the classic ‘Chariots of Fire’. We have Olympic trivia, separate the fact from fiction and discuss all manner of dongs. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton Sources Documentary: Dir. Adrian Sibley; 'The Real...

Send us a text Period dramas are for dudes too! And this week we have Tan and Keon from the awesome Pastmaster podcast to help us navigate the dudiest dudefest around: Gladiator. We’re thinking about the Roman Empire an exactly normal amount and discussing tickle-snake surprises, extremely extra Emperors and historically-accurate product endorsement. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle...

Send us a text In this week’s special Fainting Couch episode, Kim and Alice are smooching their undergardeners and celebrating queer representation in TV and cinema. We’re looking at the history, the controversy and depiction of LGBTQ+ people on screen, and demanding more queer joy please! Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton Sources Article: Ja...

Send us a text It’s Pride season, and Kim and Alice are celebrating by discussing the queeriest 2020 Mexican drama, ‘Dance of the 41’. There’s cigar innuendo, bathtub math and honeymoon-related fainting, as well as the real history of the LGBTQ+ community in 1900s Mexico. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton Sources Article: Brendan O'Boyle; '" Lo...

Send us a text This week we’re having our hearts broken by a bad case of British butler-itis, as Kim and Alice sob through The Remains of the Day. We’re learning about the politics of the aristocracy, strict servant etiquette and why you shouldn’t learn the facts of life from Anthony Hopkins. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy thi...

Send us a text Move over Elizabeth and Victoria, there’s a new Queen in town. This week Kim and Alice tackle ‘The Favourite’, the darkly comic / just plain dark Queen Anne biopic. Why aren’t more period dramas set in the Stuart period? Who won the duck race? And where can we hire a naked Tory for our next party? Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamil...

Send us a text You better get to shirtless sword practice because these elephants only respect hot people! This week Kim and Alice are covering Indian epic, Jodhaa Akbar.  It’s a historical romance with all the jewellery and political intrigue you can handle, along with Kim’s favourite kind of montage… a montage of LOVE. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle Producer: He...

Send us a text Ain’t no party like a cloud moon party; this week Kim and Alice are discussing the gorgeous Japanese animation, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. We reveal our preferred method of baby-making (it’s Bamboo-based), discuss some fierce Heian period fashion and congratulate Mt Fuji on sticking to her New Year’s resolutions. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle / Helen Hamilton...

Send us a text We’re jumping on our 1850s waterbed with excitement, as this week Kim and Alice are joined by Laurel from Hightailing Through History to discuss the BBC miniseries, North & South. The industrial North is in her strike era and the men are blaming women for their feelings again, but exactly how many red flags will we ignore if someone’s hot? Check out Hightailing Through History o...

Send us a text This week Kim and Alice cover their first African-set period drama - the historical action-adventure, ‘The Woman King’. We discuss the real Agojie tribe, the sheer joy of watching some badass women kick some butts and pledge our undying allegiance to Izogie. Sound Recordist: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy this podcast, come with us on a romp th...

Send us a text There are rigid thrombi all round this week, as Kim and Alice discuss the massively unsubtle 2011 movie, Hysteria.  We’re talking about the true history of the invention of the vibrator (spoiler: this isn’t it), the ongoing misdiagnosis of women’s health issues and keeping musk oil far away from our intimate areas. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle / Helen Hamilton Pro...

Send us a text It’s chicken-blood time girls! While Kim’s off witching it up in another country, Alice is joined by Kirstyn and Ben from There’s Not Always a Twist. In this episode, they’re turning their attention to The Crucible; the witch-trial thriller based on Arthur Miller’s play. We’re talking about hysteria, how the play links to McCarthyism and comparing the film with the Inside No.9 episo...

Send us a text Knock, knock, it’s definitely not Salieri. This week Kim and Alice are taking a look at Pitch Perfect for the Classical era: Amadeus. Why did the film clean up at the Oscars that year? Where does the line between historical truth and allegory begin? And was Mozart the bad-boy version of Hans Zimmer or a divinely talented little nerd? Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle /...

Send us a text We’re back lounging on the fainting couch and discussing Disney’s contribution to the period drama world. Choose your fighter: Encanto, the well-researched and sensitive celebration of culture, or Mulan, a film with a dragon named after an American take-away dish. Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle Editor: Keith Nagle / Helen Hamilton Producer: Helen Hamilton If you enjoy this podcast, com...