The Zeitgeist Tapes

Happy Christmas! For this year's Christmas special, Emma and Steve look at the Bill Murray vehicle Scrooged. Loosely based on Charles Dicken's classic A Christmas Carol, this is a tale of how rampant greed ruinds lives and redemption through giving - at Christmas.

In this special episode, journalist Emma Burnell has made a short documentary about political podcasts. In it she explores who is making them, who is listening to them and why they are taking off.  Interviewees include Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, Nick Robinson, Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, Iain Dale, Matt Chorley, Helen Lewis and Stephen Bush.

This month, Steve and Emma talk about Mike Leigh's Peterloo. In cinemas now, this tells the tale of the massacre in the early 19th century of democracy and poverty campaigners at a rally in Manchester.  With a stunning cast, this epic is historically accurate - but is it entertaining?

This month Emma and Steve are joined by Clangers Expert and writer for Dr Who Magazine Tim Worthington to discuss the politics of The Doctor. Is the Doctor basically a centrist Dad even now she's a woman?

This month, Emma and Steve are joined by Dr Sarah Lonsdale, Author of The Journalist in British Fiction and Film. We talk about 1983's Ploughman's Lunch - a drama about journalists covering the 1982 Argentine War, the Tory Party conference and generally climbing the greasy pole of the establishment. Written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre, this early Channel 4 film is as watchable as it...

This month, Emma and Steve discuss 2016 film Denial. Based on the true story of a court case between Jewish historian Deborah Lipstadt and holocaust denier David Irving. The film speaks to the Labour Party's current crisis, but equally to the importance not just of remembering, but of not forgetting, which as Emma says are two different things.

Seminal dance movie of the 80s, few think of Dirty Dancing as a political film, but it absolutely is. From having women's reproductive rights at it's heart to its critique of middle-class liberalism, politics are at the heart of this classic film. And it makes its point much better by not hammering them home, but dancing around them.

This month, Emma and Steve discuss the recent Russell T Davis penned, real life drama A Very English Scandal. The true story of the leader of the Liberals who tried to have his ex-lover killed. With barnstoming performances from both Hugh Grant and Ben Wishaw, this drama exposes just how far the establishment will go to protect their own.

In this episode, Professor Steve Fielding and journalist Emma Burnell discuss the novel Heartland by Anthony Cartwright. Set around the 2002 world cup at a time and place of heightened racial and political tensions it tells the story of three contests playing out in the fictions Cinderheath neighbourhood of Dudley.

In this episode, Emma and Steve discuss The Crown - the Netflix series about the life and times of Queen Elizabeth the Second. Gloriously shot, but somewhat overstretched, this drama centres on the least interesting person in the monarchy, but does so in a way that shows the conflicts of duty and regality.

This month Steve and Emma discuss the Warren Beatty classic Reds. Released in 1981 - the height of Reaganism in America, this audacious film tells the story of John Reed and his wife Louise Bryant.  Reed wrote the seminal Ten Days That Shook the World about the Russian Revolution and Bryant was an activist and feminist. This film tells their story and that of left-wing politics in the early part o...

This month Steve and Emma look at recent 'State of the Nation' drama Collateral by Sir David Hare.  Along the way we discover Steve's Doctor Who sidekick preferences, discuss 'hatgate' and wonder whether Sir Dave was better when constrained to shorter plays.

This month, Emma and Steve look at the BBC's ill-fated attempt to do a "This Life" on Westminster - Party Animals.  It's an enjoyable drama and in many ways an admirable one. Certainly its stated intention to show Westminster in a more positive light is something that has been missing from most depictions of British politics.  But coming out in 2007, just before the crash and the expenses scandal,...

This month, Emma and Steve discuss the 1998 classic Bulworth. From it's scorching soundtrack to its depiction of South Central LA this is an underrated classic.  It also has a lot to say about modern debates such as the failure of the third way centrists and the desire people have for more authenticity in their politicians, even if that is personified in a rapping Warren Beatty.

Following the sad death of Keith Barron at the end of 2017 we thought this was an ideal time to re-examine the Dennis Potter plays, Stand up, Nigel Barton and Vote, Vote, Vote For Nigel Barton.  First broadcast in 1965, these still speak to very live discussions about class, social mobility and the role both play in our lives. The second play in particular looks at the role of class in electoral p...

Merry Christmas!  And what would Christmas be without an exposition on the ills of untrammelled capitalism, a discussion of the merits of small town America over the big city and a end so collectivist in nature yet small town in values it melts the hearts of socialists and conservatives alike.  It's a Wonderful Life was not a success on release but it has since become the quintessential Christmas...

Merry Christmas!  And what would Christmas be without an exposition on the ills of untrammelled capitalism, a discussion of the merits of small town America over the big city and a end so collectivist in nature yet small town in values it melts the hearts of socialists and conservatives alike.  It's a Wonderful Life was not a success on release but it has since become the quintessential Christmas...

This month we look in depth at two works from Armando Iannucci - The Thick of It and The Death of Stalin. Is he too cynical about politics or not cynical enough?  We also discuss the unfolding dramas of the Westminster Sexual Abuse and Misogyny scandals and fall out of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. At the point the Podcast was recorded many that we now know of have not broken including regarding K...

This month, Emma and Steve are joined on the podcast by Jonn Elledge, Editor of the New Statesman's City Metric website. We discuss our recent World Cup of Political TV contest and Our Friends in the North.

This month, Emma and Steve are joined on the podcast by Jonn Elledge, Editor of the New Statesman's City Metric website. We discuss our recent World Cup of Political TV event and Our Friends in the North.

This month, Emma and Steve discuss the contemporary politics of historical fiction - from Poldark to Dunkirk. We also focus on how popular culture is adjusting to the age of Trump, with particular focus on recent Sam Bourne's recent thriller To Kill the President.

Welcome to The Zeitgeist Tapes. Every month, Professor Steve Fielding and journalist Emma Burnell discuss the collison of politics and popular culture. This month we focus on A Very British Coup. Written in the 1980s, this drama about an elected left wing Labour leader still has much to tell us about today's politics.