Unlikely Threads

In the second part of A Tale of Two Women we ask a different question: what happens when privilege, ambition, and curiosity carry you to the edge of the known world? Katherine Routledge’s journey begins in comfort and security, but it quickly transforms into something far more uncertain as she sets sail aboard her custom-built schooner—the Mana —towards the remote and mysterious Easter Island. Wha...

This episode of Unlikely Threads – A Tale of Two Women begins with a question: how does a young woman from a modest background in Russian‑occupied Poland end up at Oxford in 1911—and then push beyond it, into one of the harshest environments on Earth? Maria Czaplicka’s story unfolds as a journey of determination, intellect, and extraordinary resilience, as she breaks through the rigid barriers of...

What if the greatest composers in history weren’t refined geniuses in candlelit rooms—but obsessive, scandal‑ridden, unpredictable, tragic figures living on the edge of brilliance and collapse? This episode of Unlikely Threads Andrew and Clive pulls back the velvet curtain and plunges you into a world where genius and madness are never far apart. What begins as a harmless search for a single “inte...

Inspired by the story of David Stirling and the origins ofthe SAS (listen to episode 3), Andrew tumbles into the strange world of Second World War invention, a time where serious people proposed armed bats, pigeon-guided missiles, fakearmies, exploding dogs and aircraft carriers made of ice. Somehow, many of these ideas received funding, testing and official approval. As Clive Hartley and Andrew W...

This episode of Unlikely Threads begins with a simplechildhood memory: a boy passing a statue in the Lancashire town of Colne. Without realising its significance it sparks a journey into the hidden history of a seemingly ordinary place. Through the lens of the 1878 book The Annals of Colne , the podcast uncovers a rich, often surprising story that mirrorsthe wider sweep of English history. Blendin...

This episode of Unlikely Threads asks a key question:was David Stirling—the man credited with founding the SAS—a brilliant visionary or simply a master of his own myth? Sparked by a modern TV series and two sharply conflicting biographies, the story unravels the gap between legend andreality, inviting you to decide for yourself. The episode traces the fragile beginnings of the SAS, where risky exp...

How would you go about selling the Eiffel Tower? More importantly, who on earth would believe you? In this episode of Unlikely Threads , Andrew Wisdom and Clive Hartley descend into the gilded world of Victor Lustig: elegant con man, psychological magician, and possibly the only person in history audacious enough to attempt selling the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal… twice. Along the way: corrupt of...

Murder in colonial Kenya during WW2 is our setting for this episode of Unlikely Threads. It is story of British colonial society behaving badly and lifestyle influenced by Altitude, Alcohol and Adultery.