We Are History

Multiple strikes, power-cuts and a sense of growing social crisis destroyed the reputation of a minority Labour government, which would be cast out of power for the following 18 years. (Not to be confused with the January sale at Millets or 'the winter of discount tents') Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoic...

The last episode of the series looks at the embarrassing business of contraception down the ages. Can you avoid pregnancy by eating a bee? Would you use a sheep’s intestine as a condom? And what is the Latin for coitus interruptus? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the 1970s Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe attempted to hide his longstanding gay affair by having his lover shot. But the British public felt he'd gone too far when a dog got shot instead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When America was shocked to see their neighbour Cuba going socialist, they trained and armed a group of Cuban exiles to invade, confident in the knowledge that this would spark a popular uprising against all that free healthcare and universal education. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet the men and women who worked hard to try and stop women having the vote. Learn all about their fascinating arguments and deep concerns. And when the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League merged with the Men's League, find out which gender put themselves in charge of it all... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...

The Victorian English gentleman who announced he was the Son of God, and proceeded to have carnal relations with various attractive young ladies in his secretive religious cult. The 'Abode of Love' is an important chapter in British history, and not at all an excuse for John and Angela to giggle at a load of saucy Victorian hypocrites. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. L...

Tennessee in 1925, and a young school teacher is put on trial for teaching his students about evolution. The dramatic trial grips the whole of America and beyond; pitting science against religion and freedom of speech against the rule of law - while the locals are deeply offended at the suggestion that they are descended from monkeys. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Le...

How did the institution of marriage evolve down the centuries in Britain? With Angela getting married this year, she thought she would make her fella feel really secure by reading lots of books about divorce law. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John and Angela examine the rapid chain of events that led to the shock resignation of Margaret Thatcher, in their most balanced and even-handed podcast to date. (Includes John playing The Red Flag on a kazoo). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a time when women were not allowed to perform on the stage, children were sometimes kidnapped and forced to become actors against their will. (Warning; episode contains John re-enacting some of his worst childhood performances.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Back in 1936 the newspapers were utterly scandalised by a British royal abandoning his stately duties to run off with a controversial divorced American. Hard to imagine today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How a homeless Welsh alcoholic helped transform the fortunes of the British Army in the Second World War, despite already being dead. (Warning, podcast contains bad Churchill impressions.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When the United States banned alcohol in the 1920s, they unleashed a huge wave of illegal alcohol production and smuggling that turned honest drinkers into criminals, and small time crooks into millionaire gangsters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When post-war Berlin became divided between East and West, both sides resolved that their political system would be able to boast having the the very best zoo. Pandas, hippos and bears became the unlikely players in this escalating propaganda battle of the Cold War. (No pandas were harmed in the making of this podcast.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about...

The incredible story of Ann Bonny and Mary Read, both illegitimate and raised as boys in the early 18th century, they brought terror to the Caribbean after meeting on a lesbian pirate website. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the historical prejudice against homosexuals was given fresh impetus in the 1980s by a mysterious illness which seemed to target gay men. And John struggles to admit that the Tory minister did "a good thing". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Britain under Oliver Cromwell's Puritan dictatorship; no theatres, no Christmas and no music - so a tough old decade for Catholic panto stars. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Roman Empire decides to take on the lads from Kent, and it all kicks off down by the Isle of Thanet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the River Thames became one massive open sewer, forcing Parliament to close the windows and do something about it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For our last podcast of the year we attempt our own first draft of history; looking back at the year that has just been, when Covid-19 meant a complete change of behaviour for us all (except the people telling us to completely change our behaviour). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the ancient midwinter festival evolved into our modern day Christmas, despite the Puritans banning it because Cromwell forgot to get his missus a present. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the Cold War ended in an incredible few months across Eastern Europe in 1989. (And Angela remembers Kylie's duet with Jason) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A potty-mouthed history of swearing, in which John blushes and stammers and Angela just talks like she always does.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How beer became the every drink of ordinary Britons, and the healthy option to give to your kids to stop them dying from cholera. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What the original English country house murder-mystery teaches us about Victorian hypocrisy, the class system and the subjugation of women. (Plus it led to John spending a week in a hotel with Ann Widdecombe.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices