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Garlic & Pearls

Garlic & Pearls

By: Muriel Zagha and Suzanne Raine
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 Suzanne and Muriel examine a series of very different things – from a film to a kitchen utensil, a model train to a bar of soap – that define British or French attitudes, each explaining her cultural background to the other and trying to get to the essence of what makes the British British and the French French.

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Muriel Zagha and Suzanne Raine Social Sciences
Episodes
  • The Real Making of Britain and France: A myth-busting, panoramic trip through time and space with our guest, the historian Graham Robb!

    The Real Making of Britain and France: A myth-busting, panoramic trip through time and space with our guest, the historian Graham Robb!
    Oct 24 2025
    Following on from his book The Discovery of France, Graham Robb has produced another fascinating work of exploration, The Discovery of Britain. Graham's observations are rooted in extensive travel all over both countries on a Victorian invention, the bicycle, reconnecting with old pathways, landscapes and forgotten people. He shares with Suzanne and Muriel what he discovered about nomads and tribes, hedgerows and standing stones, Ptlolemaic maps and the corporal punishment of saints with nettles. How did France gradually colonise itself into a centralised nation? How many beacons were needed to communicate from Cornwall to Sunderland? And what can you learn at ground level about two countries where so much of the past is visible in front of you?

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    58 mins
  • Rhyming Slang: A distinctly British and creative code that's definitely not 'brown bread'

    Rhyming Slang: A distinctly British and creative code that's definitely not 'brown bread'
    Oct 17 2025
    Would you Adam and Eve it? Suzanne tutors her 'old China' Muriel in a coded language that is full of wit, inventions and surprises. Rooted in old street cant and secret words identified in the 1850s, rhyming slang expresses the earthiness and supple playfulness inherent in the ways in which the British use their language. Does a French equivalent exist? And what's rhyming slang for Garlic & Pearls?

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    58 mins
  • Brigitte Bardot: Top French Icon and The Face of France

    Brigitte Bardot: Top French Icon and The Face of France
    Oct 10 2025

    Where Muriel explains the mythology of the actress, singer, animal activist and all-round contrarian. How did Bardot re-invent French femininity for the 20th century?


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    1 hr and 7 mins
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