Episodes

  • The Highland Sport of Shinty: 'Quite a violent version of hockey' - Suzanne and her guest, irrepressible sportswoman Izzy Law, tell an astonished Muriel the fire-and-ice story of the 'clash of the ash' - the ancient Gaelic game of shinty

    The Highland Sport of Shinty: 'Quite a violent version of hockey' - Suzanne and her guest, irrepressible sportswoman Izzy Law, tell an astonished Muriel the fire-and-ice story of the 'clash of the ash' - the ancient Gaelic game of shinty
    Aug 29 2025
    Camans at the ready! Suzanne and our special guest from the Isle of Skye, the skipper, photographer and shinty player Izzy Law, delve into the origins of the ancient Highland game of shinty or camanachd, evoking close historical ties between Irish and Scottish kingdoms and the hardy nature of a game that was traditionally played as a warm-up before battle between chieftains and clans and also used to settle love rivalries. Today it is a vibrant modern game and the subject of Celtic rock anthems. And, Muriel asks, was it also the inspiration for the fictional game of Quidditch?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Summer Shorts: The 'Sorry' and 'Pardon' face off

    Summer Shorts: The 'Sorry' and 'Pardon' face off
    Aug 22 2025
    Suzanne and Muriel thread their way through how the British and the French apologise and ask for forgiveness. What does it reveal about attitudes to personal space, guilt and pleasure? Which nation is more courtly? Why do the British say sorry all the time? How aggressive is passive aggression? And who, ultimately, gets it right about manners – Tatler Magazine or the Académie Française? 17th-century moralists and the Japanese also put in an appearance.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    26 mins
  • Summer Shorts: The béret and bobble hat face off

    Summer Shorts: The béret and bobble hat face off
    Aug 15 2025
    In a story of sheep, sailors, Royals, Résistants, football fans and actresses, practicality spars with glamour as Suzanne spots Welsh Monmouth caps in Shakespeare and unfurls 15th- and 16th-century Acts of Parliament that may have conditioned the British to reach for their woolly hats, while Muriel salutes the gigantic headgear of Alpine regiments and the French tête à chapeaux (head for hats). Plus: what happened when President Macron was hijacked by a beret and some singing shepherds.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    33 mins
  • Summer Shorts: The high vis jacket and gilet jaune face off

    Summer Shorts: The high vis jacket and gilet jaune face off
    Aug 8 2025
    Fluorescent high-vis clothing - beacon of hope or luminous nightmare? Suzanne has embraced high vis as a liberating garment and analyses its uses in preventing harm and in signalling authority. But is the generalised wearing of it in Britain getting out of hand? Muriel looks through the political prism of the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement, which in France appropriated the garment and turned it into a banner for the disenfranchised. Surprise guest star: Karl Lagerfeld.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    37 mins
  • Club Med: From campsites in Spanish pine groves to Tahitian 'villages' in Morocco, how the French brought their edenic dream holiday to life

    Club Med: From campsites in Spanish pine groves to Tahitian 'villages' in Morocco, how the French brought their edenic dream holiday to life
    Aug 1 2025

    Muriel recounts the story of Club Méditerranée, 'the antidote to civilisation' born in traumatised postwar France as a socialist-inflected dream of sporty egalitarianism in the sea and sun, its gradual drift into exoticism leaning into Enlightenment ideas of the state of nature, and its evolution from philanthropic utopia to deluxe multinational business.




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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • British Camping: How Britain devised a distinctively gruelling kind of holiday which is part dream and part nightmare.

    British Camping: How Britain devised a distinctively gruelling kind of holiday which is part dream and part nightmare.
    Jul 25 2025
    Seasoned camper Suzanne has survived plagues of horseflies and finding ice on the inside of her tent. She revisits memories of the testing, yet strangely enjoyable camping and caravaning trips that the British cherish and retraces the story of the Victorian-Edwardian pioneers to fell in love with camping and rose to the challenge of its practicalities, revealing a surprising backstory of tailoring and American prairies. Scott of the Antarctic guest stars.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • The Revolutionary Calendar: How French utopians tried to recalibrate time and reshape Republican humanity

    The Revolutionary Calendar: How French utopians tried to recalibrate time and reshape Republican humanity
    Jul 18 2025
    Muriel takes Suzanne back to a time when a coalition of Enlightenment poets and scientists and radical political reformers drew a line under the Ancien Régime and Christianity and imagined a brand new way of thinking about time and the calendar.

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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • 1217: The French Invasion You Never Knew About (Part 2)

    1217: The French Invasion You Never Knew About (Part 2)
    Jul 11 2025
    It's D-Day, helmets are glinting and everything hinges on William Marshall – and on formidable Lincolnshire sheriff Nicola de la Haie – as the troops gather on both sides outside Lincoln Castle. Will you, like Suzanne, be heaving a sigh of relief as the covetous French are finally defeated, or bemoan, like Muriel, a tragic missed opportunity?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 8 mins