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Public Historian Greg Jenner embarks on an Arthurian quest to find out how comedy writers make history funny.

Greg is the Historical Consultant to all eight series of CBBC's Emmy and multiple BAFTA Award-winning Horrible Histories. In short, he is both a nerd and a comedy nerd.

Over the three hours we'll hear a range of comedy from the BBC archives including Pauline Pepys' Dowry (starring David Mitchell, Olivia Coleman, Katherine Parkinson and Sharon Horgan), Austentatious (Cariad Lloyd, Rachel Parris, Andrew Hunter-Murray) and stand-up from Eddie Izzard.

And, that's not all; we have also excavated audio of Monty Python discussing the controversy surrounding The Holy Grail and Life of Brian, and a choice selection of shiny trinkets from Horrible Histories.

To help Greg grapple with the big questions over accuracy, ethics, and whether Mr Darcy wore underpants, he'll be chatting to comedian-turned-Classicist Natalie Haynes, Horrible Histories Head Writer Ben Ward, Austentatious improvisers Cariad Lloyd and Andrew Hunter-Murray, and Stephen Fry, who apparently was in a show called Blackadder.

Pauline Pepys' Dowry [Pilot]



Samuel Pepys' diaries make occasional mention of his sister Pauline who has come to visit. She appears not to have been an entirely welcome guest. This comedy is inspired by Pauline, and by many other unwelcome love-lorn house-guests throughout human history...


Meet Pauline Pepys. Her love life is in tatters, her sister-in-law wants her to move out of the spare room, and her best friend is her worst enemy. Oh, and this being London in the 1660s there's a nasty spot of plague about. This episode sees Pauline fall for a handsome executioner, but when he seems to prefer Charlotte she offers to fix Pauline up with a very romantic poet. Meanwhile Elizabeth has arranged for a lavish portrait of herself and Samuel that is not altogether going to plan. And the maid is doing something awful with a dead fish and a goat.


A new historical comedy starring Olivia Colman as hopeless romantic Pauline, Sharon Horgan as her best friend Charlotte the vainest woman in Britain, David Mitchell as a distinctly itchy Samuel Pepys, Katherine Parkinson as Elizabeth his wife, who is very stressed about making the right impression on society; and Tom Hollander as Russell de Bret, a man who in the twenty first century would be a rock star, but has chosen instead the career of public executioner; with Rebekah Staton as the peculiarly fish-obsessed house maid Jane and Dave Lamb as Joth a very angry painter and Wilston, a very sad poet...


Pauline Pepys' Dowry is written by Amy Shindler and Beth Chalmers and produced by Gareth Edwards.

1. What’s So Funny About The Past? Part One (52.4Mb)
2. What’s So Funny About The Past? Part Two (59.9Mb)
3. What’s So Funny About The Past? Part Three (51.5Mb)
4. History Retweeted: The Moon Landing (12.5Mb)
5. History Retweeted: The Premiere Of Romeo & Juliet (12.9Mb)
6. History Retweeted: The Great Pyramid (12.6Mb)
7. History Retweeted: The Fall of the Berlin Wall (12.8Mb)
8. Pauline Pepys' Dowry [Pilot] (25.4Mb)

MP3 files hosted by archive.org.