The Real Casanova

Dating back some 30,000 years, sex toys have a long (no pun intended) and fascinating history.What were the earliest sex toys like? How did technology change them? And did Victorian doctors really pre...

27 Dec 202442min

Like it or not, there's no escaping Charles Dickens at this time of year.But who was the man behind classics such as A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and of course, A Christmas Carol?His life is as ...

24 Dec 202448min

At the time, surely Kateryn Parr had her reservations about being Henry VIII's sixth wife?Aside from being a tyrannical maniac who'd just beheaded his last wife, Catherine Howard, he was getting old, ...

20 Dec 202437min

Accessing stories from the past can be difficult, but how do we access smells from the past?In today's episode, Kate is joined by Eleanor Jackson, curator of a new British Library exhibition, Mediaeva...

17 Dec 202444min

Henry VIII called her his 'rose without a thorn', but the teenage Catherine Howard was to fall out of favour less than 18 months after becoming Queen of England.Out of all of Henry's wives it could be...

13 Dec 202437min

The history of lonely hearts ads might be a lot deeper than you'd expect.For as long as people have been printing newspapers, people (read: men) were enquiring about potential partners.By the time the...

10 Dec 20241h

Anne of Cleves gets a pretty raw deal in the history books.She's often accused of being ugly, after Henry VIII claimed the painting he had made of her was overly flattering.While their marriage was sh...

6 Dec 202439min

What did Queen Elizabeth I gain from being thought of as celibate? Why was property so essential to the Christian church embracing celibacy? And what's really behind the 'No Nut November' movement?In ...

3 Dec 202438min