Tony looks back at the best bits of Series 2 with Cunningcast’s series producer Melissa FitzGerald.

If you like the these best bits but haven’t heard the full episodes, have a wander back on our feed and check them out. Or if you listened first time and liked it so much that you want to hear it all over again, why not give us another listen...

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Another chance to hear a Cunningcast Christmas treat: Tony reading his favourite poem ‘Goblin Market’ by Christina Rossetti. He's discussing the context and history of Rossetti’s iconic work with Madeleine Callaghan, Senior Lecturer in Romantic Literature at the University of Sheffield.

In his electrifying reading, Tony captures all the magic and strangeness of ‘Goblin Market’, set in a fairy-tale world where a fraught encounter takes place between the two sisters Laura and Lizzie and a band of sinister goblin merchants who tempt Laura with their ‘forbidden fruits’. Can Lizzie save her sister from the evil Goblin’s temptations?

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

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With

Madeleine Callaghan, Senior Lecturer in Romantic Literature at the University of Sheffield. Author of ‘Shelley’s Living Artistry: Letters, Poems, Plays’ (2017) and ‘The Poet-Hero in the Work of Byron and Shelley’ (2019) published by Anthem Press. ‘Eternity in British Romantic Poetry’ (Liverpool University Press), June 2022.

www.sheffield.ac.uk/english/people/academic-staff/madeleine-callaghan

Credits:

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

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To mark Dementia Acton Week, Tony is bringing you a special episode dedicated to the past, present and future of this difficult disease with his expert guest Fiona Carragher, Director of Research and Influencing at the Alzheimer’s Society. Dementia the UK’s number one killer, 1 in 3 people will develop dementia in their lifetime and yet most of us don’t know a great deal about it. But this is a defining year in the history of Alzheimer’s with two new drugs: Lecanemab and Donanemab which have been found, for the first time ever, to slow the progression of the disease.

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

With

Fiona Carragher, Director of Research and Influencing at the Alzheimer’s Society.

X @alzheimersoc | FB @alzheimers society | IG @alzheimerssoc

If you’re worried about yourself, or someone close to you, then check your symptoms today using Alzheimer’s Society’s symptom checklist. Visit alzheimers.org.uk/checklist or call the Dementia Support Line on 0333 150 3456

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Credits:

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

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Ben Elton is on Cunningcast today. Ben was the co-writer on Blackadder Series 2, 3 and 4: they talk about Ben's comedy roots, working on The Young Ones with Rik and Ade and how Ben got the Blackadder gig via a near miss TV sitcom about Madness. They also chew over the highs and lows of working on Blackadder and how Ben and Richard Curtis created 'Adder speak'.

Alongside Blackadder, Ben Elton cut his comedy chops on The Young Ones. He’s a stand-up legend on stage and TV and one of Britain's biggest live comedy acts. His stellar CV includes writing an incredible 17 novels, as well as the hit musicals ‘The Beautiful Game’; ‘We Will Rock You’ and the sequel to ‘The Phantom of the Opera’.

Last year Blackadder turned 40, to mark the occasion, Tony made a TV show in which he tracked down the lost Blackadder pilot to discover the truth of Blackadder's beginnings. For the show, Tony interviewed many old friends and people who are central to making Blackadder the success it was. You are hearing Tony’s unedited, behind the scenes chat with Ben Elton, recorded for the programme. The show is called Blackadder: The Lost Pilot and you can watch it on catch up on Sky, Virgin & Now.

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

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With

Ben Elton | https://benelton.live/

Credits:

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Blackadder: The Lost Pilot is produced by Red Sauce

A Zinc Media Group production

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Fresh off the back of celebrating 60 years of Dr Who last year and looking ahead to welcoming the 15th Doctor to the blockbuster show, Tony is joined by Sophie Aldred who played Dr Who’s assistant Ace and the writer, broadcaster and Dr Who superfan, Matthew Sweet. Together they look back over an incredible history of this abidingly successful show, sharing all the Whoniverse gossip from the very first episode starring William Hartnell as the Doctor; the cutting-edge soundtrack created by Delia Derbyshire; hearing how Sophie got the role as Ace aged just 24; though to the show getting cancelled in 1989 and the creative ‘wilderness years’ of Dr Who when it was off air but not out of mind; Russell T Davis’s reboot and the new Doctors for a new generation. We also get answers to the popular questions: was Tony ever in Dr Who? What kind of Doctor would he have made and is Baldrick the ultimate time traveller?

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | @Tony_Robinson

With

Sophie Aldred | @sophie_aldred

Sophie played The Doctor’s companion Ace in the original television series (to Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor). She later reprised her role in ‘Ascend From Darkness’. She was in the last episode of Dr Who ‘Survival’, before it was cancelled in 1989.

Matthew Sweet | @DrMatthewSweet

Journalist, broadcaster, author, and cultural historian. Matthew presented 'Dr Who: The Wilderness Years' on Radio 4 to mark its 60th anniversary

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Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | @melissafitzg

Episode Producer: Simon Hollis

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

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20 years after playing Baldrick, Tony is still stopped in the street and asked where my turnip is! Turnips made him famous, so today Tony is talking turnips in history: have they always been so unloved, a food fit only for animals and peasants like Baldrick, or is this a recent British bugbear? And when did the potato steal their veggie crown? Tony’s guests today are food historians Rebecca Earle and Serin Quinn alongside a chef for all seasons who loves to cook with turnips, Oliver Rowe.

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

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With

Professor Rebecca Earle | www.rebeccaearle.co.uk

An historian of food at the University of Warwick, Rebecca is interested in how ordinary, every-day activities such as eating or dressing shape how we think about the world and how others view us.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/people/staff_index/earle

Oliver Rowe | www.oliver-rowe.co.uk/ | IG: @oliver_rowe_london

Chef and author whose work focuses on local and seasonal food. Oliver’s book, Food for All Seasons, a personal wander through the food year is published by Faber and available online and from all good bookshops.

Serin Quinn

PhD student in the Department of History at the University of Warwick, interested in all things vegetable!

https://theconversation.com/turnips-how-britain-fell-out-of-love-with-the-much-maligned-vegetable-201007

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Credits:

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

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Today Tony is talking to the composer Howard Goodall CBE, who wrote the now iconic Blackadder theme tune. Howard is one of Britain’s best-known composers of choral music, stage musicals, TV and film scores. He wrote the themes tunes for many hit comedy shows including Red Dwarf, Mr. Bean, The Vicar of Dibley, The Catherine Tate Show, 2point4 Children and Q.I. but like so many of the talent who worked on the show, it all started with Blackadder.

Last year Blackadder turned 40, to mark the occasion, Tony made a TV show in which he tracked down the lost Blackadder pilot to discover the truth of Blackadder's beginnings. You are hearing Tony’s unedited, behind the scenes chat with Howard Goodall recorded for the programme. The show is called Blackadder: The Lost Pilot and you can watch it on Sky, Virgin & Now

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

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With

Howard Goodall CBE | www.howardgoodall.co.uk | @Howard_Goodall

Credits:

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Blackadder: The Lost Pilot is produced by Red Sauce

A Zinc Media Group production

Follow:

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If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

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Marching 73 miles from coast to coast across the narrowest neck of England, Hadrian’s Wall was the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire for nearly 300 years and yet there is still so much we don’t know about it: only 5% of the wall has been excavated and 7% is viable today. Tony is joined by leading archaeologist Richard Hingley and Collections Curator for Hadrian's Wall and the North East at English Heritage, Frances McIntosh, to give him the low down on how and why Hadrian’s Wall was built, by whom and what it means to us today.

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

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With

Prof. Richard Hingley | https://richardhingley1.wordpress.com/

Professor Emeritus in Archaeology at Durham University. An expert on Hadrian’s Wall, Richard is the author of Conquering the Ocean: The Roman Conquest of Britain (Oxford University Press) and Hadrian’s Wall: A life, (Oxford University Press). https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conquering-the-ocean-9780190937416?cc=gb&lang=en& | https://academic.oup.com/book/27846.

Dr. Frances McIntosh | @englishHeritage | @wallcurator

Collections Curator for Hadrian's Wall and the North East at English Heritage. An archaeologist by training, Frances specialises in Roman small finds, having completed her PhD on the Clayton Collection material, on display at Chesters.

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Credits:

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.