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by BBC Radio 4
Natalie Haynes takes a fresh look at the ancient world, creating stand-up routines about figures from ancient Greece and Rome.
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Natalie tells the story of Euripides' Medea, the sorceress who enacted the ultimate revenge on the husband who betrayed her, to a rapt audience at the Hay Festival. 'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of Divine Might, Stone Blind, A Thousand Ships and No Friend to This House as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about ancient Greece and Rome.Producer Beth O'Dea
Natalie takes on a truly cold case, the unsolved murder of a woman called Regilla in 2nd century Rome. She's aided by detectives Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five, and Llewelyn Morgan. Regilla's husband, Herodes Atticus, was accused of the crime but acquitted, so after looking into the evidence Hallie and Llewelyn give their verdicts and then the audience makes the final judgement.'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the bestselling author of Divine Might, Stone Blind, A Thousand Ships and No Friend to This House as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about ancient Greece and Rome.Hallie Rubenhold is a historian and a prizewinning, bestselling author. Her book The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper focused on the victims’ biographies rather than speculating on their killer.Llewelyn Morgan is a Professor of Classics at Oxford University, and he is interested in basically anything written in Latin. He has written two Very Short Introductions to Roman poets, one on Ovid and one on Horace.Producer Beth O'Dea
Natalie narrates Jason and the Argonauts' epic quest to find the Golden Fleece. Killer women, bronze giants, talking crows and a skeleton army all feature in the great poem by Apollonius. No wonder the equally epic 1963 film of the story credited him as a screen writer.'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of Divine Might, Stone Blind, A Thousand Ships and No Friend to This House as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about ancient Greece and Rome.Producer Beth O'Dea
The Greek mathematician and philosopher has vanished from history because she was a woman. Natalie reveals the evidence of her brilliance in 4th century Alexandria and openly envies her philosopher's cloak. Islam Issa and Adam Rutherford join to tell her story.'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of Divine Might, Stone Blind, A Thousand Ships and No Friend to This House as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about ancient Greece and Rome.Islam Issa is Professor of Public Humanities at Birmingham City University. His book Alexandria: The City that Changed the World is the Winner of the Runciman Award and The Times, Sunday Times, TLS, Booklist, Epoch Times and Waterstones Book of the Year.Dr Adam Rutherford is a scientist, writer and broadcaster. He's a Lecturer in Biology and Society at UCL.Producer Beth O'Dea
Natalie, with Michael Scott and Alicia Stallings, offers a helpful guide to using the Oracle to get answers to your life's big questions. You'll need cash and a sign from a goat.'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of Divine Might, Stone Blind, A Thousand Ships and No Friend to This House as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about ancient Greece and Rome.Prof Michael Scott is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International affairs and Professor of Classics at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of multiple books on Delphi and other ancient Greek and Roman topics, including his most recent Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens's Naval Mastermind, and has presented over 20 documentaries for BBC, ITV, National Geographic and SBS. He is also an honorary citizen of Delphi. A. E. Stallings (Alicia E. Stallings) is the Oxford Professor of Poetry. She studied Classics at University of Georgia and Oxford, and has published four collections of poetry. She has published three verse translations, Lucretius's The Nature of Things, Hesiod's Works and Days, and an illustrated The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice. Producer Beth O'Dea.
Did the Boy Emperor in fact fiddle while Rome burned? Natalie's joined by star of BBC TV's I, Claudius, Christopher Biggins and Llewelyn Morgan to find out if he was all bad. For a seventeen year old put in charge of an Empire, he was surprisingly popular with the people, to the extent that fake Neros sprang up around the world after his death. 'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of Divine Might, Stone Blind, A Thousand Ships and No Friend to This House as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about ancient Greece and Rome.Christopher Biggins is an actor and director who played Nero in the BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves' 1934 novel I, Claudius.Llewelyn Morgan is a Professor of Classics at Oxford University, and he is interested in basically anything written in Latin. He has written two Very Short Introductions to Roman poets, one on Ovid and one on Horace.Producer Beth O'Dea
Natalie is joined by Islam Issa and Adam Rutherford to reveal the extraordinary creativity and breadth of the stellar scientific inventions made in the ancient city of Alexandria. From early weather forecasting to the first suggestion that the sun is the centre of the universe, the first keyboard instrument to toy birds that could sing, Alexandria had it all.'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of Divine Might, Stone Blind, A Thousand Ships and No Friend to This House as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about ancient Greece and Rome.Islam Issa is Professor of Public Humanities at Birmingham City University. His book Alexandria: The City that Changed the World is the Winner of the Runciman Award and The Times, Sunday Times, TLS, Booklist, Epoch Times and Waterstones Book of the Year.Dr Adam Rutherford is a scientist, writer and broadcaster. He's a Lecturer in Biology and Society at UCL. Producer Beth O'Dea
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