Podcasts about Hamlet

On this episode of Hyperion to a Satyr, Siskoid and his guest Ryan Daly discuss the 2018 production of Hamlet, with Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Fleabag) in the title role. Watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR28oIFTzNY Listen to the episode below or subscribe to Hyperion to a Satyr on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Credits: Theme: "Fanfare" from 1996 Hamlet, by Patrick Doyle, with clips from that film, starring Ray Fearon; and the 2018 Hamlet, starring Andrew Scott. Bonus clips: Hamlet (2018), directed by Robert Icke, starring Andrew Scott, Juliet Stevenson, Joshua Higgott, Angus Wright and Jessica Brown Findlay. Leave a comment, I love to read!

This week Karen Peterson (@karenmpeterson) & Derek Miranda (@DerekMiranda85) sit down to talk HAMNET. As always, featured reviews are done in two parts, a NON-SPOILER review with letter grade and brief discussion, followed by a more in depth SPOILER review. PLOT SUMMARY: William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, celebrate the birth of their son, Hamnet. However, when tragedy strikes and Hamnet dies at a young age, it inspires Shakespeare to write his timeless masterpiece "Hamlet." Directed by: Chloé Zhao Written by: Chloé Zhao, Maggie O'Farrell Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, Noah Jupe   @TheWatchAndTalk (Twitter/Instagram) Letterboxd.com/TheWatchandTalk Facebook.com/TheWatchAndTalk www.TheWatchAndTalk.com TheWatchAndTalk@gmail.com Support the show! www.Patreon.com/TheWatchAndTalk

Hello, and welcome to The Critic Show.Let's not bother burying the lede. Britain's best in-print periodical and online comment engine is re-launching our podcast — and this time you'll be able to see us, as well as listen.Today we've released the first 4 episodes, which you can watch here. In these first episodes, regular Critics Chris Bayliss, Poppy Coburn, Fleur Meston and I discuss anarcho-tyranny, how the Overton window has shifted on immigration in the last year and whether Britain's economy is fake. There's also an episode with Critic editor Graham Stewart and I, where we discuss the Christmas double issue, the new Critic Essay and the debut piece by Ben Barry, on the decline and fall of the British Army. After that you'll be able to join us every Monday. You can find it here on Outpost - and for full access to the exclusive bonus episodes, subscribe now. Does the world need another podcast? I get it. It must feel like every magazine has a podcast. It must feel like every 25-75 year-old man with a passing interest in culture and politics — and a lingering sense of frustration in life — has a podcast.Well, forget all that. It's like watching St Paul's being built and asking Christopher Wren if London hasn't got enough churches. It's like watching Shakespeare draft Hamlet and asking if the world really needs another play about moody teenagers. It's like hearing Beethoven preparing his Ninth and asking if he doesn't think there are already enough symphonies.Produced in partnership with Outpost Studios, this won't be another chummy centrist political podcast — the kind Ben Sixsmith hates — that regurgitates the week's news. Britain's podcast market is saturated with the offerings of centrist hacks endlessly rehashing whatever has come up in Westminster that week, with no attempt to get under the skin of any story.Rather than chase the news cycle, we're going to do what The Critic does best — leading sacred cows to slaughter. We'll have satire rather than sanctimoniousness, punchy commentary rather than ponderous blather and, crucially, The Critic Show won't be hosted by a man who made the case for invading Iraq or Lewis Goodall.Instead it will be hosted by me, Tom Jones, frequent contributor to these most august pages and owner of both the best hair and the best Donald Trump impression in journalism. I hope you'll join me, as well as all the other varied and talented Critic contributors who will appear on the podcast, as we dig the scalpel of our analysis into the flesh of world events. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

Bobby Bones joins Movie Mike to talk about his Top 5 movies he saw in 2025, him going back to the movie theaters for the first time in years and are we seeing the death of movie stars? In the Movie Review, Mike and Kelsey talk about Hamnet starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. It’s about William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, who celebrate the birth of their son, Hamnet. However, when tragedy strikes and Hamnet dies at a young age, it inspires Shakespeare to write his timeless masterpiece "Hamlet." Mike talks about why he thinks it’s in contention for best picture, Kelsey shares why the movie was better than the book and the effect a girl was crying uncontrollably in the theater had on their movie experience. In The Trailer Park, Mike talks about How to Make a Killing starring Glen Powell. The movie is about his character who is the heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune and will go to any lengths to grab everything he believes he deserves. Mike shares why he thinks we might be romanticizing murder a bit too much recently. New Episodes Every Monday! Watch on YouTube: @MikeDeestro Follow Mike on TikTok: @mikedeestro Follow Mike on Instagram: @mikedeestro Follow Mike on X: @mikedeestro Follow Mike on Letterboxd: @mikedeestro Email: MovieMikeD@gmail.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a textThis week we review the season five episode The Paragon of Animals.Joe thinks Patrick Stewart is great, but still not as good as the Hamlet from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Sarah isn't sure what the Pak'ma'ra agricultural colony does, and Mike gives suggestions about the Season 5 Bingo Card.Spoiler-free discussion: 0:00:00 - 1:03:09Spoiler Zone: 1:03:09 - 1:04:24Next Episode and other Shenanigans: 1:04:24Music from this episode:"Surf Punk Rock" By absentrealities is licensed under CC-BY 3.0"Please Define The Error" By Delta Centauri is licensed under CC-BY 3.0"The Haunted McMansion" By Megabit Melodies is licensed under CC-BY 3.0

Bobby Bones joins Movie Mike to talk about his Top 5 movies he saw in 2025, him going back to the movie theaters for the first time in years and are we seeing the death of movie stars? In the Movie Review, Mike and Kelsey talk about Hamnet starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. It’s about William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, who celebrate the birth of their son, Hamnet. However, when tragedy strikes and Hamnet dies at a young age, it inspires Shakespeare to write his timeless masterpiece "Hamlet." Mike talks about why he thinks it’s in contention for best picture, Kelsey shares why the movie was better than the book and the effect a girl was crying uncontrollably in the theater had on their movie experience. In The Trailer Park, Mike talks about How to Make a Killing starring Glen Powell. The movie is about his character who is the heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune and will go to any lengths to grab everything he believes he deserves. Mike shares why he thinks we might be romanticizing murder a bit too much recently. New Episodes Every Monday! Watch on YouTube: @MikeDeestro Follow Mike on TikTok: @mikedeestro Follow Mike on Instagram: @mikedeestro Follow Mike on X: @mikedeestro Follow Mike on Letterboxd: @mikedeestro Email: MovieMikeD@gmail.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

À l'heure où Donald Trump et Vladimir Poutine semblent sceller le sort de l'Ukraine et du continent européen par-dessus l'épaule des intéressés, Martin Legros, rédacteur en chef de Philosophie Magazine nous propose de relire Shakespeare dans sa séquence « A quoi tu penses ? ». En analysant Hamlet, il s'interroge sur ce que signifie – pour un peuple comme pour un individu – « être prêt ». Merci pour votre écoute Dans quel Monde on vit, c'est également en direct tous les samedi de 10h à 11h sur www.rtbf.be/lapremiere Retrouvez tous les épisodes de Dans quel Monde on vit sur notre plateforme Auvio.be : https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/8524 Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement. Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Early screenings of Chloé Zhao's Hamnet had critics weeping in the aisles Host Alex Heeney left it dry-eyed — and so did her guest, Angelo Muredda. We're Shakespeare fans, long-time film critics, and not exactly immune to a good cry — so in this episode, we try to figure out why the film didn't land. We dig into what works in the film (a short list) and what doesn't (a longer one), where the adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel went awry, and whether having read a synopsis of Hamlet on Wikipedia might actually impede your enjoyment of the film.

De uitzending start met een fragment uit de podcast 'Ergens'. (https://npo.nl/luister/podcasts/1295-ergens) (09:26) Eelco Smits is acteur. Hij zat vijftien jaar bij het Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (voorheen Toneelgroep Amsterdam), waar hij kortgeleden afscheid nam. Smits speelde onder andere in ‘Angels in America', ‘Hamlet' en ‘Geschiedenis van Geweld', waar hij een Louis d'Or voor won. In 2018 ontving hij de Paul Steenbergenpenning voor zijn hele oeuvre. Nu speelt hij in ‘Pride & Prejudice', een theaterbewerking van de wereldberoemde roman van Jane Austen. De theaterbewerking wordt vanuit een queer perspectief verteld. Met gevoel voor kostuumdrama trekken de spelers de wortels van het patriarchaat met brute kracht uit de grond. Nog steeds feestelijk en frivool, maar ook compromisloos, kwetsbaar en eigentijds. Femke van der Laan gaat met Eelco Smits in gesprek.

Hamnet ali kako bi lahko tragedija iz Shakespearovega resničnega življenja navdihnila nastanek njegove brezčasne mojstrovine Hamlet. Fantasy ali spraševanje o svoji lastni identiteti. V oddaji Gremo v kino pa govorimo tudi o festivalu LGBT filma in dogajanju okrog prevzemanja ameriškega medijskega velikana Warnerja Brosa.

Medtem ko je Shakespeare s Hamletom ustvaril moško gledališko vlogo, po kateri vsaj po tihem hrepeni marsikateri igralec in ki – poleg kralja Leara – pogosto velja za enega vrhuncev igralčeve kariere, je režiserka in scenaristka kitajskega rodu Chloé Zhao ustvarila žensko filmsko vlogo, ki zlahka parira legendarnemu danskemu kraljeviču. Že res, da naslov najnovejšega celovečerca oskarjevske nagrajenke za režijo nosi moško ime, Hamnet, vendar je glavna nosilka ženska. Močna, z naravo tesno povezana ženska, ki si dovoli intenzivna čustva, ki se med porodom ne pusti utišati in ki bolečine ob izgubi otroka ne zavije v vato, ampak ji dovoli, da jo preplavi celo in vso. Jessie Buckley je fantastična – močna, ranljiva, srečna, ljubljena, zaljubljena … kar koli je od nje zahtevala vloga Agnes, je igralka izpeljala tako polnokrvno, da gledalca osupne. Tudi prepuščanje drugemu, pa naj bo v ljubezni ali – čisto ob koncu – v bolečini, ki jo lahko delijo le starši umrlega otroka. To zadnje pa seveda ne bi bilo mogoče, če ji na drugi strani ne bi stal enakovreden partner in Paul Mescal to vsekakor je. Njegov Will – seveda je že zelo kmalu jasno, da gre za Shakespeara, čeprav to niti ni zares pomembno – je vreden ženske, kakršna je Agnes. Enako strast in odrešitev, ki jo njej prinaša narava, jo njemu umetnost in to je nazadnje točka, v kateri se žalujoča zakonca naposled vendarle spet stakneta. Maggie O'Farrell, avtorica literarne uspešnice Hamnet, po kateri je film posnet, se je oprla na eno od različic o nastanku Shakespearove drame, niti ne najbolj verjetno, vsekakor pa daleč najbolj fotogenično. Znano je, da je imel Shakespeare tri otroke in eden od njih je bil deček Hamnet, ki je pri enajstih letih umrl. Vzrok smrti ni znan, znano pa je, da je drama Hamlet nastala le nekaj let pozneje in zarezala v gledališko in literarno zgodovino kot redkokatero drugo delo. Ali je bila smrt otroka zares glavni vzrok za nastanek legendarne drame – besedi Hamlet in Hamnet sta sinonim, saj so ju v takratni jezikovni maniri pogosto zapisovali kot popolnoma enaki –, najbrž ne bomo nikoli izvedeli, vsekakor pa je zgodba izvrstno izhodišče za vzpostavitev močne ženske in moške energije ter katarzične moči umetnosti, ki ju preseže. Režiserka Chloé Zhao pravi, da se je ob pomoči Hamneta spoprijela s svojimi najglobljimi strahovi in iskala pot, kako kljub minljivosti in izgubam življenje živeti čim bolj odprto, čim bolj celovito, odgovor pa ponuja v obliki izjemnega, skoraj rušilno močnega filma, v katerem energije preplavljajo filmsko dvorano v maniri najpristnejše gledališke katarze. Nekoliko jih zmanjka le v zadnji tretjini filma, a to je skoraj že dlakocepstvo.

Tuesday is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, so today I spoke to John Mullan, professor of English Literature at UCL, author of What Matters in Jane Austen. John and I talked about how Austen's fiction would have developed if she had not died young, the innovations of Persuasion, wealth inequality in Austen, slavery and theatricals in Mansfield Park, as well as Iris Murdoch, A.S. Byatt, Patricia Beer, the Dunciad, and the Booker Prize. This was an excellent episode. My thanks to John!TranscriptHenry Oliver (00:00)Today, I am talking to John Mullen. John is a professor of English literature at University College London, and he is the author of many splendid books, including How Novels Work and the Artful Dickens. I recommend the Artful Dickens to you all. But today we are talking about Jane Austen because it's going to be her birthday in a couple of days. And John wrote What Matters in Jane Austen, which is another book I recommend to you all. John, welcome.John Mullan (00:51)It's great to be here.Henry Oliver (00:53)What do you think would have happened to Austin's fiction if she had not died young?John Mullan (00:58)Ha ha! I've been waiting all this year to be asked that question from somebody truly perspicacious. ⁓ Because it's a question I often answer even though I'm not asked it, because it's a very interesting one, I think. And also, I think it's a bit, it's answerable a little bit because there was a certain trajectory to her career. I think it's very difficult to imagine what she would have written.John Mullan (01:28)But I think there are two things which are almost certain. The first is that she would have gone on writing and that she would have written a deal more novels. And then even the possibility that there has been in the past of her being overlooked or neglected would have been closed. ⁓ And secondly, and perhaps more significantly for her, I think she would have become well known.in her own lifetime. you know, partly that's because she was already being outed, as it were, you know, of course, as ⁓ you'll know, Henry, you know, she published all the novels that were published in her lifetime were published anonymously. So even people who were who were following her career and who bought a novel like Mansfield Park, which said on the title page by the author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, they knew they knew.John Mullan (02:26)were getting something by the same author, they wouldn't necessarily have known the author's name and I think that would have become, as it did with other authors who began anonymously, that would have disappeared and she would have become something of a literary celebrity I would suggest and then she would have met other authors and she'd have been invited to some London literary parties in effect and I think that would have been very interesting how that might have changed her writing.John Mullan (02:54)if it would have changed her writing as well as her life. She, like everybody else, would have met Coleridge. ⁓ I think that would have happened. She would have become a name in her own lifetime and that would have meant that her partial disappearance, I think, from sort of public consciousness in the 19th century wouldn't have happened.Henry Oliver (03:17)It's interesting to think, you know, if she had been, depending on how old she would have been, could she have read the Pickwick papers? How would she have reacted to that? Yes. Yeah. Nope.John Mullan (03:24)Ha ha ha ha ha!Yes, she would have been in her 60s, but that's not so old, speaking of somebody in their 60s. ⁓ Yes, it's a very interesting notion, isn't it? I mean, there would have been other things which happened after her premature demise, which she might have responded to. I think particularly there was a terrific fashion for before Dickens came along in the 1830s, there was a terrific fashion in the 1820s for what were called silver fork novels, which were novels of sort of high life of kind of the kind of people who knew Byron, but I mean as fictional characters. And we don't read them anymore, but they were they were quite sort of high quality, glossy products and people loved them. And I'm I like to think she might have reacted to that with her sort of with her disdain, think, her witty disdain for all aristocrats. know, nobody with a title is really any good in her novels, are they? And, you know, the nearest you get is Mr. Darcy, who is an Earl's nephew. And that's more of a problem for him than almost anything else. ⁓ She would surely have responded satirically to that fashion.Henry Oliver (04:28)Hahaha.Yes, and then we might have had a Hazlitt essay about her as well, which would have been all these lost gems. Yes. Are there ways in which persuasion was innovative that Emma was not?John Mullan (04:58)Yes, yes, yes, yes. I know, I know.⁓ gosh, all right, you're homing in on the real tricky ones. Okay, okay. ⁓ That Emma was not. Yes, I think so. I think it took, in its method, it took further what she had done in Emma.Henry Oliver (05:14)Ha ha.This is your exam today,John Mullan (05:36)which is that method of kind of we inhabit the consciousness of a character. And I I think of Jane Austen as a writer who is always reacting to her own last novel, as it were. And I think, you know, probably the Beatles were like that or Mozart was like that. think, you know, great artists often are like that, that at a certain stage, if what they're doing is so different from what everybody else has done before,they stop being influenced by anybody else. They just influence themselves. And so I think after Emma, Jane Austen had this extraordinary ⁓ method she perfected in that novel, this free indirect style of a third-person narration, which is filtered through the consciousness of a character who in Emma's case is self-deludedly wrong about almost everything. And it's...brilliantly tricksy and mischievous and elaborate use of that device which tricks even the reader quite often, certainly the first time reader. And then she got to persuasion and I think she is at least doing something new and different with that method which is there's Anne Elliot. Anne Elliot's a good person. Anne Elliot's judgment is very good. She's the most cultured and cultivated of Jane Austen's heroines. She is, as Jane Austen herself said about Anne Elliot, almost too good for me. And so what she does is she gives her a whole new vein of self-deception, which is the self-deception in the way of a good person who always wants to think things are worse than they are and who always, who, because suspicious of their own desires and motives sort of tamps them down and suppresses them. And we live in this extraordinary mind of this character who's often ignored, she's always overhearing conversations. Almost every dialogue in the novel seems to be something Anne overhears rather than takes part in. And the consciousness of a character whodoesn't want to acknowledge things in themselves which you and I might think were quite natural and reasonable and indeed in our psychotherapeutic age to be expressed from the rooftops. You still fancy this guy? Fine! Admit it to yourself. ⁓ No. So it's not repression actually, exactly. It's a sort of virtuous self-control somehow which I think lots of readers find rather masochistic about her. Henry Oliver (08:38)I find that book interesting because in Sense and Sensibility she's sort of opposed self-command with self-expression, but she doesn't do that in Persuasion. She says, no, no, I'm just going to be the courage of, no, self-command. know, Eleanor becomes the heroine.John Mullan (08:48)Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But with the odd with the odd burst of Mariannes, I was watching the I thought execrable Netflix ⁓ persuasion done about two or three years ago ⁓ with the luminous Dakota Johnson as as you know, as Anne Elliot. You could not believe her bloom had faded one little bit, I think.John Mullan (09:23)And ⁓ I don't know if you saw it, but the modus operandi rather following the lead set by that film, The Favourite, which was set in Queen Anne's reign, but adopted the Demotic English of the 21st century. similarly, this adaptation, much influenced by Fleabag, decided to deal with the challenge of Jane Austen's dialogue by simply not using it, you know, and having her speak in a completely contemporary idiom. But there were just one or two lines, very, very few from the novel, that appeared. And when they appeared, they sort of cried through the screen at you. And one of them, slightly to qualify what you've just said, was a line I'd hardly noticed before. as it was one of the few Austin lines in the programme, in the film, I really noticed it. And it was much more Marianne than Eleanor. And that's when, I don't know if you remember, and Captain Wentworth, they're in Bath. So now they are sort of used to talking to each other. And Louisa Musgrove's done her recovering from injury and gone off and got engaged to Captain Benwick, Captain Benwick. So Wentworth's a free man. And Anne is aware, becoming aware that he may be still interested in her. And there's a card party, an evening party arranged by Sir Walter Elliot. And Captain Wentworth is given an invitation, even though they used to disapprove of him because he's now a naval hero and a rich man. And Captain Wentworth and Anna making slightly awkward conversation. And Captain Wentworth says, you did not used to like cards.I mean, he realizes what he said, because what he said is, remember you eight years ago. I remember we didn't have to do cards. We did snogging and music. That's what we did. But anyway, he did not used to like cards. And he suddenly realizes what a giveaway that is. And he says something like, but then time brings many changes. And she says, she cries out, I am not so much changed.Henry Oliver (11:23)Mm. Mm, yes, yes. Yep.Yes.Cries out, yeah.John Mullan (11:50)It's absolutely electric line and that's not Eleanor is it? That's not an Eleanor-ish line. ⁓ Eleanor would say indeed time evinces such dispositions in most extraordinary ways. She would say some Johnsonian thing wouldn't she? so I don't think it's quite a return to the same territory or the same kind of psychology.Henry Oliver (12:05)That's right. Yes, yes, yeah.No, that's interesting, yeah. One of the things that happens in Persuasion is that you get this impressionistic writing. So a bit like Mrs. Elliot talking while she picks strawberries. When Lady Russell comes into Bath, you get that wonderful scene of the noises and the sounds. Is this a sort of step forward in a way? And you can think of Austen as not an evolutionary missing link as such, but she's sort of halfway between Humphrey Clinker and Mr. Jangle.Is that something that she would have sort of developed?John Mullan (12:49)I think that's quite possible. haven't really thought about it before, but you're right. think there are these, ⁓ there are especially, they're impressionistic ⁓ passages which are tied up with Anne's emotions. And there's an absolutely, I think, short, simple, but extraordinarily original one when she meets him again after eight years. And it says something like, the room was full, full of people. Mary said something and you're in the blur of it. He said all that was right, you know, and she can't hear the words, she can't hear the words and you can't hear the words and you're inside and she's even, you're even sort of looking at the floor because she's looking at the floor and in Anne's sort of consciousness, often slightly fevered despite itself, you do exactly get this sort of, ⁓ for want of a better word, blur of impressions, which is entirely unlike, isn't it, Emma's sort of ⁓ drama of inner thought, which is always assertive, argumentative, perhaps self-correcting sometimes, but nothing if not confidently articulate.John Mullan (14:17)And with Anne, it's a blur of stuff. there is a sort of perhaps a kind of inklings of a stream of consciousness method there.Henry Oliver (14:27)I think so, yeah. Why is it that Flaubert and other writers get all the credit for what Jane Austen invented?John Mullan (14:35)Join my campaign, Henry. It is so vexing. It is vexing. sometimes thought, I sometimes have thought, but perhaps this is a little xenophobic of me, that the reason that Jane Austen is too little appreciated and read in France is because then they would have to admit that Flaubertdidn't do it first, you know. ⁓Henry Oliver (14:40)It's vexing, isn't it?John Mullan (15:04)I mean, I suppose there's an answer from literary history, which is simply for various reasons, ⁓ some of them to do with what became fashionable in literary fiction, as we would now call it. Jane Austen was not very widely read or known in the 19th century. So it wasn't as if, as it were, Tolstoy was reading Jane Austen and saying, this is not up to much. He wasn't. He was reading Elizabeth Gaskell.Jane Eyre ⁓ and tons of Dickens, tons, every single word Dickens published, of course. ⁓ So Jane Austen, know, to cite an example I've just referred to, I Charlotte Bronte knew nothing of Jane Austen until George Henry Lewis, George Eliot's partner, who is carrying the torch for Jane Austen, said, you really should read some. And that's why we have her famous letter saying, it's, you know, it's commonplace and foolish things she said. But so I think the first thing to establish is she was really not very widely read. So it wasn't that people were reading it and not getting it. It was which, you know, I think there's a little bit of that with Dickens. He was very widely read and people because of that almost didn't see how innovative he was, how extraordinarily experimental. It was too weird. But they still loved it as comic or melodramatic fiction. But I think Jane Austen simply wasn't very widely read until the late 19th century. So I don't know if Flaubert read her. I would say almost certainly not. Dickens owned a set of Jane Austen, but that was amongst 350 selecting volumes of the select British novelists. Probably he never read Jane Austen. Tolstoy and you know never did, you know I bet Dostoevsky didn't, any number of great writers didn't.Henry Oliver (17:09)I find it hard to believe that Dickens didn't read her.John Mullan (17:12)Well, I don't actually, I'm afraid, because I mean the one occasion that I know of in his surviving correspondence when she's mentioned is after the publication of Little Dorrit when ⁓ his great bosom friend Forster writes to him and says, Flora Finching, that must be Miss Bates. Yes. You must have been thinking of Miss Bates.John Mullan (17:41)And he didn't write it in a sort of, you plagiarist type way, I he was saying you've varied, it's a variation upon that character and Dickens we wrote back and we have his reply absolutely denying this. Unfortunately his denial doesn't make it clear whether he knew who Miss Bates was but hadn't it been influenced or whether he simply didn't know but what he doesn't… It's the one opportunity where he could have said, well, of course I've read Emma, but that's not my sort of thing. ⁓ of course I delight in Miss Bates, but I had no idea of thinking of her when I... He has every opportunity to say something about Jane Austen and he doesn't say anything about her. He just says, no.Henry Oliver (18:29)But doesn't he elsewhere deny having read Jane Eyre? And that's just like, no one believes you, Charles.John Mullan (18:32)Yes.Well, he may deny it, but he also elsewhere admits to it. Yeah.Henry Oliver (18:39)Okay, but you know, just because he doesn't come out with it.John Mullan (18:43)No, no, it's true, but he wouldn't have been singular and not reading Jane Austen. That's what I'm saying. Yes. So it's possible to ignore her innovativeness simply by not having read her. But I do think, I mean, briefly, that there is another thing as well, which is that really until the late 20th century almost, even though she'd become a wide, hugely famous, hugely widely read and staple of sort of A levels and undergraduate courses author, her real, ⁓ her sort of experiments with form were still very rarely acknowledged. And I mean, it was only really, I think in the sort of almost 1980s, really a lot in my working lifetime that people have started saying the kind of thing you were asking about now but hang on free and direct style no forget flow bear forget Henry James I mean they're terrific but actually this woman who never met an accomplished author in her life who had no literary exchanges with fellow writersShe did it at a little table in a house in Hampshire. Just did it.Henry Oliver (20:14)Was she a Tory or an Enlightenment Liberal or something else?John Mullan (20:19)⁓ well I think the likeliest, if I had to pin my colours to a mast, I think she would be a combination of the two things you said. I think she would have been an enlightenment Tory, as it were. So I think there is some evidence that ⁓ perhaps because also I think she was probably quite reasonably devout Anglican. So there is some evidence that… She might have been conservative with a small C, but I think she was also an enlightenment person. I think she and her, especially her father and at least a couple of her brothers, you know, would have sat around reading 18th century texts and having enlightened discussions and clearly they were, you know, and they had, it's perfect, you know, absolutely hard and fast evidence, for instance, that they would have been that they were sympathetic to the abolition of slavery, that they were ⁓ sceptics about the virtues of monarchical power and clear-eyed about its corruption, that they had no, Jane Austen, as I said at the beginning of this exchange, had no great respect or admiration for the aristocratic ruling class at all. ⁓ So there's aspects of her politics which aren't conservative with a big C anyway, but I think enlightened, think, I mean I, you know, I got into all this because I loved her novels, I've almost found out about her family inadvertently because you meet scary J-Night experts at Jane Austen Society of North America conferences and if you don't know about it, they look at scants. But it is all interesting and I think her family were rather terrific actually, her immediate family. I think they were enlightened, bookish, optimistic, optimistic people who didn't sit around moaning about the state of the country or their own, you know, not having been left enough money in exes will. And...I think that they were in the broadest sense enlightened people by the standard of their times and perhaps by any standards.Henry Oliver (22:42)Is Mansfield Park about slavery?John Mullan (22:45)Not at all, no. I don't think so. I don't think so. And I think, you know, the famous little passage, for it is only a passage in which Edmund and Fanny talk about the fact it's not a direct dialogue. They are having a dialogue about the fact that they had, but Fanny had this conversation or attempt at conversation ⁓ a day or two before. And until relatively recently, nobody much commented on that passage. It doesn't mean they didn't read it or understand it, but now I have not had an interview, a conversation, a dialogue involving Mansfield Park in the last, in living memory, which hasn't mentioned it, because it's so apparently responsive to our priorities, our needs and our interests. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I think it's a it's a parenthetic part of the novel. ⁓ And of course, there was this Edward Said article some decades ago, which became very widely known and widely read. And although I think Edward Said, you know, was a was a wonderful writer in many ways. ⁓I think he just completely misunderstands it ⁓ in a way that's rather strange for a literary critic because he says it sort of represents, you know, author's and a whole society's silence about this issue, the source of wealth for these people in provincial England being the enslavement of people the other side of the Atlantic. But of course, Jane Auster didn't have to put that bit in her novel, if she'd wanted really to remain silent, she wouldn't have put it in, would she? And the conversation is one where Edmund says, know, ⁓ you know, my father would have liked you to continue when you were asking about, yeah, and she says, but there was such terrible silence. And she's referring to the other Bertram siblings who indeed are, of course, heedless, selfish ⁓ young people who certainly will not want to know that their affluence is underwritten by, you know, the employment of slaves on a sugar plantation. But the implication, I think, of that passage is very clearly that Fanny would have, the reader of the time would have been expected to infer that Fanny shares the sympathies that Jane Austen, with her admiration, her love, she says, of Thomas Clarkson. The countries leading abolitionists would have had and that Edmund would also share them. And I think Edmund is saying something rather surprising, which I've always sort of wondered about, which is he's saying, my father would have liked to talk about it more. And what does that mean? Does that mean, my father's actually, he's one of these enlightened ones who's kind of, you know, freeing the slaves or does it mean, my father actually knows how to defend his corner? He would have beenYou know, he doesn't he doesn't feel threatened or worried about discussing it. It's not at all clear where Sir Thomas is in this, but I think it's pretty clear where Edmund and Fanny are.Henry Oliver (26:08)How seriously do you take the idea that we are supposed to disapprove of the family theatricals and that young ladies putting on plays at home is immoral?John Mullan (26:31)Well, I would, mean, perhaps I could quote what two students who were discussing exactly this issue said quite some time ago in a class where a seminar was running on Mansfield Park. And one of the students can't remember their names, I'm afraid. I can't remember their identities, so I'm safe to quote them. ⁓ They're now probably running PR companies or commercial solicitors. And one of them I would say a less perceptive student said, why the big deal about the amateur dramatics? I mean, what's Jane Austen's problem? And there was a pause and another student in the room who I would suggest was a bit more of an alpha student said, really, I'm surprised you asked that. I don't think I've ever read a novel in which I've seen characters behaving so badly as this.And I think that's the answer. The answer isn't that the amateur dramatics themselves are sort of wrong, because of course Jane Austen and her family did them. They indulged in them. ⁓ It's that it gives the opportunity, the license for appalling, mean truly appalling behaviour. I mean, Henry Crawford, you know, to cut to the chase on this, Henry Crawford is seducing a woman in front of her fiance and he enjoys it not just because he enjoys seducing women, that's what he does, but because it's in front of him and he gets an extra kick out of it. You know, he has himself after all already said earlier in the novel, oh, I much prefer an engaged woman, he has said to his sister and Mrs. Grant. Yes, of course he does. So he's doing that. Mariah and Julia are fighting over him. Mr. Rushworth, he's not behaving badly, he's just behaving like a silly arse. Mary Crawford, my goodness, what is she up to? She's up to using the amateur dramatics for her own kind of seductions whilst pretending to be sort of doing it almost unwillingly. I mean, it seems to me an elaborate, beautifully choreographed elaboration of the selfishness, sensuality and hypocrisy of almost everybody involved. And it's not because it's amateur dramatics, but amateur dramatics gives them the chance to behave so badly.Henry Oliver (29:26)Someone told me that Thomas Piketty says that Jane Austen depicts a society in which inequality of wealth is natural and morally justified. Is that true?John Mullan (29:29)Ha⁓Well, again, Thomas Piketty, I wish we had him here for a good old mud wrestle. ⁓ I would say that the problem with his analysis is the coupling of the two adjectives, natural and morally right. I think there is a strong argument that inequality is depicted as natural or at least inevitable, inescapable in Jane Austen's novels.but not morally right, as it were. In fact, not at all morally right. There is a certain, I think you could be exaggerated little and call it almost fatalism about that such inequalities. Do you remember Mr. Knightley says to Emma, in Emma, when he's admonishing her for her, you know, again, a different way, terribly bad behavior.Henry Oliver (30:38)At the picnic.John Mullan (30:39)At the picnic when she's humiliatedMiss Bates really and Mr Knightley says something like if she'd been your equal you know then it wouldn't have been so bad because she could have retaliated she could have come back but she's not and she says and he says something like I won't get the words exactly right but I can get quite close he says sinceher youth, she has sunk. And if she lives much longer, will sink further. And he doesn't say, ⁓ well, we must have a collection to do something about it, or we must have a revolution to do something about it, or if only the government would bring in better pensions, you know, he doesn't, he doesn't sort of rail against it as we feel obliged to. ⁓ He just accepts it as an inevitable part of what happens because of the bad luck of her birth, of the career that her father followed, of the fact that he died too early probably, of the fact that she herself never married and so on. That's the way it is. And Mr Knightley is, I think, a remarkably kind character, he's one of the kindest people in Jane Austen and he's always doing surreptitious kindnesses to people and you know he gives the Bates's stuff, things to eat and so on. He arranges for his carriage to carry them places but he accepts that that is the order of things. ⁓ But I, you know Henry, I don't know what you think, I think reading novels or literature perhaps more generally, but especially novels from the past, is when you're responding to your question to Mr. Piketty's quote, is quite a sort of, can be quite an interesting corrective to our own vanities, I think, because we, I mean, I'm not saying, you know, the poor are always with us, as it were, like Jesus, but... ⁓ You know, we are so ⁓ used to speaking and arguing as if any degree of poverty is in principle politically remediable, you know, and should be. And characters in Jane Austen don't think that way. And I don't think Jane Austen thought that way.Henry Oliver (33:16)Yes, yes. Yeah.The other thing I would say is that ⁓ the people who discuss Jane Austen publicly and write about her are usually middle class or on middle class incomes. And there's a kind of collective blindness to the fact that what we call Miss Bates poverty simply means that she's slipping out of the upper middle class and she will no longer have her maid.⁓ It doesn't actually mean, she'll still be living on a lot more than a factory worker, who at that time would have been living on a lot more than an agricultural worker, and who would have been living on a lot more than someone in what we would think of as destitution, or someone who was necessitous or whatever. So there's a certain extent to which I actually think what Austin is very good at showing is the... ⁓ the dynamics of a newly commercial society. So at the same time that Miss Bates is sinking, ⁓ I forget his name, but the farmer, the nice farmer, Robert Martin, he's rising. And they all, all classes meet at the drapier and class distinctions are slightly blurred by the presence of nice fabric.John Mullan (34:24)Mr. Robert Martin. Henry Oliver (34:37)And if your income comes from turnips, that's fine. You can have the same material that Emma has. And Jane Austen knows that she lives in this world of buttons and bonnets and muslins and all these new ⁓ imports and innovations. And, you know, I think Persuasion is a very good novel. ⁓ to say to Piketty, well, there's nothing natural about wealth inequality and persuasion. And it's not Miss Bates who's sinking, it's the baronet. And all these admirals are coming up and he has that very funny line, doesn't he? You're at terrible risk in the Navy that you'd be cut by a man who your father would have cut his father. And so I think actually she's not a Piketty person, but she's very clear-eyed about... quote unquote, what capitalism is doing to wealth inequality. Yeah, yeah.John Mullan (35:26)Yes, she is indeed. Indeed.Clear-eyed, I think, is just the adjective. I mean, I suppose the nearest she gets to a description. Yeah, she writes about the classes that she knows from the inside, as it were. So one could complain, people have complained. She doesn't represent what it's like to be an agricultural worker, even though agricultural labour is going on all around the communities in which her novels are set.And I mean, I think that that's a sort of rather banal objection, but there's no denying it in a way. If you think a novelist has a duty, as it were, to cover the classes and to cover the occupations, then it's not a duty that Jane Austen at all perceived. However, there is quite, there is something like, not a representation of destitution as you get in Dickens.but a representation of something inching towards poverty in Mansfield Park, which is the famous, as if Jane Austen was showing you she could do this sort of thing, which is the whole Portsmouth episode, which describes with a degree of domestic detail she never uses anywhere else in her fiction. When she's with the more affluent people, the living conditions, the food, the sheer disgustingness and tawdryness of life in the lodgings in Portsmouth where the Price family live. And of course, in a way, it's not natural because ⁓ in their particular circumstances, Lieutenant Price is an alcoholic.They've got far too many children. ⁓ He's a useless, sweary-mouthed boozer ⁓ and also had the misfortune to be wounded. ⁓ And she, his wife, Fanny's mother, is a slattern. We get told she's a slattern. And it's not quite clear if that's a word in Fanny's head or if that's Jane Austen's word. And Jane Austen...Fanny even goes so far as to think if Mrs. Norris were in charge here, and Mrs. Norris is as it were, she's the biggest sadist in all Jane Austen's fiction. She's like sort Gestapo guard monquet. If Mrs. Norris were in charge, it wouldn't be so bad here, but it's terrible. And Jane Austen even, know, she describes the color of the milk, doesn't she? The blue moats floating in the milk.She dis- and it's all through Fanny's perception. And Fanny's lived in this rather loveless grand place. And now it's a great sort of, ⁓ it's a coup d'etat. She now makes Fanny yearn for the loveless grand place, you know, because of what you were saying really, Henry, because as I would say, she's such an unsentimental writer, you know, andyou sort of think, you know, there's going to be no temptation for her to say, to show Fanny back in the loving bosom of her family, realising what hollow hearted people those Bertrams are. You know, she even describes the mark, doesn't she, that Mr Price's head, his greasy hair is left on the wall. It's terrific. And it's not destitution, but it's something like a life which must be led by a great sort of rank of British people at the time and Jane Austen can give you that, she can.Henry Oliver (39:26)Yeah, yeah. That's another very Dickensian moment. I'm not going to push this little thesis of mine too far, but the grease on the chair. It's like Mr. Jaggers in his horse hair. Yes. That's right, that's right. ⁓ Virginia Woolf said that Jane Austen is the most difficult novelist to catch in the act of greatness. Is that true?John Mullan (39:34)Yes, yes, yes, it is these details that Dickens would have noticed of course. Yes.Yes.⁓ I think it is so true. think that Virginia Woolf, she was such a true, well, I think she was a wonderful critic, actually, generally. Yeah, I think she was a wonderful critic. you know, when I've had a couple of glasses of Rioja, I've been known to say, to shocked students, ⁓ because you don't drink Rioja with students very often nowadays, but it can happen. ⁓ But she was a greater critic than novelist, you know.Henry Oliver (39:54)Yeah.Best critic of the 20th century. Yes, yes. Yeah. And also greater than Emson and all these people who get the airtime. Yes, yes.John Mullan (40:20)You know.I know, I know, but that's perhaps because she didn't have a theory or an argument, you know, and the Seven Types, I know that's to her credit, but you know, the Seven Types of Ambiguity thing is a very strong sort of argument, even if...Henry Oliver (40:31)Much to her credit.But look, if the last library was on fire and I could only save one of them, I'd let all the other critics in the 20th century burn and I'd take the common reader, wouldn't you?John Mullan (40:47)Okay. Yes, I, well, I think I agree. think she's a wonderful critic and both stringent and open. I mean, it's an extraordinary way, you know, doesn't let anybody get away with anything, but on the other hand is genuinely ready to, to find something new to, to anyway. ⁓ the thing she said about Austin, she said lots of good things about Austin and most of them are good because they're true. And the thing about… Yes, so what I would, I think what she meant was something like this, that amongst the very greatest writers, so I don't know, Shakespeare or Milton or, you know, something like that, you could take almost a line, yes? You can take a line and it's already glowing with sort of radioactive brilliance, know, and ⁓ Jane Austen, the line itself, there are wonderful sentences.)Mr. Bennett was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humor, reserve and caprice that the experience of three and 20 years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. I mean, that's as good as anything in Hamlet, isn't it? So odd a mixture and there he is, the oddest mixture there's ever been. And you think he must exist, he must exist. But anyway, most lines in Jane Austen probably aren't like that and it's as if in order to ⁓ explain how brilliant she is and this is something you can do when you teach Jane Austen, makes her terrific to teach I think, you can look at any bit and if everybody's read the novel and remembers it you can look at any paragraph or almost any line of dialogue and see how wonderful it is because it will connect to so many other things. But out of context, if you see what I mean, it doesn't always have that glow of significance. And sometimes, you know, the sort of almost most innocuous phrases and lines actually have extraordinary dramatic complexity. but you've got to know what's gone on before, probably what goes on after, who's in the room listening, and so on. And so you can't just catch it, you have to explain it. ⁓ You can't just, as it were, it, as you might quote, you know, a sort of a great line of Wordsworth or something.Henry Oliver (43:49)Even the quotable bits, you know, the bit that gets used to explain free and direct style in Pride and Prejudice where she says ⁓ living in sight of their own warehouses. Even a line like that is just so much better when you've been reading the book and you know who is being ventriloquized.John Mullan (43:59)Well, my favourite one is from Pride and Prejudice is after she's read the letter Mr Darcy gives her explaining what Wickham is really like, really, for truth of their relationship and their history. And she interrogates herself. And then at the end, there's ⁓ a passage which is in a passage of narration, but which is certainly in going through Elizabeth's thoughts. And it ends, she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd. And I just think it's, if you've got to know Elizabeth, you just know that that payoff adjective, absurd, that's the coup de grace. Because of course, finding other people absurd is her occupation. It's what makes her so delightful. And it's what makes us complicit with her.Henry Oliver (44:48)Yeah.That's right.John Mullan (45:05)She sees how ridiculous Sir William Lucas and her sister Mary, all these people, and now she has absurded herself, as it were. So blind partial prejudice, these are all repetitions of the same thought. But only Elizabeth would end the list absurd. I think it's just terrific. But you have to have read the book just to get that. That's a whole sentence.You have to have read the book to get the sentence, don't you?Henry Oliver (45:34)Yep, indeed. ⁓ Do we love Jane Austen too much so that her contemporaries are overshadowed and they're actually these other great writers knocking around at the same time and we don't give them their due? Or is she in fact, you know, the Shakespeare to their Christopher Marlowe or however you want to.John Mullan (45:55)I think she's the Shakespeare to their Thomas Kidd or no even that's the... Yes, okay, I'm afraid that you know there are two contradictory answers to that. Yes, it does lead us to be unfair to her contemporaries certainly because they're so much less good than her. So because they're so much less good than her in a way we're not being unfair. know, I mean... because I have the profession I have, I have read a lot of novels by her immediate predecessors. I mean, people like Fanny Burnie, for instance, and her contemporaries, people like Mariah Edgeworth. And ⁓ if Jane Austen hadn't existed, they would get more airtime, I think, yes? And some of them are both Burnie and Edgeworth, for instance. ⁓ highly intelligent women who had a much more sophisticated sort of intellectual and social life than Jane Austen ⁓ and conversed with men and women of ideas and put some of those ideas in their fiction and they both wrote quite sophisticated novels and they were both more popular than Jane Austen and they both, having them for the sort of carpers and complainers, they've got all sorts of things like Mariah Regworth has some working-class people and they have political stuff in their novels and they have feminist or anti-feminist stuff in their novels and they're much more satisfying to the person who's got an essay to write in a way because they've got the social issues of the day in there a bit, certainly Mariah Regworth a lot. ⁓ So if Jane Austen hadn't come along we would show them I think more, give them more time. However, you know, I don't want to say this in a destructive way, but in a certain way, all that they wrote isn't worth one paragraph of Jane Austen, you know, in a way. So we're not wrong. I suppose the interesting case is the case of a man actually, which is Walter Scott, who sort of does overlap with Jane Austen a bit, you know, and who has published what I can't remember, two, three, even four novels by the time she dies, and I think three, and she's aware of him as a poet and I think beginning to be aware of him as a novelist. And he's the prime example of somebody who was in his own day, but for a long time afterwards, regarded as a great novelist of his day. And he's just gone. He's really, you know, you can get his books in know, Penguin and Oxford classics in the shops. I mean, it's at least in good big book shops. And it's not that he's not available, but it's a very rare person who's read more than one or even read one. I don't know if you read lots of Scott, Henry.Henry Oliver (49:07)Well, I've read some Scott and I quite like it, but I was a reactionary in my youth and I have a little flame for the Jacobite cause deep in my heart. This cannot be said of almost anyone who is alive today. 1745 means nothing to most people. The problem is that he was writing about something that has just been sort of forgotten. And so the novels, know, when Waverly takes the knee in front of the old young old pretender, whichever it is, who cares anymore? you know?John Mullan (49:40)Well, yes, but it can't just be that because he also wrote novels about Elizabeth I and Robin Hood and, you know... ⁓Henry Oliver (49:46)I do think Ivanhoe could be more popular, yeah.John Mullan (49:49)Yeah, so it's not just that this and when he wrote, for instance, when he published Old Mortality, which I think is one of his finest novels, I mean, I've read probably 10 Scott novels at nine or 10, you know, so that's only half or something of his of his output. And I haven't read one for a long time, actually. Sorry, probably seven or eight years. He wrote about some things, which even when he wrote about and published about, readers of the time couldn't have much known or cared about. mean, old mortalities about the Covenant as wars in the borderlands of Scotland in the 17th century. I mean, all those people in London who were buying it, they couldn't give a damn about that. Really, really, they couldn't. I mean, they might have recognized the postures of religious fanaticism that he describes rather well.But even then only rather distantly, I think. So I think it's not quite that. I think it's not so much ignorance now of the particular bits of history he was drawn to. I think it's that in the 19th century, historical fiction had a huge status. And it was widely believed that history was the most dignified topic for fiction and so dignified, it's what made fiction serious. So all 19th century authors had a go at it. Dickens had a go at it a couple of times, didn't he? I think it's no, yes, yes, think even Barnaby Rudge is actually, it's not just a tale of two cities. Yes, a terrific book. But generally speaking, ⁓ most Victorian novelists who did it, ⁓ they are amongst, you know, nobodyHenry Oliver (51:22)Very successfully. ⁓ a great book, great book.John Mullan (51:43)I think reads Trollope's La Vendée, you know, people who love Hardy as I do, do not rush to the trumpet major. it was a genre everybody thought was the big thing, know, war and peace after all. And then it's prestige faded. I mean, it's...returned a little bit in some ways in a sort of Hillary man, Tellish sort of way, but it had a hugely inflated status, I think, in the 19th century and that helped Scott. And Scott did, know, Scott is good at history, he's good at battles, he's terrific at landscapes, you know, the big bow wow strain as he himself described it.Henry Oliver (52:32)Are you up for a sort of quick fire round about other things than Jane Austen?John Mullan (52:43)Yes, sure, try me.Henry Oliver (52:44)Have you used any LLMs and are they good at talking about literature?John Mullan (52:49)I don't even know what an LLM is. What is it? Henry Oliver (52:51)Chat GPT. ⁓ John Mullan (53:17)⁓ God, goodness gracious, it's the work of Satan.Absolutely, I've never used one in my life. And indeed, have colleagues who've used them just to sort of see what it's like so that might help us recognise it if students are using them. And I can't even bring myself to do that, I'm afraid. But we do as a...As a department in my university, we have made some use of them purely in order to give us an idea of what they're like, so to help us sort of...Henry Oliver (53:28)You personally don't feel professionally obliged to see what it can tell you. Okay, no, that's fine. John Mullan (53:32)No, sorry.Henry Oliver (53:33)What was it like being a Booker Prize judge?heady. It was actually rather heady. Everybody talks about how it's such a slog, all those books, which is true. But when you're the Booker Prize judge, at least when I did it, you were treated as if you were somebody who was rather important. And then as you know, and that lasts for about six months. And you're sort of sent around in taxes and give nice meals and that sort of thing. And sort of have to give press conferences when you choose the shortlist. and I'm afraid my vanity was tickled by all that. And then at the moment after you've made the decision, you disappear. And the person who wins becomes important. It's a natural thing, it's good. And you realize you're not important at all.Henry Oliver (54:24)You've been teaching in universities, I think, since the 1990s.John Mullan (54:29)Yes, no earlier I fear, even earlier.Henry Oliver (54:32)What are the big changes? Is the sort of media narrative correct or is it more complicated than that?John Mullan (54:38)Well, it is more complicated, but sometimes things are true even though the Daily Telegraph says they're true, to quote George Orwell. ⁓ you know, I mean, I think in Britain, are you asking about Britain or are you asking more generally? Because I have a much more depressing view of what's happened in America in humanities departments.Henry Oliver (54:45)Well, tell us about Britain, because I think one problem is that the American story becomes the British story in a way. So what's the British story?John Mullan (55:07)Yes, yes, think that's true.Well, I think the British story is that we were in danger of falling in with the American story. The main thing that has happened, that has had a clear effect, was the introduction in a serious way, however long ago it was, 13 years or something, of tuition fees. And that's really, in my department, in my subject, that's had a major change.and it wasn't clear at first, but it's become very clear now. So ⁓ it means that the, as it were, the stance of the teachers to the taught and the taught to the teachers, both of those have changed considerably. Not just in bad ways, that's the thing. It is complicated. So for instance, I mean, you could concentrate on the good side of things, which is, think, I don't know, were you a student of English literature once?Henry Oliver (55:49)Mm-hmm.I was, I was. 2005, long time ago.John Mullan (56:07)Yes. OK.Well, I think that's not that long ago. mean, probably the change is less extreme since your day than it is since my day. But compared to when I was a student, which was the end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s, I was an undergraduate. The degree of sort of professionalism and sobriety, responsibility and diligence amongst English literature academics has improved so much.You know, you generally speaking, literature academics, they are not a load of ⁓ drunken wastrels or sort of predatory seducers or lazy, work shy, ⁓ even if they love their own research, negligent teachers or a lot of the sort of the things which even at the time I recognise as the sort of bad behaviour aspects of some academics. Most of that's just gone. It's just gone. You cannot be like that because you've got everybody's your institution is totally geared up to sort of consumer feedback and and the students, especially if you're not in Oxford or Cambridge, the students are essentially paying your salaries in a very direct way. So there have been improvements actually. ⁓ those improvements were sort of by the advocates of tuition fees, I think, and they weren't completely wrong. However, there have also been some real downsides as well. ⁓ One is simply that the students complain all the time, you know, and in our day we had lots to complain about and we never complained. Now they have much less to complain about and they complain all the time. ⁓ So, and that seems to me to have sort of weakened the relationship of trust that there should be between academics and students. But also I would say more if not optimistically, at least stoically. I've been in this game for a long time and the waves of student fashion and indignation break on the shore and then another one comes along a few years later. And as a sort of manager in my department, because I'm head of my department, I've learned to sort of play the long game.And what everybody's hysterical about one moment, one year, they will have forgotten about two or three years later. So there has been a certain, you know, there was a, you know, what, what, you know, some conservative journalists would call kind of wokery. There has been some of that. But in a way, there's always been waves of that. And the job of academics is sort of to stand up to it. and in a of calm way. Tuition fees have made it more difficult to do that I think.Henry Oliver (59:40)Yeah. Did you know A.S. Byatt? What was she like?John Mullan (59:43)I did.⁓ Well...When you got to know her, you recognized that the rather sort of haughty almost and sometimes condescending apparently, ⁓ intellectual auteur was of course a bit of a front. Well, it wasn't a front, but actually she was quite a vulnerable person, quite a sensitive and easily upset person.I mean that as a sort of compliment, not easily upset in the sense that sort of her vanity, but actually she was quite a humanly sensitive person and quite woundable. And when I sort of got to know that aspect of her, know, unsurprisingly, I found myself liking her very much more and actually not worrying so much about the apparent sort of put downs of some other writers and things and also, you know, one could never have said this while she was alive even though she often talked about it. I think she was absolutely permanently scarred by the death of her son and I think that was a, you know, who was run over when he was what 11 years old or something. He may have been 10, he may have been 12, I've forgotten, but that sort of age. I just think she was I just think she was permanently lacerated by that. And whenever I met her, she always mentioned it somehow, if we were together for any length of time.Henry Oliver (1:01:27)What's your favourite Iris Murdoch novel?John Mullan (1:01:33)I was hoping you were going to say which is the most absurd Aris Murdoch novel. ⁓ No, you're an Aris Murdoch fan, are you? Henry Oliver (1:01:38)Very much so. You don't like her work?John Mullan (1:01:59)Okay. ⁓ no, it's, as you would say, Henry, more complicated than that. I sort of like it and find it absurd. It's true. I've only read, re-read in both cases, two in the last 10 years. And that'sThat's not to my credit. And both times I thought, this is so silly. I reread the C to C and I reread a severed head. And I just found them both so silly. ⁓ I was almost, you know, I almost lost my patience with them. But I should try another. What did I used to like? Did I rather like an accidental man? I fear I did.Did I rather like the bell, which is surely ridiculous. I fear I did. Which one should I like the most?Henry Oliver (1:02:38)I like The Sea, the Sea very much. ⁓ I think The Good Apprentice is a great book. There are these, so after The Sea, the Sea, she moves into her quote unquote late phase and people don't like it, but I do like it. So The Good Apprentice and The Philosopher's Pupil I think are good books, very good books.John Mullan (1:02:40)I've not read that one, I'm afraid. Yes, I stopped at the sea to sea. I, you know, once upon a time, I'm a bit wary of it and my experience of rereading A Severed Head rather confirmed me in my wariness because rereading, if I were to reread Myris Murdoch, I'm essentially returning to my 18 year old self because I read lots of Myris Murdoch when I was 17, 18, 19 and I thought she was deep as anything. and to me she was the deep living British novelist. And I think I wasn't alone ⁓ and I feel a little bit chastened by your advocacy of her because I've also gone along with the ⁓ general readership who've slightly decided to ditch Irish Murdoch. her stock market price has sunk hugely ⁓ since her death. But perhaps that's unfair to her, I don't know. I've gone a bit, I'll try again, because I recently have reread two or three early Margaret Drabble novels and found them excellent, really excellent. And thought, ⁓ actually, I wasn't wrong to like these when I was a teenager. ⁓Henry Oliver (1:04:11)The Millstone is a great book.John Mullan (1:04:22)⁓ yes and actually yes I reread that, I reread the Garrick year, the Millstone's terrific I agree, the the Garrick year is also excellent and Jerusalem the Golden, I reread all three of them and and and thought they were very good. So so you're recommending the Philosopher's Apprentice. I'm yeah I'm conflating yes okay.Henry Oliver (1:04:31)first rate. The Good Apprentice and the Philosopher's Pupil. Yeah, yeah. I do agree with you about A Severed Head. I think that book's crazy. What do you like about Patricia Beer's poetry?John Mullan (1:04:56)⁓ I'm not sure I am a great fan of Patricia Beer's poetry really. I got the job of right, what? Yes, yes, because I was asked to and I said, I've read some of her poetry, but you know, why me? And the editor said, because we can't find anybody else to do it. So that's why I did it. And it's true that I came.Henry Oliver (1:05:02)Well, you wrote her... You wrote her dictionary of national... Yes.John Mullan (1:05:23)I came to quite like it and admire some of it because in order to write the article I read everything she'd ever published. But that was a while ago now, Henry, and I'm not sure it puts me in a position to recommend her.Henry Oliver (1:05:35)Fair enough.Why is the Dunciad the greatest unread poem in English?John Mullan (1:05:41)Is it the greatest unread one? Yes, probably, yes, yes, I think it is. Okay, it's great because, first of all, great, then unread. It's great because, well, Alexander Poet is one of the handful of poetic geniuses ever, in my opinion, in the writing in English. Absolutely genius, top shelf. ⁓Henry Oliver (1:05:46)Well, you said that once, yes.Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, yes. Top shelf, yeah.John Mullan (1:06:09)And even his most accessible poetry, however, is relatively inaccessible to today's readers, sort of needs to be taught, or at least you have to introduce people to. Even the Rape of the Lock, which is a pure delight and the nearest thing to an ABBA song he ever wrote, is pretty scary with its just densely packed elusiveness and...Henry Oliver (1:06:27)YouJohn Mullan (1:06:38)You know, and as an A level examiner once said to me, we don't set Pope for A level because it's full of irony and irony is unfair to candidates. ⁓ Which is true enough. ⁓ So Pope's already difficult. ⁓ Poetry of another age, poetry which all depends on ideas of word choice and as I said, literary allusion and The Dunciad is his most compacted, elusive, dense, complicated and bookish poems of a writer who's already dense and compact and bookish and elusive. And the Dunceyad delights in parodying, as I'm sure you know, all the sort of habits of scholarly emendation and encrustation, which turn what should be easy to approach works of literature into sort of, you know, heaps of pedantic commentary. And he parodies all that with delight. But I mean, that's quite a hard ask, isn't it? And ⁓ yeah, and I just and I think everything about the poem means that it's something you can only ever imagine coming to it through an English literature course, actually. I think it is possible to do that. I came to it through being taught it very well and, you know, through because I was committed for three years to study English literature, but it's almost inconceivable that somebody could just sort of pick it up in a bookshop and think, ⁓ this is rather good fun. I'll buy this.Henry Oliver (1:08:26)Can we end with one quick question about Jane Austen since it's her birthday? A lot of people come to her books later. A lot of people love it when they're young, but a lot of people start to love it in their 20s or 30s. And yet these novels are about being young. What's going on there?John Mullan (1:08:29)Sure, sure.Yes.I fear, no not I fear, I think that what you describe is true of many things, not just Jane Austen. You know, that there's a wonderful passage in J.M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace where the reprehensible protagonist is teaching Wordsworth's Prelude.to a group of 19 and 20 year olds. And he adores it. He's in his mid fifties. And he, whilst he's talking, is thinking different things. And what he's thinking is something that I often think actually about certain works I teach, particularly Jane Austen, which is this book is all about being young, but the young find it tedious. Only the aging.You know, youth is wasted on the young, as it were. Only the aging really get its brilliance about the experience of being young. And I think that's a sort of pattern in quite a lot of literature. So, you know, take Northanger Abbey. That seems to me to be a sort of disly teenage book in a way.It's everything and everybody's in a hurry. Everybody's in a whirl. Catherine's in a whirl all the time. She's 17 years old. And it seems to me a delightfully teenage-like book. And if you've read lots of earlier novels, mostly by women, about girls in their, you know, nice girls in their teens trying to find a husband, you know, you realize that sort ofextraordinary magical gift of sort Jane Austen's speed and sprightliness. You know, somebody said to me recently, ⁓ when Elizabeth Bennet sort of walks, but she doesn't walk, she sort of half runs across the fields. You know, not only is it socially speaking, no heroine before her would have done it, but the sort of the sprightliness with which it's described putsthe sort of ploddingness of all fiction before her to shame. And there's something like that in Northanger Abbey. It's about youthfulness and it takes on some of the qualities of the youthfulness of its heroine. know, her wonderful oscillations between folly and real insight. You know, how much she says this thing. I think to marry for money is wicked. Whoa. And you think,Well, Jane Austen doesn't exactly think that. She doesn't think Charlotte Lucas is wicked, surely. But when Catherine says that, there's something wonderful about it. There is something wonderful. You know, only a 17 year old could say it, but she does. And but I appreciate that now in my 60s. I don't think I appreciated it when I was in my teens.Henry Oliver (1:11:55)That's a lovely place to end. John Mullen, thank you very much.John Mullan (1:11:58)Thanks, it's been a delight, a delight. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

Nordmark Pod får besök av skådespelaren Liv Mjönes!Det samtalas om och att; Orosdanser, grinders, en stor öl och en whiskey, som en sorg, pappa läkare, mamma sjuksköterska, man måste alltid räkna på klantmarginal, en sägning förr i tiden, Tomten är far till alla barnen, Varuhuset, TV-Teatern, ett liv på Mars, pros och cons, kuliga folk, jag tycker om de extravaganta, en jättestark passion, agent/psykolog, brukar inte ta med rollen hem, Natascha Kampusch, Händelser vid vatten, panikångest som är så härligt, scenskräck, jag ser att de inte vill vara här, playhouse, fejknorrland och Hamlet och att sparka ut scenskräcken.Mäktigt! Produktion av NordmarkEditering av NordmarkMix av Nordmark

This week on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast we talked about an 80s legend brought back to life. A YouTube Channel called Movies of the 80s has uncovered the legend The Krull Wedding Contest from 1983. Jeff is appearing alongside Gremlins Star Zack Galligan and former WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Lex Luger at the Quad City Toy Show July 14th and 15th in East Moline, IL, New Movies this week Five Nights at Freddy's 2 Directed by Emma Tammi Starring Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, and McKenna Grace One year has passed since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Former security guard Mike has kept the truth from his 11-year-old sister, Abby, concerning the fate of her animatronic friends. When Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, she sets into motion a terrifying series of events that reveal dark secrets about the true origin of Freddy's. Hamnet Directed by Chloe Zhao Starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, celebrate the birth of their son, Hamnet. However, when tragedy strikes and Hamnet dies at a young age, it inspires Shakespeare to write his timeless masterpiece "Hamlet." Classic Shakespeare in Love Directed by John Madden Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Josef Fiennes, Tom Wilkinson, Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench, Ben Affleck "Shakespeare in Love" is a romantic comedy for the 1990s set in the 1590s. It imaginatively unfolds the witty, sexy and timeless tale behind the creation of the greatest love story ever told. A young Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is out of cash and ideas, he meets his ideal woman and she inspires him to write one of his most famous plays.

To cream, or not to cream, that is the question: whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous foreskins, or to take arms against a sea of semen and by opposing, edge them. These are the deep questions posed by the new prequel to Hamlet, “Hamnet”, directed by Chloe Zhao. So, did we love this thing, or did it put us to sleep? After all, to sleep, perchance to cream - ay, there's the rub. 0:00 – Introductions 14:21 – “Hamnet” Spoiler-Free Review 59:21 - What We've Been Watching Original Music provided by Kurt Moren https://ofsilent.life/

When novelist Maggie O'Farrell learned that Shakespeare had a son who died just a few years before he wrote “Hamlet” — and that history books barely mentioned it — she wanted to find out more. That led her to write the bestselling novel “Hamnet,” which has now been adapted into a new film starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. Maggie joins Tom Power to tell us how her Hamnet story came to be, what Shakespeare might have been trying to tell us by naming his play after his son, and why she waited until her own son was past the age that Hamnet was when he died to start writing her novel.

Ronald Young Jr. reviews Hamnet with Daryl Murphy… RYJ and Daryl debate whether or not they're pronouncing Agnes correctly in this movieDM - 4.5 of 5 starsRYJ - 4.75 of 5 starsFollow me on IG, TikTok, Threads, Bluesky, and Letterbxd - @ohitsbigronFollow Daryl on IG and ThreadsAvailable in theatersStarring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, and Joe AlwynWritten by Chloe Zhao and Maggie O'FarrellDirected by Chloe ZhaoFor more information about Hamnet, check out this linkSupport Leaving The Theater on Patreon using this link

For this week's main podcast review, Megan Lachinski, Josh Parham, Dan Bayer, and Brendan Hodges join me to discuss the latest film from Academy Award-winner Chloé Zhao, "Hamnet," starring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, and Noah Jupe. The historical drama film co-written by Maggie O'Farrell, the author of the title novel this film is based on is a largely fictional story dramatizing the marriage between Anne Hathaway (Agnes Hathaway in the novel and film) and William Shakespeare, and the impact of the tragic death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet on their relationship, which inspired Shakespeare's iconic play "Hamlet." The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and has been drawing tears from audiences everywhere it plays, including the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award. What did we think of it, though? Please tune in as we discuss the story, performances, cinematography, score, whether it made us as emotional as intended, its awards season chances, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review. Thank you for listening, and enjoy! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We here at the Visually Stunning Movie Podcast love Jessie Buckley, so how much are we going to love her in this fantastically historical piece of fiction?HAMNET125 Minutes, Rated PG-13Written by Chloe Zhao, Maggie O'FarrellDirected by Chloe ZhaoSynopsis:A powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, "Hamlet".Probably a lot, but what about the rest of the movie?~~~~~You can read more reviews and opinions on our website: https://VSMoviePodcast.com.Please LIKE, SHARE, and FOLLOW us on:Facebook (@vsmoviepodcast) (https://facebook.com/vsmoviepodcast)X (@vsmoviepodcast) (https://x.com/vsmoviepodcast)Instagram (@visuallystunningmoviepodcast) (https://instagram.com/visuallystunningmoviepodcast)Threads (@visuallystunningmoviepodcast) (https://threads.net/@visuallystunningmoviepodcast)BlueSky (@vsmoviepodcast.bsky.social) (https://bsky.app/profile/vsmoviepodcast.bsky.social)YouTube (@visuallystunningmoviepodcast) (https://youtube.com/visuallystunningmoviepodcast)Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to our audio wherever you listen to podcasts (https://shows.acast.com/vsmoviepodcast).And please, if you like what we do, consider helping us keep on entertaining you. Find out how on our Contact/Support page (https://VSMoviePodcast.com/Contact-VSMP/). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

News of Netflix buying WB & Critics Choice Noms opens the show, and then we dive into a full film study review of Chloe Zhao's Hamnet, the sad story of how Shakespeare came to write Hamlet. WB sells to Netflix - 1:01 NON-SPOILER REVIEW: Reception & Awards Profiles - 7:01 Awards Profile Thus Far including Critics Choice Award Noms - 12:01 Movie Watching Stories & Non-Spoiler Script Thoughts - 13:46 Performance Reviews - 18:32 Production Values - 25:07 Oscar Lens & Over/Under for Nominations - 31:29 Spoiler Warning - 38:17 SPOILER FILLED REVIEW: The big emotional scene - 39:05 That Ending & Arguments Against Tragedy Porn - 48:15 7 Stages - 56:55 More Bests and a Few Worsts - 1:01:29 Final Grades - 1:08:19 OUTRO: Please subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts and rate, review, like our show to help us grow. https://linktr.ee/mikemikeandoscar Otherwise, stay tuned for more Oscar Profiles, Oscar Race Checkpoints and gambling specials in the near future as we kick awards season into high gear.

Memphis guitarist and Stax Recrds co-founder Steve Cropper died this week. Such a big influence on music - especially my favourite roots music of the sixties. Also paid tribute to reggae pioneer Jimmy Cliff, and Scottish songwriter / educator Adam McNaughton with a couple of songs towards the end of the show (including the condensed "Hamlet". The whole play in 4 minutes to the tune of The Mason's Apron!). Also a Get Well Soon to English troubadour Rory McLeaod, who is recovering from a heart attack. I included lots of new, mostly Canadian, music as well, and local concert previews, of course.

Hendriks, Marc-Oliver www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Fazit

MERCHANDISE NOW ON SALE THROUGH 12/31 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE THROUGH 12/31   Tom Stoppard, the acclaimed, prolific playwright behind Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Rock 'n' Roll and so many other plays, along with the screenplays to Shakespeare in Love, Brazil, and Anna Karenina, has died. He leaves behind a staggering, inspiring, often frustrating body of work that will continue to be seen long after we are gone. We are joined today by Abigail Thorn (The Acolyte, House of the Dragon) to look at the corners of his oeuvre that have spoken to us over the years, and discuss what we can learn from him going forward.   Abigail Thorn: Bluesky // Instagram The Prince: A transformative new play that has everything: sword fighting, lesbianism, Hamlet, and disappointed parents. Available on Nebula.   Philosophy Tube: Giving away philosophy degrees for free! Youtube // Nebula // Patreon   Kill James Bond! is a comedy film review/ pop culture commentary podcast about the portrayal of masculinity in cinema. November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon have watched Bond movies, War on Terror movies, Eurospy movies, and now they take on their biggest task yet: Heist Movies. What can Heat, Oceans' 11, and the Fast and Furious movies teach us about how masculinity was imagined by the people who created them? What does that say about Society? Free episodes are released every fortnight on all major podcast platforms and bonus episodes are released for supporters on Patreon on the interstitial weeks. Website / Twitter / Patreon Listen on Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcast

Structured video interviews are becoming a more common for medical-school applicants, and those prompts for a 90-second mini-essay can feel like being asked for a webcam Hamlet on-the-fly. Never fear! In this episode, Drs. Marina and Zulma break down how to craft a crisp personal story, master your nonverbal presence, and avoid the dreaded mid-sentence cutoff.

The outstanding drama "Hamnet" is a speculative period piece about the inspiration behind Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Anchored by terrific performances by Paul Mescal and Jesse Buckley as Shakespeare and his troubled wife Agnes, it's an emotionally involving tale, adapted by director Chloe Zhao from Maggie O'Farrell's award-winning novel. Perhaps surprisingly, "Hamnet" is a better film than Zhao's previous Oscar winner "Nomadland." And speaking of Oscar, Buckley's moving performance is likely a Best Actress shoo-in. The Netflix showbiz drama "Jay Kelly" provides a role that fits George Clooney like a glove. He plays a movie star who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughters while alienating those in his entourage who've supported him. Adam Sandler gives the film's best performance as George's unappreciated manager. While somewhat engaging, there are phony elements in the movie that are uncharacteristic of the gifted filmmaker Noah Baumbach. "Jay Kelly" is a mixed bag bolstered by megawatt star power. Mel Gibson stars in the ugly, excessively violent drama, "Hunting Season." Mel and his daughter provide aid and shelter to a woman found shot in the woods, only to invoke the wrath of a vicious drug lord. This is the kind of fodder that used to be called "grindhouse cinema," prodding audiences into vengeful bloodlust. Happy Holidays! A gifted cast can't save the noisy, irritating Amazon Prime holiday farce, "Oh. What. Fun." Michelle Pfeiffer plays a put-upon mom who goes all out for her family at Christmas, but her efforts aren't appreciated…until she goes missing. None of it rings true. "Oh. What. Fun." is a lump of coal for your cinematic stocking.

Since it was penned more than four hundred years ago, Shakespeare's “Hamlet” has been in production nearly continuously, and has been adapted in many ways. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider why this story of a brooding young prince has continued to speak to audiences throughout the centuries. They discuss the new film “Hamnet,” directed by Chloé Zhao, which recasts the writing of “Hamlet” as Shakespeare's response to the death of his child; Tom Stoppard's absurdist play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”; Michael Almereyda's 2000 “Hamlet,” which presents the protagonist as a melancholy film student home from college; and other adaptations. What accounts for this story's hold over audiences, centuries after it was written? “I think it endures because every generation has its version of the incomprehensible,” Cunningham says. “It's not just death—it's politics, it's society. Everybody has to deal with their own version of ‘This does not make sense and yet it is.' ”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Hamnet” (2025)“Hamnet,” by Maggie O'Farrell“Hamlet,” by William ShakespeareKenneth Branagh's “Hamlet” (1996) Michael Almereyda's “Hamlet” (2000)“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” (1990)John Gielgud's “Hamlet” (1964)Robert Icke's “Hamlet” (2017, 2022)“Every Generation Gets the Shakespeare It Deserves” by Drew Lichtenberg (The New York Times)“Hamlet and His Problems" by T. S. EliotNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Hamnet, the acclaimed novel by Maggie O'Farrell, is now a major film. The story imagines the life and death of Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, whose loss would later echo through one of his most famous tragedies, Hamlet. O'Farrell joins director and co-writer Chloé Zhao to reveal how they adapted the novel for the big screen. With Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William, the film reframes the Shakespeare family story as one of deep love, rupturing grief, and artistic creation. O'Farrell and Zhao discuss developing the screenplay together, interpreting Shakespeare as a husband and father, building the film's immersive natural world, and shaping an unforgettable Globe Theatre sequence that anchors the emotional arc of the story. O'Farrell and Zhao talk about adaptation, artistry, and how a 400-year-old loss continues to inspire new ways of imagining Shakespeare's life and legacy. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published December 2, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Hamish Brown in Stirling, Scotland, and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

“Get thee to a nunnery!” (…and a movie theatre)   You may have read Hamlet in your Senior English Class, but we promise you've never properly learned about William Shakespeare, the genius playwright behind it.   Hamnet explores love and all its intricacies, guiding Papa Shakespeare to one of the most recognized pieces of literature in the world.   Join us as we discuss the film…spoiler free, in our spoiler free Hamnet review!   Show Open [00:00] Review Round 1 [04:01] Review Round 2 [13:00] Review Round 3 [19:09] Last Looks [22:51] Show Close [26:58]   Thanks for listening!   Please rate, review, and subscribe if you liked this episode!   For all things Popcorn for Breakfast: https://linktr.ee/popcornforbreakfast   Chat with us on Discord: https://discord.gg/7wGQ4AARWn Follow us on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/popcornforbreakfast Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeVJZwPMrr3_2p171MCP1RQ Follow us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4HhMxftbuf1oPn10DxPLib?si=2l8dmt0nTcyE7eOwtHrjlw&nd=1 Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/popcorn4breakfast Follow us on Twitter: @pfb_podcast Follow us on Instagram: @pfb_podcast Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@popcornforbreakfast? popcorn4breakfast.com Email us: contact@popcorn4breakfast.com   Our original music is by Rhetoric, check them out on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/44JvjuUomvPdSqZRxxz2Tk?si=hcYoSMLUQ0iPctllftAg2g&nd=1

In this week's episode of The Costume House, host Spencer Williams welcomes visionary costume designer Malgosia Turzanska to discuss her latest collaboration with director Chloé Zhao, Hamnet. Spencer and Malgosia explore the power of Agnes's vivid red palette, the organic textiles that root the film in its natural world, and the idea of art as a form of quiet rebellion. They also step behind the curtain of Hamlet, the "play within a film,” diving into the Shakespearean influences that shaped its layered, performance-driven costumes.----Malgosia Turzanska on Instagram: @malgosia_turzanskaSpencer Williams on Instagram: @hautespencerWatch The Costume House with Spencer Williams now, on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dZr6zQAr7O4

In this week's episode of The Costume House, host Spencer Williams welcomes visionary costume designer Malgosia Turzanska to discuss her latest collaboration with director Chloé Zhao, Hamnet. Spencer and Malgosia explore the power of Agnes's vivid red palette, the organic textiles that root the film in its natural world, and the idea of art as a form of quiet rebellion. They also step behind the curtain of Hamlet, the "play within a film,” diving into the Shakespearean influences that shaped its layered, performance-driven costumes.----Malgosia Turzanska on Instagram: @malgosia_turzanskaSpencer Williams on Instagram: @hautespencerWatch The Costume House with Spencer Williams now, on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dZr6zQAr7O4

Hamnet tells the fictionalized account of the lives of William Shakespeare and his wife, played by Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. They fall in love, have children, suffer an unspeakable tragedy. When their only son dies, it creates a rift in their marriage and inspires Will to write one of his greatest works–Hamlet. Directed by Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), it does everything it can to make you cry a whole lot.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

43 aspirantes quieren dirigir la FGR; entre ellos, Ernestina Godoy y Ricardo Peralta  En Volaris, pilotos extranjeros seguirán volando hasta enero de 2026  Papa León XIV lanza mensaje de esperanza por la paz en Medio OrienteMás información en nuestro Podcast

Is there anything more lifeless than a valley full of dried bones? From the skeletal ruins of life that used to be, a collage of hope for the start of Advent. Because here's the thing about hope: it makes the most sense and is the most powerful in the face of the hopeless.Sermon begins at minute marker 2:41 Ezekiel 37:1-14Resources:Hamlet and Horatio come upon two gravediggers who identify a skull as having belonged to Yorick, “Alas, poor Yorick! … a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy …” from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1.Mariame Kaba: “Hope is a Discipline.” from an interview by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein, in Beyond Prisons, January 2018. Published in: We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice, (Haymarket Books, 2021), p. 26-28.Andrea Gibson: “Even when the truth isn't hopeful, the telling of it is.” from Take Me With You.Barbara Kingsolver: “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.” from 2008 commencement address at Duke University, titled “How to be Hopeful”.Jan Richardson, “Blessing of Hope,” The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief (Wanton Gospeller Press, 2016), 172-173.Image: detail from “Hamlet and Horatio in front of the gravediggers” (Act.V Sc.I), print by: Eugène Delacroix, British Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Something about November just makes it difficult to get episodes done. So re-doing, here, a Thanksgiving episode, in its way, from a few years back. This is the second Redux with it - last time was two years ago. I thought I had written about this elsewhere, but this appears to be the closest I had done: https://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/06/plague.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osarseph - A possible second view of Exodus involving a priest who became the leader of a band of lepers, who managed to ally with the Hyksos to take over Egypt for a short time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten - Pharaoh of Egypt who temporarily replaced the polytheistic Egyptian religion with a monotheism based around Aten, the "sun disc."  Father of Tutankhamen, whom you may have heard of.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hymn_to_the_Aten -Written by Akhenaten, it bears some resemblance to Psalm 104, indicating at least some cross pollination between Jewish and Egyptian holy writ.   https://thefounding.net/pilgrims-identified-israelites/ - a short essay built around Bradford http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24950/24950-h/24950-h.htm Project Gutenberg version of the History of Plymouth Colony They called Dutch a strange and uncouth language, which raises the possibility that their attitudes towards "savage" natives might have been similar in Holland… For no obvious reason, perhaps worth noting that this is contemporaneous with Hamlet, first performed around 1602. (Yes I know he's a Dane, not Dutch.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony http://mayflowerhistory.com/clothing/ https://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/what-wear   You can find me on Bluesky  @generationalize.bsky.social and occasionally blogging at http://crisis.generationalize.com

Is this episode better than Hamlet?  Michelle thinks maybe! ;)  Today we discuss one of the most controversial deaths in the series and wear out the "This is Stupid" supercut. SPOILERS for ALL seasons! Looking for earlier episodes? Find our back catalogue here: https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/theplaidcast We would love to hear from you! Email: theplaidcast@gmail.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/theplaidcast

History has not graced us with many details about Shakespeare as a person, but we do know that he and his wife had three children, including a son named Hamnet who died at the age of 11 in 1596, four years before Shakespeare went on to write his great tragedy “Hamlet.”Maggie O'Farrell's novel “Hamnet” — one of the Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2020, and the source of Chloé Zhao's new movie of the same name — starts from those scant facts, and spins them into a powerful story of grief, art and family steeped in the textures of late-16th-century life.In this episode of the Book Review Book Club, host MJ Franklin discusses “Hamnet” with his colleagues Leah Greenblatt, Jennifer Harlan and Sarah Lyall. Other works mentioned in this podcast:“Hamlet,” “King Lear,” “Macbeth,” “The Winter's Tale,” by William Shakespeare“Little Women,” by Louisa May Alcott“Grief Is the Thing With Feathers,” by Max Porter“Lincoln in the Bardo,” by George Saunders“Fi,” by Alexandra Fuller“Things In Nature Merely Grow,” by Yiyun Li“The Accidental Tourist,” by Anne Tyler“Will in the World” and “Dark Renaissance,” by Stephen Greenblatt“Gabriel,” by Edward Hirsch“Once More We Saw Stars,” by Jayson Greene“The Dutch House,” by Ann Patchett Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

William Shakespeares dramatik är, som det heter, ständigt aktuell. Men den här hösten verkar det råda högkonjunktur för Shakespeare på svenska teaterscener. Varför? Möt regissörerna Mattias Andersson och Farnaz Arbabi. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radios app. I höst har det varit utsålda hus för uppsättningarna ”Så tuktas en argbigga” i regi av Farnaz Arbabi och ”Hamlet. The Death of theatre” i regi av Mattias Andersson.P1 Kultur har bjudit in de båda regissörerna för ett samtal om Shakespeares spelbarhet och hur mycket man egentligen skriva om och utmana texten.Programledare Lisa BergströmProducent Maria Götselius

Welcome to this episode of Kermode on Film, in which Mark talks with three exceptional actors who appeared on the MK3D show at the BFI Southbank on Monday 17 November 2025.First, Mark is joined by Tamsin Greig to discuss her role in RIOT WOMEN, the fantastic new BBC series by writer Sally Wainwright.Mark then speaks with Felicity Jones about her work in the new feature TRAIN DREAMS.Finally, he welcomes John Simm to talk about his extraordinary work across screen and stage — from HUMAN TRAFFIC to HAMLET, from LIFE ON MARS to DR WHO.If you missed Part 1, featuring Jack Howard, Caroline Goodall, Hannah Onslow, Amy Berg and Christopher Frayling, you can listen to it here: https://shows.acast.com/kermodeonfilm/episodes/jack-howards-caroline-goodall-hannah-onslow-for-the-second-tThanks for listening. Stay safe, and keep watching the skies.----Opening title quotes from:Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, Walt Disney Productions – featuring Julie Andrews)Nope (Jordan Peele, Universal Pictures – featuring Keke Palmer)Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson, HandMade Films – featuring Richard E. Grant)The Exorcist (William Friedkin, Warner Bros. – featuring Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair)These films are essential viewing.Watch them. Love them. Share them.They are masterpieces.Mark Kermode Live in 3D and Kermode on Film are HLA Agency productionsThis episode was edited by Alex Archbold JonesImage by Julie Edwards.© HLA Agency Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode SummaryIn this episode, Damien Swaby is joined by the remarkable Barbara Niven, an actress whose dedication, versatility, and heart have made her one of Hollywood's most enduring and admired talents.With a career spanning more than three decades, Barbara has starred in over 100 film and TV roles, been featured in thousands of commercials, and contributed her experience and leadership to the Screen Actors Guild.Barbara discusses her work on Hallmark's highest-rated series and films — including Chesapeake Shores, Cedar Cove, Murder She Baked, and Crossword Puzzle Mysteries. She talks openly about the discipline it takes to maintain longevity in Hollywood, as well as the joy she finds in each new character she inhabits.She also reflects on her critically acclaimed portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in HBO's The Rat Pack, still considered one of the top depictions of the icon to date. Her award-winning performances in independent cinema, including A Perfect Ending and Hamlet's Ghost, showcase her range, intuition, and emotional intelligence as a performer.Outside the screen, Barbara has built a global reputation as Hollywood's top Media Trainer and Video Marketing Coach, teaching professionals across industries through her signature program Unleash Your Star Power!™. She helps people break through fear, speak confidently, and shine with authenticity.Barbara is also a best-selling author, renowned speaker, mental health advocate, and a National Ambassador for American Humane. This episode is packed with inspiration, insight, and practical wisdom for actors, filmmakers, creators, entrepreneurs, and anyone pursuing their passion.Key Topics CoveredHow Barbara became one of the busiest actresses in HollywoodWorking on Hallmark's biggest and most beloved seriesBringing Marilyn Monroe to life in The Rat PackWhat it takes to stay relevant and fulfilled in entertainmentThe creation of Unleash Your Star Power!™Overcoming fear, self-doubt, and perfectionismLiving a life of purpose, passion, and serviceW https://www.barbaraniven.com Call to Action. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and share the podcast. Follow Damien Swaby for more filmmaker interviews and insights into the craft and business of storytelling.Use Promo Code "FILMMAKINGSWABY" for all my deals or just click the link:25% Off More Labshttps://www.morelabs.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY20% Off Strong Coffee Companyhttps://strongcoffeecompany.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY15% Off Tusslehttps://www.tusslegear.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY20% Off Eric Javitshttps://ericjavits.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY25% Off Quantum Energy Squarehttps://quantumsquares.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY20% Off Long Tablehttps://longtablepancakes.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY20% Off HyperNaturalhttps://hypernaturalstyle.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY20% Off wearplaygroundhttps://wearplayground.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY15% Off STAND+https://www.standshoes.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY10% Off Molly Bzhttps://mollybz.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABY41% Off Cozy Earthhttps://cozyearth.com/discount/FILMMAKINGSWABYX (Twitter): @DamienSwaby https://x.com/DamienSwaby/status/1864468655582437405Instagram: @filmmaker__damien_swaby. https://www.instagram.com/filmmaker__damien_swaby/?hl=en 

This message is part of our Wednesday night series through the book of 1 Timothy, taught by the men of Kirby Woods. Preached on November 19th, 2025 by Lucian Hamlet. Series: The Book of 1 Timothy. Primary Text: 1 Timothy 4:6-16. Join us in person Sundays at 10:30am at 6325 Poplar Ave, Memphis TN or online at https://www.kirbywoods.org/live. Follow us online! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kirbywoodsmemphis Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirbywoodsmemphis YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kirbywoods Podcast: https://kirbywoodspodcast.buzzsprout.com

Show Notes What if Hamlet, but lions. We watched the 1994 classic The Lion King and enjoyed the emotions inherently available in animated faces that simply cannot be duplicated in “live action.” Elton John thought the movie was ruined because his beautiful song was sung by a meerkat, but joke's on him, it was a genius move.  Sometimes you gotta have a creepy little guy sing to the main characters to get them to fall in love.  Lemuel's top Godzilla Recommendations: The original Gojira from 1954 available on HBO Max and Godzilla Minus One available on Netflix - and to get an even better viewing, watch Godzilla Minus One Minus Color.  Next up: Pocahontas (1995) Email us at latecomers@gmail.com Our Facebook group is here for those who consent: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1754020081574479/ **

Stefan and Quinn discuss the role of fate and destiny in two recent films, and how they reflect ongoing human concerns going back to Hamlet and Oedipus Check out our new bi-weekly series, "The Crisis Papers" here: https://www.patreon.com/bitterlakepresents/shop   Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined,   BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!   Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents?   Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)   THANKS Y'ALL   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/ Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland   Substack: https://jmylesoftir.substack.com/.../the-money-will- roll...   Read Jason Myles in Sublation Magazine https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-myles Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/

Episode 195 Last time I completed my review of ‘Hamlet', although it is probably wrong to say that one's thoughts on Hamlet are ever complete. I am not alone in finding that every time I see the play, and it is I think, as it is for many, the Shakespeare play I have seen most often, I find something new in it to think on. To complete this quartet of episodes on the play we have the second part of my conversation with Colin David Reese about the play and in this segment, which is much shorter than the previous conversation, we focussed on the character of Polonius, although as you will near Colin also brought in other thoughts generated by the play and his knowledge of other Shakespeare plays. I certainly was not expecting to hear about ‘The Taming of the Shrew' in the context of this conversation, but I'm glad we went there and it just illustrates how any Shakespeare conversation can lead you to all sorts of places. Before we get to Colin's thoughts, I thought I would share with you some of the views of the play and Polonius from critics and commentators from the past. This is, of course, a tiny selection given the vast amount that has been written about Hamlet, but they are pieces that I have come across and found particularly interesting. If this piques your interest in Shakespeare criticism through time I have produced a series on that very subject for members on Patreon where I traced criticism and praise for Shakespeare from the praise poems in the First Folio to the 19th century romantics. To find out more about that just pop over to the website or to patreon.com.John DrydenSamuel JonsonSamuel Taylor ColeridgeWilliam HazlittA C BradleyColin Dave Reese on PoloniusColin's Website and access to ‘Shakespeare Unbound: A Gift to the Future': https://shakespeareunbound.orgSupport the podcast at:www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.comwww.patreon.com/thoetpwww.ko-fi.com/thoetp Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 14, 2025 is: heyday • HAY-day • noun Heyday refers to the period of one's greatest popularity, vigor, or prosperity. It is usually used in the singular. // In its heyday, the circus was a major form of entertainment for the small town. See the entry > Examples: "In its heyday, there were more than 200 Chi-Chi's nationwide; the last restaurant closed in 2004." — Nicole Hvidsten, The Minnesota Star Tribune, 1 Oct. 2025 Did you know? The day in heyday originally had nothing to do with the kind of day that's made up of 24 hours. Heyday was first used in the first half of the 16th century as an extended form of the interjection hey, used since the 13th century to express elation or wonder, as it still often is in phrases like "hey, look at that!" The day part was most likely just an extra syllable tagged on for effect. By the end of the 16th century heyday had developed noun use with the meaning "high spirits," as when Shakespeare's Hamlet tells his mother, "You cannot call it love; for at your age / The heyday in the blood is tame …” It wasn't until the 18th century that the day syllable's resemblance to the word day likely influenced the development of the now-familiar use referring to the period when one's achievement or popularity has reached its zenith.

Episode 194: Last time I left things hanging for Hamlet as, having seen the ghost of his father and resolved on revenge, he had seen his planning go awry as he mistakenly killed the old councillor Polonius while he hid behind a wall hanging. We have seen his daughter Ophelia begin her descent into madness, school friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern become embroiled in Hamlet's feigned madness and Claudius prompted into a desire to pray, having seen the players perform a piece that replicated his actions in the matter of his brother's murder. That quick summary in no way does the play any sort of justice so please do listen to the previous two episodes on ‘Hamlet', my look at the first half of the play and my conversation with Colin David Reese about the language in the play, if you have not done so already. I'll be here waiting for you when you get back.Continuing a summary of the play picking up from the murder of Polonius, with Hamlet leaving and dragging the body behind him.The Character of GertrudeThe female characters and the players who portrayed themThe rise of boy playing troupes reflected in ‘Hamlet'The political position of Claudius in the Danish nationThe character of Osric and his role in the playThe themes of death and decay The character and actions of HamletHamlet as a tragic heroThe graveyard sceneA brief overview of the performance history of the playSupport the podcast at:www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.comwww.patreon.com/thoetpwww.ko-fi.com/thoetp Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode: Actor and dialect coach Steve Corona joins Linda to pull back the curtain on the fascinating world of accents, performance, and character transformation. Steve explains how he studies and analyzes dialects—breaking them down into unique sounds, rhythms, and cadences—and how actors can integrate those nuances into authentic, believable performances. From Scottish and Irish to Texan and Turkish, Steve shares his process for “hearing” the music of a dialect and translating it into emotional truth. He also shares behind-the-scenes stories from working on major film sets with stars like Gerard Butler and Helen Mirren, offering a glimpse into the art and psychology of coaching actors under pressure. Along the way, he drops practical tools for any performer or storyteller—like using anchor phrases, shadowing native speakers, and finding emotional connection through voice. Beyond Hollywood, Steve talks about how he's taken his craft into new arenas—narrating audiobooks, helping business professionals improve their presence, and inspiring others to discover their authentic voice. About Steve: Steve Corona has always been fascinated by psychology and human behavior. Growing up as the fourth of five kids, he had plenty of personalities to study—and plenty of opportunities to perform. His natural empathy and love of storytelling became the foundation for a career built on both acting and coaching. After earning his Master's in Theatre, Steve launched his on-camera career, landing roles in film and television while also teaching dialects. A chance referral from a casting director led him to coach Gerard Butler on a major action film, sparking a new chapter as a sought-after dialect coach for A-list talent including Helen Mirren, Jason Isaacs, and Amber Midthunder. As an actor, Steve has appeared in projects spanning every genre—from Hamlet 2 and Breaking Bad to The Lone Ranger and Army of the Dead. His on-set experiences deepened his understanding of performance psychology, which he now channels through Corona Productions—where he helps professionals master communication, presence, and storytelling on stage, on camera, and in life. Website: https://www.coronaproductions.org We are honored to be listed in the top 30 of podcasts about Voiceover. Check out the list! https://podcast.feedspot.com/voice_over_podcasts/ FOR MORE INFO ON THE SHOW AND THE GURUS, PLEASE VISIT: Coaching Website: https://voiceover.guru/  and https://learnwiththegurus.com/ Linda Bruno Voice Actress  https://www.lindabruno.com Alyssa Jayson Actress and Musician http://www.alyssajayson.com Kevin Kilpatrick Voice Actor   https://kevinkilpatrick.com/ Join our Circle Community: https://the-voiceover-gurus.circle.so/home  

The end is here! Well, the end of season 5 at least. That's right, after over twelve months the season is finally over (making it, I think, the longest season of The Film Scorer yet), and what better wait to celebrate than to chat with Max Richter? Max's (Ad Astra, The Leftovers) latest score is for the incredible historical drama Hamnet, a fictionalized account of the death of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes's son Hamnet and how it inspired the creation of Hamlet. Unsurprisingly, we spend most of our conversation on Hamnet, but despite the quick interview we manage to cover a lot of other ground too, such as the use of "On the Nature of Daylight" over the years, the troubled production of Ad Astra, and how a musician's intent goes only so far once their music reaches an audience. Max's score for Hamnet is forthcoming (though having heard an advance version, I can vouch that it's great) and the rest of his music is available on all major platforms. You can find out more about Max on his website. In addition to Hamnet's pending release, Max just announced some 2026 tour dates.

Today we are back with breaking down the lyrics to some of our favorite songs on Taylor Swift's ‘The Life of a Showgirl'. We analyzed the intricacies of the ‘Father Figure' lyrics and the connections between Taylor Swift's masters and Scott Borchetta. ‘The Fate of Ophelia' is another song and storyline that we break down sharing the connections to Hamlet as well as all the sly connections to ‘The Tortured Poets Department' album and era are woven into this song. One of our absolute favorite songs on the album is ‘Opalite' and we share some of our favorite lyrics, how it relates to our life, the life lessons it teaches and why we think this bop is more than just a bop. Plus we share all the Elizabeth Taylor easter eggs that you need to know about while listening to the song ‘Elizabeth Taylor'.Don't miss out on more ‘The Life of a Showgirl' song deep dives coming up! Hit that follow button so you don't miss any future episodes.SHOP OUR MERCH: www.typicaltuesdaynight.comSPONSORS:WALLI (ttn for 10% off): https://wallicases.com/?rstr=ttn Just Ingredients (TTN10 for 10% off): https://just.crrnt.app/Vjw9vgNxGet Away Today (TTN10 for $10 off) https://www.getawaytoday.com/?referrerid=9380Love Olive Co (TTNPOD for 10% off) https://loveoliveco.com/?ref=TTNPODTaylor Swift Podcast || Taylor Swift || Taylor Swift Songs || Taylor Swift Music || Taylor Swift Albums || The Life of a ShowgirlSend us a textSupport the showFollow along to hear a new Taylor Swift related episode every single Tuesday.Watch our episodes on YouTube!Follow Us On Social Media:Typical Tuesday Night Podcast @typicaltuesdaynight.podcastKarli @everyday_ellisJess @jess.taitJoin our Patreon for bonus episodes and exclusive Taylor Swift group chat!Shop Our Merch!Feel free to contact us at typicaltuesdaynightpodcast@gmail.com

In Versailles with Kids & the Grand Ball: A Magical Family Adventure, host Annie Sargent talks with Katie Danger, an American mom who has lived in Versailles for more than a decade. Katie knows the palace and its surroundings inside and out — and she shares all her best tips for families who want to enjoy this iconic destination without the stress. Listen to this episode ad-free Together, Annie and Katie explore how to make Versailles fun and manageable with children. They talk about stroller-friendly paths, when to visit to avoid crowds, and why the gardens are often a better choice for kids than the formal palace rooms. Katie recommends favorite picnic spots, like near the Grand Canal or the Queen's Hamlet, where families can relax and feel the magic of French history in a natural setting. The conversation also touches on local life in Versailles — the lively markets, neighborhood cafés, and parks that most tourists miss. Katie shares practical advice about buying tickets, timing your visit, and how to add a touch of sparkle by attending the Grand Ball of Versailles, one of the most extravagant costume events in France. If you're planning a family trip to Versailles, this episode is packed with insider ideas to make it both educational and enjoyable. You'll come away inspired to slow down, explore beyond the palace walls, and experience Versailles like a local.

Long before Shakespeare became a household name, there was Richard Burbage. As the first actor to play Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear, Burbage helped define what it meant to be a Shakespearean actor. A commanding performer, he became one of early modern England's first celebrities—celebrated for his emotional power and versatility, as well as his entrepreneurial savvy as an early theater owner. In her new book "Richard Burbage and the Shakespearean Stage: A ‘Delightful Proteus,'" scholar Siobhan Keenan explores the actor's remarkable career and his pivotal partnership with Shakespeare. Together, they transformed the English stage. Siobhan Keenan is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at De Montfort University, UK, and the author of several books on early modern theatre history and performance culture, including Richard Burbage and the Shakespearean Stage: A ‘Delightful Proteus' (2025), The Progresses, Processions and Royal Entries of King Charles I, 1625-1642 (2020), Acting Companies and their Plays in Shakespeare's London (The Arden Shakespeare, 2014), and Travelling Players in Shakespeare's England (2002). From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published October 21, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.