Sophocles

02/18/20 • 27 min

1 Listener

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

A fresh look at the ancient world.

Natalie Haynes, critic, writer and reformed stand-up comedian, brings the ancient world entertainingly up to date. In each of the four programmes she profiles a figure from ancient Greece or Rome and creates a stand-up routine around them. She then goes in search of the links which make the ancient world still very relevant in the 21st century.

Episode 2: Sophocles invents modern drama with Oedipus the King. Spoiler alert! – it doesn't end well. This episode includes handy hints on how to get in the mood for a classical tragedy (bring a bottle.) With Professor Edith Hall, poet and playwright Frank McGuinness and TV critic Andrew Collins.

Producer Christine Hall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

A fresh look at the ancient world.

Producer Christine Hall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Previous Episode

Petronius

A fresh look at the ancient world.

Episode 1: The worst dinner party in history. Natalie investigates the work of the writer Petronius, creator of the infamous Satyricon, later made into a film by Fellini. It’s all about excess; as a vegetarian, Natalie’s particularly revolted by the way in which the Romans insisted on making edible food look disgusting. With satirical cartoonist Martin Rowson, Fellini fan Richard Dyer and historian Victoria Rimell.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Next Episode

Virgil

Natalie Haynes, critic, writer and reformed stand-up comedian, brings the ancient world entertainingly up to date.

In each episode, she profiles a figure from ancient Greece or Rome and creates a stand-up routine around them. She then goes in search of the links which make the ancient world still very relevant in the 21st century. For starters, Natalie considers the work of the Roman poet Virgil, ranging from his hints on bee-keeping to his great work The Aeneid.

Dido is the classic wronged woman and the Aeneid contains the best ding-dong between a man and a woman in all Latin literature, culminating in Dido’s memorable promise “If you go I’m going to kill myself and then I will pursue you from beyond death with black fires!”

With Pamela Helen Stephen who's sung Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, bee-keeper Gordon Cutting and Dr Llewelyn Morgan who talks about the greatest poet in the Roman world. Producer: Christine Hall.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.