Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Comedy: Standup

Natalie Haynes creates stand-up routines about figures from ancient Greece and Rome.

Natalie Haynes takes a fresh look at the ancient world, creating stand-up routines about figures from ancient Greece and Rome.

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics: Series 1: Aspasia

Aspasia

Series 1

BBC Radio 4 - Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, Series 1, Aspasia

A fresh look at the ancient world. How to be a notorious woman in ancient Greece.

Natalie Haynes takes a fresh look at the ancient world. The rule-breaking women of Ancient Greece. With Cherie Booth. From 2014.

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 the first of 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.

Women in ancient Greece were supposedly not seen, not heard and not talked about. Meet Aspasia -the woman who broke all the rules – all the more remarkably for the fact that she was the partner of one of the most powerful men in Greece at the time, Pericles. 

Natalie explores how writers and comedians used Aspasia’s reputation as a way of attacking the statesman – a practice which hasn’t changed much over 2,500 years. 

With classicist Sarah B Pomeroy, Dr Ian Jenkins of the British Museum and Cate Haste, co-author with Cherie Booth of a book on the lot of the statesman’s spouse.

Producer: Christine Hall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics: Series 1

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

Series 1

Aspasia

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4