Great Lives

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)

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Life Stories

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Great Lives: Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton

Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton

Shappi Khorsandi chooses Emma, Lady Hamilton Lord Nelson’s mistress.

4 Extra Debut. Comedian and author Shappi Khorsandi chooses Lady Emma Hamilton, Lord Nelson's mistress. With Matthew Paris. From 2019.

Comedian and author Shappi Khorsandi has been desperate to tell the story of Emma, Lady Hamilton as she’s quite simply one of her greatest fans. 

Everyone knows Emma Hamilton as simply the seducer of Admiral Horatio Nelson but according to Shappi she was more than that; history has simply palmed her off as a prostitute, a mistress, without looking at the deeper story of what she suffered and endured.

In this programme Shappi, with help from Professor Kate Williams, author of ‘England’s Mistress’, makes the case for how this woman born into poverty clawed her way up through London’s sordid underworld and became fantastically famous posing for artist George Romney. She also became an ambassador’s wife and mixed in diplomatic circles and became the confidante of both Marie Antoinette and the Queen of Naples.

Will presenter Matthew Parris be convinced and accept Emma, Lady Hamilton as a great life.

Producer: Perminder Khatkar

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.

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

Great Lives

Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4