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BBC Radio 4


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


Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

No togas today please. Natalie celebrates the mid-winter festival of Ancient Rome, Saturnalia. According to Catullus, it's the 'best of days'. 

Expect cross-dressing, sweets, drinking games and the wearing of special pyjamas. Oh and anarchy and jokes. Sounds a bit like a Christmas pantomime? Not surprising, according to veteran pantomime dame André Vincent, who traces the origins of panto back to the fifth century. Early in that same century - late antiquity - a Roman Christian named Macrobius wrote the most comprehensive extant guide to Saturnalia, which was celebrated in some places, in one way or another, until possibly the eleventh century.

You are invited to be part of this festive show which includes gifts for the entire Radio Theatre audience (cue noisy rustling of sweet bags) and the wearing of traditional Saturnalian pointy hats (the 'pileus') to celebrate. Even Professor Llewelyn Morgan has one. Honest.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery

Saturnalia

Natalie is joined by Professors Islam Issa and Edith Hall to tell the story of the ancient city of Alexandria. Located on the Nile Delta, this spectacular and highly innovative city was founded by Alexander the Great around two and half thousand years ago. And like all great ideas, it came to him in a dream.

'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of 'Divine Might', 'Stone Blind', and 'A Thousand Ships' as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about ancient Greece and Rome. 

Islam Issa is Professor of Literature and History at Birmingham City University. His book 'Alexandria, the City that Changed the World' is the Winner of the Runciman Award and The Times, Sunday Times, TLS, Booklist, Epoch Times and Waterstones Book of the Year.

Edith Hall is Professor of Classics at Durham University, specialising in ancient Greek literature. She has written over thirty books and is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery

Alexandria: The City

Natalie is joined by Professors Islam Issa and Edith Hall to tell the story of the great library of Alexandria. It was included in Alexander the Great's original design for his city, located in the Nile Delta. Alexandria was to be a city of knowledge. 

The founders of the library were ambitious: they wanted nothing less than to collect all the books in the world. They were willing to pay huge sums, but they were also ruthless and unscrupulous. The Ptolemies would write to fellow rulers and wealthy friends and ask to borrow their priceless texts. Then the library would copy the scrolls, and return the copies. Or alternatively they'd just steal them. 

Handily, papyrus, the principal reading material of the era, grew in great abundance around Alexandria. So there was plenty of it for those copies. Less fortunately, it's extremely flammable. So in 48 BCE, when Julius Caesar's besieged army set fire to ships in the harbour in order to block the invading fleet, the fire spread and destroyed a significant part of the library.

'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of 'Divine Might', 'Stone Blind', and 'A Thousand Ships' as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greek and Rome.

Islam Issa is Professor of Literature and History at Birmingham City University. His book 'Alexandria, the City that Changed the World' is the Winner of the Runciman Award and The Times, Sunday Times, TLS, Booklist, Epoch Times and Waterstones Book of the Year.

Edith Hall is Professor of Classics at Durham University, specialising in ancient Greek literature. She has written over thirty books and is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery

Alexandria: The Library

Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.
 
Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome.
 
Today she stands up in the name of one of the most powerful women of Ancient Rome and Caligula's big sister, Agrippina the Younger. 
 
Julia Agrippina was pretty well-connected all round given that her granddad was the Emperor Augustus, her husband (also her uncle: don't ask) was Emperor Claudius and her son was Emperor Nero. 
 
And she was no slouch. Turns out it was her handiness with the purse strings that kept the Empire going. Also, who else has survived an assassination attempt by a specially built collapsible boat?
 
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2016.

Agrippina

Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.
 
Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome.
 
She stands up in the name of Greek playwright and inventor of 'old comedy', Aristophanes. Expect a chorus of frogs, rather too much information about padded costumes, and a sex strike. Oh, and a lot of gossip from two and half thousand years ago.
 
With special guests:

Rosie Wyles
Edith Hall 
Fiona Laird.

Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2016.

Aristophanes

Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.
 
Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome.
 
She stands up in the name of Roman poet, Ovid. Expect frottage at the races, Greek myths from a female perspective, and enough inspiration for painters, writers and sculptures to last a couple of millenia. 

With special guests: 

Llewelyn Morgan
Michael Squire 
 
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2016.

Ovid

Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.

Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome.

She's standing up in the name of one of the world's greatest thinkers, Plato.

With the help of:

Psychotherapist, Philippa Perry
Classicist, Professor Edith Hall. 
 
Plato wasn't perfect, even though he talks about perfection all the time. Turns out he was on the chunky side and had bad eyesight. On the other hand, he was very good at wrestling.

Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2016.

Plato

Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. 

Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. 

Now she's standing up in the name of the Roman lawyer, politician and orator Cicero. 

Maybe we'd all love him a bit more if Shakespeare had had a nicer Latin teacher. Expect a lot of gossip from a thousand years ago. 

With special guests:

Lawyer Mark Stephens
Professor Llewelyn Morgan 

Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2017.

Cicero

Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.

Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome.

This time Natalie stands up in the name of Greek writer Lucian. Expect to hear about the possible origins of 'The Life of Brian', the possible inspiration for Mickey Mouse and a trip to the moon about a thousand years before NASA.

With special guests Professor Edith Hall and Matthew Sweet.
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2017.

Juvenal

Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. 

Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. 

Now she standing up in the name of Greek writer Lucian. Expect to hear about the possible origins of 'The Life of Brian', the possible inspiration for Mickey Mouse and a trip to the moon about a thousand years before NASA. 

With special guests:

Professor Edith Hall
Writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet. 

Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2017.

Lucian

"Rock star classicist" and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. In these series she explores (historical and mythological) lives from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They are hilarious and tragic, mystifying, revelatory. And they always tell us more about ourselves now than seems possible of stories from a couple of thousand years ago.

Today Natalie stands up for Jocasta, whose second marriage was to Oedipus. Now for some spoilers if you're thinking of watching or reading Sophocles' play Oedipus Tyrannus. 

After some years of happy marriage and four children, Jocasta discovers that Oedipus is, in fact, her son, and the murderer of her first husband (his father) Laius. Jocasta only has a few lines in the famous play, but we learn a remarkable amount about her character. She is smarter than her husband, quicker to understand what's happening and its implications. She is courageous. And she is quicker to act. 

The story - in all its forms - is still spellbindingly shocking today.

With Professor Edith Hall.
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery for BBC Audio in Bristol

Jocasta

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