Fetch the Smelling Salts

Period dramas are for dudes too! And this week we have Tan and Keon from the awesome Pastmaster podcast to help us navigate the dudiest dudefest around: Gladiator. We’re thinking about the Roman Empire an exactly normal amount and discussing tickle-snake surprises, extremely extra Emperors and historically-accurate product endorsement.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith Nagl

In this week’s special Fainting Couch episode, Kim and Alice are smooching their undergardeners and celebrating queer representation in TV and cinema. We’re looking at the history, the controversy and depiction of LGBTQ+ people on screen, and demanding more queer joy please!Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Helen Hamilton / Keith NagleProducer: Helen HamiltonSourcesArticle: Ja

It’s Pride season, and Kim and Alice are celebrating by discussing the queeriest 2020 Mexican drama, ‘Dance of the 41’. There’s cigar innuendo, bathtub math and honeymoon-related fainting, as well as the real history of the LGBTQ+ community in 1900s Mexico.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith NagleProducer: Helen HamiltonSourcesArticle: Brendan O'Boyle; '"Los 41": The Q

This week we’re having our hearts broken by a bad case of British butler-itis, as Kim and Alice sob through The Remains of the Day. We’re learning about the politics of the aristocracy, strict servant etiquette and why you shouldn’t learn the facts of life from Anthony Hopkins.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Helen Hamilton / Keith NagleProducer: Helen Hamilton

Move over Elizabeth and Victoria, there’s a new Queen in town. This week Kim and Alice tackle ‘The Favourite’, the darkly comic / just plain dark Queen Anne biopic. Why aren’t more period dramas set in the Stuart period? Who won the duck race? And where can we hire a naked Tory for our next party?Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Helen Hamilton / Keith NagleProducer: Helen

You better get to shirtless sword practice because these elephants only respect hot people! This week Kim and Alice are covering Indian epic, Jodhaa Akbar. It’s a historical romance with all the jewellery and political intrigue you can handle, along with Kim’s favourite kind of montage… a montage of LOVE.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Helen Hamilton / Keith NagleProducer:

Ain’t no party like a cloud moon party; this week Kim and Alice are discussing the gorgeous Japanese animation, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. We reveal our preferred method of baby-making (it’s Bamboo-based), discuss some fierce Heian period fashion and congratulate Mt Fuji on sticking to her New Year’s resolutions.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith Nagle / Helen Ham

We’re jumping on our 1850s waterbed with excitement, as this week Kim and Alice are joined by Laurel from Hightailing Through History to discuss the BBC miniseries, North & South. The industrial North is in her strike era and the men are blaming women for their feelings again, but exactly how many red flags will we ignore if someone’s hot?Check out Hightailing Through Histo

This week Kim and Alice cover their first African-set period drama - the historical action-adventure, ‘The Woman King’. We discuss the real Agojie tribe, the sheer joy of watching some badass women kick some butts and pledge our undying allegiance to Izogie.Sound Recordist: Keith NagleEditor: Keith NagleProducer: Helen Hamilton

There are rigid thrombi all round this week, as Kim and Alice discuss the massively unsubtle 2011 movie, Hysteria. We’re talking about the true history of the invention of the vibrator (spoiler: this isn’t it), the ongoing misdiagnosis of women’s health issues and keeping musk oil far away from our intimate areas.Sound Engineer: Keith NagleEditor: Keith Nagle / Helen Hamilton