Histories of the Unexpected

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all romantic with a St Valentine's Day special on the history of gthe colour RED! Which is all about romance and the history of emotions, via Macbeth and blood, early cinema and technicolour, and superstitions about red hair and red thread. It is also about the history of race, ethnography and native American peoples, favourite colours and of course Judas Iscariot. Who knew! It's also of course about the Robert Burn's poem A Red, Red, Rose:

O my Luve is like a red, red rose 

   That’s newly sprung in June; 

O my Luve is like the melody 

   That’s sweetly played in tune. 

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 

   So deep in luve am I; 

And I will luve thee still, my dear, 

   Till a’ the seas gang dry. 

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, 

   And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; 

I will love thee still, my dear, 

   While the sands o’ life shall run. 

And fare thee weel, my only luve! 

   And fare thee weel awhile! 

And I will come again, my luve, 

   Though it were ten thousand mile.