Tony Robinson's Cunningcast

Ben Elton is on Cunningcast today.  Ben was the co-writer on Blackadder Series 2, 3 and 4: they talk about Ben's comedy roots, working on The Young Ones with Rik and Ade and how Ben got the Blackadder gig via a near miss TV sitcom about Madness. They also chew over the highs and lows of working on Blackadder and how Ben and Richard Curtis created 'Adder speak'.Alongside Blackadder, Ben Elton cut his comedy chops on The Young Ones. He’s a stand-up legend on stage and TV and one of Britain's biggest live comedy acts. His stellar CV includes writing an incredible 17 novels, as well as the hit musicals ‘The Beautiful Game’; ‘We Will Rock You’ and the sequel to ‘The Phantom of the Opera’.Last year Blackadder turned 40, to mark the occasion, Tony made a TV show in which he tracked down the lost Blackadder pilot to discover the truth of Blackadder's beginnings. For the show, Tony interviewed many old friends and people who are central to making Blackadder the success it was. You are hearing Tony’s unedited, behind the scenes chat with Ben Elton, recorded for the programme. The show is called Blackadder: The Lost Pilot and you can watch it on catch up on Sky, Virgin & Now.Hosted by Sir Tony RobinsonX | InstagramWithBen Elton | https://benelton.live/ Credits:  Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville Blackadder: The Lost Pilot is produced by Red Sauce A Zinc Media Group production Follow: X @cunningcastpod Instagram @cunningcastpod YouTube @cunningcast If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x

Fresh off the back of celebrating 60 years of Dr Who last year and looking ahead to welcoming the 15th Doctor to the blockbuster show, Tony is joined by Sophie Aldred who played Dr Who’s assistant Ace and the writer, broadcaster and Dr Who superfan, Matthew Sweet. Together they look back over an incredible history of this abidingly successful show, sharing all the Whoniverse gossip from the very first episode starring William Hartnell as the Doctor; the cutting-edge soundtrack created by Delia Derbyshire; hearing how Sophie got the role as Ace aged just 24; though to the show getting cancelled in 1989 and the creative ‘wilderness years’ of Dr Who when it was off air but not out of mind; Russell T Davis’s reboot and the new Doctors for a new generation. We also get answers to the popular questions: was Tony ever in Dr Who? What kind of Doctor would he have made and is Baldrick the ultimate time traveller? Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | @Tony_Robinson WithSophie Aldred | @sophie_aldred Sophie played The Doctor’s companion Ace in the original television series (to Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor). She later reprised her role in ‘Ascend From Darkness’. She was in the last episode of Dr Who ‘Survival’, before it was cancelled in 1989. Matthew Sweet | @DrMatthewSweet      Journalist, broadcaster, author, and cultural historian. Matthew presented 'Dr Who: The Wilderness Years' on Radio 4 to mark its 60th anniversaryFollow the Show: X @cunningcastpodIG @cunningcastpodYoutube @CunningcastSeries Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | @melissafitzgEpisode Producer: Simon Hollis Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville Cover Art: The Brightside A Zinc Media Group production If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x

20 years after playing Baldrick, Tony is still stopped in the street and asked where my turnip is!  Turnips made him famous, so today Tony is talking turnips in history: have they always been so unloved, a food fit only for animals and peasants like Baldrick, or is this a recent British bugbear? And when did the potato steal their veggie crown? Tony’s guests today are food historians Rebecca Earle and Serin Quinn alongside a chef for all seasons who loves to cook with turnips, Oliver Rowe.Hosted by Sir Tony RobinsonX | InstagramWithProfessor Rebecca Earle | www.rebeccaearle.co.uk An historian of food at the University of Warwick, Rebecca is interested in how ordinary, every-day activities such as eating or dressing shape how we think about the world and how others view us. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/people/staff_index/earleOliver Rowe | www.oliver-rowe.co.uk/ | IG: @oliver_rowe_londonChef and author whose work focuses on local and seasonal food. Oliver’s book, Food for All Seasons, a personal wander through the food year is published by Faber and available online and from all good bookshops. Serin Quinn PhD student in the Department of History at the University of Warwick, interested in all things vegetable! https://theconversation.com/turnips-how-britain-fell-out-of-love-with-the-much-maligned-vegetable-201007 Follow the Show: X @cunningcastpod Instagram @cunningcastpod YouTube @cunningcastCredits:  Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville Cover Art: The Brightside A Zinc Media Group production  If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x

Today Tony is talking to the composer Howard Goodall CBE, who wrote the now iconic Blackadder theme tune. Howard is one of Britain’s best-known composers of choral music, stage musicals, TV and film scores. He wrote the themes tunes for many hit comedy shows including Red Dwarf, Mr. Bean, The Vicar of Dibley, The Catherine Tate Show, 2point4 Children and Q.I. but like so many of the talent who worked on the show, it all started with Blackadder.Last year Blackadder turned 40, to mark the occasion, Tony made a TV show in which he tracked down the lost Blackadder pilot to discover the truth of Blackadder's beginnings. You are hearing Tony’s unedited, behind the scenes chat with Howard Goodall recorded for the programme. The show is called Blackadder: The Lost Pilot and you can watch it on Sky, Virgin & NowHosted by Sir Tony RobinsonX | InstagramWithHoward Goodall CBE | www.howardgoodall.co.uk | @Howard_Goodall Credits:  Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville Blackadder: The Lost Pilot is produced by Red Sauce A Zinc Media Group production Follow: X @cunningcastpod Instagram @cunningcastpod YouTube @cunningcast If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x 

Marching 73 miles from coast to coast across the narrowest neck of England, Hadrian’s Wall was the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire for nearly 300 years and yet there is still so much we don’t know about it: only 5% of the wall has been excavated and 7% is viable today. Tony is joined by leading archaeologist Richard Hingley and Collections Curator for Hadrian's Wall and the North East at English Heritage, Frances McIntosh, to give him the low down on how and why Hadrian’s Wall was built, by whom and what it means to us today. Hosted by Sir Tony RobinsonX | InstagramWithProf. Richard Hingley | https://richardhingley1.wordpress.com/ Professor Emeritus in Archaeology at Durham University. An expert on Hadrian’s Wall, Richard is the author of Conquering the Ocean: The Roman Conquest of Britain (Oxford University Press) and Hadrian’s Wall: A life, (Oxford University Press). https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conquering-the-ocean-9780190937416?cc=gb&lang=en& | https://academic.oup.com/book/27846. Dr. Frances McIntosh | @englishHeritage | @wallcurator Collections Curator for Hadrian's Wall and the North East at English Heritage. An archaeologist by training, Frances specialises in Roman small finds, having completed her PhD on the Clayton Collection material, on display at Chesters. Follow the Show: X @cunningcastpod Instagram @cunningcastpod YouTube @cunningcast Credits:  Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville Cover Art: The Brightside A Zinc Media Group production If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x

Passwords and codes are something we take for granted in the digital age, but this is such a new development and today Tony is going back to a time when making and breaking codes was an almost exclusively high-level military activity: most famously done behind closed doors by the brains at Bletchley Park. He is joined by two people who are giving him the long view on codes and codebreaking: the Bletchley Park military historian David Kenyon and the Chief Information Security Officer at the BBC, Helen Rabe.Hosted by Sir Tony RobinsonX | InstagramWithDr David Kenyon David is responsible for historical research in support of all public content at Bletchley Park, the Second World War code-breaking site in Buckinghamshire, now a museum. He has published two books on BP; Bletchley Park and D-Day in 2019, and Arctic Convoys, Bletchley Park and the War for the Seas in 2023. https://bletchleypark.org.uk/  | X @bletchleypark | IG @bletchleyparkuk Helen Rabe Chief Information Security Officer at the BBC, Helen has a proven track record of developing, executing, and maturing bespoke ISMS strategies. She has managed successful high performing teams to mitigate risk, counter threats and deliver world-class security & data privacy management solutions across varied industry sectors ranging from financial services, life sciences & more recently, broadcasting & media.Cover photo courtesy of the Bletchley Park TrustFollow the show: X @cunningcastpod Instagram @cunningcastpod YouTube @CunningcastCredits:Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville A Zinc Media Group production X @zinc_mediaIf you enjoyed my podcast, please follow the show and leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x

Men’s facial hair is very prone to fashions: moustaches and beards are back in, but why is that and what sparks bread trends and facial hair fashions? To help him find out, Tony has invited ‘beard’ historian Alun Withey and male grooming influencer Robin James | Man For Himself. They discuss 17th Century notions of facial hair as a waste product; through barber-surgeons and early shaving practices; powdered wigs; the Victorian beard movement; King Camp Gillett’s safely razor; the First World War military moustache; film star fashion icons to the rising popularity of men’s hair products and male grooming.Hosted by Sir Tony RobinsonX | InstagramWithRobin James | Man For Himselfwww.ManForHimself.com and IG @ManForHimself Exploring men’s hair, grooming, fragrance and lifestyle.Dr Alun Withey | Historianhttp://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/history/staff/withey/ Historian of early modern medicine and senior lecturer in History at the University of Exeter. Alun's major research project ‘Do Beards Matter?’, funded by the Wellcome Trust forms the basis of his book Concerning Beards: Facial Hair, Health and Practice in England, 1650-1900 (London: Bloomsbury, 2021). Follow the show: X @cunningcastpod Instagram @cunningcastpod YouTube @Cunningcast Credits:  Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville Cover Art: The Brightside A Zinc Media Group production If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x  

Today Tony is talking to his old friend and collaborator, the screenwriter Richard Curtis. They share memories of making Blackadder from the early years to how it all ended. Along the way, they discuss Richard’s comedy roots and how he became a top comedy screenwriter: meeting Rowan Atkinson at Oxford Uni; working on Not The Nine O’Clock News; the influence of Fawlty Towers and plans for a Blackadder series set in the 1960s that never happened. Plus, they read lines from the Blackadder pilot script and discover where Baldrick’s ‘cunning plan’ catch-phrase comes from.Last year Blackadder turned 40, to mark the occasion, Tony made a TV show in which he tracked down the lost Blackadder pilot to discover the truth of Blackadder's beginnings. For the show, Tony interviewed many old friends and people who are central to making Blackadder the success it was, as well as Blackadder superfan David Mitchell, who is featured in Cunningcast Series 2, Episode 4. You are hearing Tony’s unedited, behind the scenes chat with Richard Curtis recorded for the TV programme. The show is called Blackadder: The Lost Pilot and you can watch it on Sky, Virgin & Now.Richard Curtis was Blackadder’s mastermind and writer, alongside Ben Elton. He’s one of Britain's most successful screenwriters and producers, with credits including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Mr Bean, The Vicar of Dibley, Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Yesterday. He’s also the co-founder of Comic Relief.Hosted by Sir Tony RobinsonX | InstagramWithRichard Curtis Credits:  Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville Blackadder: The Lost Pilot is produced by Red Sauce A Zinc Media Group production Follow: X @cunningcastpod Instagram @cunningcastpod YouTube @cunningcast If you enjoyed my podcast, please leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x