Proms Podcast

Is it relevant whether the leader of the New World has roots in the Old World?

Past Notes

Phones were Churchill's nod to modernity

On why politicians can't keep in touch

Films couldn't show nudity or Jesus Christ

Past Notes

Leona Helmsley: every dog should have its day

Past Notes: If you are a dog, you'd wish you belonged to Sir Mahabut Khanji

History men who took a stand like David Davis

Past Notes: remember two Labour names - Sir Richard Acland and George Lansbury

Modern architects try to dodge the wrecking ball

Past Notes: New brutalism faces the same fate as Georgian terraces

It's 1899: ban the bomb from balloons

Past Notes: today we ban cluster bombs. Then there were different weapons under scrutiny

Remember 1882, as the Cornish say

Past Notes: if the Cornish are to revive their language, they should take a history lesson

Why Margot Asquith is like Cherie Blair

Past Notes: The memoirs of the former Prime Ministers' wives have striking similarities

A 164ft horse - that's nothing!

Past Notes: the idea of colossal works of public art was familiar to those living in 1799

Doing time was done with style

What modern prisoners now buy illicitly used to be all part of the service in the 1700s

Is there cricket in North Korea?

Past Notes: Can cricket be exported? America took to it in the 19th century. Why not China?

Battle of the healers is nothing new

An 18th-century wonder cure was compelling to semi-literate maidservant and Oxford don alike

The 1936 Olympic flame rumpus

Past Notes: if you think the present farce is unprecedented, think back 70 years

A Victorian entente formidable

Past Notes: in 1855 the French Emperor wowed the crowds rather like the Sarkozys this week

Was God in the White House?

Past Notes: we think of presidents as churchgoers, but 11 out of 43 were not members of a church

National Day: perfectly British

Past Notes: the sneerers at proposals for a day of swearing allegiance have short memories

The Proms: open up the bubbly

Past Notes: when Margaret Hodge criticised the Proms, she may not have known their history

Beware the mighty Liechtenstein

Past Notes: German anger towards the tiny principality goes back to the 19th century

A Rock-like moment for Wilson

Past Notes: When everything took a nosedive in 1974, scores of banks faced ruin