This week we’re setting sail on a kinda slutty immigrant adventure, with the beautifully understated Brooklyn. Kim and Alice enjoy all the messy drama whilst also uncovering the history of Irish immigration and why you should always go drinking with your priest.

Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle
Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle
Producer: Helen Hamilton

Sources

• Article: National Parks Service 'Post-peak Immigration Years'
• Article: Irish Times, 'Making Brooklyn in Enniscorthy: 'Saoirse Ronan was lovely. She had a cup of tea in my kitchen'.
• Article: Irish America Magazine, 'Shades of Brooklyn'
• Article: Brownstoner, '5 Gone-but-Not-Forgotten Brooklyn Shopping Emporium's
• Article: Baxter St. 'Day in Ellis Island, 1951: Erika Stone Portfolio'

We’re getting spooky this week as Kim and Alice get increasingly frustrated by gothic horror ‘Crimson Peak’. Whilst the characters are ignoring both the red flags and red ghosts, our hosts discuss gothic literature and Guillermo del Toro’s hatred of faces.

Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle
Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle
Producer: Helen Hamilton

This week we’re joined by Em, host of Verbal Diorama, to discuss quite possibly the perfect movie: the 90s adventure, horror fun-time classic, The Mummy. Em explains how the film came to be (thank-you Babe: Pig in the City) whilst Kim and Alice find out that love makes you do some crazy things, like unhinge your jaw and cover Egyptians in boils.

For more fascinating film history, you can find Em at:
Verbal Diorama Podcast


Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle
Editor: Keith Nagle
Producer: Helen Hamilton

Sources

• Blog post: Egypt at the Manchester Museum, “Representation and Reality in ‘The Mummy’ (1999)” by Matt Szafran AND “The Cult of Imhotep”
• Screenrant article: “How much of The Mummy 1999 is actually real?”
• Egypt Exploration Society website
• Egypt Exploration Society 1926 Annual Report
• BBC podcast The Forum episode: “Imhotep, the man behind The Mummy”
• Blog post: Clare College, University of Cambridge, “Egyptomania” by Toby Wilkinson
• Article from Enterprise: The State of the Nation (Egypt): “A look back at Egypt’s roaring ‘20s”
• Sky History article: “The curse of Tutankhamun and the mummy’s tomb”

Come on law boys, grab your wigs and let’s hang as we enjoy the beautiful historical drama, Belle. Alice and Kim discuss what they want from a period drama, and how a glossy romantic story can be the starting point for learning about the worst parts of human history.

Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle
Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle
Producer: Helen Hamilton

Sources

• Website: All Things Georgian
• Article: Kate Kellaway; 'Amma Asante: "I'm bi-cultural, I walk the division that Belle walked every day", The Observer, 18th May 2014
• Article: English Heritage; 'The Somerset v Stewart Case', Accessed 25th Sept 2024
• Podcast: The English Heritage Podcast; 'Episode 168 - Somerset v Stewart: the landmark trial that helped to end slavery', 16th June 2022
• Article: Wikipedia; 'Zong Massacre', Accessed 25th Sept 2024

We’re back! Season 2 of Fetch the Smelling Salts kicks off in style with historian Clara Chamberlain helping us make sense of dictator-funded epic dude-in-a-desert film, El Cid. We’re talking about the creation of national myths, fist-fights at a funeral and the most insane final 15 minutes of any film, ever.

Find more from Clara on:
Instagram: @clarabchamberlain
Substack: Once Upon a Time, Long Ago

Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle
Editor: Keith Nagle
Producer: Helen Hamilton

We’re throwing our heads back, flailing our arms and running off for a summer break, but there’s still time for Kim and Alice to discuss the classic ‘Chariots of Fire’. We have Olympic trivia, separate the fact from fiction and discuss all manner of dongs.

Sound Engineer: Keith Nagle
Editor: Keith Nagle
Producer: Helen Hamilton

Sources

• Documentary: Dir. Adrian Sibley; 'The Real Chariots of Fire'; ITV (2012)
• Article: Nathalie Morris; 'The book that inspired Chariots of Fire'; bfi.org; July 2012
• Article: Rose Staveley-Wadham; 'Exploring the Real 'Chariots of Fire' - As Reported in Our Newspapers'; britishnewspaperarchive.com; July 2021
• Article: Jeffrey Richards; 'Chariots of Fire'; historytoday.com; August 2012
• Article: Philip Barker; '40 Years of Chariots of Fire'; International Society of Olympic Historians (isoh,org); 2021

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 Nagle
Editor: Keith Nagle
Producer: Helen Hamilton

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 Nagle
Editor: Helen Hamilton / Keith Nagle
Producer: Helen Hamilton

Sources

• Article: Jack King; '10 great films about queer history'; BFI.org.uk; February 2021
• Article: Isabelle Grimshaw; 'A Short History of LGBTQ+ Cinema'; freesat.co.uk; June 2023
• Documentary: 'Queerama' (2017); Dir. Daisy Asquith