Cleopatra picked by Kate Williams
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." She's the most famous character in antiquity, made more famous by Shakespeare and Hollywood films. But this Cleopatra is not the one Kate Williams has come to nominate. She wants to move from the cliches and reclaim her as an astute politician determined to keep Egypt from falling to Rome. The discussion includes Professor of Egyptology Joyce Tyldesley and is presented by Matthew Parris.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.2 | Things just swirling around my head. |
| 0:09.6 | Am I really the product of this? |
| 0:12.1 | Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests. |
| 0:17.0 | Little did I know what more was to come. |
| 0:19.5 | I'm Jenny Clemen, and in the new series of The Gift, we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database. |
| 0:28.8 | They did know that I was different. |
| 0:31.7 | You had kids together. |
| 0:33.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:33.5 | Then you met. |
| 0:34.3 | Then we met. |
| 0:35.2 | The Gift. |
| 0:36.1 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.3 | Hello, age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety. |
| 0:45.3 | I could of course be talking about my guest, but Shakespeare's line refers to Cleopatra, |
| 0:51.3 | the great Pharaoh of Egypt, who died, according to legend, clutching an asp to her bosom. |
| 0:57.2 | When she died, the date was 30 BC, it brought to an end an independent civilization, dating |
| 1:03.3 | almost 3,000 years. And we've waited for someone to nominate Cleopatra for almost as long. |
| 1:10.1 | So welcome, Professor Kate Kate Williams to our show, |
| 1:13.6 | and tell us why you've picked her today. Well, Matthew, Cleopatra is the most famous queen of the ancient |
| 1:19.7 | world. She's one of the most famous queens in history. Yet over and over again, she's characterized |
| 1:25.1 | as a failure, as sexualized. And none of this was true. She was a |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 25 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.