In 1819, a time of high unemployment and rampant poverty, tens of thousands of mostly working-class men, women and children gathered in St Peter's Field, Manchester, demanding universal male suffrage.

But cavalry charged into the crowd with their sabres drawn, killing and injuring hundreds in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre.

This is working class history.

Good people give here, since times are so hard.

My song to the poor, it does pay some regard for trade being dead, I'm weaving out of a and I hope in a few months it will make men's for all Hi and welcome back to the working class history podcast I'm John and I am Rakan

The Peterloo massacre on the 16th of August 1819 was a pivotal moment in British history, particularly in terms of the fight for the right to vote.

It's now the subject of a major feature film Peterloo, directed by Mike Lee, which is in cinemas now.

We are very pleased to be joined by Mike and Dr Jacqueline Riding, historical consultant on the film and author of Peter Loo, the story of the

Manchester Massacre, to speak about the history of this event and the film. Dotted throughout

this episode, we're also including some audio clips from the film itself. Maybe you start

by telling us a little bit about the historical background to the Peter Lou Massacre. What kind of

the social issues were for people in the area at the time, that kind of thing?

Well, this is the post-Waterloo period.

So we've had 22 years of warfare.

Coupled with that, there's been failed harvests in the summer of 1816,

known as the year without summer because of a volcanic eruption in 1815.

There's food riots, there's unemployment. You've got the disbanded veterans of Waterloo

coming back to Great Britain and exacerbating an already sort of troubled labour market. So it's a perfect storm.

And so

these are kind of the issues which were

in people's minds, I suppose, when they were

preparing for people who

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