Henry IV Part 1
In Our Time: Culture
BBC
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most successful of Shakespeare's plays in his own time. Written with no Part 2 in mind as 'Henry the Fourth', the play explores ideas about who can be a legitimate ruler and why, and how anyone can rightly succeed to the throne. This was an especially pressing question for his Tudor audience as Elizabeth I had named no successor. Playwrights, banned from openly discussing the jeopardy her subjects faced, turned to these themes of power, legitimacy and succession in distant and recent history. When Shakespeare combined this relevance with the vivid characters of Falstaff, Hotspur and Hal and with the tensions between noble fathers and sons, he had a play that fascinated well into the Jacobean era and has been revived throughout the centuries.
With
Emma Smith Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford
Lucy Munro Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at Kings College London
And
Laurence Publicover Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Bristol
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Hailey Bachrach, Staging Female Characters in Shakespeare’s English History Plays (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
Warren Chernaik, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s History Plays (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
Stephen Greenblatt, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power (Bodley Head, 2018)
Graham Holderness, Shakespeare: The Histories (Red Globe Press, 1999)
Jean Howard and Phyllis Rackin, Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare's English Histories (Routledge, 1997)
William Shakespeare (eds. Indira Ghose, Anna Pruitt and Emma Smith), Henry IV Part I: The New Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford University Press, 2024)
William Shakespeare (ed. Gordon McMullan), 1 Henry IV: A Norton Critical Edition, 3rd edition (Norton, 2003)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production
Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:09.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC |
| 0:13.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry. |
| 0:17.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, your dead to me is available first on BBC Sounds, |
| 0:26.3 | a whole month earlier than anywhere else, in fact. So if you can't wait another day to hear the very |
| 0:31.6 | latest in history and loads of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.9 | This is In Our Time from BBC Radio 4, and this is one of more than a thousand episodes you can find in the In Our Time archive. |
| 0:46.4 | A reading list for this edition can be found in the episode description wherever you're listening. |
| 0:51.9 | I hope you enjoy the programme. |
| 0:54.6 | Hello, Shakespeare's Henry V, Part 1 asks who will succeed to the throne and why? |
| 1:02.0 | Now, for his Tudor audience, that was a very pressing question because Elizabeth I had named no successor, |
| 1:08.7 | so playwrights, who were banned from openly exploring that |
| 1:12.4 | disturbing fact, turned to history to consider themes of power, legitimacy and succession. And when you |
| 1:19.9 | add Henry IV's relevance for the Tudors to the vivid characters of Fulstaff, Hotspur and |
| 1:25.6 | Howell, the tensions between noble fathers and sons, |
| 1:29.6 | it's no wonder this play was one of Shakespeare's most popular then and now. |
| 1:35.3 | With me to discuss Henry IV, Part 1, are Lucy Monroe, Professor of Shakespeare |
| 1:40.7 | and Early Modern Literature at King's College London, |
| 1:49.6 | Lawrence Publicova, Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Bristol, |
| 1:56.0 | and Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hartford College University of Oxford. |
| 2:01.1 | Emma, simple question to start. Can you summarise the plot of the play? |
... |
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