Marie Antoinette (Radio Edit)
You're Dead to Me
BBC
4.7 • 11.8K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Greg Jenner is joined in the 18th century by historian Professor Katherine Astbury and comedian Jen Brister to learn about French queen Marie Antoinette.
Born an Austrian princess, Marie Antoinette went on to be the last queen of France before the Revolution and the abolition of the monarchy. She is famous now for saying "let them eat cake", for her love of fashion, and her supposedly extravagant spending at a time when ordinary people in France were going hungry. But how true are any of these stories, and where did these myths about her originate?
In this episode, we look at Marie Antoinette’s Austrian childhood and overbearing mother, her marriage to Louis XVI and time as queen of France, and the hatred directed at her by the revolutionaries. Along the way we take in her involvement in politics, her love of the theatre, and her possible Swedish sweetheart.
This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed.
Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Charlotte Emily Edgeshaw Written by: Charlotte Emily Edgeshaw, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and Comedy Specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm |
| 0:27.3 | biased, it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops |
| 0:32.3 | and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously. |
| 0:41.9 | My name is Greg Janna. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster. |
| 0:45.3 | And today we are hopping into our hoops skirts and styling our hair in the French fashion as we travel back to 18th century France to learn about Queen Marie Antoinette. |
| 0:54.6 | And to help us separate myth from reality, we have two very special courtiers. |
| 0:58.7 | In History Corner, she's Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick. |
| 1:02.8 | Her research focuses on French culture in the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, |
| 1:06.4 | especially plays, prints and novels. |
| 1:08.5 | She's the author of narrative responses to the trauma of the French Revolution. It Professor Catherine Asprey. Welcome, Kate. Thank you very much for inviting me. And in Comedy Corner, she's a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. You'll have seen her on all the TV on Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week, Frankie Boyle's New World Order. Or maybe you heard her podcast, WTB, or her other podcast, Memory Lane. And you will definitely know her |
| 1:28.4 | from our episodes on Honan Cortez and Melinsin and on Emma of Normandy. It's Jen Bresda. Welcome back, |
| 1:34.2 | Jen. Thank you, Greg. I'm delighted to be back. We have previously done together English |
| 1:38.9 | history, Spanish history, Mexican history. Obvious question. Do you parley vu Francaise? |
| 1:44.4 | Unpiti poor. |
| 1:45.3 | Oh! |
| 1:45.5 | Let's like, don't, I don't want to get into it because I don't want to embarrass Kate. |
| 1:50.0 | Thank you. |
| 1:50.6 | All your stuff, Greg, actually. |
... |
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