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You're doing.

M. Do you do.

Do you do.

Do you do?

Do you? Hello everyone.

Before we start this week's episode, which is an interview I ought to very briefly explain. One of the things I am very aware of is

that the English Republic, Commonwealth and protectorate, lives on in the public

memory as a time of gum-bleeding Puritanism, particularly focused on things like a conoclasm,

the closing of the theatre, the cancelling of Christmas, and the rule of the major generals,

which bit of joy we have coming up. Now look I am not here to

contradict that story far bit from me and in fact I think some of the elements of the

eye-watering Puritanness have actually been forgotten, such as the adultery

law of 1650 that made adultery a capital offense, just for example.

However, although I'm not here to contradict, I am here to offer nuance, and I have also become

very aware of just how vibrant and creative culture was through these times and how many

things start here. So I'll do an episode at some stage about all

of that, some of it done despite the regime like the first opera performed in England and John Playford's Dancing Master and others publicly like Hobbs, the first coffee shop in England, the start of watch will become the Royal Society and writers like Margaret Cavendish. But I thought

I would start with a couple that we have already mentioned and know about, the

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