Nell Gwyn
You're Dead to Me
BBC
4.7 • 11.8K Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2021
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the original comedic rags to riches stories, Nell Gwyn. We're travelling back to 17th century England to delve into a celebrity of the Restoration era, one of the first actresses in comedy and a mistress to King Charles II all rolled into one!
Nell Gwyn's life is as eventful and comedic as her turns on the stage, and Greg Jenner and his guests have a lot of fun unpicking this incredible life story where politics meets the stage, and there is only one (or maybe several?) winner/s
Greg is joined by associate professor and writer of 'Prologues and Epilogues of Restoration Theatre: Gender and Comedy, Performance and Print', Diana Solomon, and flanked by Jess Knappett, comedian, actress, writer and producer, who you'll know from her hit sitcom Drifters as well as appearances on 8 out of 10 Cats, Inbetweeners and Taskmaster.
Produced by Cornelius Mendez Script by Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner Research by William Clayton
The Athletic production for BBC Radio 4
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to your Dead To Me, a BBC Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history |
| 0:10.1 | seriously. My name is Greg Jenner, I am a public historian, author and broadcaster and |
| 0:14.6 | the chief nerd on the funny kid show, Horrible Histories. And today we are packing our theater |
| 0:19.1 | programs and interval snacks to travel all the way back to the 17th century to England, |
| 0:23.8 | to learn all about the actress Queen of Comedy and Mistress, who King Charles II, its |
| 0:28.7 | an Elk Wind. And to do that, I'm joined by two very special guests. In History Corner, |
| 0:33.9 | she's an associate professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada and is an expert on |
| 0:38.0 | theatre, print culture and best of all, the careers of funny women in the 17th century. |
| 0:42.6 | Her latest book is on disruptive comedy in the restoration of Professor Diana Solomon. |
| 0:47.0 | Welcome Diana. Thank you so much for having me. |
| 0:49.4 | And in Comedy Corner, we are joined very handily by a comedian, actress, writer and producer. |
| 0:54.0 | You'll know her from loads of staff including her hilarious sitcom Drifters, which she wrote |
| 0:58.0 | produced and starred in, as well as the Inbetweeners movie, 8 out of 10 Cats, drunk history |
| 1:02.5 | and an unforgettable turn on Taskmaster and sitcom Ghosts, one of the best out there. |
| 1:07.6 | It's the brilliant Jessica Nappet. Or is it Jess Nappet? |
| 1:10.3 | Well, I answer to both really. Let's just go with Jess because it's quicker. |
| 1:15.8 | Alright, welcome to the show Jess Nappet. |
| 1:18.0 | Thank you. It's such pleasure to be here. I love this podcast. |
| 1:21.6 | Do you like History? Did you enjoy History at school? |
| 1:23.9 | Yes, I love History. I don't say that I'm particularly knowledgeable about it, but I like |
| 1:29.0 | to get my bearings when I'm in a place. I've just moved to a new town and I really wanted |
| 1:34.8 | to know what was going on here. So I sort of delved into it, neolithic markings on the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
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.