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Real Dictators

Oliver Cromwell Part 1: The Rise of Ironsides

Real Dictators

NOISER

History, Fiction, Drama

4.88.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Say “Oliver Cromwell” today and certain things come to mind. He won the English Civil War and prompted the execution of Charles I. He purged the realm with such zeal that he even cancelled Christmas. In Ireland, where Cromwell’s troops besieged its towns with a notorious barbarity, his name is still used as a curse. “The greatest prince that ever ruled England”, as one historian called him? Or, as Winston Churchill would counter, a tyrant and a despot? A Noiser production, written by Jeff Dawson. Many thanks to Peter Gaunt, Clare Jackson, Anna Keay, John Morrill, Nicholas O’Shaughnessy, Micheál Ó Siochrú. This is Part 1 of 4. Get every episode of Real Dictators a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Fever tree Mediterranean tonic water, made with zesty lemon time from a small family farm in

0:07.8

province and essential oils from herbs that grow in the Mediterranean sunshine.

0:13.4

So if three quarters of your g and tea is a fever tree tonic,

0:18.8

maybe it's time to call it

0:20.8

a T and G.

0:22.4

Fever tree, mix with the best.

0:27.2

Ooh that takes me straight to the med.

0:31.2

It's Tuesday November the 14th, 1899, just before daybreak in London.

0:40.6

We're in Parliament Square beneath the great Gothic edifice of the Palace of Westminster.

0:47.0

It's cold, quiet.

0:51.0

In the gloom by the roadside stands a brand new structure.

0:55.0

It's covered in a top hall in, prepped for its unveiling.

1:00.0

At 22 feet high, it's impressive, or so we've been told.

1:06.0

Controversy surrounds it.

1:08.8

The details of today's big reveal have been kept rather vague, the better to avoid a scene.

1:18.6

In the half light a workman checks his pocket watch. He climbs a ladder and cuts a rope. As Big Ben strikes seven, the covering falls.

1:29.5

voila, he announces to his audience, just a lone police constable and a passing newspaper boy.

1:39.3

The statue is cast in bronze and set atop a massive granite plinth.

1:44.0

It's of a stern looking fellow, long hair touching his shoulders,

1:49.0

clad in a leather jerkin and thigh-high riding boots. His right hand rests on the hilt of his sword,

1:57.0

his left clutches a Bible. There's a simple inscription, just the years of his lifespan, 1599 to 1658, and his unadorned

2:10.1

name, Oliver Cromwell.

...

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