Satire & Scandal in Georgian England
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2023
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Can we trace the 'British sense of humour' back to the Georgian period? It was an age of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebrity, the French revolution, American independence and the Napoleonic Wars so the satirists of Georgian Britain had plenty to work with. In the late 18th century, artists like Thomas Rowlandson, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank took on the establishment with cartoons, forever changing how we the public view those in power. History Hit presenter and TikTok star Alice Loxton (@history_alice) joins Dan as they look at the characters behind the 'Golden Age of Caricature' and what was going on that made these prints so popular with the masses.
Alice's new book is called 'Uproar!'.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, buddy. Welcome to Dan's Nose History. When I was at university, we were studying the |
| 0:04.0 | 1780s and 90s. And we used as our source material, satirical cartoons from the period, so |
| 0:10.9 | brilliant where they considered to be by my history, professors. They gave you a sense |
| 0:16.5 | of what Georgians thought about their leaders. And also it gave you a sense of Georgian |
| 0:23.0 | Britain itself. What kind of country was it that allowed artists, publishers to lampoon |
| 0:30.6 | their political leaders, their royals, their prime ministers, their MPs, their plutocrats, |
| 0:38.6 | to regularly portray them in the most grotesque and bizarre ways? Something funny was going |
| 0:44.4 | on. Well, after a gap of 20 years or so, I get to talk about those cartoons again because |
| 0:50.0 | on the podcast today, we're looking at the cartoons of the late Georgian period with no |
| 0:54.4 | other than Alice Lockston. She is the homegrown history hit breakout talent. She is a |
| 1:00.9 | force of nature. And just when you think she couldn't get any more brilliant, she has written |
| 1:03.5 | a book on Georgian satire. It's called Up Raw and she's coming on the podcast to talk |
| 1:09.1 | about it. Even Alice Lockston works history. You know, she's super important and busy now. |
| 1:13.7 | So it's just I'm so lucky to get some space in her diary. We're very, very proud of what |
| 1:18.8 | young Alice Lockston has done. She's going on to big things. This is her first book, |
| 1:23.5 | First of Many and it's going to be a massive success. And here she is talking about Up |
| 1:28.0 | Raw and Georgian satire. Enjoy. |
| 1:31.8 | She might have hit the Tommy Tom, Tom, Tom, you know, she's a sharp, brave, but keen, |
| 1:38.1 | no black, white, unity till there is first and black unity. Never to go to war with one |
| 1:43.6 | other again. And the star and the little head clear the tower. |
| 1:50.6 | Alice Lockston, thank you for coming on the podcast. It's brilliant to be here. Thanks for |
| 1:55.0 | having me. Well, it's exciting, isn't it? And also it's exciting because as you know, |
... |
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