Summary
THE BED: Laurie Taylor talks to Nadia Durrani, writer on archaeology and co-author of a study which explores 'what we did in bed', offering a social history of an often taken-for-granted object. In a story spanning millennia, she illuminates the role of the bed through time, reminding us that it was not always simply a private space for sleep, sex and relaxation; it's also been a place for sharing with strangers, issueing decrees, even taking us to the afterlife.
Also, the rise and fall of twin beds for couples. Hilary Hinds, Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University , charts shifting attitudes towards separate sleeping. Whereas it was once seen as the sign of a modern, hygiene conscious and forward thinking relationship, it came to be regarded as the enemy of intimacy. Why did so many couples abandon a sleeping arrangement which used to be regarded as one of the keys to re-imagining domestic relations, promoting equality between the sexes and personal autonomy?
This is the last of our current series, as Thinking Allowed heads for a long 'lie in' until April 2021.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.5 | This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC and for more details and much, much more about |
| 0:42.4 | thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co. UK. |
| 0:47.0 | Hello |
| 0:48.0 | Up the wooden hill to bed for cheer Hill to Bedfordshire heading for the land of dream. |
| 1:00.0 | Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire, Vera Lynn. |
| 1:03.2 | Like millions of other young children in my time, |
| 1:05.2 | I used every available strategy to delay the moment |
| 1:08.7 | when my mother issued that peculiar geographical instruction, to delay the moment when I would be told |
| 1:14.8 | that it was well past your bedtime and that it was high time to climb into my gym jams. |
| 1:21.2 | But once nestled in my big single bed in my own personal space I had no |
| 1:26.5 | Proustian desire for mother to come visiting it was an especial sanctuary |
| 1:31.5 | especial because much air earlier in my life between the age of 9 and 11, |
| 1:36.5 | I'd slept on a narrow hard bed in a dormitory along with 36 other little Catholic boys, whose only way to obtain any sort of personal space |
| 1:45.5 | was by raising their knees under the bedsheets and sometimes with the help of a |
... |
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