The History of General Elections
You're Dead to Me
BBC
4.7 • 11.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2019
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You’re Dead To Me returns for a special episode on The History of General Elections. Welcome to the world of “bludgeon men”, “potwallopers”, and electorates of sheep (!). Travel back to the 18th Century, when Number 10 was number 5 (yes, really) and discover not just how voter rights have changed, but where they originated. Host Greg Jenner is joined by historian Dr Hannah Nicholson and comedian Catherine Bohart.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.1 | Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Your Dead To Me, a history podcast for |
| 0:10.1 | people who don't like history or at least people who forgot to learn any at school. |
| 0:14.0 | My name is Greg Jenner, I am a public historian, author and I'm the chief nerd on the BBC |
| 0:18.0 | comedy show Our Abel History's. |
| 0:19.9 | And if you've not heard this before, the podcast is basically a coalition government |
| 0:23.4 | between the rival parties of fun and facts under my feeble leadership. |
| 0:28.5 | Today we are taking a trip to the polling booths of Britain in the 18th and early 19th centuries |
| 0:33.9 | to chat generally about the general history of general elections posted by me, Greg Jenner. |
| 0:38.4 | Sorry, Jenner. |
| 0:39.9 | As ever, I am joined by two very special guests in history corner. |
| 0:43.7 | She's an expert on 18th and 19th century culture and political history, specialising |
| 0:48.7 | in the history of elections, which is pretty handy. |
| 0:50.7 | From the University of Nottingham, it's Dr Hannah Nicholson. |
| 0:53.0 | Hi Hannah, thanks for coming. |
| 0:54.3 | Hi Greg, thanks for having me. |
| 0:56.0 | How did you become a historian of politics? |
| 0:58.5 | What's the root in? |
| 0:59.6 | So when I was at school, I really hated political history and my 18th year itself would be |
| 1:05.3 | a poor, that this is what I'm doing. |
| 1:07.4 | But when I was doing my MA dissertation, I found a really great hand-ville, which is |
| 1:12.0 | sort of the modern day equivalent of what you get in your letterboxes when there's an |
... |
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.