Victorian Bodybuilding

You're Dead to Me

BBC

Comedy, History

4.7 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Vanessa Heggie and comedian Darren Harriot to learn about the bodybuilding boom of the 19th and 20th centuries. The latter part of the 19th century saw the beginning of a fitness craze where the seeds of the modern-day gym and fitness culture were sown. But physical fitness also tapped into other parts of the psyche of British society at the time. From concerns over the fighting fitness of the British army to the racist pseudoscience of eugenics, this novel leisure activity tells us a surprising amount about the societal and intellectual currents that existed in this period. Research by Caitlín Rankin-McCabe Written by Emma Nagouse, Caitlín Rankin-McCabe and Greg Jenner Produced by Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner Assistant Producer: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow Project Management: Isla Matthews Audio Producer: Steve Hankey You’re Dead To Me is a production by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:06.5	Hello and welcome to your Dead To Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously.
0:11.3	My name is Greg Jenner, I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster.
0:14.6	And today we are lunging in our lepreprint hot pants,
0:17.3	tensing our abs and flexing our biceps as we bulk up on the early history of bodybuilding,
0:22.8	and joining me to get historically hench to very special guests.
0:26.4	In History Corner, she's Associate Professor in the History of Science and Medicine
0:30.0	at the University of Birmingham's Institute of Applied Health Research.
0:33.4	You may have read her long-running Science column in the Guardian Newspaper,
0:36.5	or her recent book, Higher and Colder, on the physiology of extreme exploration.
0:41.4	It's Professor Vanessa Hegey. Welcome Vanessa.
0:43.7	Thanks so much for inviting me, Greg. Great to be here.
0:45.8	And in Comedy Corner, he's a fantastic comedian, writer and presenter.
0:48.8	You'll have seen him on all the TV shows like Live at the Apollo, Love Island, After Sun,
0:53.0	Celebrity Mastermind, Roast Battle, Mock the Week, or heard his podcast, Shame is Delicious.
0:57.9	And recently he dazzled the nation with his ice skating skills on dancing on ice.
1:01.7	The range on this guy is Darren Harriott. Welcome Darren.
1:04.8	Thank you for having me. This is exciting. I can't wait to work out with you.
1:10.9	Well, revised down expectations. I can barely lift my three-year-old daughter,
1:14.8	let alone proper weights. So, I mean, Darren, this is your first time on the show.
1:20.0	We're a history show. So, I have to ask, did you enjoy history at school?
1:24.1	It's something you enjoy in your free time, or are you thinking, oh no.
	...

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