Travels Through Time

Few parties in history can match the Georgian 'Masquerade'. And among Georgian masquerades the one given by the King of Denmark in London in 1768 was particularly enchanting. It brought those of the greatest means and highest rank together in London theatre that was filled with artful costumes and glittering jewels.

This week's guest, Meghan Kobza, tells us all about the Georgian masquerade – who started it, where did it come from, how much did it cost to get in – and she takes us inside the theatre in 1768. One character who catches her eye is the unfortunate Agneta Yorke whose night turns out to be a comedy of errors.

The scenes, characters and storylines in this episode of Travels Through Time all feature in Meghan Kobza's book, The Masquerade A History of Extravagance and Intrigue.

Show Notes
Scene One: October 1768. At the masquerade habit warehouse scene on Tavistock Street operated by the Spilsburys.

Scene Two: October 1768. Getting ready to go out with Agneta Yorke.

Scene Three: October 1768. At the King of Denmark's Masquerade.

Memento: Agneta Yorke's dress

People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore 

Guest: Meghan Kobza

Producers: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka

This week the Cambridge professor Rory Naismith takes us back to the eighth century to glimpse what we can of Offa King of the Mercians. Offa was a mighty figure in this early moment in the history of Britain and he is remembered chiefly for the extraordinary earthwork – Offa's Dyke.

But what more can be said about Offa's life? In this episode Naismith explains that he was a ruler of considerable gifts whose reputation stretched far beyond his considerable kingdom. He corresponded with Charlemagne and was connected with the Islamic World and, when he died, he left a great void behind.

The scenes, characters and storylines in this episode of Travels Through Time all feature in Rory Naismith's book, Offa: King of the Mercians.

Read more about Offa at Unseen Histories.

Show Notes
Scene One: Offa of Mercia receives a letter from Charlemagne that is one of the first diplomatic exchanges between two Medieval monarchs.

Scene Two: 29 July. Offa’s dies.

Scene Three: December 796. Offa’s son and heir Ecgfrith dies unexpectedly.

Memento: Offa’s side of the correspondence with Charlemagne

People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore 

Guest: Rory Naismith

Producers: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka

This week's episode takes us to Paris in La Belle Époque. There, among all the splendour and sophistication, we watch the great Impressionist, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painting one of his great portraits.

But there is more to this history than first meets the eye. As our guest Catherine Ostler explains, the year 1881 was a critical one in Jewish history. By that point in time Jewish communities were thriving in Paris, where they sought to consolidate their position in society. But a dramatic event in Russia was poised to change everything.

The scenes, characters and storylines in this episode of Travels Through Time all feature in Catherine Ostler's book, The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War and Betrayal. 

Show Notes
Scene One: 19 January 1881. The wedding of Leopold de Rothschild and Marie Perugia in London.

Scene Two: January–March 1881. Renoir paints Alice and Elisabeth at the Cahen d'Anvers family house in Paris.

Scene Three: 13 March 1881. Tsar Alexander II is assassinated in St Petersburg.

Memento: Renoir's Pink and Blue painting.

People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore 

Guest: Catherine Ostler

Producers: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka

As Britain's 'special relationship' with the USA falters, we look back at a very relevant epislode from our archive. In this the author and journalist Philip Stephens takes us back to a crucial month in post-war British politics. December 1962, he explains, set Britain’s relationship with the rest of the world for the next half century.

Featuring in this episode is the elderly British prime minister, Harold Macmillan; the charismatic US president John F Kennedy; and the trenchant French statesman Charles de Gaulle. In this one month these three men would set out their contrasting visions of what kind of country Britain would be.

The scenes, characters and storylines in this episode of Travels Through Time all feature in Philip Stephen’s book, Britain Alone: the path from Suez to Brexit (Faber)

Show Notes
Scene One: 5 December 1962. Dean Acheson’s speech to the cadets of the Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Scene Two: 15 December. Macmillan's visit to Rambouillet to meet with Charles de Gaulle.

Scene Three: 19 December 1962. Macmillan travels to the Bahamas to meet President John F Kennedy.

Memento: The text for Dean Acheson’s ‘West Point Speech.’

People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Philip Stephens

Producers: Maria Nolan

The Netherlands is a small nation with a big history. But in the 1940s it suffered a series of disastrous events. First came the invasion of the Nazis in 1940. Then the very next year the Japanese attacked their old empire in the east. The horrors of World War Two were then followed by the Indonesian National Revolution and, by 1950, the Dutch were a 'pocket superpower' no longer.

In this episode the journalist and hiker Nicholas Walton takes us back to examine this challenging moment in Dutch history. It was a time of reckoning with the past but also a moment of bright new beginnings.

Nicholas Walton is the author of Orange Sky, Rising Water: The Remarkable Past and Uncertain Future of the Netherlands.

Show notes
Scene One: 1 January 1950, The dining table of a typical Dutch family.

Scene Two: 12 January 1950, The Lloydkade in Rotterdam when troop ships like the SS Waterman, SS Grote Beer and SS Zuiderkruis all were bringing soldiers home to a freezing Netherlands.

Scene Three: 26 July 1950. A barracks in Indonesia. This was the official date that the KNIL, the Dutch colonial army, was officially dissolved.

Memento: A green/white temporary house as lived in by the Moluccans

People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Nicholas Walton

Production: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka