Episodes

Rerun: Black Rock – a 200-yard strip of pebbly beach in Brighton – was first set aside for naked bathers on 9th August, 1979. It came after a campaign by the Central Council For British Naturism, who had previously petitioned 140 local authorities. When Conservative councillor Eileen Jakes responded positively to the call, she was […]

Jonathan Jackson, teenage brother of imprisoned black power activist George Jackson, entered the Marin County Courthouse concealing three guns under his raincoat on 7th August, 1970.  In the middle of a trial, he took Judge Harold Haley hostage in a bid to secure his brother’s release. The previous year had seen a landmark incident at

The Addams Family debuted as a one-panel cartoon in The New Yorker on 6th August, 1938. Created by Charles Addams, the family (who for decades were essentially archetypes, without character names) were a satirical inversion of the ideal postwar American middle-class nuclear family, delighting in the macabre, and seemingly unaware or unconcerned that other people

Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party, was founded on 5th August, 1925, with a principal mission to revive the Welsh language. Despite boasting a history of over 1,400 years – evolving from the Celtic language spoken by ancient Britons – Welsh was on the decline in the 20th century, following significant suppression dating back to

Rerun: William II, son of William The Conqueror, took a hunting trip to the New Forest on 2nd August, 1100 – and was shot dead by an arrow, which punctured his lung.  But, whodunnit? Chroniclers laid the blame at the door of Walter Tirel, who quickly fled to France. But could it have really been

Nine year-old ‘Little Hugh’ went missing in Lincoln on 31st July, 1255. A popular narrative emerged that local Jews (in fact gathering for a wedding) had kidnapped, tortured, and crucified him, perhaps even eating his blood; an antisemitic myth that persisted for centuries, only called out by the Church of England in 1955. A local

The final episode of ‘Top Of The Pops’ aired on 30th July, 2006. Co-hosted by necrophiliac paedophile Jimmy Savile, the BBC institution ended after 42 years with little fanfare and no live performances. In this episode, The Retospectors consider whether TOTP could or should have survived longer into the 21st century; unpick what lay behind

King Louis Philippe unveiled an iconic Parisian monument, the Arc De Triomphe, on 29th July, 1836. But, due to fears of an attack, only 11 people attended the event – six of whom were soldiers.  Originally commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz, the Arc was inspired by the ancient Roman triumphal

Rerun: Linguist L. L. Zamenhof published ‘Dr. Esperanto’s International Language’ on 26th July, 1887 – and in so doing launched Esperanto, the most popular ‘constructed language’ on Earth. Thanks to apps like Duolingo, there are still around 2 million esperantists today. It was once even proposed as the official language of the incipient League of

American professor Hiram Bingham “discovered” Machu Picchu on 24th July, 1911 – though he initially misidentified it as Vilcabamba, the last stronghold of the Inca civilization during the Spanish conquest. Unlike Vilcabamba, Machu Picchu was built at the peak of the Inca Empire’s glory. Believed to have been a winter retreat for the Inca elite,