Episodes

  • #42 The violence backfired - Ep 6 The Secret History of the Suffragettes

    #42 The violence backfired - Ep 6 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
    Oct 21 2026
    From 1912 the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes – are out of control and dangerous. But that is not how they're remembered. Anyone who disagrees with the violence either leaves or is thrown out. Whatever they later claim about their ‘wonderful leadership’, it is their young, poor members who are inventing new and increasingly dangerous ways of intimidating the government. The WSPU leadership claims it never threatened life, only property, but this is manifestly not true. Axes are thrown, full theatres set on fire, bombs put on trains, acid poured into mail-boxes and the leaders do nothing to contain this ‘terrorism’ with deadly intent.

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    37 mins
  • #41 The Violence the Suffragettes wouldn't admit to - Ep 5 The Secret History of the Suffragettes

    #41 The Violence the Suffragettes wouldn't admit to - Ep 5 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
    Oct 14 2026
    From 1912 the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes – are out of control and dangerous. But that is not how they're remembered. Anyone who disagrees with the violence either leaves or is thrown out. Whatever they later claim about their ‘wonderful leadership’, it is their young, poor members who are inventing new and increasingly dangerous ways of intimidating the government. The WSPU leadership claims it never threatened life, only property, but this is manifestly not true. Axes are thrown, full theatres set on fire, bombs put on trains, acid poured into mail-boxes and the leaders do nothing to contain this ‘terrorism’ with deadly intent.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    37 mins
  • #37 Hunger strikes and forced feeding - Ep 4 The Secret History of the Suffragettes

    #37 Hunger strikes and forced feeding - Ep 4 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
    Oct 7 2026
    The militant strategy of the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes - is delivering them headlines. It gets them nowhere with the government but it makes enormous sums of advertising revenue from fancy retailers, and funds Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst’s society lifestyle. Rich London ladies in silks and satins pour in the money, while working-class activists take all the risks. WSPU officer Theresa Billington drafts a constitution to give everyone a say but Emmeline Pankhurst tears it up and manoeuvres anyone with a socialist agenda out. Who exactly is this organisation for?

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    38 mins
  • #36 The Pankhursts didn't want the poor to get the vote - Ep 3 The Secret History of the Suffragettes

    #36 The Pankhursts didn't want the poor to get the vote - Ep 3 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
    Sep 30 2026
    The WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes - begin in the Manchester Labour Party in the 1890s and learn their publicity-grabbing tactics from Labour. But these tactics turn out to have the worst possible effect – making women’s votes even less likely than before. They are so bad, in fact, it makes you wonder whether the Suffragette leadership had some other agenda.

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    31 mins
  • #36 Most women didn't want the vote - Ep 2 The Secret History of the Suffragettes

    #36 Most women didn't want the vote - Ep 2 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
    Sep 23 2026
    We go back to the great number of unsung women and men who made great strides towards women’s votes and female emancipation by 1900. Emmeline Pankhurst sets up her Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 as a pressure group for votes for poor working-women in the cotton mills. By then a majority of MPs is already consistently in favour. But the public are uninterested and no government will therefore act. The question is whether the WSPU can find a formula for making ministers give votes to women.

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    27 mins
  • #34 Getting the vote in 1918: 'marvellous leadership' - Ep 1 The Secret History of the Suffragettes

    #34 Getting the vote in 1918: 'marvellous leadership' - Ep 1 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
    Sep 16 2026
    Mrs Pankhurst claims she won women the vote through ‘marvellous leadership.’ An all-male conference of MPs counters that it gifted women the vote. We reveal that neither is true.

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    35 mins
  • #130 'The real mystery of 1492' - Ep 7 Columbus - legend and loser

    #130 'The real mystery of 1492' - Ep 7 Columbus - legend and loser
    Sep 9 2026
    European sailors in Columbus’s time had only rudimentary instruments, with no means of measuring longitude, and only a vague idea of how far north-south they were. So how on earth did they find the island of Hispaniola, over and over again, after weeks out of sight of land? There are some outlandish theories...

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    33 mins
  • #129 ‘It’s a joke’ - Ep 6 Columbus - legend and loser

    #129 ‘It’s a joke’ - Ep 6 Columbus - legend and loser
    Aug 26 2026
    Columbus may now be dressing up like a friar and searching for the Garden of Eden but he and his brother are still cutting off the Arawaks’ hands if they fail to deliver a monthly quantity of gold. Horrified, Ferdinand and Isabella send a judge to bring the Admiral of the Ocean Sea and his family, home in chains.

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    34 mins