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PODCAST

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian Street Literature and Stories

Finn J.D. John/ Pulp-Lit Productions

This is the podcast that carries you back to the sooty, foggy streets of early-Victorian London when a new issue of one of the "Penny Dreadful" blood-and-thunder story paper comes out! It"s like an early-Victorian variety show, FEATURING ... — Sweeney Todd ... — Varney, the Vampyre ... — Highwayman Dick Turpin ... — Spring-Heel"d Jack ... — mustache-twirling villains ... — virtuous ballet-girls ... —wicked gamblers ... ... and more! Spiced with naughty cock-and-hen-club songs, broadsheet

history

All Episodes

01:34:36

019: Major Bounce is bounced — Dick Turpin runs for...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/04/20

FIVE NEW FLASH-CANT WORDS AND PHRASES —"Academician""Tog and kicks""Shooting the cat""Jobber knot""Knife it"Plus a chapter each from our five vintage Penny Dreadfuls!0:04:10: SWEENEY TODD, Ch. 45 —Major Bounce steps into Sweeney Todd’s shop and asks to have his mustache shaved off ... will Sweeney Todd “polish him off,” do you think? We’ll see.0:18:00: BLACK BESS (Dick Turpin) Ch. 7 — Highwayman Dick Turpin is awakened from his slumber with the word that the “redbreasts” — Bow Street runners,

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01:36:40

018: Mrs. Lovett's beau is shaved — The highwayman's...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/04/13

FIVE NEW FLASH-CANT WORDS AND PHRASES —"Glim""Bolt the moon""Nubbing""Flat-catchers""The holy land"Plus a chapter each from our five vintage Penny Dreadfuls!0:03:45: SWEENEY TODD, Ch. 44 —Mrs. Lovett, disappointed at learning the truth about her new beau, Major Bounce, plots to avenge her wounded pride by getting him made into pies ...0:20:00: BLACK BESS (Dick Turpin) Ch. 6 — Highwayman Dick Turpin, weak from loss of blood, sees a spectral horseman

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00:04:50

017: In which Prof. Flash eats his own dogfood, and...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/04/09

Just a quick update! After "dogfooding" last Saturday's episode, Prof. Flash has concluded that —the "Dreadful Dossiers" slow things down too much ...so does having Sweeney Todd and Varney the Vampyre back-to-back ...dogfooding is great and P.F. highly recommends the same to all fellow creative professionals!Be sure to join us this Saturday for the next full episode of the Penny Dreadful Story Hour!

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01:43:47

016: Sweeny Todd's nightmare vision — the Vampyre's...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/04/06

Join Professor Flash, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John. for a 90-minute spree through the story papers of old London! Grab a flicker of blue ruin, unload your stumps, and let's go!0:03:45: DREADFUL-DOSSIERS REPORT —A 10-minute briefing on how The Barber of Fleet-street; or, The String of Pearls (feat. Sweeney Todd) came to be.0:14:00: SWEENEY TODD, Ch. 43 —We open on Mr. Todd getting a letter from Mr. Fogg, lying to him to tell him Tobias has died. He is pleased, but then he slips upstairs to make sure no one

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01:40:26

015: IN WHICH we blow the gab, draw a cork, and sip...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/03/30

FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what blowing the gab, drawing a cork, cat lap, "as right as a trivet," and Captain Flasham meant, in highwaymen's slang.THEN — we hit five different story papers from the Golden Age of Penny Dreadfuls in old London!IN SWEENEY TODD, Ch. 41-42 (starts at :06 mins.)—Sir Richard Blunt and Mr. Crotchet find some very singular things in Sweeney Todd’s house, including what Crotchet proclaims “the toggery of the smugged ‘uns.” Crotchet decides to stay

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00:51:25

014: Bonus midweek episode! With Dick Turpin,...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/03/26

A mid-week catch-up to get the numbers right means we've got Chapter 3 of our three newest Dreadfuls coming your way!IN BLACK BESS; OR, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD: Dick Turpin foils the woodman's treachery, then discovers a sinister secret beneath the floor of his strange forest hut ...IN SPRING-HEEL'D JACK, THE TERROR OF LONDON: Jack turns the tables on his two pursuers and leaves them stuck in a field without their trousers ...IN THE BLACK BAND; OR, THE MYSTERIES OF MIDNIGHT: We meet the

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01:36:03

013: Exploring Sweeny Todd's house ... Spring-Heel'd...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/03/23

FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what high pads, glims flashy, high flyer, drawing a long bow, and hopping the twig meant, in highwaymens' slang.THEN — we plunder five different story papers! In Sweeney Todd —Sir Richard Blunt rents an attic room in the building next to Sweeney Todd’s house from the owner, a henpecked shoemaker. Sir Richard and Crotchet slip in through an attic window and make some rather remarkable discoveries ...In Varney the Vampyre —The brothers rush to the wall

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01:36:03

012: Introducing Dick Turpin, Spring-Heel'd Jack, and...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/03/19

INTRODUCING our NEW FORMAT!FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what Paddington Fair Day, Darby's Fair, Barking Irons, and Cherry-Coloured Prads meant, in highwaymens' slang.THEN — we plunder five different story papers! In Sweeney Todd —We meet Major Bounce, the "swaggering companion" and Mrs. Lovett's beau ideal — who, unfortunately, has lost her favour and seems destined to end up in a pie ...Meanwhile, Tobias's mother tries to call him out of his delirium, but ends up making things worse.In

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01:27:16

011: Sweeney Todd ch. 33-36 and HUGE NEWS! Plus...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/03/16

BIG DOINGS! This week, in addition to plundering Sweeney Todd, we're adding Varney the Vampyre to the show. Next week, we'll add Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road and Spring-Heel'd Jack, the Terror of London and The Black Band; or, The Mysteries of Midnight to the line-up. We can't wait!FIRST we'll learn what "bursters," "Mrs. Jones's counting-house," "Knights of the Hod," "Moonshine," and "Nob-thatchers" were in

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01:07:16

010: Sweeney Todd ch.30-31-32, and more flash lingo!

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/03/09

IN WHICH we learn what "a flash of lightning," "a noggen of red tape," "hot flannel," "blackstrap," and "heavy wet" meant in 1830 ...THEN — Tobias just barely escapes from the wrath of Fogg and Watson by hiding in the room of a fellow inmate, another sane person – a girl who’s been put here so her inheritance can be stolen. Tobias and the girl make a play for escape, but the rope breaks and she falls into the madhouse-keeper’s pitiless hands as

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00:56:14

009: Ch. 26-27-28-29, Sweeney Todd; plus some...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/03/02

IN WHICH we learn what "Gammon," "Heavers," "High Gloaks," "Bounceable Cyprians," and "Boners of Stiff-Ones" meant in 1830 ...THEN — Colonel Jeffery and his friend Captain Rathbone actually watch a wealthy out-of-town customer enter Sweeney Todd’s shop and never come out. The colonel almost decides to investigate by being shaved there, but luckily his friend restrains him. ... Tobias, in the madhouse, starts shrieking for help and thereby meets Mr

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01:09:47

008: Ch. 22-23-24-25, Sweeney Todd

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/02/23

IN WHICH poor Tobias is uncomfortably settled into a dungeon cell in the lunatic asylum; Mrs. Lovett’s cook learns the bitter truth, that he is a prisoner enslaved and must make pies for her if he wants to live; and madhouse keeper Fogg tells Sweeney Todd a nice little bedtime story, as a sort of character reference, over a bottle of wine stolen from one of his patients. Things are hotting right up now!A tip-top evening to all you game hellcats, highway snafflers and knights of the brush and moon

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00:53:00

007: Ch. 18-19-20-21, Sweeney Todd

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/02/16

IN WHICH Tobias breaks into Sweeney Todd’s back parlor while he is out and finds a vast trove of hats, sticks, and jewelry clearly plundered from the dead ... parishoners at St. Dunstan’s church start noticing a strange, nasty odor wafting up from the crypts below ... Tobias runs away, but stops to see his mother, who inadvertently betrays him into Todd’s hands ... and Todd seizes him and carries him off to a lunatic asylum. Is this the end of Tobias? We shall see.A tip-top evening to all you bingo

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00:51:20

006: Ch. 14-15-16-17, Sweeney Todd

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/02/09

IN WHICH Tobias, the barber’s apprentice, has become absolutely certain Sweeney Todd is murdering his customers — Colonel Jeffery and Johanna Oakley decide that the murdered Mr. Thornhill must be Johanna’s missing beau, Mark, in disguise ... are they right? — and finally, Sweeney Todd dresses as a duke to try to basically pawn the string of pearls to a high-end moneylender.A tip-top evening to all you ladybirds, out-and-outers, gravel-tax collectors and knights of the brush and moon! Welcome once

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01:08:41

005: Ch. 11-12-13, Sweeney Todd

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/02/02

IN WHICH we meet Mrs. Lovett’s pie-baker, who she keeps imprisoned in the basement; then he is slain by an assassin with a hammer, and she has to hire (that is, trap) a new pie-baker. ... Mrs. Oakley revenges herself upon her husband and Big Ben with the help of some kind of purgative she spikes their meal with ... and Johanna’s bestie Arabella Wilmot hatches a scheme for Johanna to dress as a boy to sniff out news of the fate of her fiancé. A tip-top welcome to all you flash kiddies, game

en

01:14:35

004: Ch. 8-9-10, Sweeney Todd

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/01/26

IN WHICH Sweeney Todd is almost caught by a nest of highway robbers while running for it, after the lapidary he tried to fence the pearls to smelled a rat and shouted "stop thief"; the loathesome Pastor Lupin gets very drunk and tries to swindle his way to Johanna's sweet favors by working on her mother, but is taken down a peg by Mr. Oakley's cousin, a burly beefeater named Ben; and Colonel Jeffery tries to investigate Sweeney Todd's shop for evidence of his friend

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00:54:55

Ch. 5-7, Sweeney Todd

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/01/18

IN WHICH Johanna learns sad news about her missing fiance, and Sweeney Todd makes an attempt to fence the pearls he stole from Mr. Thornhill after murdering him in Chapter 1 .

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00:54:10

Ch. 2-4, Sweeney Todd

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/01/13

IN WHICH we are introduced to Johanna Oakley, our heroine, who pines for her fiance Mark Ingestrie, whom she believes to be lost at sea; and to Col. Jeffery, one of our heroes, and close friend of Thornhill, the sea-faring gentleman who Sweeney Todd "polished off" last week in Chapter 1. Thornhill's dog continues to bedevil Sweeney Todd. Then, in Chapter 4, we are introduced to Sarah Lovett, the comely widow who operates the most famous pie shop in London, in Bell Yard (street). We also get to

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00:28:13

Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet-Street:...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/01/04

IN WHICH we are introduced to a new podcast (or, rather, a reorienting of an old one) that seeks to replicate the experience of a London street urchin listening to an older kid reading/performing the latest installments of the weekly "Penny Dreadful" story papers. We kick things off with the first chapter of Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet-Street. Join us!

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00:06:03

Special message for listeners looking for Episode...

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian... ·

2025/01/02

A short explanation of this podcast, which has changed rather a lot in its first six months of life. After listening to this short briefing, you'll know......how to find Chapter 1 of your favorite Dreadful......why it's nothing but all Sweeney Todd, all the time, until about Episode 12......how I recommend approaching a quest to "catch up"......and a few other notes. The art for this episode is from Rose Mortimer; or, The Ballet-girl's Revenge (1866). That's Evil Moustache-Twirling Count Lerno

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