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PODCAST

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard

Shakespeare and Pals

A Shakespeare recap podcast, talking about them in the order he wrote them.We also do Shakespeare’s peers, influences and influencees

arts books

All Episodes

120:21

045 THE BIG ONE: Hamlet (1599)

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/11/27

Danish guy wants to... This doesn't need an introduction!After many long years, we're here. Shakespeare's masterpiece, the masterpiece of English literature. As Gustave Flaubert said, the three finest things God ever made were Hamlet, Don Giovanni, and the sea. Does Hamlet deserve the hype? Join us to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to shakespeare.pals@gmail.com Sources: The Oxford Shakespeare: Twelfth Night (Oxford University

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114:55

044 Those Crazy Spaniards: Thomas Kyd's The Spanish...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/10/30

Revenge is a dish best served... with lots of collateral damage...Andrea's dead, but true haters take revenge from beyond the grave. He enlists the spirit of Revenge to kill his murderer, the Portuguese Prince Balthazar. This leads to Andrea's girlfriend falling in love with another man, that man getting murdered, that man's father murdering the murderers, and... so much other stuff... The origin of the revenge tragedy. Without The Spanish Tragedy, there would be no Hamlet. Does the genre

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90:12

043 Love Triangles and Psychological Torture: Twelfth...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/09/25

We return to Shakespeare's true love: cross-dressers.When Viola gets washed up on the Illyrian coast, she simply has no choice but to dress up as a boy and enter the service of the sexy local lord... Hi-jinks ensue. This good, cross-dressing girl gets caught up in love triangles and mistaken identity. We once more ask: Is Shakespeare good at comedy? Join us to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to shakespeare.pals@gmail.com Sources: The

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100:38

042 Ancient Step-Mums in Trouble: Jean Racine's...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/08/28

Phedre's been bit by the love-bug, and it's gonna get a lot of people killed.Athenian Prince Hippolyte thinks the worst thing is for his step-mum Phedre to hate him... Oh, no, no... His step-mum L-O-V-E-S him. She knows it's wrong, but her husband is probably dead, and her maid is an enabler. What could possibly go wrong? We've done the greatest French comedy, Moliere's Tartuffe. Now we're doing the greatest French tragedy -- Jean Racine's Phedre! Does it deserve the hype? Join us to find out! Make

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01:44:06

041 Cross-Dressing in the Great Outdoors! As You Like...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/07/24

Boy loves girl. Boy gets banished, then girl gets banished, so boy and girl run to the forest where girl's father is also banished. And girl pretends to be boy to flirt with boy. That old chestnut...Shakespeare loves his cross-dressing heroines, and here we have one of his most famous -- Rosalind. We also get the first of Shakespeare's wise fools. But is "As You Like It" as we like it? Join Michael and Sophie to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can

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01:01:31

040 3 Years On! A Restrospective on the Podcast

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/06/26

This time the Shakespeare-thing is... Us!Three years on, we've decided to take a look back at the podcast. How our opinions of Shakespeare have changed, our hot takes, our cold takes, and what is the weirdest Shakespeare thing we've done is? Join us for our three-year retrospective! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to shakespeare.pals@gmail.com

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01:30:13

039 You're in a cult, dad! Molière's Le Tartuffe (1664)

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/05/29

The big question: Are the French funny?It wasn't just England that had Renaissance theatre. France had a crack at it, too, and their big-dog of classical comedy was Molière. Orgon's wife and children hate Tartuffe, a mooching, puritanical, hypocritical conman. Unfortunately, Orgon thinks Tartuffe is a saint. Can Orgon family, with the help of a feisty maid, catch Tartuffe red-handed? Has Molière's comedy survived the centuries? Join Michael and Sophie to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share

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01:47:00

038 The Ides of March: Julius Caesar (1599)

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/04/24

The one where Brutus gets radicalised by anonymous commentersConspiracy, assassination, sky-rending omens. Julius Caesar is dictator-for-life, and some people think this might be bad for democracy. But is it right to kill him? And then the second half of the play is about a war that no one remembers. Does Julius Caesar deserve its place among Shakespeare's A-list? Join Michael and Sophie to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to

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01:21:20

037 Stabby Stabby: Plutarch's Life of Julius Caesar...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/03/27

We're traveling back in time to the inspiration for Shakespeare's Roman plays - Plutarch!Plutarch wrote compact, anecdote-filled, politically-astute biographies of the great Greeks and Romans, and who greater than Julius Caesar? Would Plutarch's tale of the rise and fall of Julius Caesar be worth reading even if Shakespeare never based his Julius Caesar on it? Join us to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to

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01:53:18

036 Take My Mistress, Please... AGAIN!: The Two...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/03/25

We're having a second chance at a first impression. Shakespeare's first play -- AGAIN! Just like Shakespeare got better, so have we. Sophie and Michael go back to Shakespeare's very first play. Does Shakespeare's debut -- packed with love triangles, cross-dressing, and love-able rogues, and hate-able heroes -- benefit from a new light? Tune in to our new episode 1 and episode 36. Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to

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01:53:18

036/001 Take My Mistress, Please... AGAIN!: The Two...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/02/27

We're having a second chance at a first impression. Shakespeare's first play -- AGAIN!Just like Shakespeare got better, so have we. Sophie and Michael go back to Shakespeare's very first play. Does Shakespeare's debut -- packed with love triangles, cross-dressing, and love-able rogues, and hate-able heroes -- benefit from a new light? Tune in to our new episode 1 and episode 36. Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to

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02:11:20

035 The Elizabethan James Cameron: Henry V (1599)

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2025/01/30

Is Henry V great? Or propaganda? It's great propaganda!In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare invented the modern romantic comedy. Now he invents the modern war film. Henry V fights the valiant, villainous French with a country-crossing army of ethnically diverse warriors (English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh). Does this patriotic crowd-pleaser still work in our more cynical times? Is it patriotic at all? Join us to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can

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01:06:03

034 Put Away Your Sword: Aristophanes' Lysistrata...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2024/12/26

Bringing back the explicit tag for this one!The ladies of Ancient Greece are fed up with the war. Well, you know what men love more than killing each other? Sex! Greek citizenesses are going on a sex-strike till the peace. Comedy ages notoriously badly, but is Aristophanes' edgy, bawdy, snappy satire still a hit? Join us to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to shakespeare.pals@gmail.com Sources: Lysistrata and Other Plays, by Aristophanes,

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02:07:01

033 Listening to Your Evil Friend: Much Ado About...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2024/11/28

Believe Your Girlfriend: The PlayBenedict likes Beatrice, and Beatrice likes Benedict, but Benedict and Beatrice don't like that they like each other, so their friends trick them into getting together. Meanwhile, Claudio likes Hero, and Hero likes Claudio, but Don John doesn't like people being happy, so he tricks Claudio into thinking Hero is cheating on him. Claudio... does not take it well. "Romeo and Juliet" was a comedy that became a tragedy. "Much Ado About Nothing" is a comedy that becomes

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01:11:07

032 Keanu Reeves is Trust Fund Prince Hal: Gus Van...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2024/10/24

Gay Henry IV! Except not really... Except very much yes! Gus Van Sant's classic of queer cinema recontextualises Henry IV into the world of gay hustlers. Prince Hal is a trust fund kid slumming it, and Poins is our narcoleptic viewpoint character. With lines directly adapted from Henry IV, and sequences remixed from Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, Gus Van Sant rams Henry IV into modern day. Does it work? Join us to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can

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01:54:54

031 Princely Hypocrite: King Henry IV, Part 2 (1597)

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2024/09/26

Shakespeare's only true sequel, a play that depends on its prequel. Does it work? Are the character arcs continued and deepened? Or does this basically redo the previous play but with less focus? Join us to discuss King Henry IV, Part 2!Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to shakespeare.pals@gmail.com Sources: The Oxford Shakespeare: King Henry IV, Part 2 (Oxford University Press) Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage, edited by Brian Vickers

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01:13:00

030 The Only Good Man in Literature: Orson Welles'...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2024/08/29

What if the comic relief was the main character?The Chimes and Midnight reframes the whole story around Prince Hal's buddy Falstaff. No longer a coming of age story, but a portrait of slow decline of an old thief. This comedy drama is considered one of the greatest Shakespeare films ever made, and Orson Welles one of the greatest Falstaffs. Does it live up to its reputation? Join us to find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to

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01:58:28

029 Notice Me, Dad! King Henry IV, Part 1 (1597)

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2024/07/25

You ever have to choose between your King dad and your thief dad?King Henry IV's got two problems - rebelling nobles and a rebellious son. Prince Hal spends all his time with low lives in taverns. Could Hal ever possibly rise to the occasion and save the day? Does Shakespeare's coming-of-age, war comedy still hold up? Join Michael and Sophie and find out! Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to shakespeare.pals@gmail.com Sources: The Oxford Shakespeare:

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01:48:03

028 A Girl in Trousers!? Thomas Middleton and Thomas...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2024/06/27

Boy loves girl. Boy’s father thinks the girl isn’t rich enough. Boy pretends to be in love with a drag king.We’re bringing back the “explicit” tag just for this episode. Tommy M and Tommy D’s saucy talents are on full display in this bawdy City Comedy. There are more innuendos than you can shake your rapier at. Is this play only memorable for its titular cross-dresser, or is there more meat on its bones? Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to

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01:59:49

027 Neither A Borrower Nor A Lender Be: The Merchant...

Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard ·

2024/05/30

One of Shakespeare’s great… comedies????Bassanio needs some cash to impress the wealthy heiress Portia. This couldn’t possibly lead to his best friend getting imprisoned and disemboweled. One of Shakespeare's great plays, full of poetry and incident and nuance, and Romance with a capital R. Is it toppled by the antisemitism at its centre? Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to shakespeare.pals@gmail.com Sources: The Oxford Shakespeare: The Merchant of

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