13 min

15. The Flag That Failed Shakespeare's Restless World

    • History

The problems in uniting Scotland and England and in creating a Great Britain are encapsulated in a set of designs for a common flag.
Object-based history series presented by Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum.
Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.
With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed.
He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.
Producer: Paul Kobrak
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2012.

The problems in uniting Scotland and England and in creating a Great Britain are encapsulated in a set of designs for a common flag.
Object-based history series presented by Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum.
Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.
With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed.
He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.
Producer: Paul Kobrak
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2012.

13 min

Top Podcasts In History

Geschiedenis voor herbeginners
Jonas Goossenaerts, Filip Vekemans, Benjamin Goyvaerts, Laurent Poschet
L'Heure H
RTBF
The Rest Is History
Goalhanger Podcasts
Un Jour dans l'Histoire
RTBF
De vorstinnen van Vlaanderen
Klara & UGent
Au Cœur de l'Histoire - Des récits pour découvrir et apprendre l'Histoire
Europe 1

More by BBC

Global News Podcast
BBC World Service
You're Dead to Me
BBC Radio 4
6 Minute English
BBC Radio
In Our Time
BBC Radio 4
6 Minute Vocabulary
BBC Radio
6 Minute Grammar
BBC Radio