"Natalie Haynes stands up for the Classics"

[TheAdjutant]

Is it my age, and because I studied the Classics, that I find this programme on Radio 4 a prime example of "dumbing down".
The audience seem to guffaw at every word.
Are they overawed by Natalie's education?

I quite like this. I’m not daft, but
I’ve never studied the Classics, and I find it pitched just right.

I love it.

The 6.30 comedy slots are awful except for I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Just a Minute. Room 101 is tolerable except THAT'S NOT WHAT ROOM 101 WAS! (It was where you faced your worst fears, not where you could dump things you don't like.) I forgot The News Quiz. I like Andy Zoltzman but the programme is not what it was.

Honestly there’s loads. Not just the Tudors springs to mind.

I’m a historian. I like lots of different history podcasts, some for fun, some for serious subject matter. There’s room for them all. Natalie Haynes stands up for the Classics is a comedy programme about history, not a history programme done for laughs. There’s a difference.

I listened to the Nell Gwyn episode and thought it was rather silly and dumbed down. Maybe I chose the wrong one. Could you recommend anything else? I just don’t want William Dalrymple being William Dalrymple all over the place.

I used to like this podcast but she was making a big deal out of some historical men being short, really mocking them. If my teenage son heard it he would have been crushed as he's desperately unhappy about his height.

For that reason alone I have unsubscribed and now avoid her.

I tuned into one of her broadcast, not podcast, programmes a few years ago and she was so hyper she sounded like a crazy person. Not something I could listen to and I have avoided her ever since.

It’s dumbed down for people like me OP.

Haven’t studied the Classics (not an option for people who attended my school). Perfectly intelligent person. Well educated since I left school. Not over awed by her (or your) education but enjoy it because it’s funny to me.

Room 101 contained “the worst thing in the world.”

They’ve taken it literally and out of context to reflect the format.

I love this programme and consider it a rare exception across a Radio 4 comedy landscape laid mostly bare.

But I do agree with some comments about the audience. As time's gone on there's a growing contingent of try-hard fans who will laugh hysterically at anything they hear.

I love it. It shines a light on something I wasn't lucky enough to study at school, done with humour and personality. Stand up is in the title so it should be clear enough that it's not going to be deep academia. Other shows are also available.

I have an O level in Latin, if that counts. There’s a school of comedy
that consists of listing facts, throwing in some
consensual, well meaning left leaning rhetoric, pausing to await the applause, and repeat. This is part of that school. Everybody titters on obligingly.

I love this listen for all the good reasons mentioned. I’ve learned a lot about the classics from these slots and look forward to the next one each week.