Historical Friction

It's part three of Treasure Island adaptations this Pirate Season! In this episode, Helen gets body slammed onto the analyst's couch, as she introduces Abigail and Sara to her childhood fave, Disney's Treasure Planet …

We're still in Pirate Season here, and this week Alice, Helen, Sara, and Abigail discuss Muppet Treasure Island (1996). Technically it's based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, but with some significant deviations …

Arrrr me mateys! Pirate Season is in full swing here at Historical Friction, and today Alice, Helen, Sara, and Abigail discuss Walt Disney's Treasure …

Welcome to Historical Friction: Pirate Season! We're kicking off a series of episodes on pirates in literature and film with The Pirate (1948), a …

All agony, no hope. We here at Historical Friction decided that Netflix's new adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' was a Historical Emergency, so in this week's episode Alice, Abigail, and Helen watch this film so …

This week, we've got anachronistic leather daddies, siege-based penetration imagery, big old snake holes, and Tony Curtis in tiny hotpants - it's got …

Nobody asked for this! Bad Film Expert and friend of the show Dr Melissa L Gustin came back, and we watched the third Dan Brown film, Inferno. This time there's maybe going to be a plague caused by a eugenicist tech …

This week, Abigail, Helen and Sara are your favourite exposition crones, as we take a wild ride through The 13th Warrior (1999) - a film that …

In this week's episode, Alice and Helen discuss 2008 film Affinity, an adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel of the same name from 1999. Affinity is an atmospheric tale of Victorian crime and spiritualism, in which …

In today's episode Alice, Abigail, Helen, and Sara discuss the 2020 Netflix film 'Enola Holmes,' starring Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill. The …

This week Alice, Helen, Sara and Abigail all got together for our third Ripper Watch episode, a recurring feature discussing the representation of …

After watching coverage from the Met Gala last week, Alice, Abigail, Sara, and Helen convened an emergency podcast session to discuss the three-alarm historical fashion fire on display on the Met Gala red carpet. They …

This week, Abigail, Alice, and Helen watched Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite (2018), a gorgeous period piece set circa 1711 that explores the relationship between Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill, and Abigail Masham. We talk …

It's time! We finally surrendered! Here is a giant episode about Bridgerton! Alice, Abigail, Helen and Sara got together to try and understand the world's straightest show. We discussed teen girl friendships, bees, …

This week, Alice and returning guest Nicole Cochrane watched That Hamilton Woman, a weird Second World War propaganda film dressed up as romantic …

This week Helen and Abigail watched Sophia Coppola's biopic, Marie Antoinette (2006) starring Kirsten Dunst as the ill-fated queen of France. This is …

This week Alice, Helen, Sara and Abigail all got together for our second Ripper Watch episode, a recurring feature discussing the representation of …

We're kicking off 2022 with a discussion of Apple TV+'s musical comedy pastiche, Schmigadoon! If you've ever enjoyed the sweet technicolor candyfloss …

It's December, which means we are once again subjecting you to a time travel Christmas romance. It's a tradition now! Sara was joined by Dr Eleanor Janega to watch The Knight Before Christmas. What is hawking? What is …

This week Alice was joined by Dan Hanks, author of Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire, a historical fantasy about a very tired woman getting …

We read a book! Alice and Sara discussed Beauvallet by Georgette Heyer, queen of historical romance. We talked about enemies to lovers, Spanish …

Something different! This week Alice, Helen, Sara and Abigail all got together. This episode is an introduction to a recurring feature discussing the representation of the Whitechapel Murders and "Jack the Ripper" in …

Once again we are drowning in Robert Eggers' vibes - for this episode Helen Victoria Murray discussed The Lighthouse with Celine Brossillon, covering …

Another spooky, vibes-heavy film to see us out of October! Eleanor Affleck and I watched The Witch, or the V V Itch, and loved it. Topics include the …

This week's show is the second in our double feature of plague movies! Sara and I watched Black Death, a bad film about torture and misogyny that is very much Not Bergman. We talked about funeral rites, fourteenth …

This week's show is the first in a double feature of plague movies - Sara and I watched The Seventh Seal, and talked about how it represents religion, art and mortality. This is a fairly serious episode, but next week's …

Hi! We're back! Kicking off a spooky Autumn/Winter season, today's episode features Helen Victoria Murray to discuss Lizzie (2018), a fictionalisation of the real-life Borden family murders. We talked about crime and …

It's hard when the Pope is your dad, and your actual dad is the Pope. Melissa came back to reclaim her title of "Worst Film Watched For The Podcast". …

Dangerous Beauty (1998), also released as A Destiny Of Her Own or The Honest Courtesan, is a fun and frothy romance about Veronica Franco, a poet and sex worker in 16th century Venice. Yes, we talked about the banana …

Look, this show is absurd. It's the French Revolution with zombies and literally nothing makes sense. It was cancelled after one season and that's …

It is a truth universally acknowledged that you know the drill. This week Lizzie Rogers and I watched Lost in Austen (2009) and talked about lipgloss, Mr Darcy, and the Austen Romance Industry. We also dug into what …

For this episode, we're doing something a little different and discussing the heavily fictionalised past as represented through fairytales. Focusing …

WE'RE BACK, BABY.

After accidentally plugging The Dig twice last season, I finally watched it! It's fine! In this episode, Hannah Taylor and I …

For the last episode of 2020*, we watched A Timeless Christmas, one of this year's Hallmark holiday films. The film is about a museum director who is …

Continuing an accidental series of episodes about archaeology, this week's episode covers three films - The Mummy, originally made in 1932, and its …

Explosions! Swords! Horse girls! Melissa made me watch Pompeii (2014). We talked about the swords-and-sandals genre, the specific place of Pompeii in …

For this episode, Helen Victoria Murray and I revisited Desperate Romantics (2009), the show that made a generation of teens (or maybe just us) fall in love with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. We discussed the …

In this episode, we talked about gender and sexuality in three recent stage productions of Twelfth Night, and what happens when you look for queer history in a play from the 1600s. 

We discussed the 2012 Globe production

Hi! It's a trailer! Welcome! Episodes release weekly on Mondays, so the first real episode is up on 2 November.

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