Series 7 Specials 2: Staggering Storytellers

EPISODE NAME:

SUMMARY:

In its own distinctive and irreverently accurate style, the episode takes a look at some of literature’s greatest works and history’s wackiest writers, from Stone Age times, right up present day. We learn how a party at Lord Byron’s house led to the writing of the Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein, and how Charles Dickens was the Harry Styles of his day. We meet The Bronte Sisters trying to get a book deal, and Roald Dahl enters the Great British Bake Off with a worm cake.

Spanning 3,000 years of recorded history, we take a look at the funny and ridiculous ways some of our finest writers cured their writing block – did you know Tennyson used to pretend to go the loo as a party trick? Or that DH Lawrence would climb mulberry trees in the nude to stimulate his imagination? And there’s a celebration of brilliant female writers, with Malorie Blackman, Enid Blyton, Jacqueline Wilson and Beatrix Potter (pictured) getting on down, Little Mix stylie.

Plus, of course, our trusty host Rattus to guide the way.

ORGINAL AIRDATE:

Monday 11th July 2016, 5PM

SKETCHES:

Early man puts on a show, telling a story through cave paintings.

Tips for Struggling Writers No. 12: D.H Lawrence explains what bizarre thing he does when he gets a case of writer’s block.

The Great Storytellers Bake Off: Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll and Enid Blyton compete in a Bake Off, cooking up worm cake, edible teacups and water that can shrink!

Famous Indian storyteller, Vishnu Shaama, struggles to get his stories morals across to one family.

Tips for Struggling Writers No. 17: George Elliot explains her solution to how female writer’s in Victorian times can be taken seriously.

Comedy (mini song): Ancient Greek playwright, Aristophanes, explains his new idea of ‘comedy’ through a short song parody of ‘Tragedy’.

William Caxton struggles to deal with a customer who does not quite understand that the there is only one book printed in English in the whole medieval world.

Three famous fictional detectives, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and Chevalier Auguste Dupin, arrive at the scene of a supposed murder, only to be left arguing over which one of them was the greatest.

Tips for Struggling Writers No. 64: Beatrix Potter explains the downside to writing in code.

Polidori and Mary Shelley come up with the ‘Vampyre’ and ‘Frankenstein’ on the same night during a scary storytelling competition at lord Byron’s house.

SONG: Book Magic: Beatrix Potter, Malorie Blackman, Enid Blyton and Jacqueline Wilson sing about their careers as female authors and the success their stories were.

Tips for Struggling Writers No. 80: Alfred Lords Tennyson reveals his top party trick to keep him amused.

HHTV News: Dickens arrives in America, 1867, only to be smothered by a large crowd of fans and lovers.

Horrible Publishing: The Bronte Sisters try to get their work published, forgetting all about the Bronte brother.