TV, FILM & RADIO

Cult classics

Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics / BBC Radio 4, Sunday 17 May (repeats 23 May)

The clue is in the name. When Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics, the show in which she deftly profiles figures from the classical world, she usually performs in front of a live audience. Instead, thanks to Covid-19, the comedian and writer tells BBC History Revealed that she’s been recording the latest series at home in “a little den made out of fold-up chairs and sofa cushions and blankets”.

She’s also had to change her subjects, in part because the original choices would have required library research. “I know everyone thinks I can just spout 27 minutes of material off the top of my head about Livy or something, but it takesto prepare,” she deadpans. That’s even truer, she adds, of historical women, as “there’s so little evidence about them”.