Iron Ladies is a new documentary about the women of the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, a time in which working-class women who found themselves at the forefront of a battle against the British state. They fast became the backbone of the fight: organising pickets; keeping families fed, and raising cash to continue the strike. As Lorraine Stansbie and Kate Flannery – two of those redoubtable women – tell our Mick, it changed them. And not only them; it’s fair to say their actions reshaped the landscape o...
Oct 14, 2025•27 min
Following her success with Princess Essex and the previous two chapters of Ghost Stories…by Candlelight , Anne Odeke has joined forces with High Tide theatre company to co-write Even More…Ghost Stories by Candlelight. The joint production, with Pentabus Theatre, is currently touring both the east and, indeed, west of the country. Jen chats to Anne about the production, urban explorers, and her crazy year, post-Princess Dinubolu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Oct 13, 2025•28 min
Catherine Clarke's new book - and accompanying Radio 4 series - A History of England in 25 Poems, tackles the big issues. And the smaller ones, too. Hannah chats to her about how poetry has helped shape our view of England and whether that view is accurate, as well the importance of local history and her role as the Director of Victoria County History. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 10, 2025•30 min
If you're planning a trip to Europe or to leave your bike at a train station, or both, Hannah and Jen have got big news this week. Also, there's a new Archbishop of Canterbury, a woman no less. Who exactly? Doesn't matter. Or so it seems. You know who is good for clicks though? Taylor Swift. Best mention her a few times. Plus there's a lot of football commentator chat and a lot of women's football in Jenny Off The Blocks. The Flicking episode on Pan's Labyrinth is here: https://podcasts.apple.co...
Oct 09, 2025•32 min
In her play Not Your Superwoman , Emma Dennis-Edwards tackles the sometimes tricksy relationship between mums and daughters. She chats to our Mick about complex intergenerational dynamics, the expectations on mums, intergenerational trauma, the shifting nature of ‘motherland’, and how exciting it is to work with talent as big as Letitia Wright and Golda Rosheuvel. Not Your Superwoman is at the Bush Theatre, London , until November 1, but is currently fully sold out. Fingers firmly crossed for a ...
Oct 07, 2025•24 min
Following an epic summer of women’s sport, the UEFA Women’s Champions League is back, starting on October 7 and broadcast in its entirety on Disney+. Jen catches up with commentator Vicki Sparks to find out more about bringing the women’s game to the House of Mouse, who Vicki’s backing in this year’s tournament, and how hard it really is to commentate on live sport. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Oct 06, 2025•22 min
With an awards-bothering central performance from Eka Chavleishvili, Elene Naveriani’s adaptation of Tamta Melashvili’s 2020 novel got smashing reviews across the board. Set in a small, remote village in Georgia, the film brings us Etero, a single, middle-aged woman whose quiet, insular life is exploded by a near-death experience and a sexual awakening. But is Etero isolated or independent? How mean can women feasibly be to one another? Is it a sexy film? And will talking about it prove too much...
Oct 03, 2025•36 min
Mick and Jen tackle this week’s news, which finally (FINALLY!) finds Labour kicking the ball towards a goal – and not even an own goal – in moves* that will annoy both racists and people who like kids living in poverty. There’s also an Old Missus, some classic Mick pronunciation, Jen cheering sportswomen all over the shop, and some nuns. Obviously. *Probably. If the wind doesn’t change direction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Oct 02, 2025•29 min
Is Sidney Lumet's 1975 bank robbery drama of its time? Or years ahead of its time? Or still pretty relevant to today? Or all of it? Find out as we watch Al Pacino Al Pacino-ing it to the max as the mob cheers him on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 01, 2025•33 min
Hannah and Mick tackle this week’s headlines, looking at whether Jess’s Rule is progress or a damning indictment of the NHS, worrying about young girls reporting being sad every day , charting how the Taliban continues to take its misogyny up yet another notch, and finally – finally – finding something* to like about golf. *Sister Rene of the Humility of Mary order https://malala.org/countries/afghanistan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 25, 2025•22 min
Stephen Daldry’s 2000 coming-of-age comedy-drama made big waves on both sides of the Atlantic, and a star of its young lead, Jamie Bell. But how funny is it? Is that dancing actually any good? And is that really how they select people for the Royal Ballet School? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 24, 2025•35 min
Food glorious food: not only does it sustain and nourish us as individuals, it brings together communities, crosses borders and merges cultures. When Atoosa Sepehr fled an abusive marriage in Iran, she found herself alone and lonely in London. And then she started cooking. The Persian dishes she created providing an anchor to the home she missed and forging friendships in the one she was creating. In My English Persian Kitchen , Atoosa’s story is brought to the stage by playwright Hannah Khalil....
Sep 23, 2025•27 min
Poet, broadcaster, and TikTok sensation, Len Pennie was last on the podcast back in February 2024 on the eve of publication of her first collection of poems, Poyums . Since then, she’s become a Sunday Times bestselling author, and picked up a British Book Award. In her new collection, Poyums Annaw , Len writes viscerally about her experiences of domestic violence, mental health problems, patriarchy, and a four year fight for justice, as well as love and joy. Jen chats to Len about the ups and do...
Sep 22, 2025•28 min
It's Emmy time again and this month we're chatting about the good and bad choices made this year. Which is also an excuse to talk about The Penguin . We've also been watching King of The Hill, Only Murders in the Building, I Fought the Law, Hostage, The Newsreader, King & Conqueror, and Unknown Number: The High School Catfish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 19, 2025•51 min
A freedom of speech special awaits you this week, as Hannah and Jen debate the rights and wrongs of opinions expressed on the killing of Charlie Kirk, as well as the rights and wrongs of hammering nails through your penis. There’s added joy from some nuns on the run and - finally - some good news for Keir Starmer and the families of the 97 victims of the Hillsborough Disaster. We also bring you the latest in women’s sport and some very strange noises from Hannah’s neighbour. Learn more about you...
Sep 18, 2025•28 min
What’s a young man to do when he can’t stop murdering women he fancies? Blame his mum, obviously. The malign power of mothers is just one of several themes raised by the genre-defining Hitchcock classic and discussed by Mick, Hannah and Jen. Hold onto your shower curtains, it’s time for some piercing violin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 17, 2025•34 min
Art historian, curator and broadcaster Kate Bryan is on a mission to wrest control of the art world from asymmetric haircuts and aloofness, and put it firmly back in the hands of us all. In her new book, How To Art , which is illustrated by David Shrigley, she sets about doing exactly that. Jen chats to Kate about entering the art world from a working-class background, how to talk about art even if you don’t really know what you’re talking about, and why snobbery is so rife in the art world. Lea...
Sep 16, 2025•30 min
It’s silly turned up to 11, as Mick catches up with brilliantly bonkers comedian Harriet Dyer, who describes her standup as a fizzy blancmange of whimsy. Delicious. Harriet’s currently on her biggest UK tour to date with her show Easily Distra… , but found some time to chat to Mick about mental health, getting trapped in cupboards and what she’s like at parties. Tickets for Harriet’s tour can be found here: harrietdyer.com . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 15, 2025•25 min
After a much-lauded off Broadway run, Maia Novi's play about the time she was involuntarily held in a mental health facility has arrived in the UK. The Argentine writer and actor speaks to Hannah about Invasive Species , inner monologues, ambition and the advice Michaela Coel gave her. Tickets for Invasive Species are here: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/invasive-species-q1qt More info about the Standard Issue membership club is here: Standard Issue Podcast | creating a magazine for ears,...
Sep 12, 2025•26 min
Mick and Jen are on Bush Telegraph duties this week and, unlike it does for Sabrina Carpenter, the idea of men doing more housework is not getting them going. In other news, can you kill someone with menstrual blood? And was Angela Rayner right to resign? Plus, Jenny Off the Blocks returns with all things women’s sport. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 11, 2025•29 min
The "gay cowboy movie" certainly opened the door for a lot of other films, but how does it fare 20 years later? Hankies at the ready as we take another look at the small story, big landscape romance that was robbed at the Oscars. Don't @ us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 10, 2025•34 min
The story of Medea has been popular since antiquity and continues to endure today. Not least because big names want what’s undoubtedly one of the meatiest female roles in theatre. Meatiest in its most gruesome sense, as Medea is most famous for killing her children in order to get revenge on her faithless husband. Or at least that’s the headlines. It is, of course, more complicated (if no less horrifying) than that, so our Mick was delighted that author, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes...
Sep 09, 2025•28 min
It took clinical psychologist, trauma therapist and complex trauma survivor Dr Ingrid Clayton years to understand how she had reacted to abuse within her home as a young person. But what she later understood to be a relational-trauma response known as “fawning” also helped her to make sense of her behaviour and relationships in the years that followed. And now that work informs her book, Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves . Jen chats to Ingrid about why we sometimes lean int...
Sep 08, 2025•28 min
It’s Robbie Williams, but he’s a chimp! But is there anything more to Michael Gracey’s biopic jukebox musical drama about the British pop phenomenon? Are there any facts in it? And will you look at that cast: Steve Pemberton! Alison Steadman! Damon Herriman! Jonno Davies (who? what?). It’s (oddly) Hannah’s pick, (poor?) Yosra’s second watch and (warning) may contain Mick singing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 05, 2025•32 min
Returning from a BT hiatus, Mickey and Hannah take a rifle through some of the daftest stories of the week, including AI failures, ball pits, watered down beer, rumours of Trump's death and odd book choices. While in Sexism of The Week, it turns out everything has been fixed in our absence. Oh no wait, it hasn't. Shame. Chloe's story about The Salt Path is here: http://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit Learn...
Sep 04, 2025•25 min
Is there anything Meryl Streep and/or Shirley MacLaine can’t do? It's a question we return to, as we settle down with Mike Nichol’s 1990 dramedy, based on Carrie Fisher’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. But to what extent is it based on Fisher’s real-life relationship with her mum, Debbie Reynolds? How well does it reflect issues around addiction? And, another question we return to: what is Roger Ebert even on about? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 03, 2025•27 min
A century after their birth, the Mitford Sisters continue to fascinate and appal in equal measure. As a new play about them, The Party Girls , opens at The Marlowe in Canterbury, Hannah chats to playwright Amy Rosenthal about why their stories still resonate, sisterhood and the frivolity of evil. Tickets for The Party Girls are here: https://showtours.co.uk/the-party-girls-tour-dates/ More info about becoming a Standard Issue supporter is here: Standard Issue Podcast | creating a magazine for ea...
Sep 02, 2025•28 min
Fairy tales have long been a source of life lessons and observations. Adding to that tradition and brimming with female power, Wild Folk: Tales From the Stones , by writer and illustrator Jackie Morris and stained glass artist Tamsin Abbott, is officially one of the most beautiful books in our Mick’s possession. She chats with Jackie and Tamsin about the power of stories, the collaborative process, finding just the right sky and that aforementioned female power. Wild Folk isn’t as easily availab...
Aug 29, 2025•24 min
Featuring a couple of bona fide bangers by Irving Berlin, this Fred and Ginger bonanza, in which misunderstandings, misidentification and miscommunication slows true love’s flow, was the pair’s most successful film. But will the ‘idiot plot’ be too frustrating for words? Can Mick deal with the sheer amount of tap dancing? Why is Hannah screaming and refusing to look at the screen? And what am “Venice”? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Aug 27, 2025•26 min
In 2017, fashion model and counsellor-turned gender equality campaigner Karen Dobres , found herself on the board of her local football club Lewes FC, despite never having had an interest in the sport. But she discovered a passion for the women’s game and The Rooks made headlines as the first football club ever to pay its men’s and women’s team players equally. Her new book Pitch Invasion: My Story as a Feminist on a Football Club Board charts her time on the board. Jen caught up with Karen to c...
Aug 26, 2025•29 min
