Mixed Fortunes

Inigo’s Covent Garden

Joseph Grimaldi

Hosted by

Dame

Joanna

Lumley

Sound Editing

Jon

Jardine

Listen Now:

0:00/1:34

Season

Episode

running time

Mixed Fortunes

In this episode, we tell three tales of punishment, prostitution and pugilism.

Hosted by

Dame

Joanna

Lumley

Sound Editing

Jon

Jardine

Listen Now:

0:00/1:34

“The Celebrated Professor of the Fist”

Written by

James

Rampton

Performed by

Cassius

Konneh

About this story

Born enslaved in British America, Bill Richmond comes to Britain and rises to fame as a boxer in the early 19th-Century.

Delve Deeper

The National Portrait Gallery has a picture of Bill Richmond. Black History Month has an articleabout Richmond as does The Independent newspaper.

Holy Trinity Church, Wensley, Yorkshire, United KIngdom

An Unlikely Purchase

Written by

Sarah

Fleming

Performed by

Olivia

Bell

About this story

The Rags to Riches story of Lavinia Fenton, 1708-1760. From waitress/ prostitute to heroine in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. But how much further can she rise?

Delve Deeper

The British Library has a copy of William Hogarth’s painting of a scene from The Beggar’s Opera. The Tate Gallery has Hogarth’s portrait of an older Lavinia Fenton as Duchess of Bolton.

Google Books has pages of Lavinia Fenton’s autobiography. Pip’s Patch has pictures of Wensley Church and the opera box-pew.

Charing Cross, London, United Kingdom

Ritual Humiliation

Written by

Joanna

Clarke

Performed by

Lulu

Freeman

About this story

Writer Joanna Clarke imagines a child spectator keen to participate in the degradation of two women condemned to spend time in the Charing Cross pillory (the stocks) in 1719.

Delve Deeper

The Royal Institute of British Architects has a picture of the pillory at Charing Cross. Old Bailey online has an article about policing London over time. Pillory History has the stories of people put in pillories over the centuries in the UK.

“The Celebrated Professor of the Fist”

Written by

James

Rampton

Performed by

Cassius

Konneh

About this story

Born enslaved in British America, Bill Richmond comes to Britain and rises to fame as a boxer in the early 19th-Century.

Delve Deeper

The National Portrait Gallery has a picture of Bill Richmond. Black History Month has an articleabout Richmond as does The Independent newspaper.

Holy Trinity Church, Wensley, Yorkshire, United KIngdom

An Unlikely Purchase

Written by

Sarah

Fleming

Performed by

Olivia

Bell

About this story

The Rags to Riches story of Lavinia Fenton, 1708-1760. From waitress/ prostitute to heroine in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. But how much further can she rise?

Delve Deeper

The British Library has a copy of William Hogarth’s painting of a scene from The Beggar’s Opera. The Tate Gallery has Hogarth’s portrait of an older Lavinia Fenton as Duchess of Bolton.

Google Books has pages of Lavinia Fenton’s autobiography. Pip’s Patch has pictures of Wensley Church and the opera box-pew.

Charing Cross, London, United Kingdom

Ritual Humiliation

Written by

Joanna

Clarke

Performed by

Lulu

Freeman

About this story

Writer Joanna Clarke imagines a child spectator keen to participate in the degradation of two women condemned to spend time in the Charing Cross pillory (the stocks) in 1719.

Delve Deeper

“The Celebrated Professor of the Fist”

Written by

James

Rampton

Performed by

Cassius

Konneh

About this story

Born enslaved in British America, Bill Richmond comes to Britain and rises to fame as a boxer in the early 19th-Century.

Delve Deeper

The National Portrait Gallery has a picture of Bill Richmond. Black History Month has an articleabout Richmond as does The Independent newspaper.

Holy Trinity Church, Wensley, Yorkshire, United KIngdom

An Unlikely Purchase

Written by

Sarah

Fleming

Performed by

Olivia

Bell

About this story

The Rags to Riches story of Lavinia Fenton, 1708-1760. From waitress/ prostitute to heroine in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. But how much further can she rise?

Delve Deeper

The British Library has a copy of William Hogarth’s painting of a scene from The Beggar’s Opera. The Tate Gallery has Hogarth’s portrait of an older Lavinia Fenton as Duchess of Bolton.

Google Books has pages of Lavinia Fenton’s autobiography. Pip’s Patch has pictures of Wensley Church and the opera box-pew.

Charing Cross, London, United Kingdom

Ritual Humiliation

Written by

Joanna

Clarke

Performed by

Lulu

Freeman

About this story

Writer Joanna Clarke imagines a child spectator keen to participate in the degradation of two women condemned to spend time in the Charing Cross pillory (the stocks) in 1719.