Tony Robinson's Cunningcast

Today Tony is joined by an Anglican priest, John Barton, and an atheist scholar, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, to strip away myth and reverence and reveal the Bible as a messy, brilliant, centuries-long experiment in storytelling, belief, politics, and power. Full of sex, violence, poetry, argument, and big ideas, the Bible emerges not as a single holy book but as one of the most influential and fascinating collections of texts ever written. As Francesca says, ‘whether we believe it or not, the Bible is one of the most important cultural icons of our time.’Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinsonProducer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzgWithProfessor John Barton | theology.ox.ac.uk/people/john-bartonJohn is an Anglican priest and biblical scholar. From 1991 to 2014, he was the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Oriel College. In addition to his academic career, he has been an ordained and serving priest in the Church of England since 1973. His research interests and extensive publications have been in the areas of the Old Testament prophets, the biblical canon, biblical interpretation, and Old Testament theology. He is the author of numerous books on the Bible, co-editor of The Oxford Bible Commentary and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation.A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths was shortlisted for the 2020 Wolfson History Prize and won the 2019 Duff Cooper Prize. It was adapted for radio and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2020.Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou | experts.exeter.ac.uk/1365-francesca-stavrakopoulouFrancesca is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter. She is an internationally renowned scholar and award-winning author, specialising in material religion, death studies, and the ancient religious cultures in which the Bible emerged. Actively engaged in public scholarship, her media work includes writing and presenting the BBC TV documentary series Bible's Buried Secrets, and narrating the serialisation of her most recent book on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Follow us on our socials:Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast and TikTok @cunningcast------- If you enjoy this podcast, please follow us and leave us a rating or review.Thank you, Love Tony x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special collaborative episode, Tony Robinson sits down with Time Team’s Helen Geake for an immersive dive into ‘The House of Wolf’, his gripping new historical saga. Tony reveals how decades of archaeology, storytelling, and acting shaped the novel’s vivid world of Alfred the Great, political intrigue, and everyday Anglo-Saxon life. Together, they explore the magic of Time Team, the thrill of discovering traces of real people in the landscape, and why England has always been shaped by its ties to Europe. With the insight of an actor, the heart of a storyteller, and the mud-soaked experience of a field archaeologist, Tony reveals how real lives, real landscapes, and real discoveries shaped his most ambitious work yet.Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinsonProducer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzgWithDr. Helen Geake | timeteamdigital.com/the-team/helen-geakeHelen’s interest in archaeology was sparked partly by attending lecturers by Time Team’s Mick Aston. She studied at University College London and University of York, specialising in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. She has worked at Norwich Castle Museum, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Cambridge University and the British Museum. Helen first joined Time Team in 1998, appearing periodically as our Anglo-Saxon expert, and more regularly from 2006 to 2010. She currently presents the Time Team podcast with Martyn Williams.Watch Time Team Here: timeteamdigital.com/Listen to the Time Team podcast here: podfollow.com/time-teamBuy 'The House of Wolf' here: shop.timeteamdigital.com/collections/books Follow us on our socials:Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast and TikTok @cunningcast-------If you enjoy this podcast, please follow us and leave us a rating or review.Thank you, Love Tony x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The third part of Tony’s chat with The Beatles biographer Ian Leslie, exploring the emotional and creative partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They discuss how Lennon’s 1966 “more popular than Jesus” remark shook him, how the Beatles abandoned touring for studio experimentation, and how Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman became catalysts for John and Paul pulling apart. Business conflicts, especially over management, deepened divisions even as the band continued producing remarkable work, culminating in Abbey Road. Despite a turbulent breakup, Lennon and McCartney slowly rebuilt a loose friendship before Lennon’s death, and the Beatles’ artistic legacy continues to shape modern music.Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinsonProducer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzgWithIan Leslie | www.ian-leslie.comIan Leslie is the author of acclaimed and bestselling books on human psychology and creativity which have been translated into over a dozen languages. Malcolm Gladwell describes him as “one of my favourite writers”. Ian has written for the Financial Times, the Economist, the New York Times, The Sunday Times, and the New Statesman, among others, covering everything from technology to politics to music.‘John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs’ | https://ian-leslie.com/johnandpaul/The New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller Follow us on our socials:Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast and TikTok @cunningcast------- If you enjoy this podcast, please follow us and leave us a rating or review.Thank you, Love Tony x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second part of Tony’s chat with Beatles biographer Ian Leslie, exploring how John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s unique and complex relationship shaped The Beatles. When Tony first heard ‘Love Me Do’ he was blown away by the new sound he was hearing, and he’s been a lifelong fan of The Beatles ever since. Today Tony and Ian are discussing the band’s internal dynamics, the emotional histories that shaped John and Paul, and how drugs influenced their relationship and songwriting, pushing it to new creative places. In ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, they fused John’s conceptual vision with Paul’s avant-garde techniques to produce something radically new: as Ian says, “John didn't want to write a song about a trip; he wanted to create something which is a trip.”Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinsonProducer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzgWithIan Leslie | www.ian-leslie.comIan Leslie is the author of acclaimed and bestselling books on human psychology and creativity which have been translated into over a dozen languages. Malcolm Gladwell describes him as “one of my favourite writers”. Ian has written for the Financial Times, the Economist, the New York Times, The Sunday Times, and the New Statesman, among others, covering everything from technology to politics to music.‘John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs’ | https://ian-leslie.com/johnandpaul/The New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller Follow us on our socials:Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast and TikTok @cunningcast------- If you enjoy this podcast, please follow us and leave us a rating or review.Thank you, Love Tony x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year, alongside writing his own book, Tony was gripped by that of another writer - Ian Leslie’s ‘John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs’. Tony, who is a lifelong Beatles fan, has invited Ian onto Cunningcast to chat all about The Beatles. In Part 1 of this 3 Part mini-series, Ian and Tony explore how a shared adolescent intensity, mutual trauma, and obsessive love of music forged the unique and complex relationship between John and Paul that fuelled the Beatles’s extraordinary innovation. This is audible in songs such as We Can Work It Out and If I Fell, where harmonic complexity reflects their intertwined identities. They trace how the band's early experiences, especially in Hamburg, were transformative, exposing them to avant-garde influences, encouraging them to see themselves as artists, and blending silliness and Dada-like humour, which ultimately helped them discover who they were as a band. Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinsonProducer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzgWithIan Leslie | www.ian-leslie.comIan Leslie is the author of acclaimed and bestselling books on human psychology and creativity which have been translated into over a dozen languages. Malcolm Gladwell describes him as “one of my favourite writers”. Ian has written for the Financial Times, the Economist, the New York Times, The Sunday Times, and the New Statesman, among others, covering everything from technology to politics to music.‘John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs’ | https://ian-leslie.com/johnandpaul/ | The New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller Follow us on our socials:Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast | TikTok @cunningcast-------If you enjoy this podcast, please follow us and leave us a rating or review.Thank you, Love Tony x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.