Radio Oldie

The Oldie magazine’s podcast featuring discussion and debate around the lead features in the latest magazine, plus live recordings from our famous Literary Lunches. Presented by Harry Mount.

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494 episodes
Updated Thursday

Episodes494

Newest first

Sep 3, 2018 · 33 min
October Issue: Kenneth Cranham on Harold Pinter
Ten years after Harold Pinter's death – and on the eve of a new season of his plays – actor Kenneth Cranham remembers his friend's advice on how to understand and act in his works
Aug 28, 2018 · 17 min
October Issue: Sara Wheeler on Anton Chekov's Gardens
Our Digital Editor, Annabel Sampson, talks to Sara Wheeler about Anton Chekhov’s Russian garden, that has been copied in Devon after a blooming debut at this year’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Chekhov’s work as a doctor was invigorated by a deep sympathy with the natural world. Listen here.
Aug 8, 2018 · 27 min
1: September Issue: Ask Virginia
The Oldie’s Agony Aunt, the stand-up, novelist and columnist Virginia Ironside, opens up about solving reader conundrums, something she has done now for nearly 40 years. She airs her mixed feelings about celebrity agony aunts and the unreadable prose of some of her contemporaries. Our Digital Editor goes to her house in West London, to see Virginia and meet her cat.
Aug 7, 2018 · 19 min
1: Ferdinand Mount on Prime Movers at the Oldie Literary Lunch
The former head of Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit and former editor of the TLS will talk about his latest book, Prime Movers. It examines the political ideas of twelve great thinkers across the centuries, including Pericles, Jesus Christ and Edmund Burke. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpson's-in-the-Strand on July 17th 2018.
Aug 7, 2018 · 12 min
1: Andrew Gimson on Gimson's Prime Ministers at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Who is your favourite prime minister? Gimson has written a vivid account of the lives of PMs from Walpole to May. The former parliamentary sketchwriter for the Telegraph and biographer of Boris Johnson, Gimson is the dream guide to our First Lords of the Treasury. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpson's-in-the-Strand on July 17th 2018.
Aug 7, 2018 · 13 min
1: Dame Jenni Murray on A History of Britain in 21 Women at the Oldie Literary Lunch
They were famous queens, unrecognised visionaries, great artists and trailblazing politicians. They all pushed back boundaries and revolutionised our world. Jenni Murray presents the history of Britain as you've never seen it before, through the lives of twenty-one women who refused to succumb to the established laws of society, whose lives embodied hope and change, and who still have the power to inspire us today. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpson's-in-the-Strand on July 17th 2018.
Aug 7, 2018 · 21 min
1: September Issue: Soho's Golden Age
Christopher Howse recalls the heyday of London’s boozy artistic bohemia – from the Forties to the Eighties. In conversation with Harry Mount.
Aug 7, 2018 · 14 min
1: Miles Goslett on An Inconvenient Death: How the Establishment Covered up the David Kelly Affair at the Oldie Literary Lunch
From the man who exposed the Jimmy Savile scandal – in The Oldie – comes a book on the mysterious death of Dr David Kelly in 2003. It remains one of the most shadowy episodes in recent British political history. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch as part of Buxton International Festival on July 7th 2018.
Aug 7, 2018 · 13 min
1: Leanda de Lisle on The White King: The Untold Story of Charles I at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Drawing on lost royal letters from a closed archive, The White King introduces us to Charles I as the monarch at the heart of an epic tale: of populist politicians, the fall of the mighty, religious hatreds, civil war, the power of a new media, and a maligned queen. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch as part of Buxton International Festival on July 7th 2018.
Aug 7, 2018 · 10 min
1: D. J. Taylor on Rock and Roll is Life: A Novel at the Oldie Literary Lunch
'Rock and Roll is Life' is a vastly entertaining, picaresque and touching novel inspired by the excess and trajectories of the great '60s and '70s supergroups, and of the tales brought back from the front line by a very special breed of Englishmen who made it big in the States as the alchemists and enablers, as well as the old making way for the new in the era of the baby boomers. At its heart is one man's adventure, and the poignancy of the special relationships that dominate his life. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch as part of Buxton International Festival on July 7th 2018.
Jul 10, 2018 · 7 min
An extract from Sam Leith at the Oldie Journalism Course
Sam Leith, literary editor of the Spectator, talks about 'How to Write a Book Review' and proffers wisdom on how to make a review 'really sing on the page' and why you should read a book armed with a pen.
Jul 10, 2018 · 8 min
An extract from Mary Kenny at the Oldie Journalism Course
Mary enlightens course-goers, telling them that 'only a blockhead goes into journalism for money' in her session on 'How to Write a Column' – something she has been doing now, for the best part of 50 years.
Jul 10, 2018 · 21 min
August Issue: Rules Britannia
Sophia Money-Coutts on modern manners: drinks at 6.30, dinner at 8.30 – and get married by 30. The former features director of Tatler talks tongue-in-cheek about the world of the magazine, and her new book The Plus One which is published on 9th August.
Jul 10, 2018 · 15 min
Stanley Johnson on Kompromat
The father of our ‘Golden Oldies’ columnist, Rachel Johnson, has written a political thriller – an account of the skulduggery that might have gone on behind the scenes in the run-up to the EU referendum. Described as a ‘unique peek under the dirty doormat of politics’. He talks at Chichester Cathedral, an Oldie lunch in partnership with the Literary festival.
Jul 10, 2018 · 8 min
Christopher Somerville on The January Man: A Year of Walking Britain
A year of walks, inspired by a song – Dave Goulder’s The January Man. Month by month, season by season and region by region, Christopher Somerville walks many of the 140,000 miles of footpaths across the British Isles. He talks at Chichester Cathedral, an Oldie lunch in partnership with the Literary festival.
Jul 10, 2018 · 13 min
Anna Pasternak on Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago
Anna is the great-niece of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Boris Pasternak – author of Doctor Zhivago. She tells the story of the true and tragic love affair between Boris and Olga Ivinskaya which inspired the literary classic. She talks at Chichester Cathedral, an Oldie lunch in partnership with the Literary festival.
Jun 12, 2018 · 55 min
5: July issue: Roger Lewis looks back on his journalism and books
Roger Lewis looks back on his journalism and books, and discusses his unique, sardonic, comic style. He also unlocks the characters of Peter Sellers and Laurence Olivier in a discussion of his ground-breaking biographies.
Jun 12, 2018 · 17 min
4: Charles Duff on Charley's Woods at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Charles Duff stands in to replace his cousin John Julius Norwich, who was forced to stand down due to ill health, at the June 5th 2018 lunch. An actor and lecturer in Shakepeare and theatre history, he entertains and enthrals in equal measure talking about his memoir, Charley's Woods published by Zuleika.
Jun 12, 2018 · 10 min
3: Angela Levin on Harry: Conversations with the Prince at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Fresh from reporting on the Royal Wedding for CNN from 4.30am until 9pm, Angela Levin reveals extracts from her royal biography, Harry: Conversations with the Prince at the Oldie Literary Lunch on June 5th 2018.
Jun 12, 2018 · 13 min
2: Lady Antonia Fraser in conversation with Harry Mount at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Lady Antonia Fraser in conversation with her cousin, Harry Mount, on her book The King and the Catholics: The Fight for Rights 1829 at the Oldie Literary Lunch on June 5th 2018 at Simpson's-in-the-Strand. With an introduction by Barry Cryer.