Garlic & Pearls

Muriel Zagha and Suzanne Raine

Suzanne and Muriel examine a series of very different things – from a film to a kitchen utensil, a model train to a bar of soap – that define British or French attitudes, each explaining her cultural background to the other and trying to get to the essence of what makes the British British and the French French.

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30 episodes
weekly
Avg 49 min
English

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S1 · E127
Friday · 54 min
The Flushing Loo: Britain's greatest gift to the world?
Suzanne takes the plunge as she launches into the rollercoaster history of how the British invented the modern toilet. Meet John Harington, Elizabeth I's 'saucy godson', translator of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and mad inventor of an early toilet called the Ajax (a pun on the word 'jakes'); Alexander Cumming, 18th-century Scottish watchmaker and loo progressive; and visionary pottery manufacturer Thomas Twyford, creator of the veritable lion of loos: the 1889 Deluge. Foul smells! Banishment! Valves! Great Exhibitions! Florentine patterns! Unsuccessful self-rising seats! And we also find out the origins of that mysterious word, 'loo', which may well be French... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E126
November 6 · 47 min
Monoprix: Why is it the favourite shop of the urban bourgeoisie?
Muriel introduces Suzanne to a teasing paradox: Monoprix stores crop up in city and town centres all over France, and yet 87% of French people never shop there. How can this be? This is a breathless tale of the buccaneering French high street, in which a thrifty magasin populaire imagined during the 1930s Depression is transformed into quite a different beast – urban, chic and pop, but still selling tins and knickers. Somewhere in the bowels of Monoprix HQ, a team of package designers are writing puns – but why? And the midst of Monoprix's history, there is an interlude when its founder joins the French Resistance. So how is Monoprix an expression of Frenchness? How do French people feel when they shop there? How does it, with its playful optimism, cater for a sort of dream life as well as real life? And, Suzanne wonders, does Monoprix have a British equivalent? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E125
October 30 · 59 min
The Ghost Stories of MR James: All aboard the British uncanny!
The dark is rising, and Suzanne is on hand to make the back of your neck prickle with the creepy, poetic and quintessentially British ghost stories of Montague Rhodes James, aka MR James. Enter a twilit world of marshes and mists, country houses and seaside inns, where curiosity leads tweedy gentlemen scholars to unspeakable horrors: a hairy ghoul rises out of a manuscript; a hooded figure crawls ever closer towards the edge of a mezzotint; a bronze whistle summons an ancient figure of terror. But what would you do, faced with an intriguing and sinister object? And how did Suzanne come to be in possession of a haunted portrait? Happy Halloween! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E124
October 23 · 53 min
The boudoir: sulking room, private retreat, haven of frolics?
Things get rather raffish and French as Muriel entices Suzanne into that most Gallic of spaces - the boudoir - and tells her everything she ever wanted to know about it but was afraid to ask. What actually happens in that room? What is it for? We open the door on the dazzling boudoirs of the 18th-century elite, filled with art and chinoiserie, on exquisite women’s retreats and on men’s delirious dens of debauchery. The Marquis de Sade, Balzac, Baudelaire and John Malkovich put in a appearance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E123
October 16 · 59 min
The Scarlet Pimpernel: The very first and quintessentially British masked superhero.
They seek him here; they seek him there... Suzanne gives Muriel a riveting rendering of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Hungarian émigrée Baroness Orczy's colourful and melodramatic 1905 historical novel set during the French Revolution, in which a gallant mild-mannered fop and his associates stick it to Madame Guillotine by rescuing French aristocrats on the run from bloodthirsty sans culottes and the dastardly Citoyen Chauvelin. And why do these British heroes do this? For the sport of pulling 'the hare from the teeth of the hound', of course! This is a highly romantic rendering of the French Revolution seen from the British side of the Channel, but was there in fact a real-life Scarlet Pimpernel? And what happened to French emigrés in Britain? Isambard Kingdom Brunel guest stars. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E122
October 9 · 54 min
Toile de Jouy: A Tale of Printed Fabric, Savoir-Faire and Storytelling
Muriel tells Suzanne the story of the printed cotton or linen known as toile de Jouy, generally printed in a single colour on a neutral background and created in the late 18th century by an enterprising German émigré, the engraving and colour specialist Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, at his thriving manufacture of Jouy-en-Josas. Patterns of exquisite refinement were beloved of the powerful, from Queen Marie-Antoinette to the Revolutionaries and Napoleon. They also harnessed the talent of great artists and, with their pastoral scenes, Enlightenment themes and celebration of important historical events, gained long-lasting hold of the French collective imagination, feeding into how much the French enjoy telling themselves stories about being French. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E120
October 2 · 58 min
Literary Dystopia: A Very British Response to Social Change
Suzanne explores dystopia, one of the most significant sub-genres of the British novel, where trouble often starts with the breakdown of the monarchy and aristocracy (which sounds a bit like France). It begins with Jonathan's Swift's Gulliver's Travels, then Mary Shelley comes along, then HG Wells's War of the Worlds – where most of Woking is destroyed even before the M25 is built. But our main focus is Aldous Huxley's astonishing 1932 novel Brave New World and its world of skyscrapers, aeroplanes and willing enslavement through entertainment and the scariest thing of all – sex! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E119
September 25 · 56 min
De Gaulle: Resistance: How good is the French blockbuster about De Gaulle's time in London during the war?
Muriel and Suzanne discuss a new French film set during the years 1940-41, a pivotal time in the history of France and Britain, as General de Gaulle, powered by 'a certain idea of France' and refusing to accept Pétain's new collaborationist regime, relocated to London to seek support from the British, devise the Free French response to the defeat and plan the recapturing of France. How good is the film? How persuasive is its portrayal of our respective national heroes De Gaulle and Churchill? How much accuracy do we expect from historical dramas? How much suspension of disbelief are we prepared to grant? The film has been a tremendous box office hit in France: what does this tell us about our need for an inspiring national narrative? Has the time come for France to reassess a complicated period of its history? And will this film change British perceptions of De Gaulle? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E118
September 18 · 54 min
The Beaufort Scale: The Poetic British Way of Measuring What Happens at Sea
Suzanne enlightens Muriel about the Beaufort Scale and explores the remarkable story of its creator, hydrographer Francis Beaufort, who went to sea as a boy, was shipwrecked in the Far East, took part in Napoleonic sea battles against the French and in 1805 devised a brilliant empirical scale full of poetic language to evoke the changeable quality of the wind and its effect on the sails of a ship and the surface of the sea. How should one assess a breeze, a gale, a hurricane and learn to survive at sea without Beaufort's system, which even the French adopted? Daniel Defoe guest stars. Beaufort's unorthodox private life, recorded in his ciphered journal – using the Beaufort cipher – adds a layer of intrigue. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E117
September 11 · 57 min
Camus’s L’Etranger: literature, murder and Absurdism in a French colony
Camus’s terse 1942 novel about an enigmatic killing won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1957. It is entrenched as a French literary classic and as a gateway to Philosophy in French schools. But what, asks Muriel, do the book and its recent film adaptation by François Ozon tell us about morality, justice and the complicated history of the French in Algeria? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E116
September 4 · 40 min
Summer Postcards: Ginger Beer
Lashings of ginger beer all around and nostalgia galore as Suzanne explains the refreshing drink's quasi-parodic Famous Fives connection and unpicks the origins and history of ginger beer, taking in the trading of the exotic ginger root, its feeding into the British obsession with beer, fermenting and experimentation, some Victorian tales of temperance leagues, brown bottles, scoby and vinaigrières, the investigations of distinguished botanist Henry Marshall Ward into the alien entity of the ginger plant, the great split between ginger beer and ginger ale, Henry Crabbe's brewing dynasty and its connection to whisky, and finally, above and beyond nostalgia, the irrepressible resurgence of the craft and savoir-faire of ginger-beer brewing today. Anyone for a Moscow Mule? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E115
August 28 · 34 min
Summer Postcards: Bonjour Tristesse
Muriel faces up to the melancholy that comes to us all towards the end of summer, and find a Gallic expression of it in the 1954 novel Bonjour Tristesse, a huge bestseller and succès de scandale set on the French Riviera. The book launched the career of its teenage author Françoise Sagan – herself an iconic forerunner of the rebellious French youthquake of the 1960s. Is the story – a timeless Greek-style tragedy charting the catastrophic consequences of deregulated insouciance – immoral or was Sagan actually a moralist? And then there is the book's 1958 Hollywood film adaptation by Otto Preminger starring Jean Seberg. which, with its mix of Technicolor and black-and-white, brings to life a dark story set in the sunniest, most colourful place. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E114
August 21 · 33 min
Summer Postcards: Summer Pudding
Suzanne presents Muriel with the magnificent dome of scarlet studded with berries that is summer pudding and reveals the dessert's intriguing origins, which lie in 19th-century hydropathy. What inspired the British to deploy a plain, uncompromising pudding made of bread and native fruit as a health food? Suzanne seeks out the original recipe of the pudding, which turns out to be the tip of the iceberg of a history of spa towns and hydropathic hotels powered by the idea of water as a cure-all, and its eccentric and sometimes fanatical Victorian promoters. Fashionable in the 1920s, summer pudding then fell into obscurity until its triumphant restoration to the British repertoire in the 1980s. An asphalt inventor, a knitwear manufacturer and a colonial missionary guest star. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E113
August 14 · 32 min
Summer Postcards: Melons
What is the quintessential French summer food? Melon, of course, of the orange-fleshed and deeply aromatic variety. In the summer, Muriel explains, the French go into a sort of melon frenzy, chasing the perfect ambrosial experience, and this brings with it the agony of choice. Selecting the right melon is an inexact science, at once thrilling and anxious-making. Weighing up a melon in the palm of your hand is a Gallic ritual as old as time. Melons also come with a rich cultural hinterland: they have long inspired poets and moralists. To the French, there is something subtly existential about the promise of delight and the repeated quest for excellence in a sea of indifferent fruit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E112
August 7 · 32 min
Summer Postcards: Ice Cream Vans
Can you hear the clarion call of a tinny version of 'Green Sleeves'? That familiar cheery chime is calling us to the ice cream van, plying its way all over the UK in the summer. Suzanne explores its history, its British-American mash-up of creativity, crucial Italian connection, technical challenges and complex regulations. Who invented Mr Whippy? How did the 99 chocolate flake come to be? Who is best at converting an ordinary van into a magical driving machine that dispenses ice cream? And should Suzanne and Muriel consider an alternative career ? The Garlic & Pearls theme tune would make an irresistible chime for their van... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E111
July 31 · 33 min
Summer Postcards: Topless Sunbathing
The golden age of topless sunbathing in France lasted a little over a decade, from the 1970s to the tail end of the 1980s. French women pioneered it and were also first to abandon it. But how and why? Muriel retraces the story of a particular aspect of Gallic art de vivre which was highly codified and attempted to recast the social contract between women and society. How natural was it? How cultural? Did it have more to do with feminism – of the French kind – or with fashion? And what would Coco Chanel have made of it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E110
July 24 · 30 min
Summer Postcards: Scampi Fries
Another case of Suzanne pinpointing the essence of Britain; another first-time taste experience for Muriel! What are scampi fries but fish and chips, pubs and the British seaside holiday all condensed into a tiny mouthful of fishy saltiness. Covering ground from Georgian recipes of Italianate dishes of langoustines to extruded snacks of the 1980s, Suzanne tells the story of how the whole of Britain was fitted into a small crunchy bag. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E109
July 17 · 29 min
Summer Postcards: Pastis
In the wake of the banning of absinthe in France in 1915, a new apéritif was born, redolent with aniseed and liquorice, a taste at once medicinal and full of the joie de vivre we associate with the South of France. But what does 'pastis' mean? Who invented it? In what way did it have political implications? And why is it so central to French apéritif culture? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E108
July 10 · 56 min
Stripy Tops: From Devil's Cloth to Top French Icon
Muriel tells the story of the stripy Breton top and wonders how a pattern – stripes – once considered sacrilegious and satanic gradually became the epitome of French elegance. We explore the evolving cultural history of a powerful symbol, the role of seaside holidays, of sailor suits as the preferred outfits of smart children, and the formalisation of the uniforms of the French Navy. Coco Chanel, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Gaultier and a lot of zebras put in an appearance. Are stripy tops a means of clothing oneself in maritime courage, freedom and adventure? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1 · E107
July 3 · 1 hr
Pub Quizzes: The Nation's Favourite 'Brit of Fun'!
Biros at the ready as Suzanne takes Muriel on a tour of a very British obsession: the pub quiz. Did it begin on a mythical night in Yorkshire in 1946? Is it one of the primary ways in which the British relate to each other socially? And if so, why? Can the Zoom quiz be credited for keeping the nation together during Covid? Are the best pub quizzes, Suzanne asks, ultimately where the British sense of terroir is located? Warning: this episode contains a veritable avalanche of punning. What's your team name, by the way? The Spanish Inquizzition? I Am Smartacus? Or simply: Quizzy McQuizface? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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