Shows
Julian Girdham'To Autumn' by John KeatsIt's the perfect time of the year to re-read the masterpiece ode by John Keats, 'To Autumn'.
2025-10-0203 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 12The final episode: the cataclysmic events which define this play and mark it as Shakespeare's darkest tragedy.
2024-12-1509 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 11The penultimate episode, number 11, looks at Act 4 scene 7, and Act 5 scenes 1 and 2, a relatively quiet section between the tumultuous Act 4 scene 6 and the climax of the play.
2024-12-1006 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 10In episode 10 I whizz through three quick scenes first - Act 4, scenes 3, 4 and 5, and then pay proper attention to the immense and complex scene 6.
2024-12-0511 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 9Here, I look at Act 4 scene 1 in the aftermath of Gloucester's blinding, and in addressing Act 4 scene 2 give an overview of Albany's character through the play.
2024-11-2609 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 8The notorious brutalising of Gloucester in Act 3 scene 7 opens up a consideration of images of blindness and seeing throughout the play - a key idea.
2024-11-1810 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 7Episode 7 of King Lear scene by scene looks at Act 3 scene 4 (the second one in the storm) and scene 6 (the mock trial). Scene 5 is skipped - little to say.
2024-11-1206 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 6We move into Act 3 with the first three scenes, and in scene 2 into the storm which dominates the central part of the play.
2024-11-0504 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 5In this episode, I look at the very significant but very short Act 2 scene 3, followed by the much more meaty Act 2 scene 4. They are both connected by the idea ‘nothing’.
2024-11-0308 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 4This time, three short scenes which mark Lear’s growing isolation, and a sense that darker forces are gathering strength: Act 1 scene 5, Act 2 scene 1 and Act 2 scene 2.
2024-11-0107 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 3Act 1 scene 3 (briefly) and scene 4 are the focus this time: themes of loyalty and service, and of course of blindness, which is everywhere. Also, dog-owners look away.
2024-10-2207 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene 2In the second scene of the play, we are introduced to the unique feature of this tragedy by Shakespeare, the sub-plot, opening with the fascinating villain Edmund.
2024-10-1706 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear scene by scene: 1The first in a series on individual scenes in the play King Lear, for teachers and pupils. This looks at Act 1 scene 1, the explosive opening scene which sets off the subsequent catastrophe.
2024-10-1508 minJulian GirdhamRichard Yates: his life and works, discussed by John FanaganAn interview with John Fanagan, who has been discovering the works of the American novelist Richard Yates (1926-92). Somewhat neglected since his death, this has changed thanks to the success of the recent film of his novel Revolutionary Road. John discusses Yates's 'disaster area' of a private life, and several novels and short stories.
2023-04-1226 minJulian GirdhamTerry Dolan on Geoffrey ChaucerAn interview with Professor Terry Dolan about the life, times and works of the great Middle English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, especially his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales. Professor Dolan talks about the nature of English society at the time, and discusses pilgrims such as the Knight, the Prioress and the Wife of Bath.
2023-04-1225 minJulian GirdhamMacbeth revision 1: the crucial momentThe first revision podcast on the play Macbeth opens with an analysis of the crucial soliloquy beginning Act I scene vii, 'If it were done...' These revision podcasts are designed to freshen up thinking in the weeks leading up to the Leaving Certificate. [Made in May 2009].
2023-04-1213 minJulian GirdhamMacbeth revision 2: the real Lady MacbethThe second revision podcast on Macbeth examines the role of Lady Macbeth, who is too often reduced to a simplistic black and white character, but who should be considered as a real woman, complex and sometimes fragile. This talk looks at the nine scenes in which she appears. [Made in April 2009].
2023-04-1216 minJulian GirdhamMacbeth revision 3: King Macbeth - law and order in Scotland.The third Macbeth revision podcast prior to the Leaving Certificate is 'King Macbeth: law and order in Scotland', and looks at the nature of monarchy in the world of Shakespeare's text, examining the idea of the natural order, and looking at Duncan's rule at the start of the play. Some historical background is also discussed. [Made May 2009].
2023-04-1215 minJulian GirdhamMacbeth revision 4: Malcolm the hero?The fourth Macbeth revision podcast in a series leading up to the Leaving Certificate looks primarily at the latter part of the play. It leads on from last week's session, which examined the nature of order and law in the early part of the play. This considers particularly Malcolm and Macduff in the long scene set in England, the English King Edward, and our feelings as an audience as we watch Macbeth vanquished by the forces of decency. [Made May 2009].
2023-04-1212 minJulian GirdhamMacbeth revision 5: the witches and the supernaturalThe 5th Macbeth revision podcast, leading up to the Leaving Certificate, examines the influence of the 'weird sisters' and the supernatural on the events of the play, particularly on Macbeth's own thoughts and actions. It concentrates on the witches' influence in the early part of the play. [Made May 2009].
2023-04-1215 minJulian GirdhamMacbeth revision 6: quotation auto-testHere are ten quotations from Macbeth: pause after each, and think about who spoke the words, and the context, and then listen to the answers and a commentary on the quotation. These commentaries examine the quotations as key moments in the play, linking them to the rest of the text, and again trying to prompt fresh reflection on the themes and characters. [Made May 2009].
2023-04-1218 minJulian GirdhamMacbeth's tragic end: 7.The last of seven Macbeth revision sessions deals with Macbeth as he faces his end in Act V, and analyses the crucial speech in Act V scene v, 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrrow...' It looks at why we consider his story tragic, given the horrendous deeds he has committed. [Made May 2009].
2023-04-1210 minJulian GirdhamVoices of Poetry 2020In 2020, the annual Voices of Poetry evening moved online. Normally, we would be round a single spotlight in the Big Schoolroom listening to words in different languages from all over the world. This time, words were sent from all over the world inwards, to be gathered virtually in this recording.
2020-06-1741 minJulian GirdhamSeamus Heaney's 'Sunlight'Our 30th podcast is one of an occasional series on poems on the Irish Leaving Certificate English course. This examines Seamus Heaney's poem 'Sunlight', one of the dedicatory poems called 'Mossbawn', which open his 1975 collection North. 'Sunlight' is a poem of great warmth, recreating a scene from his childhood on the family farm, suffused with the love of and for his aunt Mary. However, it also prefigures disturbance and the eventual disappearance of such an idyll in a more violent society.
2012-02-0208 minJulian Girdham'Hamlet' revision podcast 4: the first soliloquyOur 29th podcast is the fourth in a series looking at the play Hamlet leading up to the Leaving Certificate next month, and is a close examination of Hamlet's first soliloquy, 'O that this too too solid flesh...', putting the speech in its context and looking at how it expresses the character's deepest feelings about his mother.
2011-05-1811 minJulian Girdham'Hamlet' revision podcast 3: the first sceneOur 28th podcast deals with the first scene in the play Hamlet, which sets a mood of uncertainty, and prefigures some central themes of the play, such as the disruption of the natural order, identity and revenge. The first two podcasts in our revision series prior to the Leaving Certificate exams gathered together individual short talks on 10 characters in Hamlet - the first one was on 1) Fortinbras, 2) Horatio, 3) Laertes, 4) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, 5) Polonius; the second on 7) Ophelia, 8 ) The Player King, 9) Osric, 10) The First Gravedigger.
2011-05-0808 minJulian Girdham4 Characters in 'Hamlet'Our 27th podcast gathers together the final four short 'audioboos' from our series 10 Characters from 'Hamlet', which deal with these characters: Ophelia, The Player King, Osric, The First Gravedigger. Click here for the first six characters. The series looks at the 'lesser' characters in the play, in five-minute chunks. Note that there is a brief gap between each talk.
2011-04-0419 minJulian GirdhamPatterns of Poetry 9-15Our 26th podcast brings together seven more 5-minute talks from the Patterns of Poetry series, which was runner-up in the 2010 Edublog Awards in the category 'Best Educational Use of Audio.' The talks are, in order: (9) Rhyme, (10) Repetition, (11) The Sonnet, (12) Punctuation, (13) Foreshadowing, (14) Metaphor, (15) Hyperbole. Note that there is a brief pause between each talk.
The first 8 talks are available in a single podcast here.
2011-04-0230 minJulian Girdham6 Characters in 'Hamlet'This podcast gathers together the first five short 'audioboos' from our series 10 Characters from 'Hamlet', which deal with six characters: 1) Fortinbras, 2) Horatio, 3) Laertes, 4) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, 5) Polonius. Another podcast will put together the remaining four when complete. The series looks at the 'lesser' characters in the play, in five-minute chunks. Note that there is a brief gap between each talk.
2011-03-1223 minJulian GirdhamPatterns of Poetry 1-8Our 24th podcast puts together in one handy track the first eight of the Patterns of Poetry talks, first published via Audioboo. The eight talks are all under 5 minutes each and are, in order: (1) Introduction, (2) Titles, (3) Alliteration, (4) Personification, (5) Symbols, (6) Onomatopoeia, (7) Cliché, (8) Simile. Note that there is a brief gap between each talk.
There is a full list of the series here.
2010-10-1133 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear revision podcast 6: the end of the playOur 23rd podcast is the final one of 6 on King Lear. This looks at the end of the play, considering how the famously bleak ending is constructed by Shakespeare. Lear so nearly becomes a play with a comic ending (like its sources and Nahum Tate's rewritten 1681 version). Instead, there is no mitigation: all is dark horror. To read Tate's version, click here (go to page 66 for the ending).
2010-05-2709 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear revision podcast 5: blindness and seeingUsing the notorious scene in which Gloucester is blinded as a starting point, this talk looks at ideas of blindness and seeing throughout the play, particularly in the stories of the two old 'blind' men, Lear and Gloucester. Lear undergoes a humanising process of development, and starts to 'see' real truths about himself and society; however, in the end this matters little, as he is exposed to devastating grief on the death of his daughter Cordelia
2010-05-2010 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear revision podcast 4: quotation auto-testOur 21st podcast features ten quotations from King Lear; you can pause your computer or MP3 player after each, and test yourself on who spoke the words, and their context, and then listen to the answers and a commentary on the quotation. These commentaries examine the quotations as key moments in the play, linking them to the rest of the text, and again trying to prompt fresh reflection on the themes and characters.
2010-05-1615 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear revision podcast 3: Kent and Albany, two good guysOur 20th podcast is the third in a series of revision sessions on King Lear, prior to the Leaving Certificate. This talk examines the role of two minor but important characters in the play, the Dukes of Kent and Albany, and how they affect the central story and its themes. Both are decent men; while Albany needs to travel on a path of moral development, Kent is the most clear-sighted and steadfast character in the play. In the end, however, their decency cannot prevent the tragedy.
2010-05-0611 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear revision 2: 'All's cheerless, dark and deadly'Our 19th podcast is the second in a series of revision talks on King Lear, prior to the Leaving Certificate in early June. The first one examined Act I scene i. This second podcast looks at the extreme bleakness of Shakespeare's vision in the play, especially through its treatment of religion and the gods. The gods are often invoked in King Lear, and on the surface in it ancient Britain seems to be a highly religious society. But in fact there is no stage at which heaven seems to be active or effective. The play disabuses its audience of the...
2010-04-2911 minJulian GirdhamKing Lear revision 1: the opening sceneOur 18th podcast is the first in a series of weekly revision talks on Shakespeare's King Lear, leading up to the Leaving Certificate in early June. Like last year's Macbeth revision podcasts, these are designed to freshen up thinking. Each lasts about 10-15 minutes. The first King Lear talk examines the explosive and crucial opening scene, during which the King sets in train the disastrous train of events which leads to personal and public catastrophe.
2010-04-2214 minJulian Girdham'This Moment' by Eavan BolandOur 17th podcast is the second in a series dealing with individual poems on the Leaving Certificate course (following the first on Yeats's 'The Wild Swans at Coole'). This one deals with 'This Moment' by the contemporary Irish poet Eavan Boland, examining how this apparently simple lyric achieves its memorable impact, and quoting from Boland's own comments and other writing.
2010-02-1108 minJulian GirdhamBlogging in SchoolsOur 16th podcast since we started six months ago is a joint effort with the Science Department's Frog Blog, in which teachers Jeremy Stone, Humphrey Jones and Julian Girdham discuss the value and purpose of blogging in schools, particularly for subject departments. The podcast (or, as the scientists call it, 'frogcast') may be of particular interest to teachers, since there's lots of advice here on how blogging can enhance teaching and learning in schools. The discussion examines the way blogging has widened the reach of teaching and learning in both the Science and English Departments at St Columba's.
2009-11-0917 minJulian Girdham'The Wild Swans at Coole' by W.B. YeatsOur fifteenth podcast is the first of this academic year, and is also the first in a series of podcasts on individual poems on the Higher Level Leaving Certificate course. This one is on W.B. Yeats's poem 'The Wild Swans at Coole', and sets the poem in its literary and historical background.
The second volume of Roy Foster's biography, which is quoted in the podcast, is The Arch-Poet. The Yeats exhibition at the National Library of Ireland, is open now, and the website is here (you can see the manuscript of 'Wild Swans' online by searching). Coole Park's website...
2009-10-1310 minJulian GirdhamHenry James's 'The Portrait of a Lady'Podcast 14: our final podcast of this academic year, just in time for some satisfying holiday reading, is an interview with former colleague John Fanagan, who talks about Henry James's great 1881 novel The Portrait of a Lady. Set in England and Italy, the book examines the progress of the innocent American young woman Isabel Archer, as she comes into contact with the ways of an older civilisation. John discusses other characters in the novel, such as Ralph Touchett, Lord Warburton, Madame Merle, Henrietta Stacpoole and the dark Gilbert Osmond. There's a spoiler warning before the last few minutes of the podcast...
2009-06-1837 minJulian GirdhamActiontrack: an interview with Nick BraceOur 13th podcast is an interview with the Artistic Director of the Actiontrack Performance Company, Nick Brace. Actiontrack have been coming to us since 1993, working with II formers in March, and with Transition Year in particular at the end of each year in 'showbuilds'. Nick discusses the process in which a musical production is created from scratch in five days, involving song-writing, singing, dancing, set design and of course acting. He also talks about Actiontrack's work generally, including local work in Somerset with schools, youth groups and communities. Actiontrack's website is here.
2009-06-1129 minJulian GirdhamThe Great Hunger: MacIntyre, Kavanagh, JamesonOur 12th podcast is an interview with Department member Evan Jameson, about the highly successful part he look in the Balally Players' production of Tom MacIntyre's The Great Hunger, his 1983 adaptation of the epic poem by Patrick Kavanagh (the first part of the poem is on the Leaving Certificate course). We reviewed this here six months ago. Evan discusses the rehearsal process for this very physical piece of drama, the nature of the writing itself, and the experience of going to amateur drama festivals around the country, culminating in the All-Ireland finals in Athlone last month, where the production achieved 4...
2009-06-0620 min