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The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian Street Literature and StoriesAuthor: Finn J.D. John/ Pulp-Lit Productions
This is the podcast that carries you back to the sooty, foggy streets of early-Victorian London when a new issue of one of the "Penny Dreadful" blood-and-thunder story paper comes out! It's like an early-Victorian variety show, FEATURING ... Sweeney Todd ... Varney, the Vampyre ... Highwayman Dick Turpin ... Spring-Heel'd Jack ... mustache-twirling villains ... virtuous ballet-girls ... wicked gamblers ... ... and more! Spiced with naughty cock-and-hen-club songs, broadsheet street ballads, and lots of old Regency "dad jokes." Join us! Language: en Genres: History Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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5.31: The mob sets fire to the vampyre’s house! — The murdering marquess’s date with destiny. — A street ballad about wife-selling in London!
Episode 31
Sunday, 12 April, 2026
SHOW NOTES — for — EPISODE 31 (Season 5)(April 12, 2026) ———— Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch,* for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of early-Victorian London! This show cycles through four segments over a two-week cycle, two shows per week. This is the main show, including the "Penny Dreadfuls" segment. It will be followed by ...The “Twopenny Torrids” minisode, coming this Thursday eve;The “Ha’penny Horrids” minisode, to be posted next Sunday (one week from today); and finally—The “Sixpenny Spookies” minisode, which posts two Thursdays hence. ———— For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see pennydread.com/discord. ———— IN TODAY'S "PENNY DREADFULS" SEGMENT:01:55: ON THIS DREADFUL DAY (April 12, 1851): A tragic firearms accident backstage at the Royal theatre left a young man’s leg shattered by a pistol ball, and it happened while Queen Victoria herself was in the audience!03:15: VARNEY THE VAMPYRE; or, THE FEAST OF BLOOD, Chapter 49-51: The soldiers basically storm the hotel, and when they get into the room with the corpse they are horrified to find what the mob has done to it. They then clear the rest of the hotel, firing blank cartridges to frighten the rustics into giving up. Once they have a goodly batch of malefactors wearing darbies and on their way to the watchhouse, though, someone points out the red glow of a giant housefire in the distance to the south… the direction of Ratford Abbey….35:45: CATCHPENNY BROADSIDE: “Sale of a Wife” — a spot of street poetry describing the scene of a mason auctioning off his wife in the marketplace. Believe it or not, this was a thing, back in the day.41:00: THE LIVES OF THE HIGHWAYMEN: Bucks, bloods and choice spirits out roistering with swords on their hips had a disturbing tendency to whip them out and use them on unarmed, defenceless servants and court officials, back in the lawless golden age of highwaymen. We present a few stories of such men, some of whom got away, some of whom paid the ultimate price for their bloodthirstiness.53:20: A FEW SQUEAKY-CLEAN DAD JOKES from the early-1800s' most popular joke book: "Joe Miller's Jests; or, The Wit's Vade-mecum."GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:NATTY LADS: Well-dressed young pickpockets. RUM ANGELICS: Pretty, high-spirited young maidens. CORINTHIAN: A fancy toff or titled swell. Used here as a reference to Corinthian Tom, the quintessential Regency rake depicted in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (usually referred to as "Tom and Jerry"). CHAFFING-CRIB: A room where drinking and bantering are going on. HOG: A shilling. This is the probable origin of the term “whole hog.” HAMLETS: High constables. LAMBSKIN MEN: Judges and magistrates. QUARTERN: A quarter of an Imperial pint, or roughly five and a third ounces. KILL-DEVIL: Raw distillate, unaged and uncut. PIKE OFF: Run away. RED WAISTCOAT: The traditional uniform of the Bow-Street Runners, London’s first real professional police force. GAMMONERS: Swindlers or gamblers who cheat. ROMONERS: Fake occultists and fortune tellers. SHARPS: Swindlers. OLD ST. GILES: The neighbourhood of St. Giles in the Fields parish, which in the early Victorian age was a notorious slum. THE TIPPY: The very best. * The Barony of Dunwitch is located in a deep forest glade west of Arkham (where, as H.P. Lovecraft put it, “the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut; there are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”) Actually it is a good 3,000 miles west of Arkham. It is not to be confused with Dunwich, the English seacoast town that fell house by house into the sea centuries ago, or Dunsany, the home until 1957 of legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.
