Duration: 28'48''
Victoria Coren leads the hunt for the word-origins of various footwear.
Licence: ERA Licence required
UK only Staff and students of licensed education establishments only Cannot be adapted
Add Notes
S2 | Balderdash & Piffle
Victoria Coren presents this series about words. Investigating the words we use for madness, former nurse Jo Brand returns to her old hospital.
S2E2: Man's Best Friend | Balderdash & Piffle
This episode investigates the many uses we have for the word 'dog'. How and when did we come by 'dog', and what makes it an ins...
S2E3: Euphemisms: The Lace Curtain of Language | Balderdash & Piffle
Victoria Coren, Artur Smith and Michael Portillo investigate the euphemisms for sex, death, war and goin...
S2E4: Dodgy Dealings | Balderdash & Piffle
Victoria Coren, Suggs and Neil Oliver investigate words for dodgy dealers, rapscallions and other sorts of scallywag.
S2E5: X Rated | Balderdash & Piffle
Victoria Coren, Burlesque star Immodesty Blaise and Roland Rivron investigate dictionary entries about sex and what they tell us about ou...
S2E6: Put Downs and Insults | Balderdash & Piffle
Victoria Coren, John Sergeant, Denis Healey, Ian McMillan and Mike Harding enlighten us on words such as wazzock, prat and ...
S2E7: Who Were They? | Balderdash & Piffle
Victoria Coren, Adam Hart-Davis, Marcel Theroux and Simon Hoggart head off on the trail of the real people whose names have been i...
1: An English-speaking World | The Story of English
Robert Macneil on how English is being adopted by the world as the most important language to learn, he traces the use of...
1: The Golden Age | The Mother Tongue
First of 3 documentaries tracing the history of the Scots tongue from its origins through to its heyday as the language of court, lite...
2: A Very Corrupt Dialect | The Mother Tongue
Billy KAY examines the roots of prejudice against Lowland Scots from the 1700s onwards in interviews with academics and native ...
2: The Mother Tongue | The Story of English
Robert Macneil presents the second programme in this series tracing the history of the English language from its roots to present...
3: A Muse of Fire | The Story of English
This programme centres on the English of Shakespeare and the King James Bible and its spread into the New World via Elizabethan expl...
3: Pan Loaf and Patter | The Mother Tongue
The final programme in the series in which Billy KAY traces the development of the Scots language.
3: Reverend Kate Bottley | Winter Walks
Walking along the banks of the River Cover and exploring the historic ruins of Wensleydale, the Rev Kate Bottley speaks frankly about...
4: The Guid Scots Tongue | The Story of English
In fourth of the series Robert Macneil looks at the development of Lowlands Scots and its spread to Ireland and America. He a...
5: Black on White | The Story of English
This programme looks at the influence of African-American's on world English and traces language from West Africa to plantations of ...
6: Pioneers! O Pioneers! | The Story of English
This programme traces development of American English from the War of Independence to World War 1. It looks at influence of I...
7: The Muvver Tongue | The Story of English
(Contains Adult Content) Robert Macneil explores the origins of the Cockney dialect and the influence of the ''flash talk'' of th...
8: The Loaded Weapon | The Story of English
Robert Macneil explores troubled story of Irish-English in North and South Ireland Gaelic speaking Irish through famine, conflict...
9: The Empire Strikes Back | The Story of English
Film looks at former British colonies Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Barbados, Jamaica and India as well as the language o...
A Trampwoman's Tragedy | Poetry Book
Dame Judy Dench reads Thomas Hardy's poem, A Trampwoman's Tragedy.
Churchill's Wartime Speeches | Speeches That Shook the World
Simon Armitage examines the speeches of one of Britain's best known orators.
Episode 1 | Blethering Scots
Ten well-known personalities share their favourite Scots word and celebrate the warmth, wit and grit of the Scots language. Written by Sanjeev K...
Episode 2 | Blethering Scots
Ten more well-known Scottish personalities share their favourite Scots words. Comedian Susan Calman is a wee 'besom', while Elaine C Smith has s...
Episode 2 | The Speaker
The search to find Britain's best young speaker continues in Manchester and Cardiff. The judges hear youngsters speak out about topics including teen...
Episode 3 | The Speaker
Twenty contenders are reduced to eight. The judges want to know if the teen speakers can think on their feet and speak off the cuff, having proved th...
Episode 4 | The Speaker
The search for Britain's best young speaker continues with only eight speakers left in the contest. The speakers become tour guides at Althorp House.
Cookies help us run our services and give you a better experience. For the full details please read our Cookie Policy.
