Greg Jenner

Hoi hoi. Yes. Bring it back. Question five. How did Bell spend his honeymoon with his wife Mabel? Making her promo his new product in the UK. Yep, absolutely. With a surprise twist of getting to meet the queen. Yes. What a drag. A honeymoon for all to enjoy. Question six. What invention allowed telephone users to talk to each other rather than just the central office?

As in, do you mean like the switchboard? The switchboard is correct, absolutely, well done. Question seven. What nickname was given to the women who operated the telephone exchanges in America after the 1880s? Hello, girls. Hello, boys. Question eight. Name one common technical problem that beset early telephone users.

Crossed wires, it's a real thing. Yeah, real thing. And noise interference and surveillance, people listening in. Yes, of course. The party line. That still befalls them if they're on a bus with me, let me tell you that. Question nine. Can you name two examples of the social anxieties that critics had about the telephone and its use?

Trauma learning. Amazing, Catherine, well done. And thank you so much, Professor Yuan. That was a lovely history lesson there. I think we all learned plenty about the telephone. And listener, if you want more from Catherine, of course, she's done many episodes with us, including a fan favourite, Gronja O'Malley, Irish Pirate Queen, and of course the history of general elections, which was very interesting too. For more electrical history from Professor Yuan, there's our episode on vital electricity with Olga Koch that was surprisingly violent.

Quite a lot of electricity torture and people being shocked horribly. If you've enjoyed the podcast, please share the show with your friends. Subscribe to You're Dead to Me on BBC Sounds in the UK to hear new episodes 28 days earlier than anywhere else. And if you're outside the UK, you can listen at bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. I'd just like to say a huge thank you to our guests in History Corner. We had the incredible Professor Yuan Morris from the University of Aberystwyth. Thank you, Yuan. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. It has. We've had a lot of fun. And in Comedy Corner, we had the brilliant Catherine Bohart. Thank you, Catherine.

You're Dead to Me is a BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4. This episode was researched by Rosalind Sklar and Catherine Russell. It was written by Rosalind Sklar, Dr. Emmy Rose Price-Goodfellow, Dr. Emma Neguse and me. The audio producer was Steve Hankey and our production coordinator was Jill Huggett. It was produced by Dr. Emmy Rose Price-Goodfellow, me and senior producer Dr. Emma Neguse and our executive editor was Philip Sellers.

Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously. My name's Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster. And today we are grabbing our bestie and gallivanting back to ancient Mesopotamia to learn all about the epic of Gilgamesh. And to help us on this daunting quest, we have two very special guides.

In History Corner. She's an honorary fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, where she researches and teaches on the history of Mesopotamia, Kineiform and the Akkadian language. You might have read her wonderful recent book, Between Two Rivers, Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History. It is glorious. And you'll remember her from our episodes on the ancient Babylonians and Kineiform. It's Dr. Moody Al-Rashid. Welcome, Moody. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's awesome to be back.

Me rakastamme sinut takaisin. Ja Comedy Corner. Hän on valmistautunut komediakirja, aktori ja historiakirja. Voit olla nähnyt hänen sell-outtaan Edinburgh Friends-show'a, tai quarter on breaking the news, tai Rosie Jones' disability comedy extravaganza, tai hänen uuden Radio 4-show'a, Human Watch. Ja sinä muistat tietenkin hänet meidän esityksessämme Skottis-heron Robert Bruce, ei Robert the Bruce. Se on Mary-Laine Robertson. Tervetuloa, Mary-Laine. Hei, kiitos, että olit takaisin minulle opettamaan minulle enemmän asiaa.

No, tänään podcastissa tutustumme kaikista Gilgameshistä, ja lopulta sinä olet myös yksilö. Okei. Hyvä. Sitten jatketaan. Se on jotain, mitä yliopistoni ei pysty tekemään. Joten, mitä tiedät?

Ok, this is the So What Do You Know? This is where I have a go at guessing what you, our lovely listener, might know about today's subject. And you might have heard that the epic of Gilgamesh features a great flood narrative, similar to the biblical story of Noah. Or maybe you've encountered Gilgamesh as the king of heroes from the Fate anime series. Or if you've read Alif Shafak's 2024 novel There Are Rivers in the Sky. Or listened to Johnny Flynn and Robert McFarlane's Gilgamesh-inspired album Lost in the Cedarwood.

But if you're a movie buff like me, you're plain out of luck, because no one's done any kind of movies about Gilgamesh, which is very disappointing. So who exactly was Gilgamesh? Was he really that epic? And how do bull penises fit into our story? Oh, I'm already lost. Let's find out. Right, Dr. Moody, we'll start with some basics. For my benefit, and perhaps Mary-Elaine's benefit, although I'm sure it will come flowing back to you, what exactly is the epic of Gilgamesh?

We do have an episode on cuneiform, which Moody very brilliantly guided us through, with Phil Wang as well. Okay, Mary-Elaine, you've already said Bronze Age. How long ago do you think the Epic of Gilgamesh was first written down? I should know that the Bronze Age was around 3000 BC.

He sanoivat, että Homer kirjoitti tämän. Tai se on paljon tarinoita, joita on käsitellyt ja käsitellyt vuosien aikana. Kyllä, niin tarina Gilgameshen on mahdollisesti 5-6000 vuotta vanha, mutta ensimmäiset rekordit ovat noin 4000. Luulen, että meidän pitäisi sanoa, että tämä on tärkeää, että Gilgamesh ei aina ollut nimeni. Mitä? Haluatko miettiä, mikä oli hänen ensimmäinen nimi? Stephen. Stephen.

Stephen, king of Uruk. It wasn't Gilgamesh. No, Woody, what was his name? It was Bilgamesh. Bilgamesh! No, that's funnier than Stephen!

There's Bill Gomesh and Will Gomesh and Gilles Gomesh, the French cousin. There's a whole family of them. And of course there's Phil Gomesh, who sang In the Air Tonight. And Lady Gomesh, the final one. Like Smurfette.

Jos Gilgamesh lupasi 126 vuotta, ettei sinulla ole samaa isoa kuin seuraava. Hän on löytänyt tavoitteen vahvistaa menopauden. Hän haluaa sitä, mitä hän on tehnyt. Se oli pillit. Hän on hänet. Hän on hänet. Hän on hänet. Hän on hänet. Hän on hänet.

Heillä on kukaan kukaan näin. Yksi asia, jonka voimme nähdä, että Gilgameshillä on eläminen, on suurta. Kuinka iso on meidät, Gilgamesh, Bilgamesh?

5.11? Niin isompi ympäri miehiä. Kyllä, silloin se olisi ollut. Jos menet Shetland Dietin piikkoihin, ne ovat kaikki pieniä. Moodie, kuinka iso on Gilgamesh? Hän on noin kaksi kautta isoa.

In one translation by Sofas Hell, which is a gorgeous translation, he's 18 feet tall, which would be more of an inconvenience probably than anything else. I know people want tall men on Tinder, but nine feet is too tall. You can't buy many clothes for Christmas. Yeah, I mean the shoe size alone, come on.