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The Penny Dreadful Radio Hour: A Late Regency/Early Victorian Weekly Feast of Crammers and Moonshine

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by Finn J.D. John/ Pulp-Lit Productions

4.5(10 reviews)
142 episodes
Updated Daily
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Podcast Overview

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 ... — 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." A fresh episode every Sunday and Thursday evening. Join us!

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Publishing Since

1/2/2025

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Recent Episodes

Episode thumbnail for 7. A prisoner in Castle Dracula! — The restless spirit of a murdered boy. — A wrestling match with the dead, in a tomb! (The “Sixpenny Spookies.”)

June 21, 2026

7. A prisoner in Castle Dracula! — The restless spirit of a murdered boy. — A wrestling match with the dead, in a tomb! (The “Sixpenny Spookies.”)

<p><strong>SHOW NOTES </strong>— for — <strong>EPISODE 6.7!</strong></p><p>(June 21, 2026)</p><p>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! </p><p>For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see ⁠⁠<a href="pennydread.com/discord" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">pennydread.com/discord.⁠⁠</a></p><p> ———— </p><p><strong>IN TODAY&#39;S &quot;SIXPENNY SPOOKIES&quot; EPISODE:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>00:40: HAUNTED ENGLAND: </strong>An old priory, seized by Henry VIII in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, is still haunted by what folks claim is the restless spirit of a nun walled up alive, Cask of Amontillado style, centuries ago.</li><li><strong>06:45: VICTORIAN GHOSTLY SHORT STORY</strong>, to-wit: <strong>WAS IT AN ILLUSION?, by AMELIA B. EDWARDS</strong> (1881), Part 2 of 2 parts: Wolstenholme invites Frazer to join him in some hunting and shooting, and to tour the underground facilities in one of his mines. But on the morning he’s to have the tour, the lake above springs a leak and drains into the mine. While inspecting the damage, they find a dead body in the muddy floor of the former lake, pinned to the lakebed with a pitchfork. It’s a youth in a grey suit … his fishing pole is nearby. Who killed him? Why? And was it his ghost that Frazer saw, on his way to Pit End the previous day?</li><li><strong>28:10: GHOSTLY POETRY,</strong> to-wit: Two spooky sonnets, one by <strong>Baron Brooke</strong> and another by <strong>Christina Rosetti</strong>.</li><li><strong>32:10: DRACULA, by BRAM STOKER</strong> (1897), Chapter 2: The strange bearded driver drops Jonathan off in the courtyard and departs, leaving the poor guy standing there with his things in front of the castle door. He is left standing there for a long time, but finally the door opens and he meets Count Dracula. The count gives Jonathan an excellent supper in which he does not partake; “I have dined already,” he murmurs, “and I do not sup.” Jonathan is generally charmed, or at least he feels like he should be. So, why does being around Dracula make him so uneasy? And why does he never see the servants who cook and serve meals? Is the growing sense of menace just a fancy, or is he truly in danger?</li><li><strong>1:03:30: LORD HALIFAX’S GHOST BOOK:</strong> Two tales of men who dreamed the death of a dear friend the night before it happened. In one of them, the dreamer was locked in the tomb with the putrescent and partly decomposed, but still animate, corpse of his friend, which pounced upon him zombie-like and wrestled with him.</li></ul><p><strong>GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>BULLY ROCKS</strong>: A saloon or gambling-hell enforcer, or a bordello muscle man.</li><li><strong>BIT OF MUSLIN</strong>: A pretty woman, whom the (usually male) speaker hopes to get to know much better soon, if you know what he means.</li><li><strong>KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON</strong>: Drunken fellows running amok in fields and ditches late at night, trying to stagger home. </li><li><strong>SHERRY OFF</strong>: Run away. </li><li><strong>FLATS</strong>: Suckers. </li><li><strong>GET FLY TO THE FAKEMENT</strong>: Get wise to the swindle. </li><li><strong>MOABITES</strong>: Bailiffs. </li><li><strong>PHILISTIES</strong>: Also means bailiffs.</li><li><strong>CRAPING COVES</strong>: Hangmen. </li><li><strong>YE OLD STONE PITCHER</strong>: Newgate Prison. </li><li><strong>PADDINGTON FAIR</strong>: Execution day at Tyburn, which is in Paddington Parish. Paddington is also a pun, as “pad” was a flash word for “thief” or “robber.” </li><li><strong>BRUSH OFF</strong>: Leave. Note this phrase means something slightly different today. </li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Thank you for your support!</strong> Please, if you have a moment, rate us on your podcatcher network. If you’d like to do more, we do have a Patreon page; it’s here: <a href="https://patreon.com/pennydread" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://patreon.com/pennydread</a></p>

Episode thumbnail for Ep. 6: Highwayman Dick Turpin’s miraculous escape from the soldiers! — “Making Love by Moonlight.” — Introducing our hostess, MISS LITTLETON (The “Twopenny Torrids + Ninepenny Naughties”)

June 15, 2026

Ep. 6: Highwayman Dick Turpin’s miraculous escape from the soldiers! — “Making Love by Moonlight.” — Introducing our hostess, MISS LITTLETON (The “Twopenny Torrids + Ninepenny Naughties”)

<p>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! </p><p> ———— </p><p>For <strong>COMPLETE SHOW NOTES</strong>, including art and links to resources, see ⁠⁠pennydread.com/discord.⁠⁠</p><p> ———— </p><p><strong>IN TODAY&#39;S &quot;TWOPENNY TORRIDS&quot; EPISODE:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>01:45: STREET POETRY:</strong> From an 1840s broadside ballad: “Please Your Wife” and “Making Love by Moonlight.” </li><li><strong>06:10: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN),</strong> Chapter 75-79: The highwaymen, as they approach Durley Chine, are unaware that there’s still a hyperactive manhunt on for both of them, and that was what the dragoons were up to. Luckily, as they approach Durley Chine, it’s gotten dark, and they observe a dozen or so men with lanterns spreading out around the gates of Durley Chine. King puts the pieces together and realizes the highwaymen are the subject of an intensive manhunt. They’re guarding Durley Chine to nab them when they try to break out, if they’re hiding inside. But Black Bess is in the park! How are they going to get her out? Will they escape capture by the soldiers?</li><li><strong>44:45: INTRODUCING OUR HOSTESS: MISS LITTLETON,</strong> of No. 3 Salisbury-street, Strand. One of the “ladies of the evening” listed and described in Harris’s List of Covent-garden Ladies, a directory for bucks and bloods out on the town in the early 1800s. “A fine plump girl,” the anonymous author writes, “with dark hair, large eyes, and dark eye-brows.”</li><li><strong>48:00: A RATHER NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONG: </strong>&quot;The Frenchman,” a frisky song about a traveling Frenchman who, inquiring with a heavy French accent about his lost “snuff-pox,” everyone thinks he is asking them if they have The Pox.</li><li><strong>50:30: A FEW MILDLY DIRTY JOKES</strong> from what passed in 1830 for a dirty joke book: &quot;The Joke-Cracker&quot; by Martin Merryman, Esq.</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>DRAW-LATCHES</strong>: (from intro) House burglars.</li><li><strong>DIMBER MOTS</strong>: (ibid) Pretty girls.</li><li><strong>GRAVEL-TAX COLLECTORS</strong>: (ibid) Highway robbers.</li><li><strong>CORINTHIAN</strong>: (ibid) Sporting man of rank and fashion, most famously represented by Corinthian Tom from Pierce Egan’s “Life in London,” the story of the adventures of a wealthy Regency rake named Tom and his country cousin Jerry as they rampage through the streets of London on a continual spree.</li><li><strong>CYPRIANS</strong>: (From the introduction to Hostess Miss XXX) Ladies of easy virtue, a classical reference to the island of Cyprus, supposedly peopled with sexually frisky ladies. </li><li><strong>BLOODS, PINKS, BUCKS</strong>: (ibid) High-spirited young rich men of what today we’d call college age.</li><li><strong>SPORTING THEIR BLUNT</strong>: (ibid) Throwing money around. </li><li><strong>BUMPER</strong>: (ibid) Liquor glass.</li><li><strong>BINGO</strong>: (ibid) Hard liquor, usually gin.</li><li><strong>SLUICE YOUR IVORIES</strong>: (ibid) Take a big drink.</li><li><strong>THE POX</strong>: (from cock-and-hen-club song, “The Frenchman”) Syphilis; or, in a heavy French accent, a box.</li><li><strong>MORRIS OFF</strong>: (from outro) Run away at top speed.</li><li><strong>BEAKS ON THE NOSE</strong>: Police detectives or magistrates on an investigation. </li><li><strong>DIDDLE COVES</strong>: Bartender or landlord in a gin palace or dram shop. </li><li><strong>DAFFY DOXIES</strong>: Racy ladies who enjoy drinking daffy (gin). </li><li><strong>CAPTAIN LUSHINGTONS</strong>: Habitual drunks.</li><li><strong>BOOZING-KEN</strong>: Drinking den.</li><li><strong>SMITHFIELD</strong>: In the early 1800s a notoriously crowded and dangerous neighborhood in which a very unsanitary open-air livestock market was regularly held until the 1850s. </li></ul><p>* The Barony of Dunwich 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.</p>

Episode thumbnail for Sir Francis Varney has a strange visitor. — The Life and Times of a Legendary Highwayman. — The Death of an Unrecognised Son. (Episode 5; theme: The “Graanum Gothics.)

June 7, 2026

Sir Francis Varney has a strange visitor. — The Life and Times of a Legendary Highwayman. — The Death of an Unrecognised Son. (Episode 5; theme: The “Graanum Gothics.)

<p><strong>SHOW NOTES</strong></p><p> — for —</p><p><strong>EPISODE 5 </strong>(Season Six)</p><p>(June 7, 2026)</p><p> ———— </p><p><strong>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! </strong></p><p>This show cycles through four themes over a four-week cycle, one show per week. This is the GRAANUM GOTHIC theme show, featuring Varney the Vampyre and other Gothic drama. It will be followed by ...</p><ul><li>The <strong>“Twopenny Torrid” </strong>theme episode, coming next Sunday;</li><li>The<strong> “Sixpenny Spooky”</strong> theme episode, coming two Sundays hence; and finally—</li><li>The <strong>“Ha’penny Horrid” </strong>theme episode, coming three Sundays from today. </li></ul><p>For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see ⁠⁠pennydread.com/discord.⁠⁠</p><ul><li><strong>01:45: ON THIS DREADFUL DAY </strong>(June 7, 1854): A tradesman, apparently seized with madness, suddenly turned upon his mother-in-law with a poker. He was subsequently convicted of murder.</li><li><strong>05:00: VARNEY THE VAMPYRE;</strong> or, <strong>THE FEAST OF BLOOD, </strong>Chapter 58-59: Jack Pringle arrives, very drunk. They give him the rest of the gin, hoping he will pass out and be quiet, which he does; but they soon have cause to regret that, as Varney tries again to sneak into the house. The admiral seizes him by the leg, but he slips away leaving the admiral holding the boot. Then someone throws a tree through the window, which the admiral gets tangled up in; and while he is freeing himself a spectral form rises above the balcony and issues a spooky warning: “Beware of the dead!”</li><li><strong>35:10: CATCHPENNY BROADSIDE: </strong>A maudlin cautionary tale of an elderly couple who conspire to murder a boarder for his money, only to discover that he was their long-lost son, who’d gone to sea years before. This type of story seems to have been something of a street-literature trope back in the day.</li><li><strong>40:20: THE LIVES OF THE HIGHWAYMEN: </strong>Introducing Old Mobb, a highwayman with a legendary wit and flair for the dramatic. We’ll be exploring Old Mobb’s career in the next two episodes of The Lives of the Highwaymen.</li><li><strong>49:50: A FEW SQUEAKY-CLEAN DAD JOKES</strong> from the early-1800s&#39; most popular joke book: &quot;Joe Miller&#39;s Jests; or, The Wit&#39;s Vade-mecum.&quot;</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>NATTY LADS</strong>: Well-dressed young pickpockets. </li><li><strong>RUM BUFFERS</strong>: Jolly hosts. </li><li><strong>KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON</strong>: Drunken fellows wandering amok in meadows and ditches, trying to stagger home. </li><li><strong>CORINTHIAN</strong>: A fancy toff or titled swell. Used here as a reference to Corinthian Tom, the quintessential Regency rake depicted in Pierce Egan&#39;s &quot;Life in London&quot; (usually referred to as &quot;Tom and Jerry&quot;). </li><li><strong>CHAFFING-CRIB</strong>: A room where drinking and bantering are going on. </li><li><strong>GRAANUM GOLD</strong>: Old hoarded money.</li><li><strong>SHE-LION</strong>: A shilling. </li><li><strong>GENTRY COVES</strong>: Gentlemen of rank. </li><li><strong>AUTEM BAWLERS</strong>: Parsons. </li><li><strong>CLANKER</strong>: Pewter drinking-pot usually used for ale. </li><li><strong>ENGLISH BURGUNDY</strong>: Strong old ale. </li><li><strong>PIKE OFF</strong>: Run away. </li><li><strong>RED WAISTCOAT</strong>: The traditional uniform of the Bow-Street Runners, London’s first real professional police force. </li><li><strong>GAMMONERS: </strong>Swindlers or gamblers who cheat. </li><li><strong>ROMONERS</strong>: Fake occultists and fortune tellers. </li><li><strong>SHARPS</strong>: Swindlers. </li><li><strong>OLD ST. GILES</strong>: The neighbourhood of St. Giles in the Fields parish, which in the early Victorian age was a notorious slum. </li><li><strong>RUM TE TUM WITH THE CHILL OFF</strong>: The very best. </li></ul><p><br></p><p>* The Barony of Dunwich 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.</p><p><br></p>

142 total episodes available

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What is The Penny Dreadful Radio Hour: A Late Regency/Early Victorian Weekly Feast of Crammers and Moonshine?

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 ... — 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."

A fresh episode every Sunday and Thursday evening. Join us!

How often does this podcast release new episodes?

This podcast updates daily.

Where can I listen to this podcast?

This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.

Does this podcast accept guests?

No, this podcast does not typically feature guests.

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