Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

Who really were the gladiators of Ancient Rome?

With them once again hitting the big screens this month, we wanted to take you back a couple of thousand years to find out more about the people who fought and what their lives were really like.

What rights in society did they have? How often did they meet a gruesome end? And were they sex symbols?

** TW: This episode contains themes of suicide **

Sylvia Plath was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

During and since she died, she became known for her volatile relationship with fellow poet, Ted Hughes, as much as her own beautiful, confessional writing.

What was Sylvia Plath like as a woman? What drew her and Ted Hughes to each other? And how did sex and sexuality influence her personality and writing?

With the US election happening, we wanted to take a look back at the presidents from the past what we know about their sex lives.

Which president was well-endowed and supposedly presented it to staff in the Oval Office? Which president had an affair on his honeymoon? And which had an affair with his wife's secretary?

And no, they're not all JFK.

When we think about Greek and Roman beauty, we think of marble statues of huge men with tiny...feet.

But what did it mean to be a beautiful woman? What role did their ideas of ugliness play in these ideas? And how did Christianity throw a curveball in all of this?

Taking us back to this world is Caroline Vout, author of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, to give us a learned glimpse beneath the togas.

This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

We often think of the witch trials as something in the deep and distant past.

But, as we'll hear in today's episode, the attitudes and behaviour that led to witch trials is as present today as it was then.

In this third and final episode of our limited series, Inside the Witch Trials, we go back to Salem, Massachusetts, to find out how colonialism, racism and a radical ideology created a witch trial that's as relevant today as it was in the 17th century.

What was life like for Puritans in this new and unfamiliar land? Why did so many people willingly admit to being witches? And what became of Tituba, the enslaved woman whose testimony sparked panic in this remote village?