Season 2: 1920s in 20

Trailer : 1920s in 20. Season two for Martin and Kevin with a new sound system and a new period of history. The 1920s in 20 (minutes).

An introduction to what to expect from our 1920s season.

REMEMBER THAT EACH EPISODE HAS A CORRESPONDING COMPREHENSION EXERCISE IN "Twisting the language" 

RELATED DOCUMENTS AND TRANSCRIPTS OF READINGS ARE HERE: "Twistingthetale transcripts"

Episode 1: 1920s in 20. Prohibition.

Our first episode takes us to the extraordinary phenomenon of the Prohibition that accompanied U.S. citizens throughout the decade. It was well-meaning but a complete failure and a disaster in many respects. We´ll consider all the pertinent questions and enjoy some humour and inevitably some sad moments with the world of gangsters and hoodlums that emerged with the likes of Al Capone.

Episode 2: 1920s in 20. Modernist literature.

1922 saw the publication of two remarkable literary works. The Wasteland, an epic poem by T.S.Eliot and, above all, Ulysses by James Joyce. They are considered to have been the beginning of "modernist literature" ...and are not at all easy to read! We try to provide an idea of why they are so different and to help students of English, at least, gain an insight into what Ulysses, in particular, is like! No easy task!

Episode 3. 1920s in 20. Women. Empowerment and flappers

From the turmoil at the turn of the century with the suffragette movement came the aftermath of World War One. Women had been substituting men in many roles during the conflict and this paved the way for an explosion of empowerment, especially in the USA, in the 1920s. We'll look at how women who now had the vote, the right to work also forged new social freedoms...

Episode 4. 1920s in 20. Film. From silent movies to talkies.

The fledgling film industry found its feet in the 1920s. Hollywood started to fill up with stars as millions of film lovers bought their tickets for the brand new cinemas springing up around the U.S.A. An actors garb or haircut could start a nation-wide fashion trend... and then in 1928 came "the talkies" and Walt Disney introduced Mickey Mouse with sound. The moment was right for the first Oscars ceremony in 1929.

Episode 5. 1920s in 20. Radio. Please tune in!

Suddenly in the 1920s people had access to daily news and entertainment in their own homes. Sales of radio sets rocketed in the U.S.A. Amateur radio stations started broadcasting from almost anywhere and everywhere, from banks, churches, department stores and even from a poultry farm in Ohio! The BBC started broadcasting in November 1922 and in 1923 the "Sorteo del Gordo" was broadcast from La Casa de La Moneda in Madrid. Tune in to our episode for some of the tales that accompanied this remarkable moment.

Episode 6. 1902s in 20. Tutankhamun and Tutmania

The discovery of the intact tomb of Tutankhamun in November 1922 in Egypt produced one of the biggest media events of the twentieth century. Film, radio and press all took the stories (some fact some fiction) to households around the world. Once again it was in the U.S.A. that Tutmania firmly took hold with Egyptian motifs appearing, literally, everywhere. Of course, the curse of King Tut also emerged...Beware! The episode finishes with a tribute to the Temple of Debod in Madrid.

Episode 7. 1920s in 20. The Lost Generation. Ernest Hemingway. ¡Fiesta!

The complex context of the 1920s led to a generation of writers trying to re-invent literature to find meaning in the times they were living. Paris saw a group of U.S. writers emerge that Gertrude Stein called The Lost Generation. Hemingway is possibly the most famous and this episode explores his first big success "The sun also rises"-1925 (translated into Spanish as "Fiesta") as the narrative follows the protagonist Jake (Hemingway) as he heads for the San Fermin fiestas in Pamplona, Spain.

Episode 8. 1920s in 20. America first! The Ku Klux Klan.

Much of the prosperity of the U.S.A. in the 1920s was the result of the continuous inmigration (including large numbers of Spanish migrants) coming through Ellis Island. New York became the biggest city in the world in 1925. But not everybody was comfortable with this "melting pot" and this episode follows some of the racist rhetoric and, worse still, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Recorded in November 2024 ...it often sounds frighteningly familiar.

Episode 9. 1920s in 20. The Jazz Age Christmas Special.

The history of the 1920s has one of the best soundtracks imaginable. With phonographs, grammaphones, radios and plenty of social events, music was everywhere and the upbeat playfulness of jazz permeated all walks of life. Much of it came from the Black- American community enjoying new freedom to build self-confidence and a chance to contribute to this new age. For this Xmas special there are contributions from Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Cole Porter. 

Episode 10. 1920s in 20. Agatha Christie. Queen of crime.

"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" narrated by Captain Hastings, on leave from World War One, and introducing the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot earned Agatha Christie 25 pounds. This episode looks at the emergence of the greatest selling female author of all time and remarkable ups and downs of her life in the 1920s.

Episode 11. 1920s in 20. Comedy and humour

1920s comedy is often associated with Hollywood but elsewhere others are making us laugh. The Marx Brothers were making waves on Broadway while Laurel and Hardy, at the end of the decade, were making their first "talkie" episodes. The writer P.G. Wodehouse was in full swing with Wooster and his butler Jeeves and Richmal Crompton unleashed her 11-year-old schoolboy on the world in her "Just William" books. Finally we consider the satire and wit of the Nobel prize for literature winner of 1922, Jacinto Benavente y Martinez.

Episode 12. 1920s in 20. Charles Lindbergh

Aviation is slowly developing into an industry in the 1920s but travelling longer distances is a challenge for only the most daring and some would say crazy pioneering pilots. The Orteig prize of $25,000 for the first plane to cross from New York to Paris non-stop captured public imagination and in 1927 Charles Lindbergh, a brilliant and determined pilot, managed the feat and stepped into a new world of massive celebrity status.

Episode 13. 1920s in 20 . The Harlem Renaissance

The Black - American community lived a unique moment in the 1920s. There were still those who could remember slavery and the civil war from the 1860s while young Black Americans had recently fought in WWI. Many migrated from the still stricter South with its more severe Jim Crow segregation laws to the more prosperous North where opportunities were opening up. The Harlem Renaissance is part of that story.

Episode 14. 1920s in 20. Sports stars.

With the media explosion of Hollywood films, radio broadcasts and numerous press outlets the stage was set for the emergence of the modern day sports celebrity. This episode follows the stories of Babe Ruth, baseball legend, Jack Dempsey, a boxing hero and, inevitably, two lesser known female sports heroes, the swimmer Trudie Ederle and a Spanish tennis player, Lili de Alvarez, who both have only received recognition for their feats in more recent times.

Episode 15. 1920s in 20. The Great Gatsby

In the 1920s in the U.S.A. and in particular New York, for the first time large publishing houses paid a regular income to writers on their books helping to make the 1920s an extraodrinary decade for all types of literature. This episode concentrates on just one novel by F.Scott Fitzgerald that has come to epitomise the Roaring twenties, The Great Gatsby. 100 years on it remains an exceptional work and an intriguing window into this period of history.

Episode 16.1920s in 20. Generación del 27.

This series has considered many of the great writers in the English language in the 1920s  and it is only fair that mention should be made of the extraordinary group of writers, poets and other artists that emerged in Spain after World War One and up to the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Many thanks to Fran for joining the series for this episode to help understand this "Generation of 1927" and for pronouncing their names correctly.

Episode 17. 1920s in 20. Cars.

At the turn of the century,1900, there were, literally, a handful of cars in the USA but by the end of the 20s there were 27,000,000. The motor industry was in many ways the embodiment of the twenties with the freedom it offered to the newly rich but it also powered the economic boom with the demand for steel, rubber, glass etc. This episode delves into the fascinating world of the automobile in the 20s.

Episode 18. 1920s in 20. The party's over.

This final episode considers the Roaring Twenties in the context of being sandwiched between World War One and The Great Depression. Some of the euphoria of the Jazz Age is partly a response to World War One and some of the reckless behaviour and hedonism in the USA is responsible for the events of Black Thursday and Black Tuesday in 1929. It was one hell of a decade!