A History of Private Life - The Bed

Historian Amanda Vickery presents a series which reveals the hidden history of home over 400 years. She draws on first-hand accounts from letters and diaries, many of which have never been heard before. Including songs which have been specially recorded for the series. The series begins at the very heart of private life: in the deep comfort of the matrimonial bed, curtains drawn round the four-poster. What happened next is revealed by 16th-century diaries - 'curtain lectures', in which the wife gave her husband a good talking to, and the pleasure of making up afterwards. Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak. Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard. A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.