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The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian Street Literature and Stories

The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian Street Literature and Stories

De : Finn J.D. John/ Pulp-Lit Productions
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 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 ... — Spring-Heel'd Jack ... — 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." Join us!Finn J.D. John/ Pulp-Lit Productions
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    Épisodes
    • 4.01: A portrait of the vampyre ... from 1698! — The artist sees a ghost, and sketches her. — Varney the Vampyre continues pestering his neighbours. — A strange prize-fight in milady's boudoir!

      4.01: A portrait of the vampyre ... from 1698! — The artist sees a ghost, and sketches her. — Varney the Vampyre continues pestering his neighbours. — A strange prize-fight in milady's boudoir!
      Oct 19 2025
      Episode 1 of a new season! With new bed music and more ghost stories!03:55: VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE; OR, THE FEAST OF BLOOD (1845), Ch. 22; In which —Henry, Charles, Mr. Marchdale, and Admiral Bell sit down for a planning meeting to decide what to do about Varney and Bannerworth Hall. They have just about decided to sell or rent it to Varney, but the idea of doing so under duress sticks in everyone’s craw a bit. Then Charles asks Henry to hold off for three days so that he can undertake some sort of plan, but he won’t say what it is. What can he have in mind? Is it some rash plan to challenge the vampire? If so, will he survive the encounter?20:50: THE TOWN IN AN UPROAR (broadsheet ballad from 1829):Tells the story of "a Grand Boxing Match, between a young Lady, and her Maid, for the sake of the handsome young Coachman, both of them being in Love with him; Together with a merry Song."29:59: REMARKABLE PREDICTION (article from The Terrific Register magazine):Tells of Jonathan Pyrah, who during the Thirty Years War took to prophecy and made some singular predictions which came strictly true, then returned to England and went mad.33:35: CARMILLA, by J.S. Le Fanu (1871), Part 4 of 9. IN WHICH:—A picture cleaner comes to the castle with a load of family heirlooms belonging to Laura’s mother’s Hungarian family, which her father had sent away to be cleaned. One of them is a dead-on likeness of Carmilla, but the tag on the frame reads “Mircalla Countess Karnstein, 1698.” Everyone agrees it’s an amazing coincidence that Carmilla looks so exactly like the picture. — That night, Laura has another nightmare … but is it really just a nightmare? Or something more sinister?PLUS —An artist sees a ghost — and asks her to sit for a portrait!We learn a few more Victorian "dad jokes" from good old Joe Miller!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 old London! GLOSSARY OF FLASH TERMS USED IN THIS EPISODE:HIGH FLYERS: Well-dressed landowners and respectable gentlemen.NATTY NABOBS: Nabobs were bigwigs who have made a fortune overseas and come home. "Natty" meant neat and tidy.KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows wandering amok by moonlight in fields and ditches, trying to stagger home.CORINTHIAN: A sporting man of rank and fashion. Word is best known for its use by author Pierce Egan for his character "Corinthian Tom" — the "Tom" half of "Tom and Jerry."CHAFFING-CRIB: A room where drinking and bantering are going on.FLICKER: Drinking-glass used for gin.HOLY WATER: Gin.JOLTER HEADS: Dull, blustering landlord.DANDIPRATS: Insignificant or trifling fellows.GRETNA GREEN: A Scottish town famous as a destination for lovers to elope to for matrimonial purposes. Scotland's marriage laws were less strict than English laws.VADE MECUM: Latin for "hand book."RED WAISTCOAT: Uniform apparel of the Bow-street Runners, an early London police force replaced by the New Model Police (who dressed in blue rather than red) in 1839.GAMMONERS: Swindlers or bullshitters.ROMONERS: Gammoners who pretend to have occult powers.OLD ST. GILES: The most famous slum parish of London, also called "The Holy Land"DUNWICH, Town Of (spelled with no "T"): A seacoast town east of London, once very large, which eroded away and fell into the sea; only a few streets and houses remainDUNWITCH, Barony Of (note the "T"): A small estate in the hills West of Arkham, according to Colonial chronicler H.P. Lovecraft. Does not actually exist, but if it did, would be headed by Finn J.D. John, 18th Baron Dunwitch.DUNSANY, Barony Of: A large estate in Ireland, including Dunsany Castle in County Meath, headed until 1957 by legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, one of Mr. Lovecraft's favorite authors.RUM TE TUM WITH THE CHILL OFF: Most emphatically excellent.
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      1 h
    • 3.27: The ballet-girl saved from A Fate Worse than Death! — Faithless captain is stabbed by his fiancee. — A heavy price for making fun of the Royal family! (A Ha'penny Horrors 'Hursday minisode)

      3.27: The ballet-girl saved from A Fate Worse than Death! — Faithless captain is stabbed by his fiancee. — A heavy price for making fun of the Royal family! (A Ha'penny Horrors 'Hursday minisode)
      Oct 16 2025

      A half-hour- long (plus a bit) Ha'penny Horror 'Hursday minisode IN WHICH —

      0:02:15: THE BLACK BAND, Chapter 22:

      • IN WHICH:— Ballet dancer Clara Melville, seeing Sir Frederick Beaumorris’s valet arriving with his traveling-things, is plunged into despair. Meanwhile, Sir Frederick is very pleased with himself, and looking forward to the conquest of breaking Clara’s spirit, right after dinner. He is on his way down to the table when who should make an unexpected appearance but Colonel Oscar Bertrand! What is he doing there? And what are Clara’s chances of getting out of this — stuck in a chateau in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country at the mercy of — not one, but TWO such thundering rogues?


      0:25:30: TERRIBLE TIDBIT OF THE DAY (from "Dickens' Dreadful Almanac"):

      • A little joking horseplay with what they thought was an unloaded antique blunderbuss hanging on the wall turned into a dreadful and fatal accident, 174 years ago today.


      0:27:10: CRUEL AND INHUMAN MURDER COMMITTED UPON THE BODY OF CAPT. LAWSON: (street broadside)

      • A broadsheet printed up telling the story of a maiden whose fiance, after throwing her over for a richer bride, tried to force her to give him back the letters he'd written her ... and she defended herself with a carving-knife. (The headline on this one is misleading.)


      0:22:36: EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENT FOR A TRIFLING EXPRESSION:

      • A story of the Bad Old Days of the Thirty Years War, in the late 1640s, when a Catholic gentleman's joke at the expense of Stuart Princess Elizabeth (who had married the king of Bohemia) prompted Parliament to impose an outrageous punishment upon him for daring to make fun of the precious royal family.


      Join host Finn J.D. John. for a half-hour-long spree through the darkest and loathliest stories seen on the streets of early-Victorian London! Grab a flicker of blue ruin, switch off your mirror neurons, and let's go!


      GLOSSARY OF FLASH TERMS USED IN THIS EPISODE:

      • HABERDASHERS: Smugglers of liquor.
      • BITS OF MUSLIN: Pretty girls.
      • KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows wandering amok in meadows and ditches, trying to stagger home.
      • CORINTHIAN: A fancy toff or titled swell. Used here as a reference to Corinthian Tom, the quintessential Regency rake depicted in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (usually referred to as "Tom and Jerry")
      • CHAFFING-CRIB: A room where drinking and bantering are going on.
      • SHERRY OFF: To run away at top speed. Adopted from the nautical term "to sheer off."
      • CULLS: Mildly disparaging term for men.
      • DOWN TO: Wised-up about, aware of.
      • FAKEMENT: Plot or scheme.
      • BUMS: Bailiffs.
      • CRAPPING COVES: Pronounced "crêpe-ing," it means hangmen, who cause the widows of the criminals they execute to wear crêpe in mourning.
      • THE OLD STONE JUG: Newgate Prison, or prisons in general.
      • PADDINGTON FAIR: Execution day at Tyburn Tree gallows, which was in Paddington parish.
      • DUNWICH, TOWN OF (spelled with no "T"): A seacoast town east of London, once very large, which eroded away and fell into the sea starting in the 13th century; only a few streets and houses remain today.
      • DUNWITCH, BARONY OF (spelled with a "T"): A small estate in the hills West of Arkham, according to Colonial chronicler H.P. Lovecraft. Does not actually exist, but if it did, would be headed by Finn J.D. John, 18th Baron Dunwitch.
      • DUNSANY, BARONY OF: A large estate in Ireland, including Dunsany Castle in County Meath, headed until 1957 by legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany (Lord Dunsany), one of Mr. Lovecraft's favorite authors and a major influence upon his work.
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      43 min
    • 3.26: Evil Count Lerno's gang thirsts for young Edgar's blood! — A slightly-naughty early-Victorian song, and a few dirty jokes (a Twopenny Torrid Tuesday minisode)

      3.26: Evil Count Lerno's gang thirsts for young Edgar's blood! — A slightly-naughty early-Victorian song, and a few dirty jokes (a Twopenny Torrid Tuesday minisode)
      Oct 14 2025

      A spicy (-ish) Tuesday Twopenny Torrid minisode IN WHICH —

      0:01:50: THE BALLET-GIRL'S REVENGE, Chapter 10, IN WHICH —:

      • We cut back to poor Edgar DeVille, who is being marched at pistol-point by the count into an inner chamber at the house, surrounded by the bloodthirsty ruffians in his gang of coiners and counterfeiters. A trap door opens in the floor before him, disclosing a deep well, in which obviously his body is to be thrown. The gang members want him killed on the spot. Can he change their minds? Is this the end for poor young Edgar?


      0:22:30: BROADSIDE STREET BALLAD:

      • "Courting in the Kitchen." When the lord of the manor came home, our lusty young swain found himself thrown under the hackney-coach by his erstwhile ladyfriend, the boss's kitchen maid, and draws six months on the Brixton treadmill!


      0:24:50: A SALACIOUS SALOON SONG:

      • "The Ploughman and the Priest." When a newlywed ploughman finds himself unable to take care of his matrimonial duties, the town's parson steps in to help out!


      0:30:20: THREE VICTORIAN-AGE DIRTY JOKES.

      • From "The Chestnut Club."


      Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John, for a half-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of old London! Grab a decanter and top off your glass, unload your stumps, and let's go!

      GLOSSARY OF FLASH TERMS USED IN THIS EPISODE:

      • ACK PIRATES: Thieves who specialize in swiping cargo from riverboats and barges.
      • ARCH DOXIES: Spirited, audacious, possibly dangerous ladies.
      • KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows wandering amok in meadows and ditches, trying to stagger home.
      • CHAFFING-CRIB: A room where drinking and bantering are going on.
      • CHICKSTERS: Flamboyant ladies, often prostitutes
      • LADYBIRDS: Another term for chicksters
      • BULLY ROCKS: Brothel muscle men
      • ABBESS: Brothel madam
      • MOTHER H: A famous abbess from the 1830s
      • BOLT THE MOON: Fly by night
      • BEAKS: Magistrates and judges
      • BODY SNATCHERS: Police officers. (Actual body snatchers were called "resurrection-men.")
      • DUNWICH, TOWN OF (spelled with no "T"): A seacoast town east of London, once very large, which eroded away and fell into the sea starting in the 13th century; only a few streets and houses remain today.
      • DUNWITCH, BARONY OF (spelled with a "T"): A small estate in the hills West of Arkham, according to Colonial chronicler H.P. Lovecraft. Does not actually exist, but if it did, would be headed by Finn J.D. John, 18th Baron Dunwitch.
      • DUNSANY, BARONY OF: A large estate in Ireland, including Dunsany Castle in County Meath, headed until 1957 by legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.
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      33 min
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