The Brontës

Dead Funny History: The Brontës. Join historian Greg Jenner for a fast-paced, funny and fascinating journey through the lives of the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, three literary legends whose tragic family story inspired some of the greatest novels of the 19th century. This episode of Dead Funny History is packed with jokes, sketches and sound effects that bring the past to life for families and Key Stage 2 learners. From their Yorkshire parsonage to their tiny books written in doll-sized handwriting, the Brontës were bursting with creativity. But their lives were also filled with heartbreak, illness and rejection. Discover how the sisters used gender-neutral pen names to get published, how their brother Branwell tried (and mostly failed) to join in, and how their novels, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, were shaped by their real-life experiences as governesses, teachers and grieving siblings. Expect parodies, sketch comedy, and a quiz to test what you’ve learned. There’s a mournful bell for every tragic twist and a goat who’s surprisingly good at literary criticism. It’s history with heart, humour and high production value. Perfect for curious kids, families, and fans of You’re Dead To Me. Written by Jack Bernhardt, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch and Dr Emma Nagouse Host: Greg Jenner Performers: Mali Ann Rees and John-Luke Roberts Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse Associate Producer: Gabby Hutchinson Crouch Audio Producer: Emma Weatherill Researcher: Dr Emmie Rose Price Goodfellow Script Consultant: Dr Amber Regis Production Coordinator: Liz Tuohy Production Manager: Jo Kyle Studio Managers: Keith Graham and Andrew Garratt Sound Designer: Peregrine Andrews A BBC Studios Production

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 1:46Greg Jenner?

  Hello, welcome to Dead Funny History. I'm Greg Jenner, I'm a historian, and I want to tell you about a cool family. The Bronte sisters wrote some of the most famous books of the 19th century. There was Charlotte Bronte, who wrote the Gothic coming-of-age story Jane Eyre.

• 2:02Speaker 04

  I would always rather be happy than dignified.

• 2:06Greg Jenner?

  Anne Bronte, who wrote both Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

• 2:12Speaker 04

  He that dares not grasp the thorn should never grasp the rose.

• 2:16Greg Jenner?

  And Emily Bronte, who wrote the famous Gothic tragedy

• 2:19Speaker 05

  Wuthering, wuthering, wuthering heights.

• 2:22Greg Jenner?

  And also Branwell! Oh, yeah, and their brother Branwell Bronte, who, um...

• 2:29Greg Jenner?

  Well, I mean, Branwell was also there.

• 2:31Speaker 06

  Branwell!

• 2:32Greg Jenner?

  Their parents were Patrick and Maria Bronte. Patrick, who was born in Ireland and moved to Yorkshire, wanted to be a writer too, but was never as good as his daughters. He did have one creative masterstroke though: naming himself.

• 2:47Speaker 06

  Bronte, with an umlaut.

• 2:50Greg Jenner?

  That's the two little dots above the E. Now, Bronte was more distinguished than the original family name.

• 2:56Speaker 06

  Bronte!

• 2:56Greg Jenner?

  Yeah, not sure the Bronte sisters has the same ring to it. Patrick worked as an ordained church minister, but he wasn't that straight-laced. When Maria wrote to him before they got married, she called him...

• 3:09Speaker 04

  My dear Saucy Pat.

• 3:12Greg Jenner?

  Patrick and Maria had six children. There was Maria, the eldest born in eighteen fourteen, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Branwell...

• 3:21Speaker 06

  Branwell!

• 3:22Greg Jenner?

  Emily, and Anne, the youngest born in eighteen twenty. On the twentieth of April eighteen twenty, the whole family moved to Howarth, a village in West Yorkshire, where they would live and write for most of their lives. Their house is so famous, it's called the Bronte Parsonage, and you can still visit it today. But if you've ever thought...

• 3:43Speaker 06

  Gosh, these books by the Brontes are so sad. I wonder where they got all their inspiration from?

• 3:49Greg Jenner?

  You're about to find out.

• 3:50Speaker 04

  Oh, I can't wait to raise my six beautiful children with my wonderful husband, dear Saucy Pat. Oh, hang on a second, I just feel a tiny bit ill.

• 4:04Greg Jenner?

  Spoiler: we're gonna be using that mournful bell sound effect a lot this episode. Mum Maria died in eighteen twenty-one, and Saucy Pat tried to remarry, but never did. The children were raised by him and also by their aunt Elizabeth, who came to live with them.

• 4:21Speaker 06

  Hello, you can call me Saucy Pat.

• 4:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's not happening.

• 4:27Greg Jenner?

  Pat believed in education and sent the four older girls off to school so they'd be able to get decent jobs. Nice! Not that nice, actually, sorry, the school was pretty horrid.

• 4:39Speaker 06

  Welcome to your school. It's cramped, you all have to share the same bed, it's riddled with disease, and the food is horrible.

• 4:52Speaker 07

  Now get to work! And a thinly veiled version of this school better not turn up in any of your future books!

• 5:00Greg Jenner?

  Guess what? It did!

• 5:02Speaker 07

  Oh no!

• 5:03Greg Jenner?

  Yeah, experts think it was the inspiration for Lowood School in Charlotte's Jane Eyre. While at school, Mariah and Elizabeth Bronte both caught a deadly lung disease called TB. They were rushed home, but tragically, both died.

• 5:19Greg Jenner?

  Yeah, so much worse than being sent home for having the wrong trainers. Charlotte was now the eldest and took the responsibility seriously. Patrick and Aunt Elizabeth now educated the children at home, and they did a brilliant job. The girls...

• 5:35Speaker 07

  And me, Branwell! I was there too!

• 5:38Greg Jenner?

  Right, yeah, sorry. They learned painting, sewing, reading, and they read everything. The Bible, Shakespeare, political magazines, science books, children's books, and they started to write. Once upon a time... I don't know if you've ever made up stories with your siblings or friends, but the Bronte kids created whole fantasy worlds together and wrote adventure novels about them in tiny, doll-sized books using teeny-weeny handwriting. Once upon a time... These books still exist today, and you can see them, or at least you can if you squint. Eventually, Charlotte went back to school, but returned after eighteen months to take charge of her sister's education,

• 6:23Greg Jenner?

  and at one point got a job teaching at her old school, so she must have really loved teaching.

• 6:28Speaker 04

  I hated it. It left me a shattered wretch. When pupils interrupted my daydreams for a lesson, I wanted to vomit.

• 6:36Greg Jenner?

  Charlotte then tried being a governess, which is just looking after a rich family's kids.

• 6:41Speaker 04

  Hated that too.

• 6:42Greg Jenner?

  Emily also tried teaching.

• 6:44Speaker 05

  I thought the kids were awful. I preferred the school dog.

• 6:48Greg Jenner?

  And Anne also briefly worked as a governess.

• 6:50Speaker 05

  Terrible. The kids were spoiled brats.

• 6:53Speaker 06

  We were not. You better not use a thinly veiled version of your time as a governess in one of your books.

• 7:00Greg Jenner?

  She did, in Agnes Grey.

• 7:04Greg Jenner?

  But fair enough, teaching is tough. And they didn't even have to dress up for World Book Day. At this point, it would have made sense if all of the sisters had just said,

• 7:13Speaker 04

  Teaching's not for us. Let's pack it in and write our books.

• 7:17Greg Jenner?

  But no, they said,

• 7:19Speaker 04

  We'll set up our own school.

• 7:21Greg Jenner?

  Emily and Charlotte went to Brussels in Belgium to learn how to do it, where Charlotte might have fallen in love with a married schoolmaster.

• 7:29Speaker 06

  Ah, mon ami, if you could not use this experience in any of your books, s'il vous plaît?

• 7:35Greg Jenner?

  Yeah, she did, in the novel Villette.

• 7:38Speaker 06

  Sacrebleu!

• 7:39Greg Jenner?

  Setting up the school was a bit of a nightmare, made all the worse when Aunt Elizabeth sadly died in eighteen forty-two.

• 7:47Greg Jenner?

  Understandably, Charlotte had a bit of a breakdown a few years later.

• 7:50Speaker 07

  Oh, great material for my books.

• 7:54Greg Jenner?

  The school ended up not happening. And that is when they finally said,

• 7:59Speaker 04

  Let's pack it in and write books.

• 8:01Speaker 07

  And maybe I, Branwell, will do stuff too.

• 8:07Greg Jenner?

  Sure, Branwell. Talented as they were, the sisters hit one major snag when it came to getting published.

• 8:14Speaker 06

  Sexism!

• 8:15Greg Jenner?

  Since it was much harder to get published as a woman, the sisters used fake, gender-neutral names. Charlotte worried it might be unfairly tricking people, but it was necessary. So Charlotte wrote as,

• 8:28Speaker 04

  Harabelle.

• 8:29Greg Jenner?

  Emily wrote as,

• 8:30Speaker 05

  Ellis Bell.

• 8:31Greg Jenner?

  And Anne wrote as,

• 8:33Speaker 05

  Acton Bell.

• 8:34Speaker 07

  And I'll be me, Branwell!

• 8:37Greg Jenner?

  Branwell didn't have to use a fake name.

• 8:39Speaker 07

  Branwell just wanted to join in.

• 8:41Greg Jenner?

  Fair enough. The sisters published their first set of poems.

• 8:45Speaker 07

  Ooh, how many copies did it sell? Eight hundred, nine hundred?

• 8:51Greg Jenner?

  Two.

• 8:51Speaker 07

  Only two hundred?

• 8:53Greg Jenner?

  No, just two copies.

• 8:55Speaker 07

  What?

• 8:56Greg Jenner?

  But the critics loved it, and that's what really counts.

• 8:59Speaker 07

  How is it, Greg?

• 9:00Greg Jenner?

  Is it really? In 1847, the sisters sent out novels to publishers, including the now super famous Agnes Gray and...

• 9:08Speaker 05

  Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights!

• 9:11Greg Jenner?

  And these masterpieces were... rejected. A lot.

• 9:16Speaker 05

  So cold!

• 9:18Greg Jenner?

  Finally, Emily and Anne found a publisher for those books. But the deal was not great. Fifty pounds.

• 9:25Speaker 05

  Well, that's a lot of money in our time.

• 9:27Greg Jenner?

  No, the sisters had to pay the publishers fifty pounds each to get their books published.

• 9:34Speaker 05

  Oh, what? That's not how selling stuff works.

• 9:38Greg Jenner?

  But at least Charlotte had a bit of luck. A publisher encouraged her to send in a different book, and she'd already been working on Jane Eyre. In it went, and it was published that year and was an instant hit! Hooray! Anne's books didn't do as well, and she doesn't get remembered as much, despite being a great writer. Critics were especially mean about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, saying it was too coarse and immoral.

• 10:04Speaker 05

  Boo! Oh, come on! Why is everyone being so mean to me, Anne Bronte? I mean, um, Acton Bell.

• 10:13Greg Jenner?

  But it did sell much better than her first book, and that is what really counts.

• 10:18Speaker 05

  Is it, Greg? Is it really?

• 10:21Greg Jenner?

  As for Emily, despite Wuthering Heights now being one of the most famous and best-selling novels ever...

• 10:26Speaker 05

  Oh, it gets dark!

• 10:28Greg Jenner?

  It does get dark. Emily didn't see any of that success. She received no royalty payments.

• 10:35Speaker 07

  And what about me? Branwell!

• 10:38Greg Jenner?

  As for Branwell, he taught a bit, had a few poems published, and as an artist, made one famous painting.

• 10:45Speaker 07

  Yes! Branwell time!

• 10:48Greg Jenner?

  It's mostly famous because it's a portrait of his sisters.

• 10:51Speaker 07

  Still taking it as a win!

• 10:53Greg Jenner?

  And he got kicked out of a teaching job for having an affair with his boss's wife.

• 10:57Speaker 07

  Yeah, that's probably enough about Branwell. Let's get back to my cool sisters. Bye, bye, bye, bye.

• 11:01Greg Jenner?

  Poor Branwell died, probably of TB, on the 24th of September, 1848.

• 11:06Speaker 07

  Branwell unwell!

• 11:09Greg Jenner?

  Sadly, at Branwell's funeral, Emily caught a cold.

• 11:13Speaker 05

  Oh, I feel a tiny bit ill.

• 11:16Greg Jenner?

  Which turned out to be TB. And...

• 11:19Speaker 05

  They told me I was going to lose the fight.

• 11:23Greg Jenner?

  She died quickly, on the 19th of December 1848.

• 11:28Greg Jenner?

  It then became clear that Anne, you guessed it, also had TB.

• 11:32Speaker 05

  Not another one!

• 11:34Greg Jenner?

  But hold the mournful bell, because in May 1849, Anne, Charlotte and their friend Ellen went to the beach in Scarborough. Do people ever tell you that fresh air will make you better? That was the idea! But sadly, sea air doesn't cure TB.

• 11:51Greg Jenner?

  And poor Anne died in Scarborough on the 28th of May, just a few days after arriving. Charlotte had Anne buried there, and Charlotte was now left on her own with their father, the only surviving Bronte sibling, aged just 33. What was poor Charlotte to do? Well, she wrote. Charlotte published her novel Shirley in October 1849. She had written it around the time of her siblings' deaths, and she became a bit of a celeb in writing circles. Although she was way too quiet and anxious to actually enjoy it.

• 12:26Speaker 05

  Don't look at me, I'm shy.

• 12:28Greg Jenner?

  But she did make a really good friend in the famous author Elizabeth Gaskell, which would become important later on. Charlotte also edited her sisters' books and tried to boost their reputation, even after they were dead. Despite Charlotte's belief that she would never marry, she actually ended up getting hitched to Arthur Bell Nichols, which was a drama worthy of one of her books, given that he was a churchman and saucy Pat, her dad, was his boss.

• 12:56Speaker 07

  Not saucy Arthur.

• 12:58Greg Jenner?

  The two of them moved in with Patrick in 1855, in a living arrangement that definitely wasn't incredibly awkward.

• 13:06Speaker 07

  Yep, this is supernormal. Just my daughter and son-in-law slash fellow minister, living with me.

• 13:13Greg Jenner?

  Soon, Charlotte was expecting her first baby.

• 13:15Speaker 07

  After all that tragedy, things are finally looking good for a starling daughter.

• 13:22Speaker 05

  Just feel a tiny bit ill.

• 13:24Greg Jenner?

  No. Charlotte tragically died on the 31st of March 1855, aged only 38. Two years after her death, her friend, Elizabeth Gaskell, published the story of Charlotte's life, and the family became hugely famous. In the years since, their books have sold millions of copies, been turned into plays, blockbuster films, and even into a hit pop song.

• 13:54Speaker 05

  Wuthering, wuthering, wuthering. You get the picture, Greg.

• 13:58Greg Jenner?

  Yep, that one, by Kate Bush. No one will ever forget the brilliant Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Or you, Branwell.

• 14:06Speaker 07

  Branwell.

• 14:07Greg Jenner?

  So, how much do you remember from today's speedy history lesson? Let's find out. Pencils at the ready.

• 14:15Greg Jenner?

  Question one: Name one of the sisters' fake gender-neutral names.

• 14:22Speaker 04

  Cora, Alice, and Acton Bell.

• 14:25Greg Jenner?

  Question two: What is the name of the often-forgotten Bronte brother?

• 14:32Speaker 07

  Branwell!

• 14:34Greg Jenner?

  Question three: What was the name of Emily Bronte's only completed novel, now a famous song by Kate Bush?

• 14:44Speaker 05

  Wuthering, wuthering, wuthering heights.

• 14:48Greg Jenner?

  Well done. Join us next time for another snappy history lesson. Thank you for listening. Bye. This was a BBC Studios audio production for Radio 4. Dead Funny History was written by Jack Bernhardt, Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, and Dr. Emmy Nagus. The researcher was Dr. Emmy Rose Price-Goodfellow. It was hosted by me, Greg Jenner, and performed by Malian Rees and John Luke Roberts. The script consultant was Dr. Amber Regis.

• 15:15Speaker 06

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• 15:53Speaker 06

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• 16:38Speaker 06

  And whether you're debugging code at midnight, building a financial model, or strategising your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at claude.ai/solve. That's claude.ai/solve. And check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. Claude.ai/solve.

• 17:03Speaker 07

  In Our Time is a world-class seminar every week. Why was Jeremy a lonely snail? What were the lines doing in York in the third century? I'm Misha Glennie and every week I'm joined by expert guests to explore the ideas that shape our world.

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