SHOW NOTES for EPISODE 21 (Season Six)

(Sept. 27, 2026)

For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see ⁠⁠pennydread.com/discord.⁠⁠

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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 early-Victorian London!

Penny Dreadful is a weekly show that cycles through four themes each month. This is the TWOPENNY TORRIDS-theme show. It will be followed by ...

• The “Sixpenny Spookies” theme episode, coming next Sunday;
• The “Graanum Gothics” theme episode, coming two Sundays hence; and finally —
• The “Ha'penny Horrors” theme episode, coming three Sundays from now.

Then we’ll be right back around to the “Twopenny Torrids” again, for the fourth Sunday of next month!

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IN TODAY'S "TWOPENNY TORRIDS" EPISODE:

• 01:55: STREET POETRY: From a broadside ballad: “Sweet Betty of Billingsgate,” a short and very sweet love ballad. (1805).
• 04:00: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN), Chapter 91-95: In which we find Dick in London, staying with old Matthew Gale at the White Horse Inn in Drury-lane. Matthew has connected him with an old costumier who once worked for the theatre there, and the costumier proceeds to utterly transform Dick into an aged country farmer. His plan is to use this disguise to actually go into Newgate Prison, visit Tom King, and slip him something that will help him escape from custody. So, how will that work? We’ll see …
• 50:30: STREET POETRY: An 1845 broadside ballad: “Is Your Rhubarb Up?” — a rather spicy little bit of street verse about sex. If you have ever seen a rhubarb plant just sprouting from the garden soil, you’ll understand the reference immediately.
• 53:10: INTRODUCING MISS DAVIS: One of the “ladies of the evening” listed and described in Harris’s List of Covent-garden Ladies, a directory for bucks and bloods out on the town in the early 1800s.
• 56:50: A RATHER NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONG: "Jenny’s Sweet Dream” (about an innocent maiden’s not-so-innocent subconscious mind, which serves her up a rather detailed dream likely involving someone played by Colin Firth circa 1995!)
• 1:01:00: A FEW MILDLY DIRTY JOKES from what passed in 1830 for a dirty joke book: "The Joke-Cracker" by Martin Merryman, Esq. These are not very good today, certainly nothing anywhere near the level of last month’s “coal drop’t from your warming-pan” banger.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• LOTHARIOS: (from intro) Rakish young men on the make, would-be seducers.
• MACE COVES: (ibid) Con artists.
• KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD: (ibid) Highway robbers.
• SKY PARLOUR: (ibid) A garret or attic room.
• CORINTHIAN FINN (ibid): This nickname is a reference to Corinthian Tom, the rakish hero of Pierce Egan’s Life in London; or, or The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn Esq. and his Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom (1821) and the original Tom of “Tom and Jerry” fame. A “Corinthian” was a sporting man of rank and fashion.
• CYPRIANS: (From the introduction to Hostess Miss Davis) Ladies of easy virtue, a classical reference to the island of Cyprus, supposedly peopled with sexually frisky ladies.
• SPORTING THEIR BLUNT: (ibid) Throwing money around.
• JACKY: (ibid) Gin.
• SLUICE YOUR IVORIES: (ibid) Take a big drink.
• MORRIS OFF: (from outro) Run away at top speed.
• BEAKS ON THE NOSE: (ibid) Police detectives or magistrates on an investigation.
• BLOWINGS: (ibid) Ladies of the evening.
• WATER-PADS: (ibid) Thieves who work on the river, also known as ack pirates.
• RUM GAGGERS: (ibid) Crooks who tell crazy stories about misadventures to beg.
• CROSS-CRIB: (ibid) Thieves’ house.
• 18th BARON DUNWICH (ibid): A fictional title, adopted as a nod to Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany (Lord Dunsany) and a reference to “The Dunwich Horror” by H.P. Lovecraft.