Episode 3: To Beard or Not to Beard

1666 and All That

From Shakespeare's plays to courtly fashions after the Glorious Revolution, facial hair - or the lack of it - was a key cultural signifier in 17th-century Europe, and is now a topic attracting an impressive body of scholarship.

As Miranda and Paul reveal in this episode, sporting a beard or moustache in mid-century England could suggest royalist sympathies, while clean-shaven chins often indicated Puritan leanings. Yet fashions came and went, influenced by bewhiskered tastes in Paris or Madrid. And as the century progressed, men's attitudes to facial hair were complicated by the increasingly widespread use of wigs.

'1666 and All That' is presented by Paul Lay and Miranda Malins. The producer is Hugh Costello. Original music by George Taylor. The episode is mixed by Sam Gunn.