Jeffrey Richards is Professor of Cultural History at Lancaster University. He is general editor of the Cinema and Society series for I.B. Tauris and of the Studies in Popular Culture series for Manchester University Press. He is a published author and broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4.
  • Castle-2 (courtesy of Lancaster Castle)

    Welcome to the future Duke of Lancaster

    The loyal toast drunk at all formal dinners in the University of Lancaster is ‘The Queen, the Duke of Lancaster’. For one of the many titles of the sovereign, whether male or female, is Duke (never Duchess) of Lancaster. So as the nation celebrates the birth of a baby boy who will in the normal course of events occupy the throne after Charles III and William V, we also hail a future Duke of Lancaster.

  • Richard III Skeleton, University of Leicester copyright

    The White Queen

    On Sunday after ten gruelling weeks the House of Lancaster finally won the Wars of the Roses as the final episode of The White Queen, the BBC’s dramatisation of three of Philippa Gregory’s historical novels, unfolded. 

  • Panto - mangakamaidenphotography, CC BY-SA

    Is panto what it was when you were a child? Oh, no it isn’t!

    Now the pantomime season is well and truly underway, many will have heard a familiar complaint. It’s newfangled, it’s not what it was. What happened to the good old days, when panto didn’t involve 3D glasses and reference Ukip?