Robert Southwell

With this series, The Merry Beggars set out to create an immersive multicast audio drama podcast that would bring the thrilling history of 16th-century English poet and Jesuit priest Saint Robert Southwell to life for our dedicated family entertainment audience.

One of the most widely read poets and essayists of his day, Southwell’s work profoundly shaped literary giants like Shakespeare, Jonson, Spenser, and Donne. We wanted to tell Southwell’s life not as an historical biopic, but as a high-stakes psychological and political thriller with relevance to listeners today. Our narrative portrays his meteoric rise from boyhood in Elizabethan England to becoming a defiant voice of his generation, tracking how his fame and illegal writings put him on a direct collision course with England's most powerful woman, Queen Elizabeth I.

Working with Southwell expert Professor Peter Davidson from Oxford University, we framed their relationship through the lens of the larger historical forces outside their control, challenging contemporary listeners to re-examine England's turbulent history of religious sectarianism from the internal, personal points of view of the characters. To achieve this, the production united a world-class creative team. The series was written by Emmy-nominated writer Kelsie Kiley (Broad City, Roseanne, Inside Amy Schumer) and directed by eminent British stage and screen director Edward Hall (Downton Abbey, Blithe Spirit, Gentleman Jack).

The launch featured high-end promotional artwork and was released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We paired state-of-the-art, cinematic sound design by Nicolas Mangione, Juan Apesteguia, and Michael Spina, with an evocative original score by composer Jacob Brusseau. This rich sonic landscape acts as the backdrop for a powerhouse cast, featuring Elliott Brotherhood as Southwell, Issy Van Randwyck (The Danish Girl, Dr. Who) as Queen Elizabeth, and stellar performances by Griffin Puatu (Beastars, The Technomancy Project, Twilight Meridian) and Demetrios Troy (The Chosen, Chicago Fire).

The series has performed exceptionally well: within just two weeks of its release on August 21, 2026, the series garnered over 146,000 downloads and 39,000 unique listeners, a massive success with our target audience.