Holy Smoke: Was Simeon of Jerusalem the first Christian in recorded history?
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This prayer, known down the centuries by its opening Latin words Nunc dimittis, explains the title of Quentin Letts's novel Nunc!, a delightfully quirky retelling of the story of Simeon and his friends. It's framed by the experience of a 21st-century corduroy-wearing Englishman who, after receiving bad news about his cancer, wanders into his local cathedral and hears the Nunc dimittis sung at evensong. In this episode of Holy Smoke, Quentin touches on the real-life inspiration for his tale – and suggests to Damian Thompson that old Simeon, venerated as a saint, might be the first Christian in recorded history.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Before we get started, I would like to bring your attention to the next Americano Live event. |
| 0:06.8 | The last one was a huge success, and we anticipate this one will be as big, if not bigger, |
| 0:12.0 | to get all Trumpy about it. It's Americano Live's Trump's first 100 days. I will be hosting it, |
| 0:18.8 | and I will be joined by the great Lionel Schreiber. We will be talking about |
| 0:23.0 | all things Trump. There's a hell of a lot to cover, but we'll do our best to cover the lot. |
| 0:28.5 | Do join us. It's at the Emanuel Centre on Wednesday the 30th of April and the discussion, |
| 0:35.7 | according to the blurb here. The discussion starts at 7.30pm. |
| 0:40.2 | Book your tickets at spectator.com.uk forward slash Shriver, which is spelled S-H-R-I-V-E-R, as I'm sure you already knew. |
| 0:50.7 | Please come. |
| 1:02.0 | Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. |
| 1:04.3 | I'm Damien Thompson. |
| 1:15.0 | My guest this week is Quentin Lett, the beloved and brilliant parliamentary sketchwriter of The Daily Mail, |
| 1:34.4 | former theatre critic, former New York correspondent, a man of many talents which include having just published a gloriously funny and poignant novel called NUNC, N-U-N-N-C-N-C-N-C-N Nunk, N-U-N-C. They are the first words of the Nunk-Tamittis. Now let us thy servant depart in peace. And that's appropriate because the |
| 1:41.6 | bulk of the novel is the story of Simeon, the old man in the temple, who utteres these words as he holds the baby Jesus in his arms. |
| 1:53.2 | This is Herod's temple. It's just been built and it's just before the slaughter of the innocence. |
| 1:57.7 | But in fact, Quentin, the novel opens in 20th century, England. |
| 2:04.5 | It does. It opens in a city, perhaps, not entirely unlike Hereford, my local city, Cathedral |
| 2:09.4 | town. And it opens with a 62-year-old corduroyd trousered Englishman being given some rather |
| 2:17.0 | bad news that he's dying of cancer. |
| 2:20.0 | And he has a row with his wife, he has a few pills, painkillers, goes off to the wine bar, as some of us do. |
| 2:28.4 | And after an hour or so is sinking hock, he's tottering home and he sees that his local cathedral is about to have |
| 2:35.1 | evensong, and he puts a head into the cathedral and the choir are just practicing, finishing |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Spectator and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.