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Why was the early life of Peter the Great - Tsar and autocrat of all the Russias, who endures to this day as an iconic symbol of Russian might - drenched in blood and violence? What amalgamation of co...
· 1 hr 5 min 32 sec
In the vibrant but vicious golden age of Imperial Japan, how did women use writing as a way to secure their status, and express their deepest desires? Who was Sei Shōnagon, the witty courtier whose ac...
· 1 hr 8 min 47 sec
At the height of Imperial Japan, during a golden age of court intrigue, obsessive hierarchy, and fabulous sophistication, who was the legendary lothario and emperor’s son, Genji? What can the Tale of...
· 56 min 14 sec
"We're not worried about petty morals."What happened to the Rolling Stones in 1967 to see them on the brink of imprisonment and mass censure, while at the height of their success, with fame, fortune,...
· 1 hr 10 min 55 sec
What are the origins of Britain’s original bad boys, The Rolling Stones? Where did they all come from and how did they meet? What was it about the 1960s, with its air of sexual liberation, newly elect...
· 1 hr 10 min 8 sec
What happened in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings? What horrors did William the Conqueror have to inflict upon his Anglo Saxon subjects in order to consolidate his new realm? And, what role did...
· 1 hr 5 min 47 sec
Following King Harold Godwinson’s climactic victory at the Battle of Stanford Bridge, and the death of Harald Hardrada, what did he do when news reached him that William of Normandy’s army had landed...
· 59 min 1 sec
In the tumultuous climax of 1066, why was Harold’s very own brother Tostig the first of the mighty foes he had to face? How did Harald Hardrada then launch his invasion of England, and how much resist...
· 1 hr 10 min 27 sec
Why is 1066 the most important year in English history? Who were the three main candidates vying for the English throne on the eve of Edward the Confessor’s death? And how did the coronation of one of...
· 1 hr 2 min 9 sec
Harald Hardrada; exiled prince of Norway and mercenary, has landed in the greatest city on Earth: Constantinople. There he joins one of the most prestigious military organisations in the world, the Va...
· 1 hr 6 min 25 sec
“I swear I will not flee from this fight. I will triumph, or I will die!”In the 1066 game of thrones for the crown of England, the most extraordinary of the three contenders is arguably Harald Hardrad...
· 1 hr 3 min 28 sec
In the triumvirate of 1066, William of Normandy, Harald Hardrada, and Harold Godwinson, the latter has above all endured as one of the great heroes of English history. But how did he become the short-...
· 1 hr 1 min 33 sec
Born into a world of treachery, violence and death, William of Normandy defied all expectations, forging a legacy that lasts to this day. Born out of wedlock and dismissed as an upstart, he was origin...
· 59 min 42 sec
Following the bloody St Brice’s Day Massacre, of the 13th of November 1002, which saw King Æthelred brutally exterminating the Danes from England, the Vikings were hungry for revenge. None more so tha...
· 1 hr 5 min 36 sec
The Norman Conquest of 1066, culminating in the legendary Battle of Hastings, is perhaps the greatest turning point in the history of the English nation. It was a year that changed the fate of England...
· 1 hr 5 sec
The second revolution that engulfed France over the course of 1792 reached its climax in December, with an astonishing, world-changing spectacle, which held all the eyes of Europe spellbound: Louis Ca...
· 1 hr 3 min 55 sec
“From this place and from this day forth commences a new era in the world’s history, and you can all say you were present at its birth!”By September 1792, the Prussians, under the leadership of the fo...
· 1 hr 2 min 6 sec
In the summer and Autumn of 1792 - with the Prussians bearing down on Paris, the streets thronged with the stirring swell of the Marseillaise, but also the rotting bodies of those brutally killed duri...
· 1 hr 1 min 35 sec
‘Still more traitors, still more treason…"It is 1792 and France has been at war since April; it is not going well. In Paris, the Tuileries Palace has been stormed, and the royal family imprisoned. Mea...
· 1 hr 2 min 14 sec