Fear and faith: coping with the Black Death
For those who lived through it, the Black Death left a legacy of fear, loss and uncertainty. But how did people cope with such overwhelming catastrophe? And what do contemporary records reveal about t...
9 Touko 45min
Attenborough: a life on screen
This May marks the 100th birthday of leading British documentary-maker and natural historian David Attenborough. But what's the longer history of wildlife broadcasting? What inspired Attenborough to r...
7 Touko 46min
A worker's eye-view of ancient Rome
We know plenty about the lives of rich and powerful Romans – men such as Julius Caesar and Augustus. But Kim Bowes is more interested in those who worked for a living: the so-called 90 per cent. In th...
5 Touko 38min
Niccolò Machiavelli: life of the week
From obscure beginnings to torture, exile, and desperate reinvention, the biography of Renaissance diplomat and author Niccolò Machiavelli reads like political theatre at its most brutal. In this epis...
4 Touko 49min
How to pull off a Georgian dinner party
A dinner party in a beautifully decorated Georgian dining room might sound sophisticated, even romantic – but planning such events was not for the faint-hearted. Amy Boyington advises Lauren Good on h...
3 Touko 33min
The Black Death: a global contagion
The Black Death is remembered as one of the most devastating catastrophes in human history – a pandemic that swept across continents and killed millions. But where did it come from? How did it travel ...
2 Touko 34min
George Orwell's final chapter
Did you know that George Orwell only found national acclaim as an author in the final years of his life, as his health was worsening? Or that, with the growing prospect of death looming increasingly l...
30 Huhti 40min
Was Elizabeth II's reign a golden age?
When the late Queen acceded to the throne in 1952, Britain, though left bankrupt and reeling from the Second World War, was still a major global power. By the end of Elizabeth II’s reign in 2022 – the...
28 Huhti 37min
