James Gillray: life of the week

The killing of President John F Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963 is one of the defining events of the 20th century and the subject of multiple conspiracy theories. In part one of a special bonus epi...

3 Apr 202443min

Sathnam Sanghera’s bestselling 2021 book Empireland catapulted the author into the eye of a media storm. Following the release of its follow-up, Empireworld, he spoke to Matt Elton about how it felt t...

2 Apr 202437min

The name of medieval leader and military commander Saladin has gone down in history for unifying the Muslim Near East, capturing the holy city of Jerusalem and an iconic rivalry with Richard the Lionh...

1 Apr 202455min

Within just a few years of Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union had sent the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. An era of renewal and excitement beckoned. Speaking to Danny Bird, Rob...

31 Mar 202445min

Were the Anglo-Saxons always called the Anglo-Saxons? What did it take to make or break an early medieval king? And how did Christianity revolutionise the governance of their kingdoms? Speaking to Emi...

31 Mar 202443min

Through the 19th century, people began to find strange and spectacular bones of "impossible monsters" in the earth. But what creatures could these bones belong to – and what did that mean both for rel...

29 Mar 202440min

At the turn of the 20th century, bicycles and motor cars became fixtures on Britain’s roads. Bob Carlisle, the original ‘wheelbarrow pedestrian’, found himself overtaken in this transport revolution. ...

28 Mar 202434min

Elizabeth I is probably best remembered as an aging monarch, with a powdered white face and elaborate red wig. But she was just 25 when she became queen, and had by then had already lived a dramatic a...

27 Mar 202428min