The Magna Carta myth
Magna Carta may be associated today with power, liberty and freedom – but those weren’t quite the concerns back in 1215. So what did the barons really demand of King John? And what can this document t...
15 Feb 43min
Terrible puns and filthy limericks: the Victorian sense of humour
Queen Victoria was – so legend has it – famously 'not amused'. But, as Dr Bob Nicholson reveals in this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, the long-lived queen did have a sense of humour – as did he...
13 Feb 44min
What your hands say about you – according to history
What do your hands reveal about you? Historian Alison Bashford joins Elinor Evans to explore the extraordinary history of how people have interpreted the human hand. From ancient divination to cutting...
11 Feb 45min
Thomas More: life of the week
Thomas More is best remembered as a martyr and a saint, but the circumstances of his death were just one facet of his controversial life. Historian and biographer Dr Joanne Paul speaks to Kev Lochun a...
10 Feb 54min
Going on strike in ancient Rome
Strikes and unions may seem like modern inventions, but they’ve existed for much longer than many of us realise. Historian Sarah E Bond talks to Jon Bauckham about how people in ancient Rome challenge...
9 Feb 42min
Magna Carta: king v barons
In the early 13th century, England was a kingdom under pressure, as the challenges posed by King John’s reign had left the realm restless. By 1215, tensions had reached boiling point. What began as is...
8 Feb 44min
Untold LGBTQ stories of the National Trust
In 1895, when the National Trust was founded, homosexual acts of ‘gross indecency’ were still illegal in Britain. And yet, as Michael Hall reveals in his new book, A Queer Inheritance: Alternative His...
6 Feb 33min
Why Greenwich is the home of time
Why is a small observatory in south east London so important to the story of how we tell the time? Speaking to Elinor Evans, Emily Akkermans, Curator of Time at the Royal Museums Greenwich, shares the...
4 Feb 35min
