Cold War Submarine Warrior
Eric Thompson has had his finger literally on the nuclear button. He joined the Royal Navy submarine service in the early days of the Cold War. He served on WW2 era ships and submarines before ending ...
5 Apr 202220min
The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures
In 1888 Louis Le Prince shot the world’s first motion picture in Leeds, England. In 1890, weeks before the public unveiling of his camera and projector – a year before Thomas Edison announced that he ...
4 Apr 202224min
The Foundations of Modern India
The greatest anti-imperial rebellion of the nineteenth century, The Indian Rebellion of 1857, witnessed mass violence against the British. Ninety years later, Indian freedom was founded on a deadly fr...
3 Apr 202225min
Falklands40: What Started the Falklands War?
On April 2nd 1982 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the Southern Atlantic. To make sense of the conflict on its 40th anniversary, the...
2 Apr 202239min
The Enclosures
The enclosure of the commons was a centuries-long process. Gradually, through a combination of legal degrees and private acts, the land across Britain moved from a system of open field system to large...
31 Mar 202229min
The Real Cyrano de Bergerac
One of the world's much loved stage and screen characters has just returned to the cinema in a new film version starring Peter Dinklage. But what may not be generally known is that Cyrano de Bergerac ...
30 Mar 202241min
Benjamin Franklin with Ken Burns
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a scientist, inventor, writer and diplomat. As one of the leading figures of early American history, Franklin helped to draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776,...
29 Mar 202233min
The Demerara Uprising and Britain’s Legacy of Slavery
The Demerara Rebellion of 1823 was an uprising of over ten thousand enslaved people in the Crown colony of Demerara-Essequibo (now part of Guyana) on the coast of South America. Having grown tired of ...
28 Mar 202226min
