George Villiers: from royal favourite to enemy number one

It's long been assumed that King Harold's English army arrived tired and in disarray at the battle of Hastings, having had to march over 200 miles from fighting the battle of Stamford Bridge. Tom Lice...

7 Apr 33min

Mrs Beeton is a name synonymous with 19th-century domesticity – most notably in connection with the iconic Book of Household Management. But who was the real woman behind the name? Emily Briffett is j...

6 Apr 37min

The US and UK supplied the USSR with vast amounts of military materiel during the Second World War via the Arctic convoys. In this episode, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore speaks to David Musgrove about the imp...

5 Apr 37min

During the latter decades of the ninth century, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms faced an existential threat as Viking forces launched an assault on a scale never seen before. In this first episode of our fou...

4 Apr 38min

In reality, were medieval people dirty and covered in mud? What did they think were the healthiest things to eat? And how often did they think they should be having sex? Speaking to Charlotte Vosper, ...

2 Apr 36min

From the magnificence of the Alhambra to the forgotten resting places of the Prophet Muhammad’s own relatives, Islam has long been a part of Europe’s history. Danny Bird speaks to Tharik Hussain about...

31 Mar 41min

Few historical figures have reputations quite as diabolical as that of Attila the Hun. This nomadic leader pitched up on the edge of the Roman empire in the fifth century AD, and spread terror and cha...

30 Mar 35min

In 1756, Elizabeth Marsh set sail from Gibraltar to Britain with the intention of meeting her fiancé. Instead, she was captured by Barbary corsairs – effectively pirates operating from north Africa, c...

29 Mar 33min