Toilets through time | 3. Tudor garderobes
Did constipation turn Henry VIII into a tyrant? For the third episode of our mini-series Toilets Through Time, David Musgrove revisits the luxurious surroundings of the royal Tudor water closet. To te...
7 Aug 202435min
Gulbadan Begum: princess, explorer, author
Gulbadan Begum was meant to live a quiet life in a Mughal harem. Instead she set off on a daring pilgrimage to Islam's holy cities and, on her return, wrote an extraordinary account of her dynasty. In...
6 Aug 202427min
Anne Frank: life of the week
Anne Frank was one of six million Jews to be murdered by the Nazis. A number of these victims' lives were lost to history. But Anne had left behind a diary – a diary that would become a global sensati...
5 Aug 202431min
Stealing the Mona Lisa
In August 1911, an Italian handyman walked out of Paris' Louvre museum with the Mona Lisa tucked under his arm. It was an audacious theft that shocked the art world, aroused the attention of the world...
4 Aug 202433min
The Great Exhibition: everything you wanted to know
In 1851, a spectacular showcase of the world's best art, design and innovation opened in London. Housed in a magnificent 'Crystal Palace' constructed by Joseph Paxton in just five months, the Great Ex...
3 Aug 202441min
Dismemberment & disgrace: the grisly fate of Simon de Montfort
Simon de Montfort's body was horribly mutilated and dismembered after his defeat at 1265's fateful Battle of Evesham, during the Second Barons' War. The medieval rebel leader's head and testicles were...
1 Aug 202447min
Toilets through time | 2. Medieval privies
Why were medieval monks so afraid of going to the loo? In the second episode of our mini-series Toilets Through Time, David Musgrove heads into the dark and dangerous world of medieval latrines on a q...
31 Jul 202437min
Has imperial history become too politicised?
Controversies surrounding the history of the British empire have become particularly intense in recent years, with academics, politicians and commentators all offering differing views about how we sho...
30 Jul 202442min
