
Life under Cromwell: everything you wanted to know
The 11 years between the execution of King Charles I in 1649 and the restoration of his son, Charles II, in 1660 are among the most turbulent in all of British history – and it was a period dominated ...
8 Jan 202346min

Oddball art: cannibals, hellscapes & flying monks
From kaleidoscopic hellscapes to portraits of cannibals and flying monks, Edward Brooke-Hitching introduces some of the strangest creations in art history. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, he takes us on ...
6 Jan 202337min

The floating hell of prison hulks
Decried by reformers as “wicked Noah’s arks” and “rotten leaky tubs”, prison hulks were a looming presence off the shores of 18th- and 19th-century Britain and its empire. Large former navy ships were...
5 Jan 202338min

Refusing to fight in WW2
During the Second World War, around 60,000 people in Britain registered as conscientious objectors, seeking an exemption from military service on the grounds of their religious conviction, political s...
4 Jan 202333min

Power dressing: the hidden value of clothes in 19th-century America
Legal historian Laura F Edwards discusses her new book on clothing and textiles in 19th-century America, Only the Clothes on Her Back. Speaking to Elinor Evans, she reveals the meaning and care that w...
3 Jan 202343min

Sabotage, cyberwar & assassination: a history of covert action
Ever since the Greeks supposedly hid inside a wooden horse to sneak into Troy, states have meddled in other nations’ affairs, turning to the dark arts of sabotage, propaganda and state-sanctioned kill...
2 Jan 202338min

Conspiracy: the lost civilisation of Atlantis
In the final episode of our series on history’s most well-known conspiracy theories, we investigate the idea that a highly advanced civilisation existed many thousands of years ago, before being wiped...
1 Jan 202338min

Conspiracy: was the moon landing faked?
In the fifth episode of our new series on history’s most well-known conspiracy theories, we revisit a defining moment of the 20th century that many people believe never happened at all. Rob Attar is j...
30 Des 202226min


















