The Bayeux Tapestry: secrets of the stitchers
Mia Hansson has spent 10 years making an exact replica of the Bayeux Tapestry. In conversation with Dave Musgrove, she explains what her modern remake experience can teach us about the women who made ...
28 Sep 32min
How Henry VII seized – and kept – the crown
Henry VII is often remembered as a cold, calculating and penny-pinching monarch whose relentless pursuit of an ever-tightening grip on the throne overshadowed his achievements. But how fair is that re...
27 Sep 48min
The Soviet spy who couldn't love
In 1981, a Soviet spy walked into MI6 HQ in Tehran and offered to defect to Britain – if, in return, Britain could help him improve his performance in bed. In this episode, Ben Macintyre introduces ...
24 Sep 42min
The slave ship that changed history
In 1781, more than 130 enslaved Africans were deliberately thrown from a ship called the Zorg into the Atlantic. The horrifying story of this slave ship – long mistakenly known as the Zong – was to ha...
22 Sep 47min
Have we overlooked England’s local histories?
What happens to English history when you view it through a local lens, rather than a national one? Did people even notice when the Romans left Britain? Was 1066 really that important outside of London...
21 Sep 40min
The making of the modern Middle East
The Middle East has, for decades, been riven by violent conflict. But what are the roots and ongoing causes of this violence? In this episode, Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses The Cauldron, his new bo...
20 Sep 46min
Joan of Arc: inspirational leader or flawed failure?
Joan of Arc's story is one of the most remarkable chapters in medieval history: that of a rebellious teenage peasant girl rising to become a military leader, before suffering an equally precipitous fa...
17 Sep 43min
The forgotten slave traders who shaped Britain
Who were the people who financed Britain’s transatlantic slave trade – and how did their money transform the nation? Elinor Evans speaks to historian William A Pettigrew, who has led a landmark projec...
15 Sep 36min
