The Koh-i-Noor

In the tumultuous aftermath of Henry I’s death, England was thrown into one of the most chaotic civil wars in its history – the Anarchy. At the heart of the struggle stood Empress Matilda: daughter of...

2 Dec 202542min

William the Conqueror used them to devastating effect in 1066. Robert the Bruce worked out how to neutralise them. And when Richard III was knocked from his, England would never be the same again. Her...

1 Dec 202536min

In October 1946, after a trial lasting almost a year, the Nazi leaders on the dock in Nuremberg received their verdicts. But what did the judges decide? And how did the defendants, and the world outsi...

30 Nov 202538min

From sabotage operations to devastating betrayals, stories of the women of Special Operations Executive are some of the most incredible stories of the Second World War – but, says Kate Vigurs, many re...

28 Nov 202534min

The new BBC TV series Civilisations: Rise and Fall charts the decline of some of history's most famous cultures, from the Aztecs to the ancient Egyptians. Three of its experts – Islam Issa, Caroline D...

26 Nov 202544min

From his possible espionage work for the Elizabethan state to his open flirtations with atheism and subversive sexual themes, the brief life of playwright Christopher Marlowe tells us much about the s...

25 Nov 202542min

On 30 January 1649, Charles I was led on to a freshly erected scaffold outside Whitehall’s Banqueting House in London. Thousands of spectators watched in shock and awe as the king of England, Scotland...

24 Nov 202537min

When the Nazi leaders went on trial in Nuremberg from November 1945, the true horrors of their regime were exposed to the world. In the second episode of our four-part series on the trials, the lawyer...

23 Nov 202546min