Letters from the front line

October is Black History Month here in the UK. But how far back does the story of black people in Britain stretch - and what evidence do we have about their experiences? Speaking to Charlotte Hodgman ...

11 Okt 202439min

Daring department store stunts. Warming cups of cocoa. Argumentative bartering with butchers. What can revisiting high streets gone by reveal about British social history? Historian Annie Gray takes l...

10 Okt 202436min

The year 1066 is the most famous in English history. It was marked by not just one, but three major battles, and saw three different men ruling as king of England. Marc Morris, in conversation with Da...

9 Okt 202450min

In the 18th century, two men – Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon – both independently took on a mammoth task. They set out to identify, describe and categorise all life on Earth. Speaking to M...

8 Okt 202438min

King John has a terrible reputation. He's best known as the monarch who broke the terms of Magna Carta, lost Normandy to the French and committed numerous acts of unspeakable cruelty. Here, in convers...

7 Okt 202433min

We know the Vikings best as brutal, seafaring, pagan raiders – and that’s an important part of their lives and histories. But it’s only one aspect: what about their love lives, experiences of travels,...

6 Okt 202437min

Chances are, like most of us, you probably enjoy a good cup of tea. But how did the world come to be so obsessed with this now-ubiquitous hot beverage? Where did it originate? How did trading it trigg...

5 Okt 202446min

Apprehending thieves in the street. Disguising as housemaids to spy on adulterous husbands. Investigating and exposing child abuse. The exploits of women detectives in the Victorian era were dramatic,...

3 Okt 202432min