Bruisers and bare knuckles: the brutal world of Victorian boxing
Men fighting pumas. Brutal prize-fights in sacred chapels. A pair of sisters who could pack a punch. In Victorian Britain, boxing offered up edge-of-your-seat entertainment to all levels of society. A...
21 Feb 202536min
Did Britain really rule the waves?
It's often proclaimed that British sea power was at its pinnacle in the years following the French and Napoleonic wars. But was this really a time when Britain 'ruled the waves'? And how did the rise ...
19 Feb 202546min
Jane Austen: life of the week
Jane Austen remains one of the most influential novelists in English literature. Her sharp social commentary, wit, and exploration of love, class, and gender continue to captivate readers. This year m...
18 Feb 202538min
The princess who fled Romanov Russia
Born in 1781, Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld grew up in a world convulsed by the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. And her life proved to be as tempestuous as the age she inhabited. Wed...
17 Feb 202531min
The Opium Wars: everything you wanted to know
Why did Britain go to war with China in the 19th century to protect the interests of drug dealers? Speaking with Elinor Evans, Stephen R Platt discusses the web of economics, addiction, and imperial a...
16 Feb 20251h 1min
Rome's most scandalous emperors
How cruel was Caligula? How depraved was Tiberius? And how monstrous was Nero? The dark reputations of these emperors owe a great deal to the Roman writer Suetonius, whose 121 AD work Lives of the Cae...
14 Feb 202529min
The royal threesome that rocked Anglo-Saxon England
In the year 955, Eadwig became king of England – and, according to 10th-century sources, he celebrated in quite a salacious fashion. These stories claim that at his coronation feast, Eadwig left the h...
12 Feb 202534min
Are we celebrating the wrong Magna Carta?
The history books tell us that Magna Carta was sealed on 15 June 1215. But, according to Professor David Carpenter, that's not actually the date we should commemorate. He explains to David Musgrove wh...
11 Feb 202539min
