Peter Moore: Thomas Cochrane's Explosion at Basque Roads (1809)
On 11 April 1809 Thomas Cochrane, RN, made one of the most famous assaults in British naval history. At the Battle of Basque Roads – at whic...
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Travels Through Time
In each episode we ask a leading historian, novelist or public figure the tantalising question, "If you could travel back through time, which year would you visit?" Once they have made their...
Episodes
20 of 114 episodesCaroline Hopkinson-Woolley: The Disappearance of Agatha Christie (1926)
This week the critic, writer and guide Caroline Hopkinson-Woolley takes us back to 1926 to consider a mysterious event. This was the perplex...
Andrea Wulf: George Forster on HMS Resolution (1772)
This week the award winning biographer Andrea Wulf takes us aboard Captain Cook's HMS Resolution to meet one of the most compelling of the s...
Marie-Anne Mancio: Caravaggio and the Death of Ranuccio Tomassoni (1606)
In this episode we explore one of the most infamous episodes in the history of art. Writer and guide Marie-Anne Mancio takes us back to the...
Ellen Jones: The Battle of Actium (31 BCE)
In the dramatic story of the fall of the Roman Republic, the Battle of Actium is a moment of the utmost significance. A naval action, fought...
Ed Douglas: The Scottish Highlands and the Jacobite Rising (1746)
In this episode we venture into the Scottish mountains with the author Ed Douglas. After seeing the Battle of Falkirk Muir, we follow Bonnie...
Sinclair McKay: Founding the Home Guard (1940)
May 1940 is one of the critical months in British history. As the Nazis tore across Europe and Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, our...
Don Hollway: King Olaf Tryggvason of the Vikings (1000)
On today's episode Don Hollway takes us back to see 'the Viking's Viking', King Olaf I, in the year when his dramatic story reached its myst...
Gary Mead : The Young Bernard Montgomery and the First World War (1914)
Ranking only behind Churchill in the pantheon of Britain's WW2 heroes is Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery or 'Monty'. In this episode the bi...
Edoardo Albert : The Venerable Bede (716)
In this episode we head back to the Anglo Saxon Age with Edoardo Albert to meet the 'Father of English History' – the Venerable Bede. Bede i...
Nandini Das: A New View of Stuart England (1636)
In this episode prize-winning author Nandini Das takes us back to 1630s England to see a country still grappling with the legacies of the Re...
Edmund Richardson: Alexander the Great's Remarkable Year (331 BCE)
Alexander the Great is one of the most famous figures in history. Today our guest, Edmund Richardson, takes us back to see him in the year 3...
Taylor Downing: On The Brink Of Nuclear Armageddon (1983)
In the autumn of 1983 the world came very close to nuclear disaster without even knowing about it. US President Ronald Reagan would later re...
[Live] Paul O'Keeffe: After The Battle of Trafalgar (1806)
Live from Dr Johnson's House off Fleet Street in London, in this episode the biographer and historian Paul O'Keeffe takes us on an immersive...
Jim Windolf: The Beatles' 'Dylan Month' (1966)
In this episode we talk to the journalist and author Jim Windolf about a 'testy, interesting and weird' month in the mid-1960s when Bob Dyla...
Meghan Kobza: The Magnificent Masquerade (1768)
Few parties in history can match the Georgian 'Masquerade'. And among Georgian masquerades the one given by the King of Denmark in London in...
Rory Naismith: Offa King of the Mercians (796)
This week the Cambridge professor Rory Naismith takes us back to the eighth century to glimpse what we can of Offa King of the Mercians. Off...
Catherine Ostler: The Renoir Girls (1881)
This week's episode takes us to Paris in La Belle Époque. There, among all the splendour and sophistication, we watch the great Impressionis...
[From the Archive] Philip Stephens: Britain Alone (1962)
As Britain's 'special relationship' with the USA falters, we look back at a very relevant epislode from our archive. In this the author and...
Nicholas Walton: The End of the Dutch Empire (1950)
The Netherlands is a small nation with a big history. But in the 1940s it suffered a series of disastrous events. First came the invasion of...