Dan Snow

Dan Snow

13 Seasons

Documentaries presented by Dan Snow.

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Dan Snow
  • D-Day Veteran Interviews: WarGen

    Episode 1

    A series of four D-Day veteran interviews from WarGen - an online repository of oral history from the people who lived through World War Two. Short versions of these interviews with Arthur Davis, Ken Stone, Harry Appleton and Jack Bracewell also feature in our documentary D-Day: As It Happened.

  • My Life and World War Two

    Episode 2

    Happy Birthday Victor Gregg - he has turned 100 this week. Victor volunteered to join the army before the Second World War and he fought all the way through - from clashes with the Italians in North Africa in 1940 to being captured 75 years ago this autumn at Arnhem. He was a Prisoner of War in D...

  • They Shall Not Grow Old: In Conversation with Peter Jackson

    Episode 3

    They Shall Not Grow Old is a remarkable new documentary made by Peter Jackson. The Oscar-winning director has restored and colourised World War One footage from the Imperial War Museum, adding a soundtrack with original audio and transforming the entire project into 3D. In doing so, he has create...

  • Sam Mendes on 1917

    Episode 4

    1917 is a new film directed by Golden Globe winning film maker Sir Sam Mendes. Set in early 1917, at the height of the First World War on the Western Front, Mendes uses the backdrop of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line as the stage for telling a story inspired by the memories of Alfred Me...

  • Ottoman Empire with Kate Fleet

    Episode 5

    The region stretching from eastern Europe and sweeping right across into Arabia and the north coast of Africa, was home to one of the most extraordinary empires in history: the Ottoman Empire. Along its routes flowed ideas, goods, disease and death. In existence for 600 years, it also saw the swe...

  • Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudors

    Episode 6

    Nicola Tallis comes on the show to talk about the extraordinary Margaret Beaufort: 'Mother of the Tudors' and the ancestor of all subsequent royals.

  • Niall Ferguson on Social Networks Throughout History

    Episode 7

    Most history is hierarchical: it’s about popes, presidents and prime ministers. A very small section of society has wielded very great power. But what if that’s simply because they are responsible for creating the historical archives? What if we are missing out on understanding equally powerful b...

  • How the Earth Shaped Human History

    Episode 8

    Great leaders? Industrial change? Revolutions? If you thought these were the things that shaped history, think again. Back by popular demand, Lewis Dartnell returns to the show. He explains how modern political and economic patterns correlate with events which happened not decades or centuries ag...

  • European Prosperity in the 19th Century with Orlando Figes

    Episode 9

    Orlando Figes talks to Dan about social and technological developments and their links with cultural changes back in the 19th century.

  • F-35 Simulator

    Episode 10

    The F-35 is the latest plane to join the ranks of the RAF. What is so special about it is that it is a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed for many missions with advanced, integrated sensors built into every aircraft. Missions that were traditionally performed by small numbers of...

  • A Strange Bit of History

    Episode 11

    We were delighted to have comedy royalty on the podcast. Omid Djalili talked to me about one of his earliest stage creations, first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1993. Over the next four years it was performed 109 times in 10 different countries. The backdrop of this epic storytel...

  • Untold Stories of World War One

    Episode 12

    Dan Snow introduces four projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council over the last four years, highlighing underexplored aspects of First World War history, from German wartime photography to miltary training in Northern Ireland.

  • A History of Unbelief

    Episode 13

    Religious belief looks more precarious in the modern world than ever before. But is that the truth? Dan Snow explores the role of unbelievers throughout history, to discover if we're uniquely unbelieving now, or whether there have always been those who wouldn't believe. This project was made poss...

  • A History of the Oceans

    Episode 14

    We are a land animal. But millions of us have taken to the sea to live, fight, travel, eat, escape and seek fame and fortune. I am obsessed with the sea. On how humans have built ever more efficient and capable ships to exploit its riches and opportunities. This is an conversation I’ve been longi...

  • Uncharted Heights: Leaving the Planet with Dallas Campbell

    Episode 15

    Dallas Campbell talks to Dan about the secret history of the Space Race, reveals the truth about the moon landings and examines mankind's insatiable, eternal drive to reach new worlds.

  • Vampires with Richard Sugg

    Episode 16

    Richard Sugg, author of a new book on real vampires, talks Dan through the weird world of supernatural bloodsuckers. Myths of Vampires have their roots in the condition of sleep paralysis and popular Enlightenment literature while being distinct to certain countries and cultures.

  • Tony Blair on Political Power

    Episode 17

    Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was also the longest serving Labour Prime Minister, spoke to Dan about the nature of political power - within party politics, government policy and Britain's role in the world stage. He also discusses the major challenges Britain faces in a changing world ...

  • Tom Holland on the Birth of Islam

    Episode 18

    Historian Tom Holland shares his fascination at how the events of ancient history can resonate in the modern world. The author of Islam: The Untold Story talks to Dan Snow about the birth of this rich and sophisticated civilisation, tracing its history through the centuries, and its interaction a...

  • The History of Westminster Abbey

    Episode 19

    Sir David Cannadine shows Dan around the iconic Westminster Abbey, in the heart of London. With an unrivalled arrange of monuments - ranging from grand royal tombs to the grave of The Unknown Warrior - and spectacular architecture spanning nearly 1,000 years, join the two historians as they explo...

  • Saving Timbuktu's Manuscripts

    Episode 20

    For centuries the city of Timbuktu was famed as a golden metropolis situated on the southern fringes of the Sahara; tales of its immense wealth and its reputation as a key centre of learning obsessed travellers and adventurers for many hundreds of years. Timbuktu certainly has one of the most ill...

  • Modern Spain

    Episode 21

    Sir Paul Preston CBE comes on the show to discuss Spain's modern history and explain how the stripping away of its empire in the early 19th century had such a catastrophic impact on the country.

  • Henry VIII

    Episode 22

    In today's episode, Dan is joined by fellow history presenter Suzannah Lipscomb to discuss the history of Henry VIII and the impact he had on Britain over the years.

  • The Mayans

    Episode 23

    In today's episode Dan is joined by David Freidel, often regarded as the real life Indiana Jones, to talk through the history of the Mayans and some of his own discoveries in that area.

  • Dunkirk

    Episode 24

    This week marks 80 years since the miracle at Dunkirk, in which a quarter of a million allied troops were evacuated from German-held France. Historian Josh Levine, historical advisor to Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk', joins Dan Snow to talk about that fateful moment in WWII.