Easter today is marked by chocolate eggs and two Bank Holidays - in the Medieval world it had a deeply spiritual significance.
But it wasn’t without its share of celebration and merrymaking too.

In this episode, Matt Lewis explains the origins of many Easter traditions in the Medieval period, an...

The Northman now showing in UK cinemas is an action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father's murder. Its director Robert Eggers has described it as the “most accurate Viking movie ever made." But what does "accuracy" mean for a historical blockbuster? And...

When someone says the Terracotta Army, you’d be forgiven for instantly thinking of rows upon rows of life size warriors, arranged in three pits as part of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s huge mausoleum complex. But what’s arguably an even more fascinating aspect of these Warriors are the wide arrange...

Saturday Kitchen's Matt Tebbutt and Olly Smith are On Jimmy's Farm today to talk food and drink trends over the last few years.

Fermentation, rosé, Prosecco, pea shoots and avocados all come up during the chat.

Matt and Olly also share some of the live TV fails they've experienced on Saturday ...

Who was Mary Magdalene? Jesus' confidant, a devout follower, or a sex worker?

In this Easter special, Tristan is joined by Helen Bond and Joan Taylor, authors of 'Women Remembered' to explore Mary Magdalene and her role in the bible. Through looking at both ancient and contemporary source mater...

News of Titanic's fate sent shockwaves around the world; stories and illustrations of that fateful night splashed across newspaper stands on every corner. One town was affected more than most: Southampton. It's said everyone in the Southern English port knew someone who had perished on the Titani...

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Depicted countless times in art, television and film, the night of the 14th April 1912 has haunted and fascinated us for over a century. This is a dramatic moment by moment retelling of the sinking of the Titanic in the freezing North Atlantic after the 'unsinkable' ship struck an icebe...

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On April 10th, 1912, RMS Titanic cast off from Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage. The largest of its kind, full of grandeur and the most sophisticated technology for the time, Titanic was determined “practically unsinkable” in admiring reviews of the ship beforehand. The coloss...

Little has been known up until now about the involvement and power of women during the Crusader period. When Saladin's armies besieged Jerusalem in 1187, behind the city walls a last-ditch defense was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. She was the last of a lin...

What can art tell us about a country's history? Well, a lot! In today's episode, Dan is joined by Art Historian Temi Odumosu and popular historian James Hawes to discuss the cultural works they think reveal something vital about the history of Britain. J

James enthuses about the Staffordshire Ho...

Genghis Khan is still considered one of the most famous and most feared warrior kings in history. But his name still divides opinion. To some, he was the ruthless conqueror of great civilisations, for others a hero who united nomadic tribes and created an enlightened empire. But who was the real ...

Gaius Marius (157 BC – 86 BC) was one of the first warlords of the late Roman Republic, a general and statesman who held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his life.

Famed for his momentous reforms to the Roman armies - such as instituting professional soldiery and improvi...

Across the whole of Nazi-ruled Europe, the experience of occupation was sharply varied. As a result, resistance movements during World War II occurred through a variety of means - from open partisan warfare in the occupied Soviet Union to dangerous acts of insurrection in the Netherlands or Norwa...

Roman connections with Britain stretch back to (at least) the mid 1st century BC. But what has archaeology revealed about the Late Iron Age British societies they interacted with? Do we have any concrete evidence for the druids? Was human sacrifice a thing? Sit back and enjoy in this very special...

If you are listening to this in the UK, the spot where you are standing was almost certainly once forest.

Ben Rawlence joins Jimmy to talk about the Arctic treeline, and how climate change is causing our forests to creep north, and what it means for our own survival.

We always hear about plant...

1,900 miles west of South America and 1,250 miles from any other population centre, Easter Island - or Rapa Nui - is world famous for its monolithic stone statues. But new evidence indicates that the isle's infamous prehistoric 'societal collapse' may actually be a myth.

With the help of fresh t...

In 1888 Louis Le Prince shot the world’s first motion picture in Leeds, England. In 1890, weeks before the public unveiling of his camera and projector – a year before Thomas Edison announced that he had invented a motion picture camera – Le Prince stepped on a train in France – and disappeared w...

In 1216, at the adolescent age of nine, Henry became King Henry III of England. With his father, King John passing, right amid the First Barons’ War, Henry was left to inherit his mantle and all the chaos that came with it. But how did the young King rule the country? In this episode, Matt is joi...

On April 2nd 1982 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the Southern Atlantic. To make sense of the conflict on its 40th anniversary, the podcast is bringing you a special season of episodes marking the key moments of the war with the...

In Ancient Greece, the symposium was no ordinary after-dinner drinking party, but one in which the Hellenic men of society got together to wine, recline and philosophise. They took various forms depending on the whim of the leader of the symposium - the symposiarch - but were exclusively male aff...

The greatest anti-imperial rebellion of the nineteenth century, The Indian Rebellion of 1857, witnessed mass violence against the British. Ninety years later, Indian freedom was founded on a deadly fratricide that singularly spared the outgoing masters. As a result, India’s founding fathers were ...

The enclosure of the commons was a centuries-long process. Gradually, through a combination of legal degrees and private acts, the land across Britain moved from a system of open field system to larger, enclosed farms. This was a transformative political, social and agricultural shift – that is s...

Man's best friend has been at our side for thousands of years. Ancient Greece was no exception, and although some of the breeds that were popular back then might seem unfamiliar to us today, tales of their loyalty, dependability and downright cuteness certainly are not.

From dog names, to their ...

Lynn Cassells and Sandra Baer left their friends, family and jobs in England to travel north to Scotland to find a small piece of land they could call their own.

They had no money, no plan and no experience in farming. They had in mind keeping a few chickens, a kitchen garden and renting out so...