What did it take to become a Roman centurion? To command, to punish and to lead from the very front of Rome’s armies?

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Ben Kane to uncover the reality behind one of the most iconic ranks of the ancient world. From the brutal discipli...

Peaky Blinders. Who were the gangsters behind the myths? And what was life actually like in the backstreets of late 19th and early 20th-century Birmingham?

We’re joined by social historian Carl Chinn to uncover the true story of Birmingham’s infamous gangs. Carl is the author of ‘PEAKY BLINDERS:...

It was the original modern ghost hunt, the one that set the template for all the haunted houses to come. When a wealthy plantation family moves into a crumbling Georgian mansion in the 1760's the haunting begins. By the end, even royalty were on tenterhooks. Eleanor Janega joins Anthony Delaney ...

What happened to the Princes in the Tower? Did Richard III kill them? In this After Dark podcast episode, Eleanor Janega, Anthony Delaney and Matt Lewis answer these questions.

It's one of history's greatest mysteries - 'what happened to the Princes in the Tower?' In 1483, young Edward V and hi...

In September 1999, just weeks after 46-year-old Vladimir Putin became Russia’s prime minister, a series of apartment bombings ripped through Russian cities, killing hundreds as they slept and plunging the country into fear. The government blamed Chechen militants—but questions soon emerged. Some ...

Roel Konijnendijk is on this new episode of The Ancients with Tristian Hughes about Herodotus.

What drove Herodotus to write the first great story of history? Tristan Hughes speaks with Dr. Roel Konijnendijk to uncover the world of Herodotus of Halicarnassus—the traveler, investigator, and stor...

Eyewitness accounts of life during the Black Death are surprising. Sure, there's horror. But there's also d*ck jokes, complicated scientific theories, and buttock-obsessed priests. Taking Anthony through it all is Dr Eleanor Janega, from our sister podcast 'Gone Medieval'.

Anthony is joined by Eleanor Janega to tell the story of the most famous murder of the medieval world - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.

How did a bromance between Thomas and his king turn into a deadly divide between church and crown?

In this episode, we explore the dramatic love story between King Edward VIII and the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson - a romance that shook the British monarchy to its core. Set against the backdrop of rising tensions in 1930s Europe, the scandal divided the government, the publi...

This podcast episode is about Ancient Egypt and the fall of Ramesses II.

“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.” Ramesses II reigned as Egypt's unchallenged champion for more than sixty years. But within decades, the dynasty of Egypt’s greatest pharaoh had fallen apart.

In this episode of...

Today, we trace Julius Caesar’s dramatic invasions into Britain - two bold expeditions that tested Rome’s reach at the very edge of the known world. Ships were battered by storms, soldiers struggled with unfamiliar tides, and British warriors offered fierce resistance. Caesar never secured a last...

Maddy and Anthony get their Tarot cards read by Melissa Mercury! As well as reading their cards, Melissa tells us about the history of Tarot cards and who is responsible for their iconic design.

Find out why Swords aren't always bad and why the Death card can be good news!

In 1381, after plague, famine and war had pushed England to the brink, a final blow sparked an extraordinary uprising. This episode explores the Peasants’ Revolt, not as a chaotic riot, but as a coordinated challenge to royal and religious power in England.

To cut through the myths, we're joined...

Join Anthony and Maddy for a journey back to 17th-century England to learn about the horrific methods of Matthew Hopkins, the infamous witch hunter.

This episode of After Dark explores the brutal reality of the witch trials, the flawed logic of his "tests," and the manual he wrote that fuelled ...

In the depths of ancient Jericho, beneath layers of earth dating back 10,000 years, archaeologists uncovered something extraordinary: human skulls cast in plaster, their faces carefully reconstructed and their eyes set with shells. Who were these haunting figures meant to represent?

In this epis...

In 1895, the world witnessed its first true celebrity trial when Oscar Wilde was charged with “Gross Indecency". To tell the powerful story of Wilde's life in its fullness, Anthony and Maddy are joined by Merlin Holland, grandson of Oscar Wilde.

Anthony and Merlin met while Anthony was filming ...

He had at least 14 known mistresses and a hoard of illegitimate children; Charles II's private life was as politically charged as it was scandalous. He presided over the Restoration court, a world of excess, intrigue, gambling, gossip and a lot of sex. Dan is joined by the host of the Betwixt the...

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Irving Finkel to uncover how cuneiform actually worked and how you would write it yourself.

More than five thousand years ago, a revolutionary script emerged in the fertile lands of Mesopotamia that would transform how people count...

Today, we dive into the chaotic final act of Japan’s Warring States period, and hear about the three warlords who brought it to an end. Oda Nobunaga, the ruthless innovator who shattered the status quo on the battlefield. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the peasant-born schemer who climbed from the lowest so...

The Victorians had a lot of twisted fascinations, but their fixation on Ancient Egypt might be the darkest of the lot.

From 'mummy unwrapping parties' (yes, really), to gothic stories of romances with mummified bodies and beetles that came to life.

Was this a desire to connect with the past? ...

Adam and Eve: parents of humanity, or characters in a dark Near Eastern myth about wisdom, mortality, and the limits of being human?

Tristan Hughes and Dr Dylan Johnson strip away the Sunday school varnish to re-examine the story of Adam and Eve, starting with the question, Was there really an ...

Teenage peasant, visionary commander, convicted heretic, national saint - Joan of Arc's life reads like a legend. Today, Dan digs past that legend to understand who Joan really was, and why her story still provokes devotion, debate and reinvention 6 centuries later.

This is the story of a 16th century cunning woman, a folk healer, who was accused and found guilty of being a witch. The St Osyth witch trials became a landmark case, setting a dark precedent for the witch hunts that would explode across the country in the century that followed.

Our guest today ...

He is one of the most famous rulers of the ancient world, remembered for leading a vast Persian invasion of Greece. Yet Xerxes the Great was far more than just a battlefield king.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by friend of the show Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones to e...