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...

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 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 ...

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...

Medieval leprosy history, leper colonies, and the King of Jerusalem are explored in this deep dive into the Middle Ages' most feared disease.

What was life really like for patients inside the gates? What did it mean when the 'leper bell' rang? And what happened at a 'living funeral'?

Join Anth...

In August 1485, the would-be king Henry Tudor went head-to-head with King Richard III - the final, decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses. Only one of these men would leave the battlefield alive, and this bloody clash between Houses York and Tudor would decide the future of Britain.

Joining us...

What can ancient DNA tell us about the first homo sapiens to arrive in Arabia over 50,000 years ago? Tristan Hughes is joined by Prof. Pierre Zalloua to delve into the groundbreaking advances in ancient DNA research that illuminate the complex journeys of these early human populations.

They dis...

It all started when a huge storm drowned 40 men on Christmas Eve, 1617. The people of Vardø, northern Norway, needed someone to blame.

What followed were devastating witch trials, which featured one of the highest execution rates in Europe, and implicated the town's women and the surrounding in...

In May 1943, the RAF launched one of the Second World War’s most audacious missions: the Dambusters Raid. Today, we follow the raid as it unfolded, hearing about the remarkable people involved and examining its lasting impact.

She helped Jason win the Golden Fleece, betrayed her own family, and became one of the most feared figures in Greek myth. Medea’s name has echoed through the ancient world for over two millennia, a byword for passion and revenge but was she really a villain?

In this episode of The Ancients, Tri...

What does it take to kill a dictator? In this episode, we explore the most dramatic assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler. From Georg Elser, the lone-wolf carpenter who built a bomb by hand, to the Polish underground’s relentless plots under occupation, and finally Claus von Stauffenberg, the on...

Tobacco, sugar, rum, cotton, rubber, tea, coffee, spices, industry, borders, slavery, war - all things spread across the globe thanks to the British Empire. At its height in 1922, it was the largest empire the world had ever seen, covering around a quarter of Earth's land surface and ruling over ...

Sea Peoples, Bronze Age Collapse, and Eric Cline are the focus of today's deep-dive podcast. Tristan Hughes is joined by world-renowned archaeologist and author Eric Cline to interrogate the enigmatic groups that allegedly brought the "G8 of the ancient world" to its knees. We explore the primary...

Eugene Aram was an 18th-century schoolmaster who got away with murder for fourteen years. Then a skeleton was unearthed, and a case that had been forgotten burst into life & created a legend.

Around 50 CE, a small group of travellers began to preach that a Jewish man, crucified by the Romans, had risen from the dead. Teaching love, forgiveness and eternal life, this new faith quickly gained followers. By the early fourth century, it was thriving, and over the next hundred years, it ex...

Rome was coming apart at the seams. Civil wars, economic collapse, breakaway empires, invading armies - the Third Century Crisis pushed the ancient superpower to the edge of extinction. Then an obscure soldier from the Balkans stepped into the chaos.

In this episode, we interview Dr. David Gwynn...