When people think of Medieval diseases, hysterical dancing is not usually what first comes to mind. Yet in 14th and 15th century Germany, dozens of ordinary people claimed to be infected by the ‘dancing plague’. What was this mysterious phenomenon? What caused it? And was it even a real disease?
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Actor, writer and legendary broadcaster Stephen Fry joins Dan to talk about the 7 Deadly Sins.

Dan chats to Greg Jenner about how we should interpret the past and what the role of a historian is - featuring meringues, ear trumpets and Agincourt!

Get ready for carriages pulled by headless horses, spooky palaces, a weird floating cylinder thing...and a single moment in history that has haunted England, and now Britain's, imagination for hundreds of years.

In this episode of After Dark, Anthony and Maddy talk the ghost of Anne Boleyn, Quee...

Joined by historian Honor Cargill-Martin, Tristan Hughes explores the real sex lives of ancient Rome.

From popular series to kinky paintings, there is a recurring image today of Romans as sex-mad degenerates. And although there are sex stories in the dozens from the Roman period, when it comes ...

Characterised as super soldiers, formidable fighters who would rather perish than surrender - their reputation truly did proceed them.

But how accurate is this image - and does it correlate with what the ancient sources actually tell us?

In this filmed episode of The Ancients podcast Sparta mi...

In the late 1960s, when many in the UK viewed colour television as tacky, art historian Kenneth Clarke was asked to produce a series all about Western Art. Clarke duly delivered on this assignment, creating the series ‘Civilisation’. At a time when there was a genuine belief that the world stood ...

Join Dan Snow and a hand picked team of experts for a thought-provoking panel discussion that delves into one of the most consequential diplomatic agreements of the 20th century: the Treaty of Versailles.

Representing Woodrow Wilson and America is Historian Alexandra Churchill, taking the perspe...

Legend of popular history Mike Loades provides Dan a detailed run down of Henry V's famous victory at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 and how his men were more a band of brigands than a 'band of brothers'. They discuss the arms, the armour, the tactics and the popular myths today associated with the...

In today's episode, Dan is joined by Serhii Plokhii, professor at Harvard University and author of Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe. They explore what caused the disaster at the plant in 1986, and the after effects of it.

Charles Moore discusses the legacy of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady: where she succeeded, where she failed and why she still matters today.

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris joins Dan Snow to teach us all about the gory past of Surgery in the Victorian times, and how lucky we are to have the medical facilities we have today!

Roger Crowley is the author of the new book, Accursed Tower: The Crusaders' Last Battle for the Holy Land. The city of Acre, powerfully fortified and richly provisioned, was the last crusader stronghold. When it fell in 1291, two hundred years of Christian crusading in the Holy Land came to a blo...

When one thinks of the Ancient World you would be forgiven for instantly thinking of either the cultural glories of ancient Greece or the military might of the Roman Empire. Yet the Mediterranean and the Near East was just one part of a much larger, interconnected ancient world. In India and Chin...

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.

In this poignant interview, Lord Saye and Sele shares his unique story from the Second World War, which began on D-Day, 6 June 1944.

In this episode, Alice and Dan discover how the Shakespeare family were rocked by religious turmoil of the 16th century. They visit one of the most notorious Catholic houses in the county, William Shakespeare's schoolroom and the ruins of Evesham Abbey.

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...

Have you ever wanted to learn how to read hieroglyphs? Egyptologist Chris Naunton explores the history of hieroglyphs and how they were decoded.

Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford and the author of 'This is Shakespeare', tackles the big questions about William Shakespeare.

Human evolution can’t help but fascinate us - the story of where we came from. Today we, Homo sapiens, are the only human species left. But that wasn’t always the case….

For millions of years, there thrived a great range of early human species. From small-brained island dwellers in Indonesia to ...