A special film exploring the life and legacy of Alan Turing - genius pioneer of modern computing. With Alan's nephew Sir Dermot Turing and exclusive access to unseen family records, we investigate lesser known aspects of his incredible work. This story is rooted in the City of Manchester, home t...

The remarkable story of when the Queen spoke directly to the nation. During her long reign, aside from her Christmas messages, the Queen spoke directly to the country on just a few significant occasions.

This film looks back at the circumstances surrounding these remarkable broadcasts and hears ...

Alice Loxton pays a visit to The Florence Nightingale Museum to unveil the true story of the Lady with the Lamp. Joined by David Green and Amber Lickerish, she learns how Nightingale broke through the restrictions of Victorian convention, laid the foundations for modern nursing, and tirelessly ca...

Born in London at the turn of the 18th Century, William Hogarth became one of the most iconic English painters, printmakers, pictorial satirists, social critics, and editorial cartoonists of his generation.

Often dubbed the mirror of 18th Century London, Hogarth's most notable works include, A ...

On 26 July 1533, a rope was tightened around the neck of Inca Emperor Atahualpa in the central plaza in Cajamarca in what is now Peru. The general who ordered his execution, Pizarro, is said to have shed a tear as the life drained from the condemned's body. On paper, the man died a Catholic by th...

The Brontë family created some of the world's most passionate and enduring novels, yet their lives were shadowed by tragedy.

Dr Maddy Pelling and Dr Anthony Delaney challenge the romantic myths surrounding the family, tracing the harsh reality of their lives in 19th-century Haworth—a crowded Yor...

Imagine if we could hear one of the most fascinating figures from history speak again.

In this special film, Richard III expert Matthew Lewis follows a remarkable project to give Richard III back his voice and to hear and see him speak again. Forget the words put into his mouth by Shakespeare a...

Eleanor of Aquitaine is at least as responsible for the vast empire of the Plantagenets as her more celebrated husband, Henry II. Sara Cockerill has written a wonderful biography of Eleanor, placing her back at the centre of English medieval history where she belongs. Sara and Dan discuss her lon...

Professor Frank McDonough has just written a monumental history of the Third Reich. He is a world leading expert on the domestic side of Hitler's Germany. In this filmed podcast Dan asks Frank why and how Hitler was able to establish and sustain his rule within Germany.

Join Paterson Joseph, actor (‘Boat Story’, ‘Wonka’) and author (‘The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho’), in this special History Hit film as he takes us on a fascinating journey through 18th century London, discovering the life, loves and losses of a truly remarkable man.

Georgian Londo...

By virtue of being England’s first crowned queen regnant – a queen in her own right – Mary I set a precedent for English regnant queenship. She struggled to establish her reign amidst the religious, nationalist, and gendered contexts of sixteenth-century England. Focusing particularly at the mome...

In 1895, the world's first celebrity trial challenged the creaking moral core of the British Empire. Dr Anthony Delaney traces the extraordinary trajectory of Oscar Wilde—from the toast of London’s West End, a shining star on both sides of the Atlantic, to the disgraced accused standing before th...

The peaceful South Wales town of Hay-on-Wye offers few clues today of its brutal past on a violent frontier. A monument to this history can be found in Hay Castle. Once right on the border between England and Wales, it sits in a region densely packed with castles that saw border skirmishes and bi...

Tutankhamun, 'The Boy King' of Ancient Egypt, is one of history's most famous names. Though his short reign proved fairly-insignificant, his legacy lives on thanks to Howard Carter's discovery of his magnificent tomb in 1922. Now, as the centenary of Carter's discovery creeps ever nearer, many of...

In this film, military historian Mike Loades investigates one of the most impressive and successful creations of the Napoleonic Wars: The Lines of Torres Vedras. Mike explores the spectacular lines of forts that ran from coast to coast across the neck of the Lisbon Peninsular, defending the Portu...

‘Dictator of British Botany’. ‘Autocrat of the Philosophers’. Sir Joseph Banks has been called many things over the past few centuries. A towering figure in the development of British botany and British natural history during the 18th century, he voyaged across the World with famous navigators su...

In this film three leading Egyptologists explore how Cleopatra became one of the most influential and powerful women of the ancient world.

We trace how Cleopatra's learning and intelligence enabled her to gain control of her own Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt; skilfully and ruthlessly overcoming her...

Emily Brand has written a brilliant book about the Byrons. Not just the great romantic, poet and adventurer, George Gordon Byron, but his parents and grandparents who are equally as deserving of our attention. Dan loved this opportunity to delve into 18th century British life. There are admirals,...