Searching for Stories
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The Trials of Joan of Arc
We all know the name, Joan of Arc. But who really was this celebrated voice of the people of France? For some she is a simple peasant girl - one of the people. For others, she is a champion of nation and church. For the English, she was simply the enemy.
Dr Eleanor Janega is on a mission to deci...
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American Revolution: The First Battle
250 years ago, on April 19th 1775, the first muskets were fired in the American War of Independence - the famous "shot heard round the world".
In this special History Hit film, Dan Snow explores the key sites where it happened on this day - Battle Green, Lexington; The Old North Bridge, Concord...
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Uncovering the Band of Brothers
1 season
80 years ago, millions of American soldiers started arriving in Britain, a friendly invasion that was here to prepare for the liberation of Europe. Amongst them was Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment - that would become the famous Band of Brothers. Now, a team of volunteers, in...
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Prehistoric Ireland
1 season
Tristan Hughes travels to Ireland to delve into the mysteries and myths of prehistoric Ireland.
In the first episode, History Hit’s Ancients expert Tristan Hughes travels to Ireland to delve into the mysteries of Newgrange and its surrounding tombs — exploring the secrets of Stone Age Ireland. A...
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Ancient Ways: The Ridgeway
1 season
Every generation leaves a mark on Britain, but if you know where to look, you can still find the ancient tracks that our ancestors used to crisscross this land. In this two-part special, anthropologist and keen hiker Mary-Ann Ochota tracks the pathways of our ancestors from the Uffington White Ho...
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Industrial Revolution: Canal Mania
Join Dan Snow on an adventure through beautiful scenery, industrial landscapes and epic engineering, to discover a story that shaped the modern world.
Dan travels by narrowboat across the canals of England and Wales to explore a transformation in transport and time. Over just a few decades, jour...
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Captain Cook's Endeavour
Captain James Cook is one of the greatest maritime navigators in history. Born in 1728 to a Scottish father and English mother, Cook grew up in Yorkshire and soon developed a great fascination with the sea and exploration. In 1746 Cook joined the merchant shipping industry when he moved to the ne...
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Edward II: Worst King of England?
Dr Helen Carr explores the extraordinary and chaotic reign of Edward II, a king with a reputation as a disastrous ruler. But how much of that is true?
Edward's accession as king of England in 1307 led almost immediately to conflict as he favoured close friends, and maybe lovers, like Piers Gaves...
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Ancient Adventures: Libya
Join Dan Snow on a special expedition that goes far off the beaten track of history as we venture to Libya in North Africa to explore extraordinary Greek and Roman sites, centred around one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, Cyrene.
After years of civil war and instability, History Hit...
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More Than A Medal
A century-old injustice needs to be corrected. “More Than a Medal,” follows the extraordinary story of researchers working against time, exploring previously untold heroic stories from the battlefields of France, and the experience of modern-day descendants as they maintain cautious hope of reco...
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Dogs: Our Shared History
1 season
In this new History Hit series Mike Loades embarks on a hands-on exploration into the amazing history of dogs - from giant Newfoundlands to skilled sheep dogs, delightful chamber dogs to resilient carriage dogs. It’s a fascinating story of how humans and dogs have lived and worked together for th...
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A History of England
1 season
England is a country stuffed full of history. From the Stone Age to the Nuclear Age there are thousands of inspirational sites that have helped to shape the past and present.
Join Dan Snow on an epic road trip, from Stonehenge in Wiltshire to the Cold War Bunker in York. He’ll be racing across ...
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The Road to Magna Carta
Magna Carta - one of the most important documents from the medieval period. It’s still held up as a totem of democracy even in today’s turbulent world. But why did Magna Carta get written and sealed in the first place?
In the first of two very special episodes, Prof. Michael Livingston is headin...
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The Dambusters Story: A Battle Against Time
1 season
Dan Snow relives the nail-biting countdown to the most daring of wartime bombing raids.
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Queen Jane: The Extraordinary Life of Lady Jane Grey
1 season
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes in search of the truth about Lady Jane Grey, the young Tudor claimant who was Queen of England for less than 2 weeks. Moving beyond the popular image of Jane as a hapless victim placed on the throne by her cousin Edward VI and her manipulative father-in-law the Du...
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Stonehenge: The Discovery
Dan Snow pieces together the story of the magnificent Stone Age circle.
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Britain's Historic Isles: The Isles of Scilly
1 season
Ancient islands, shipwrecks, blue seas... In Britain’s Historic Isles: The Isles of Scilly, Dan Snow joins professional yachtsman and adventurer Conrad Humphreys as they tour the beautiful, rugged Isles of Scilly, on the wave-lashed shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
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Lost Worlds: Hands on Prehistory
1 season
Prehistory, the longest period in humanity's past - but the one we know least about.
Archaeology can help give us a glimpse into what life might have been like for the people living during this period. But the artefacts and other evidence of past human activity often throw up more questions than...
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Maya: Ancient Metropolis
1 season
Recent discoveries from archaeological excavations reveal much of the Maya civilization: lost citadels in the Guatemalan jungle found around Tikal, a sacred cenote at Chichen Itza, and underground network of tunnels discovered at Teotihuacan. How were these ancient people able to build such struc...
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Katherine Howard: Vixen or Victim?
1 season
Katherine Howard, executed in 1542 for adultery and treason, has long polarised opinion - portrayed either as a promiscuous good-time-girl or an abused young woman.
Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb investigates the truth behind Henry VIII's fifth wife.
In the first episode, Suzannah visits Chesworth H...
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Steam: 200 Years on the Tracks
200 years ago, the sound and pace of the world changed forever...On September 27th, 1825, the Locomotion Number One made its first journey on the Stockton and Darlington railway line, marking the birth of the modern railway.
Dan Snow climbs aboard a working replica, recreating that historic ori...
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The Lost DNA
1 season
Some 9,000 years ago, dark-skinned, blue-eyed hunter-gatherers roamed our forests and plains. Thousands of years later, a new wave of settlers washed into Europe from the Middle East and Mediterranean, bringing with them a dynamic new technology - farming. Now Lara Cassidy, a young geneticist at ...
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Magna Carta
1 season
Magna Carta - one of the most important documents from the medieval period. It’s still held up as a totem of democracy even in today’s turbulent world. But why did Magna Carta get written and sealed in the first place?
In the first of two episodes, Prof. Michael Livingston heads to France to exp...