Odysseys
-
The History of Westminster Abbey
Sir David Cannadine shows Dan around the iconic Westminster Abbey, in the heart of London. With an unrivalled arrange of monuments - ranging from grand royal tombs to the grave of The Unknown Warrior - and spectacular architecture spanning nearly 1,000 years, join the two historians as they explo...
-
Secrets of Hitler's Island Fortress
Guernsey and its neighbouring islands have a unique distinction which sets them apart from the rest of the British Isles. Together with the rest of the Channel Islands, they were the only part of the British Isles to fall to Nazi Germany in the Second World War. In this documentary Dan Snow disco...
-
The Lost Wrecks of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was the decisive naval clash of the First World War, pitting the German High Seas Fleet against the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet in an all or nothing battle for supremacy and survival. At the end of the war, the defeated German fleet was scuttled at Scapa Flow. Or so we thought....
-
Ernest Shackleton: With Ranulph Fiennes
In this fascinating interview, Dan Snow chats to the world's greatest living explorer Ranulph Fiennes about Ernest Shackleton and his heroic expeditions in the Golden Age of Antarctic Exploration.
-
VJ Day 75: Britain's War in the East
Saturday 15 August 2020 will mark the 75th anniversary of Japan’s surrender and the end of the Second World War. Liam will explore the history of Britain’s war with Japan from the fall of Singapore straight through to the Japanese surrender as well as the consequences of this conflict on Britain’...
-
Edges of Empire
1 season
Tristan Hughes goes on a journey along Hadrian's Wall, visiting some of its greatest sites. Meeting experts to learn more about the Wall's history and the ground-breaking new archaeological discoveries, that continue to tell us more about what life must have been like on this far-flung frontier a...
-
Ghost Ships: Forgotten Wrecks of the River Dart
All around the UK, in rivers and streams, and in the mud on the side of riverbeds are the remains of our maritime past, which helps us understand who were are today.
In 2013, a survey around the UK identified 199 different assemblages of hulks, remains of craft. These included paddle ships, ferr...
-
The Jordan: A River Through Time
Dan Snow explores Biblical lands, discovering the places where religion and history intersect on the east bank of the River Jordan. It is a region full of evidence of the connections early Christians made here with places and events in the Bible, from Moses to the baptism of Jesus.
The journey b...
-
Total Victory: The Battle of Trafalgar
Victory was total. An enemy fleet obliterated. The course of a great war determined. A hero struck down and a legend born. In October 1805 the British Royal Navy defeated the combined battle fleets of the French and Spanish empires 20 miles northwest of a promontory of rock and sand in southern S...
-
Remember Pearl Harbor
Narrated by Tom Selleck: Sunday, December 7, 1941 was a beautiful morning on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. A few sailors and soldiers were already up and playing a game of football near Pearl Harbor. Others were sleeping in their barracks or aboard ships after a late night of partying in Honolulu....
-
The East India Company
Mark Williams, senior lecturer in Early Modern history at Cardiff University, tackles the big questions about the East India Company.
-
Lost and Found: The Search for USS Lagarto
A fierce WWII battle at sea, unreported for more than 60 years is revealed at the bottom of the Gulf of Thailand in HD underwater video. There lay the US submarine Lagarto and the remains of her 86 crewmen, whose families share how their husbands’ and fathers' disappearance shaped their lives. Wr...
-
Mutiny on the Bounty: To the Ends of the Earth and Back
In early 1789, Captain Bligh in the South Pacific suffered a mutiny among his crew on HMS Bounty. Put to sea with a small group of loyal sailors in one of the ship's boats, what followed was one of the epic stories of maritime history. For more than 40 days, Bligh and his men sailed across open P...
-
Saving Timbuktu's Manuscripts
For centuries the city of Timbuktu was famed as a golden metropolis situated on the southern fringes of the Sahara; tales of its immense wealth and its reputation as a key centre of learning obsessed travellers and adventurers for many hundreds of years. Timbuktu certainly has one of the most ill...
-
The Ninth: Mystery of the Lost Legion
1 season
It is one of the great mysteries of ancient Mediterranean history. In the 2nd century AD, Rome’s 9th Legion – Legio IX Hispana – vanished from the historical record. Immortalised through Rosemary Sutcliff’s famous novel The Eagle of the Ninth, the question of what happened to this ‘Lost Legion’ h...
-
Bristol: SS Great Britain
This was our first city road trip for Snow on the Road - 3 days in Bristol visiting its most interesting historical sites. What's so wonderful about Bristol is how its history is interwoven into the fabric of the city. World treasures like the SS Great Britain and Underfall Yard are visible all a...
-
Finding the Lost Battlefield of Brunanburh
The Battle of Brunanburh was one of the bloodiest and biggest battles of early medieval history. Fought 1100 years ago, Athelstan - the king of the English - opposed a coalition of Irish, Scots, Northumbrians and Vikings and won a decisive victory. The enemy shield wall was penetrated. Their troo...
-
Mudlarking
Dan joins author and mudlark expert Lara Maiklem for a spot of mudlarking.
-
The Worst Journey in the World: The Arctic Convoys
In August 1941, the Allies launched Operation Dervish. This was the first of the Arctic Convoys, ships which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland and North America, and brought essential supplies to the Soviet Union.
After the successful launch of Operation Barbarossa, the USSR was in despe...
-
Debunking the Myths of the Titanic
At noon on 10 April 1912, crowds gathered at Southampton to watch the maiden voyage of the World's largest ship RMS Titanic. A sleek, modern luxurious liner that was offering a safe and fast crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Titanic was said to be invincible. She cruised down Southampton waters on ...
-
HMS Warrior
In the late 1850s, Britain and France were involved in an arms race. Both sides were embracing new technologies like armour plating to try and create the ultimate battleship. In 1860 this produced the revolutionary HMS Warrior, a product of Britain's naval mastery in the 19th century and the Indu...
-
Operation Dynamo: Escape from Dunkirk
At the end of May and the beginning of June 1940, over 370,000 Allied soldiers found themselves at great risk, surrounded by German forces on all sides & with their backs to the Channel. The eyes of the World fixed their gaze on the small Allied perimeter that remained, around the beaches of Dunk...
-
Life Underwater: Inside the HMS Alliance
Submarine veteran Commodore Eric Thompson gives Dan Snow a tour of HMS Alliance, now preserved at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Portsmouth.