Odysseys
-
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...
-
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.
-
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....
-
Secrets of the Churchill War Rooms
Winston Churchill, wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain and its empire during the Second World War, is one of the most recognisable figures of world history. The man dominated Whitehall and Westminster, but many of his most vital decisions during the war years were taken away from the public e...
-
Mudlarking
Dan joins author and mudlark expert Lara Maiklem for a spot of mudlarking.
-
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...
-
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’...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
Life and Death of the Inca
1 season
A special History Hit deep dive into the fascinating world of the Inca. Dan Snow travels high into the Peruvian Andes to explore how they thrived in their high altitude empire, building extraordinary structures, a vast road network and harnessing the resources of the mountains. We investigate the...
-
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...
-
The Ambassadors: Mysteries of a Tudor Masterpiece
Tracy Borman unravels the web of messages and secrets hidden in one of the most spectacular and mysterious Tudor paintings, Holbein’s the Ambassadors.
In 1533 England was in turmoil - Henry VIII had secretly married Anne Boleyn and had his marriage to Katherine of Aragon annulled.
This was the ...
-
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.
-
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...
-
Stonehenge
Dan Snow visits one of the most recognisable historical sites on Earth. Stonehenge. Timed with the recent solving of the sarsen stones origin mystery, this documentary takes an in-depth look at what we know, and what we don't know, about this iconic Neolithic monument.
-
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...
-
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...
-
Drake's Island: Plymouth's Island Fortress
For generations, Drake's Island, situated just outside of Plymouth harbour, had been owned by the Ministry of Defence. Recently, however, this island bastion has gone into private ownership. In this documentary Bob King, the gatekeeper of Drake's Island, gives Dan an exclusive tour of this extrem...
-
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...