Hawker Hurricanes accounted for 60% of German losses in the battle of Britain. They were the most numerous fighter aircraft which the RAF deployed, partly owing to their rapid turn-around time (it took them only 9 minutes to be refuelled and re-armed). Dan Snow provides an overview of the 'workho...

The team had the opportunity to film on an authentic, wooden tall ship, similar to those used by the Royal Navy in the 18th century. The ship is called Phoenix, a two-masted Brig based in Penzance.

The height from the waterline to the top of Phoenix’s mast is over 80 feet, a long way to fall. N...

Redcliffe Caves are a series of man made tunnels beneath the Redcliffe area of Bristol, England. The Triassic red sandstone was dug into in the Middle ages to provide sand for glass making and pottery production. Further excavation took place from the 17th to early 19th centuries and used for sto...

For over 100 years, the Royal Air Force has defended the skies of Britain and projected the country’s power and influence around the world. As the world’s oldest independent air force, it also has a rich and often astonishing history – one that is filled with the stories of extraordinary men and ...

Born in Paris in 1840, François-Auguste-René Rodin is quite possibly the most famous sculptor in recent history. Considered by many to be the first ‘modern’ sculptor, his works such as ‘The Kiss’ and ‘The Thinker’ have become iconic throughout the world. He possessed a unique ability to model a c...

Ever been Mummy-curious? Egyptologist Chris Naunton joins us to demonstrate the ancient Egyptian art of mummification.

As an emerging art historian, Victoria Jenner asks how she can make art and architecture more accessible for everyone. This film documents her journey into the wild exploration of abandoned structures and looks at accessibility in a variety of forms. Whether that be access to derelict buildings t...

On 15 September 1916 the battlefield changed forever. At Flers-Courcelette, during the brutal, bloody fighting on the Somme, the British army released a new weapon designed to combat the devastating power of the machine gun: the tank. Moving on caterpillar tracks and protected by plated armour, t...

The Wings Museum’s unique collection and style makes it a must-see attraction for any World War Two enthusiast.

Shackleton's incredible story of survival, the 1914-16 Endurance expedition, is remembered partly because of its extraordinary heroics, but also because it was filmed and photographed by a cinematic genius, the Australian Frank Hurley. Filming in extremes of cold, in unimaginably difficult condit...

The Spitfire is the most famous piston engine fighter plane. It played a vital part in the summer of 1940, keeping the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over Britain. Now Dan Snow, whose lifelong dream is has been to fly in this beautiful plane, gets the chance to go up in a two-seater versi...

Dan Snow goes behind the scenes for a brand-new Napoleonic Wars discovery. Join us for an extraordinary escape story: 19 year old Charles Hare's audacious journey through enemy territory in 1809 disguised as a French customs officer, under the constant threat of being shot as an enemy spy as he ...

Submarine veteran Commodore Eric Thompson gives Dan Snow a tour of HMS Alliance, now preserved at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Portsmouth.

Historian Matt Lewis explains the worst medieval torture techniques.

Described as the "most important piece of prehistoric art to be found in Britain in the last 100 years", an elaborately decorated 5000 year-old chalk cylinder, discovered buried with 3 child skeletons in Yorkshire and as old as the first phase of Stonehenge, is going on display at the British Mus...

In 2017, the oldest and most complete set of Roman armour was unearthed in Kalkriese, Germany. Roughly 2,000 years old, it is one of the greatest examples of Roman military equipment ever discovered, we know it as the lorica segmentata. Consisting of 40 sheets of iron fastened together with leath...

The first film in an exciting new partnership between History Hit and one of the world’s oldest and finest public museums, the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

Over the course of six films, to be released through 2025, History Hit is going behind the scenes to discover some of the Ashmol...

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...

With behind-the-scenes access to a major new exhibition at the British Museum, Matt Lewis sets out to uncover the story behind one of Japan’s most enduring and misunderstood legacies: the Samurai. Often romanticised as noble warriors bound by an unbreakable code of honour, the reality of the Samu...

The Rollright Stones are some of Britain’s most remarkable and mysterious ancient monuments. They consist of three separate sites - a looming funerary monument built to contain dismembered corpses, a venerated stone circle, and a single monolith with an innominate purpose. Alice Loxton traces six...