Treasures Revealed
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Dunhuang: A Silk Road Oasis
The Silk Road was a historic trading network that linked East to West. But this trade network exchanged far more than objects, through this route came a trade of knowledge, culture and religion. One of its most important stopping points was the Chinese city of Dunhuang. This centre held an import...
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How Much Damage Can an 18th Century Cannon Do?
How much damage will an 18th century cannon do to our wooden targets? History Hit's Dan Snow tested out this replica naval cannon on a firing range and the results were shocking.
Trafalgar Day means only one thing. It’s time to fire a late-18th Century cannon.
In this video, historian Dan Snow...
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The Hurricane
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...
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Wellington Bomber
Archival footage and interviews with Flt. Lt. Rupert "Tiny" Cooling distinguish this fascinating documentary special on the preeminent British bomber of the Second World War: the Wellington.
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The Rollright Stones: Mind, Myre and Magic
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...
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Real Georgians: Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll
1 season
The fabulous wealthy elite of Bridgerton look perfectly preened, their teeth, hair, make up, even their sex scenes are all filled with opulent glamour! But in reality a lot of people in Georgian society, including the wealthy, were dealing with a myriad of issues, from syphilis, teeth decay, secr...
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Climbing The Rigging of An 18th Century Tall Ship
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...
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The Great Napoleonic Escape
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 ...
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The Story of Duelling
1 season
Mike Loades takes us straight to the sharp end of the history of duelling.
Imagine settling disputes in lethal combat - answering an insult with a challenge to fight to the death. From its medieval roots to the 19th century, fighting with swords was a way for the 'gentlemanly classes' to settle ...
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The Hag of Beara
The Hag of Beara, also known as the Hag of Winter, was a mythical figure that predated Christianity in Ireland. She was regarded by people as the mother protector / creator of the landscape. Like many pagan gods and traditions, she did not escape the intolerant wave of Christianity that swept acr...
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Fragments of History: Rome's Greatest Armour
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...
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F-35 Simulator
The F-35 is the latest plane to join the ranks of the RAF. What is so special about it is that it is a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed for many missions with advanced, integrated sensors built into every aircraft. Missions that were traditionally performed by small numbers of...
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Tanks of World War Two: With James Holland
1 season
Historian, broadcaster and World War Two expert James Holland investigates the most iconic armoured fighting vehicles of the Second World War.
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The Dennis Severs' House: A Theatre of the Imagination
Art historian Dan Cruickshank gives Alice Loxton a tour of the Dennis Severs' House in Spitalfields.
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Ray Mears, The Bow: The History of Archery
1 season
The oldest known evidence of the use of the bow comes from South Africa, where microliths, believed to be arrowheads dating from around 70,000 years ago, have been found.
Evidence of humans' use of the bow can be found all over the world, from cave art in Algeria that shows a man shooting a slig...
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A Tour of The Wings Museum in West Sussex
The Wings Museum’s unique collection and style makes it a must-see attraction for any World War Two enthusiast.
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Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece
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...
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Saving South
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...
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Gladiators of Roman Britain
History Hit’s Tristan Hughes heads behind the scenes at the British Museum to get a special look at items from their exhibition touring the UK in 2025-2026: Gladiators of Britain.
Taking visitors back nearly 2,000 years to the Roman province of Britannia and beyond, the exhibition brings togethe...
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A Voice for Richard
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...
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The Ashmolean Up Close: King Alfred's Jewel
The fifth film in our series exploring the remarkable collections of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Dan Snow joins Museum Director Xa Sturgis, to delve into the museum's Anglo-Saxon treasures, including the famed Alfred Jewel. Alongside other exquisite artefacts, such as a warrior's sword and v...
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D-Day Secrets - Excavating the Archives
In this special History Hit film to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Dan Snow meets celebrated military historian Saul David at the National Archives to dig into the top secret documents that tell the story of the incredible planning that went into D-Day.
Hidden in the archives for decades, t...