History

The Remarkable Resistance of Lilo
Lilo and her husband Erich Gloeden hid Jews from the Nazis in wartime Berlin
26 Jan 2020,28 mins
Wittgenstein's Jet
A jet engine built by Ludwig Wittgenstein in Manchester is investigated by Cassie Newland.
02 Jan 2015,30 mins
A Call from Joybubbles
How phone phreaking teenagers hacked the USA's phone system.
13 Mar 2017,30 mins
Shadow of War - A Tainted Anatomy
Why is the brain of a Scottish soldier in a German archive, 80 years after his death?
21 Jan 2025,42 mins
Domesday Reloaded - Me and My Square
Episode 5
Jane Garvey returns to Liverpool, 25 years on.
02 Sep 2011,12 mins
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Edinburgh 70: Nothing Short of a Miracle
Jim Naughtie reflects on the origins of the Edinburgh Festival.
05 Aug 2017,26 mins
Hollow Earth: A Travel Guide
Comedian Robin Ince takes us on a tour of a world beneath the earth's crust.
11 Apr 2015,30 mins
Sporting Witness: First official penalty shootout
How a game between Hull City and Manchester United in 1971 changed football forever.
28 Mar 2026,10 mins
My Family’s Fight For Civil Rights
Oona King discovers her family's role in the fight for equality for African Americans.
02 Jul 2014,30 mins
Return to Vukovar
Martin Bell returns 20 years on to the Siege of Vukovar in Croatia.
22 Aug 2011,30 mins
Voices From Our Industrial Past: Women
Emma Griffin examines the lives of working women during the industrial revolution.
16 Mar 2015,30 mins
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's Men of Fashion
Henry VIII - The King Must Wear Gold
How clothes symbolised power, philosophy, taste, sexuality and personal expression.
06 Apr 2009,15 mins
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Kitch!
Musician and poet Anthony Joseph tries to get to the heart of Calypso star Lord Kitchener
13 Jan 2015,30 mins
A Ram for the Rebels
Gerry Anderson explores the invention of the modern submarine.
09 Oct 2004,30 mins
Boundaries of Blood
How does the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, which created Bangladesh, still resonate today?
13 Dec 2011,40 mins
Brand Cuba
Allan Little analyses some of the factors that have given Cuba such a prominent image.
30 Dec 2008,40 mins
A Man's a Man for a' That: Frederick Douglass in Scotland
Opera singer Andrea Baker explores the impact of Frederick Douglass' time in Scotland.
25 Oct 2015,30 mins
The Raising of Coventry
Telling the story of the bombing of Coventry 80 years ago on November 14th, 1940.
16 Nov 2020,28 mins
The Easter Rising 1916
'Changed Utterly'
Heather Jones examines the history of commemorating the Easter Rising across Ireland.
25 Mar 2016,28 mins
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Donald Duck Gets Drafted
Gerald Scarfe explores the Walt Disney Studio's activity during the Second World War.
02 Sep 2015,30 mins
The Manchester Ballads
Folk singer Eliza Carthy discovers Manchester's 19th-century broadside ballads.
05 Oct 2015,30 mins
The Frock and the Church
Women bishops? Will the Church of England approve them and can it cope with the fallout?
01 Jul 2012,28 mins
A History of the World Special
The story of the portrait of a private soldier's sweetheart, painted for him in Auschwitz.
18 May 2011,30 mins
Gift Of The Gods
Beekeeper Martha Kearney explores the importance of honey in antiquity.
27 Jan 2017,30 mins
The Frontline Prince
Edward VIII, the king who abdicated, was deeply marked by the Great War.
18 Sep 2017,30 mins
Defining The Decade
Mission Accomplished
The decade began with total US dominance and ended with a challenge from the rise of China
29 Dec 2009,28 mins
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The Most Successful Assassination in History
The night Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin was gunned down - changing the Middle East forever.
02 Nov 2020,28 mins
Churchill's Grave
William Crawley visits Winston Churchill's final resting place in Bladon, Oxfordshire
23 Jan 2015,30 mins
Black Is a Country
Episode 2
Singer-songwriter Erykah Badu explores the music generated by the Black Power movement.
12 Jan 2012,30 mins
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The Vietnam Paris connection
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen, film critic Phuong Le and Peter Salmon join Matthew Sweet
10 Mar 2021,44 mins