History, culture, traditions
Two thousand years of history, a language gone global, King Arthur, Henry VIII and the travellers who described the country.
History of the UK
The history of the United Kingdom in brief: prehistory and Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans, Magna Carta, the Tudors and the…
The Romans in Scotland
The history of the Romans in Caledonia: Agricola's campaigns and the battle of Mons Graupius, Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall, Septimius…
In Arthur's footsteps
King Arthur between history and legend: the early sources, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes and Malory, and the Arthurian places to visit…
Henry VIII
The life of Henry VIII Tudor: the young Renaissance king, the Great Matter and the Act of Supremacy, the dissolution of the monasteries, the six…
Catherine of Aragon
The life of Catherine of Aragon: daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, wife of Arthur and then of Henry VIII, regent during the battle of Flodden…
Anne of Cleves
The life of Anne of Cleves: German princess, Holbein's portrait, the disastrous meeting at Rochester, the six-month marriage and annulment, the fall…
Jane Seymour
The life of Jane Seymour: lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, her marriage to Henry VIII in 1536, the birth of Edward VI at…
Thomas Wolsey
The life of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey: from his Ipswich origins to power as Lord Chancellor, the Treaty of London and the Field of the Cloth of Gold…
Thomas Cromwell
The life of Thomas Cromwell: from humble origins in Putney to his years in Italy and Flanders, service under Wolsey, the Act of Supremacy and the…
Industrial Revolution
Why the Industrial Revolution began in Britain: coal, cotton and capital, the inventions from Arkwright to Watt, canals and railways, the Great…
British Empire
The history of the British Empire: the Atlantic colonies and the slave trade, the East India Company and the Raj, the Scramble for Africa, the height…
The Irish question
Eight centuries of relations between Ireland and Britain: conquest and Plantation, Cromwell and the Boyne, the Union of 1801, the Great Famine, Home…
History of Northern Ireland
The history of Northern Ireland since 1921: Stormont and discrimination, the civil rights movement, the Troubles and Bloody Sunday, the hunger…
History of Scotland
The history of Scotland from the Picts to today: Kenneth MacAlpin, Wallace and Bruce, Bannockburn and the Declaration of Arbroath, the Stewarts and…
History of Wales
The history of Wales: the Britons and the medieval kingdoms, Hywel Dda, Edward I's conquest and castles, Owain Glyndŵr, the Tudors and the Laws in…
Welsh traditions
The traditions of Wales: the Eisteddfod and the Gorsedd, male voice choirs and the triple harp, rugby, Saint David and Saint Dwynwen, the Mari Lwyd…
History of the English language
How English was born and changed: Old English and Beowulf, the Vikings, Norman French, Chaucer, Caxton's press, the Great Vowel Shift, Shakespeare…
The Anglican Church
The Church of England today: its tie to the state and the King, the provinces of Canterbury and York, the first female Archbishop Sarah Mullally…
History of the Anglican Church
The history of the Church of England: Augustine's mission, Whitby and Becket, Henry VIII's break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries…
The Presbyterian Church
Presbyterianism in the United Kingdom: its origins with Calvin and John Knox, the Covenanters and the Westminster Confession, how a church led by…
Isaac Newton
The life of Isaac Newton: childhood at Woolsthorpe, Cambridge and the miraculous years, the apple, optics and the telescope, the Principia and…
Inigo Jones
The life and works of Inigo Jones: court masques with Ben Jonson, his journeys to Italy and discovery of Palladio, the Queen's House at Greenwich…
Travellers of the past
Specials on the travel books that describe the UK of old: Virginia Woolf, Defoe, Johnson and Boswell, Foscolo, Taine, Orwell. What the country was…
Woolf's travel diaries
Virginia Woolf's eight journeys in England and Wales, 1905-1908: Cornwall, Rye, Wells, Golders Green, how the country has changed, charts and a…