In this edition, the continuing controversy surrounding the war-time role of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Victims of a bad press, they remained tactfully silent, but now answer back through Maitre Blum their lawyer, who gives her first television interview.
What would have happened if on Monday 7 August 1558 a Spanish Army had marched on London from the invasion beaches of Margate? Timewatch re-examines the fate of the 16th-century Spanish task force and asks how close did it come to success?
On the Fiftieth anniversary of Hitler becoming German Chancellor, Winchester reports from Washington and Nuremberg on the process of de-nazification that began in 1945. He examines how America wanted to mould the defeated [West] Germany in it's own image through forced re-education.
On the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Richard III, historians reassess the monarch.
Following the arrest of Klaus Barbie , butcher of Lyon, memories of Nazi collaboration have again returned to haunt ageneration of Frenchmen.
during the Falklands war, the Argentinians made great capital of the last time they'd fought the British -and won.
After Parliament's vote on hanging, an investigation into the history of Tyburn and the mass public executions in the 18th century. Did hanging deter?
This month Timewatch is devoted to the life and historical reputation of Prince Albert, husband to Queen Victoria.
Rumours of War opens amid the greatest fears of international tension and nuclear holocaust since the Cold War. Lord Bullock, biographer of British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, talks about the foundation of NATO and how the West learnt to deal with the Soviet Union after the War.
Profile of new evidence about Admiral Doenitz's involvement with Third Reich atrocities. Doenitz was Hitler's successor as Fuhrer, and received the lightest sentence at the Nuremberg War Trials.
A meeting with the man who met the men who charged with the Light Brigade. Now aged 97, he has devoted his life to tracing all those who took part in the most celebrated action in Victorian history.
Did Victorian wives really 'lie back and think of England'? New research suggests they enjoyed a far more liberated sex life than conventional image allows.
In 1924, 28 million people visited the last of the great imperial exhibitions at Wembley - now it is almost forgotten.
A special edition to mark the Romanesque Exhibition. 1066 still divides English history - it marks a complete takeover by a foreign culture and government. Timewatch re-examines The Case for King William. Why did William of Normandy believe the Crown of England was his right? "The Norman Church and Castle Hastings", wrote the chroniclers, "was a fatal day for England." What do we know of the barons who stamped their authority on their newly-conquered possessions?
In North Carolina they are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first settlement in North America. Colonisation of the New World was Walter Ralegh 's most ambitious scheme, but what was its aim?
It was the first modern General Election. Two parties, two national leaders - the King versus Parliament. With a computer analysis of the crucial results, Timewatch fights again the election that marked a watershed in English political history.
Peter France interviews Aubrey Burl, authority on stone circles, about the history of the Stonehenge site before construction of the existing circle. Peter France looks back to ealier this year when the hill fort at Maiden Castle was at the centre of English Heritage's controversial plans to preserve our past which still rages and which have split the world of archaeology . A dramatized reconstruction of scenes from the life of seventeenth-century astrologer Samuel Jeake, who sought to prove the validity of astrology by linking events in his life to astrological birthcharts drawn up for the time of these events.
Peter France introduces the programme from the British Museum after outlining the story of the Museum. An item about the origins of the British Prison Service, and an early and unsuccessful - reform experiment called "The Separate System" An item revealing the way the Brothers Grimm changed the tales which they wrote down, to suit emerging German nationalism. Michael Duffy introduces an item about English nationalism in the 17th and 18th century, focussing especially on satirical prints of Welsh, Scots, and Irish nationals.
Three items: Lady Jane Grey was used by men of power when she was alive and male propagandists when she was dead. A film about her will be released next month. What interpretation do its makers offer of the 16 year-old girl who was beheaded for treason. Peter France shows how close the leaders of a woman's international peace movement came to getting the most powerful men in the world to stop the First World War in the middle of 1915. Peter France reveals how one woman artist left a vivid record of the domestic surroundings of her time simply because she was denied the opportunities freely available to her male contemporaries.
Peter France presents three films which reflect the extent to which codes of 'honour', allegiance' and 'behaviour' have had their effect on British history. How far should men go to defend their honour?
Peter France picks two stories from the past series which deal with men of mystery.
Oliver Cromwell was a tyrant, a repressed religious bigot who murdered a king, ruthlessly ended the world's first socialist movement and had grand designs to make himself King Oliver I. Oliver Cromwell was a superb man - patriotic, a magnificent warrior and civilised with a tremendous sense of humour, a bursting conscience in matters of state and religion and personally unambitious. Which assessment even approaches the truth? Views of Oliver Cromwell vary as much today as when Parliament asked him to become King in 1657. How do modern historians view the parliamentarian who some have called the greatest Englishman?
In Georgian times, a crippling illness struck thousands of cider drinkers in the west of England, who found mysterious relief only by taking the waters at Bath Spa. In Victorian England, prostitutes, seen as carriers of venereal disease, were forcibly detained and treated in hospitals until they were considered unlikely to infect the male population - particularly the lower ranks of the Army and Royal Navy. Peter France introduces two stories which show how previous generations have dealt with the problem of lead pollution and a disease in its time as worrying as AIDS.
Mary Queen of Scots has come down to us as a tragic heroine - but what kind of respect does she command as a 16th-century ruler? Anne Boleyn is usually seen either as a scheming predator or as a pathetic figure executed because she failed to produce a male heir for Henry vm. Historians Jenny Wormald and Eric Ives set out to show that the popular images of Mary and Anne have to be radically reassessed and Peter France sets their tragic stories into the context of the religious turmoil of the 16th century.
This month Peter France , with change in mind, presents three films. The first highlights the distortions which followed the last attempt by central government to impose educational benchmarks on the majority of British schools. The second records the memories of disinherited Londoners who recall the community spirit of a Notting Hill street torn down for redevelopment 25 years ago. The third allows Cambridge don, David Cannadine , the chance to explore present attitudes to British history.
In Georgian times a crippling illness struck thousands of cider drinkers in the west of England. Their only relief was found in the waters at Bath Spa - relief that remained unexplained until the manned space programme of the 20th century. Twelve Good Men and True The Bar Theatrical Society re-enacts the trial in 1670 of William Penn and William Mead which established the right of a jury to return an independent verdict.
Timewatch joins the American Manuscript Society on a visit to London to learn of their enthusiasms and their obsessions.
What really happened in Russia in October 1917? How far can we rely on the vivid films from the period to give us a true picture of the Revolution and, of incidents such as the storming of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg? Christopher Andrew, in a critical examination of documentary evidence and the memories of Russian emigres who were eyewitnesses to the events of 1917, steers a path through the propaganda, censorship, carelessness and sheer misunderstanding that have distorted the historical record in Russia and the West for the past 70 years.
From the Age of Chivalry exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts Peter France introduces two films which examine the reality behind the ideal. When Manfred von Richthofen died in 1918 he had become a figure of myth; a knight of the air with 80 victories to his credit. But the legend of the Red Baron hid a quiet, aloof man whose aristocratic sense of honour drove him to his death.
Twenty-six years ago Adolph Eichmann , the Nazi officer, was tried in Jerusalem. Timewatch explores the trial through a controversial book, Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt. Arendt, a philosopher, had written with great insight on the historical position of Jews in modern western society and on the rise of Nazism. It was therefore with a sense of deep hurt and outrage that many Jews read her reports from Jerusalem. She questioned the legality and political purpose of the trial, she portrayed Eichmann as 'banal rather than evil' and she made sweeping comments on questions of Jewish resistance and cooperation. Using archive film of the trial and interviews with friends, historians and survivors of the camps in New York and Jerusalem, this documentary pieces together the different reactions to Arendt's arguments, and to the painful process of turning the Holocaust into history.
Three reports which examine the ways our historical record in films and in books and maps, is under threat from neglect, damage and mistreatment.
Two reports on the control and effect of mass communications in the past.
Report on the mystery surrounding the identity of a prisoner who died at the Bastille in Paris in November 1703. He had been imprisoned for 34 years and had be forced to wear a mask.
Report on events in Holland in 1944, when the Nazis cut off all food supplies in retaliation for Dutch support of the Arnhem landings.
Two films on the darker side of British history over the past 150 years. "The Diary of an English Spy", looks at the training of secret agents at a Spy School before WW1. "and One Law for the Poor", on the 1832 Anatomy Act which denied the poor the freedom to bury their dead, and supplied medical schools with human bodies for study.
Report on recent radiocarbon dating tests on the Turin Shroud, believed by millions to be the burial cloth of Jesus. Programme follows the preparation of the Shroud, and film of the tests carried out in Zurich.
Report on the legend of Jack the Ripper, revealing for the first time the true contents of the police and Home Office files on the case, and drawing on the expertise of historians and of those who have encountered today's killers.
Dramatised documentary about Annie Besant, the 19th century social reformer and campaigner for the use of contraception, who led the matchgirls strike from the Bryant and May factory.
Story of the Glorious Revolution of 5th November 1688, when William of Orange landed at Brixham to take the English crown.
Report on the case of Nikolai Bukharin, Lenin's advisor and editor of Pravda and Izvestia in the 1920s and 1930s. Bukharin was executed in 1938 after the last of Stalin's show trials. Gorbachev has openly denounced this action, and Bukharin's widow Anna has been allowed to talk about her husband for the first time in 50 years.
During the Nazi occupation of eastern Poland, a small group of Jews tried to save themselves by hiding in the sewers under the city. Four survivors talk about their fourteen-month ordeal of living below ground.
Leading historian Eric Hobsbawn offers Peter France some insights into his personal understanding of the 19th century and, in the process a world that was about to disappear for ever.
It has always been believed that the attack on Pearl Harbour was a total surprise, but witnesses from around the world are now coming forward with stories of Washington being repeatedly warned of the attack.
Documentary revealing new evidence about the so-called "Night of the Long Knives" - Harold MacMillan's Cabinet re-shuffle of July 1962, in which he sacked the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a third of the Cabinet.
Documentary exploring how poverty in the English countryside in the years before the First World War, has been hidden behind an image of a rural paradise created by artists, writers and poets of the period which survives to the present day, as demonstrated by the huge success of Edith Holden's "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady"
Documentary on the life and ideas of Leon Trotsky
Traces the story of the implementation of Mussolini's policy of Italianisation in the Balkans.
Second and concluding programme in Timewatch's investigation into some of Italy's war crimes and those responsible, in this programme concentrating in particular on Allied blocking of extradition of known Italian war criminals and reluctance to pursue the perpetrators, many of whom by then held key positions in the Italian government. The effects this had on the defascistisation policy implemented in Italy after the surrender is discussed by leading historians.
There is growing support for the theory that the man buried in the grave marked with Hess's name was an imposter switched for the real Hess by the Nazis in 1941. Christopher Andrew talks to wartime witnesses and forensic experts in a personal investigation to establish whether the strange case of Rudolf Hess is a genuine example of the conspiracy theory of history.
Looks at Napoleon's attempts to rewrite history and portray himself in a favourable light, and at accounts of his life from the writings of his self-appointed biographer, Count Emmanuel Las Cases, and his British doctor, Barry O'Meara. It takes the form of dramatised conversations between Napoleon and the other two, with historians intervening to comment on Napoleon's version of events
Examines how Hungarians are slowly and painfully reassessing their experiences under Stalinism and adapting to the forthcoming first free election in Hungary for over 40 years. The film ends with the story of how the Committee for Historical Justice was formed, which achieved the exhumation and reburial of Imre Nagy and other members of the short-lived revolutionary government of 1956.
A special edition of Timewatch looks back at the events at Dunkirk in 1940 through the personal accounts of survivors and using eye-witness accounts and archive film, the programme recalls the political and human dilemas surrounding the evacuation of the army at Dunkirk 50 years ago.
A TIMEWATCH special in which Count Adolf Heinrich von Arnim visits his former castle, lands and estates in East Germany, which he and his family were driven from by the Russians in 1945. It considers some of the changes that have occurred to the property and also the mixed reaction of locals, some of whom are welcoming, others of whom are suspicious and fear he has come to claim back land redistributed amongst the villagers after the war.
Examines recent allegations of the ill-treatment and policies of starvation of German prisoners in Allied POW camps in 1945. The programmes examines whether the American authorities, with images of Nazism and concentration camps fresh in their minds, deliberately set out to punish the Germans.
Looks at the co-operation in America between the police and archaeologists in homicide cases where a body is found, the skills of the archaeologist being particularly relevant for digging up bodies, studying fragments of bone and decomposed bodies, and dating them. It reveals the techniques that they use, and also looks at the West Yorkshire Police's use of archaeologists as well.
Shows the extent to which archaeology is losing out to an underworld of looters, smugglers and dealers, and reveals the clandestine face of the art market and the forces which are destroying ancient sites throughout the world, by concentrating on the Sipan tombs. The discovery of the tombs of the Lords of Sipan in Northern Peru caused a sensation when they were discovered by a family of grave robbers in 1987. The programme reveals how gold from Sipan ended up in the hands of wealthy collectors in the US and exposes the detailed workings of an international antiquities smuggling ring.
Documentary looking at the day-to-day life and beliefs of the last remaining group of nine Shakers who live in the village of Sabbathday Lake, Maine. It looks at the history of the sect and its continued lifestyle, with its emphasis on prayer and celibacy. Shakers themselves talk about their life and beliefs, and also express concern and distaste for the current rage in the American antiques market for `Shaker' furniture, which can go for astronomical prices.
Investigates the roots of anti-Semitism in England and the story of England's Medieval Jews, and their treatment, culminating in massacres and their expulsion from England on 1st November 1290.
Documentary looking at the Indian troops that fought in the First World War and their experiences and treatment in the trenches, gleaned from letters written by the soldiers themselves and British officers observations.
Explores the beginnings of the Vietnam War and uncovers some remarkable facts about the role of the US and Britain at the end of World War II, with the US originally supporting Ho Chi Minh and his communist independence movement doing everything possible to ensure their success, including both arming and training them.
Tells the story of the African hero John Chilembwe and his raising of a group of black insurgents who broke into the planter's William Livingstone's house and cut off his head. it considers the characters and backgrounds of the two, and looks at the event in the light of British colonialism and African nationalism.
Two-part documentary looking at the history of the native American Indians, and particularly the effects of white colonisation of the continent, and the near extinction of their peoples and culture. The first part considers the lifestyles and philosophy of the Indians and their first encounters with white settlers, which led to their falling prey to both disease and violence. The newcomers' attitude towards the Indians, and the catalogue of deceit, broken treaties and massacres are also explored.
Second part of a documentary film looking at the history of the native American Indians and particularly the effects of white colonisation of the continent and the near extinction of their peoples and culture. This looks at the continued clash between European and Native American cultures in the 100 years after the massacre at Wounded Knee, and the disastrous attempts of the government to assimilate the Indians. Indians describe what life was like on the reservations and of the attempts to obliterate their language, culture and ways.
Looks at the story of Dr Gerald Bull, the artillery designer who designed the world's best howitzers and who was working on his lifetime ambition, the supergun, when he was assassinated last year.
Looks at the story of Robert Robinson, a black American, who inadvertently ended up living and working in the Soviet Union for over 40 years, until his escape in 1974. Born in Cuba and brought up in America, he went to work for the Soviet Union that was crying out for industrial technicians, in the 1930s, disillusioned with the poverty and racism endemic in the US. Whilst there, he was elected to the Moscow Soviet without his consent, and automatically lost his US citizenship. He describes meeting Stalin and living through the hunger, cold and suspicion of the Second World War and the Cold War, and of how he eventually got out of the country.
Looks at the character and learned works of the Medieval scholar Roger Bacon, with readings and comments on some of his writings and ideas and the vast, universality of the subject matters he covered.
Documentary programme looking back at the first Palestinian Intifada uprisings between 1936 and 1939, and into the forties, against the British, revealing the strong hold guerilla forces had over a large area, and the formulation of forces, courts and a new leadership based on the peasant villages emerging in what was, to all intents and purposes, an independent Palestine. It follows how this uprising was overshadowed by the post-war Jewish one, and considers the ways in which British decisions at the time contributed to factors in the present Israeli conflict.
Looks at the history of the Cold War, and how it began even whilst the USSR and Britain and America were allies in the last stages of World War II. The origins of mutual distrust are examined, plus attitudes, plans and actions over the past forty-plus years, as well as how recent events in the USSR may have altered Cold War attitudes, or only temporarily put them on hold.
Documentary investigating Britain's clandestine support for the Nationalists and General Franco during the Spanish Civil War, through fear of the democratically elected left-wing Republican government becoming revolutionary in nature and being backed by the Soviet Union, and through fear for British business interests in the country. It shows how Britain caused major problems for the Republican side through economic and diplomatic cunning, and effectually aided the Republicans' downfall and Franco's success, although in a less obvious way than the German and Italian armed aid.
Documentary looking at Charles Darwin and the reason why he waited so long to publish his controversial discoveries and views on evolution, considering his personality and some of the historical, political and social factors that influenced his decision. In particular, his fear of being totally ostracised by both society and his colleagues, and of possibly being seen to add to the cause of foment and radicalism much in the air at that time. It also considers the grave effect this worry and conflict over whether to publish his findings or express his views on his health.
Documentary questioning whether Christopher Columbus was really the first to discover America, putting forward the theory that Columbus not only knew exactly where he was going, but also what he would find in the New World. A Spanish ship's officer and a journalist recreate the momentous voyage to test this theory.
First part of a documentary film about the First World War following German writer Ludwig Harig, as he travels to the Somme to try and learn and understand why his father was unable to speak about the war. Archive film of the German army in camps, on the Front and scenes of life of France under their occupation are shown, with interviews with surviving villagers from the Somme area, who talk about their experiences and what life was like at that time close to the front, and under German occupation.
Second part of a documentary film about the First World War which centres around extracts from the letters between military surgeon Georges Duhamel and his wife Blanche, who moved to the frontline capitial at Amiens in order to be closer to her husband. They corresponded regularly for 4 years, and extracts from some of their letters are read over film footage, much of it previously unseen, of the front and of how business and pleasure continued alongside scenes of suffering as British, French and colonial troops came and went from the city. Most of the footage is of French troops.
A report on the art treasures taken by the Nazis during the second world war, including a collection of French Impressionist paintings built up by the industrialist Carl Siemens. The programme attempts to trace the missing paintings.
The Victorian battle of style - the Classic versus the Gothic, in some ways reflected today in the battle between Classicists and Modernists.
The story of the building of the railway in Burma in which thousands of Allied POWS and native Asians died.
First of a two-part documentary on Marshal Josip Broz Tito.
Second of a two-part documentary on Marshal Josip Broz Tito.
Basilio Lami Dozo, Argentinian Air Force general discusses the lead up to the Falklands War. And an in-depth look at the role of Secretary of State Alexander Haig's attempt to avert war.
The life of Elizabeth Nietzsche, sister of the philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, and her founding of a `racially pure' German colony in Paraguay.
The second part of a two-programme study of Elizabeth Nietzsche, sister of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietsche. After the suicide of her husband and the failure of their "Aryan utopia" in Paraguay, she returned to Germany to look after her dying brother. Over the next thirty or more years, she falsified his writings and distorted his ideas to such an extent, that to this day his name is still directly associated with European fascism. The programme uses material from the Nietzsche Archive in Weimar, formerly part of East Germany, to reveal that Elizabeth Nietzsche was wooed by both Mussolini and Hitler and how she became one of the most powerful women in the Third Reich.
Examines the planning of the assassination of SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich in 1942. Considered to be the most dangerous man after Hitler in Nazi Germany, Heydrich was the architect of the "final solution". His assassination provoked terrible reprisals.
The first of three programmes about `Gladio', the secret terrorist network operating in Europe. Discusses the network's creation, after the end of the Second World War, from a group of Nazis remaining in occupied territories, and in resistance to the rise of communism. Reveals the role of the CIA in the political affairs of post-war Europe through their manipulation of `Gladio' and the network's influence in the internal affairs of almost every European country.
Second of three programmes exploring the influence of `Gladio' a terrorist network organisation operating in Europe. This programme examines the Bologna railway bombing in 1980 ostensibly by the Red Brigade. The programme argues that the Brigade had been inflitrated by right-wing agents who conducted a series of atrocities that so terrified citizens that they called for greater state security.
Third of three programmes exploring the influence of `Gladio', a secret terrorist network operating in Europe. Discusses the development in the 1980s of a type of terrorism which used the media in order to influence public opinion and destabilise democratic society. Includes an examination of the kidnap and subsequent murder of the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.
Shows how the Red Scare of the 1950s affected ordinary men and women in America, as they were forced to respond to questions about whether they belonged to the Communist Party. Archive footage paints a picture of suspicion and repression, very different from the saccharine images usually associated with the US in the 1950s.
Presents evidence to suggest that McCartyism should more accurately be called Hooverism since it was J. Edgar Hoover who orchestrated and authorised the surveillance and harassment of many ordinary American citizens on the basis of the flimsiest of pretexts.
The final part of this series contrasts the experiences of those who named names with those who refused to cooperate with the McCarthy hearings.
Drama-documentary based on life of Sir Ernest Satow who travelled to Japan in 1862. He quickly got to know the radical young samurai determined to overthrow the corrupt government of the Shogun and lead Japan into a new age.
Continues the story of Ernest Satow, a junior diplomat living in Japan in the 19th century. His unique understanding of the forces struggling for supremacy in Japan enabled him to have a direct influence on the events leading to the Civil War of 1868 and to the restoration of the Mikado.
Traces the origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis to the American reaction to the Cuban Revolution. This first part tells the story of the various US-inspired attacks against Cuba and the life of Fidel Castro, who is interviewed about those years. Khrushchev decided to protect Cuba by placing nuclear missiles there and Kennedy responded by demanding their removal.
The concluding part of the `Cuban missile crisis' story. October 1962, the dramatic story of the US naval blockade, the shooting down of a US spy plane and the Soviet preparations for a nuclear response to a USA invasion of Cuba is told by insiders from both the Kremlin and the White House and by Fidel Castro himself.
Examines what life was like for the ambitious black man in the southern states of America at the turn of the century, when those who bought land or ran for political office faced the threat of the lynch mob, and smiling at a white woman or talking back to a white boss could end with a man chained to a pile of wood and set on fire. The programme argues that the northern states bear equal responsibility for the rule by lynch law in the south, as northern politicians repeatedly voted against any federal anti-lynching legislation in Congress.
Personal account by actor Kenneth Griffith of the rise and fall of the Irish Nationalist hero Roger Casement.
Details the links between the Mafia in Sicily and US Naval Intelligence during the Second World War. The legacy of this alliance remains today in Sicily.
The origins of the troubles in Northern Ireland and new evidence of the Irish government's role in the emergence of the Provisional IRA. With interviews with Irish ex-cabinet ministers and former leading members of the Republican movement, it details Dublin's funding of the IRA, why it favoured the more radical elements and how the Irish governement plotted to invade Northern Ireland in 1970.
Tells the story of 200,000 Polish children stolen by the Nazis during World War II. They were taken to the Reich. The younger children were given over for adoption by Nazi families and the older ones went to Hitler Youth Camps or worked for German families as maids or farmhands. Those who did not fit were sent to concentration camps. The film focuses on the experiences of two cousins who were stolen on the same day. One was 4 years old and the other was 10. They both eventually returned to Poland but the experience marked them in different ways.
A new profile of the man who was director of the FBI for nearly 50 years. It would appear that the Mafia had some kind of hold over him. The American Mafia, it is asserted, had damaging evidence about Hoover's sex life and they knew about his homosexuality. Hoover's attitude to organised crime underwent a sea change between the 1930s and 1940s. He turned a blind eye during the vital years of its growth allowing it to gain a firm grip on American society.
Explores the social history of the contraceptive pill with the help of three generations of women. The inventors of the pill hoped it would solve the world's population crisis, but it turned out instead to be the chosen birth control method of the Western world, not of the developing countries. Suggests that after decades of sex without responsibility, HIV and AIDS have sent sexual attitudes back to the fearful pre-pill days of the 1950s.
Delves into the myth surrounding William F. Cody who entertained millions of people throughout the world with the adventures of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show between 1883 and 1916.
Asks whether Britain's area-bombing campaign during World War Two was a necessary strategy to defeat Hitler or a war crime.
Pepole who were involved in the carrying out of the death penalty recall their experiences and emotions. Includes comments from Syd Dernley, the last living hangman, who considered it `just a job'; the prison chaplain Leslie Lloyd-Rees; and the last living judge to have sentenced a man to hang - Lord Denning. Also includes footage of the last working gallows in Britain at Wandsworth Prison.
New archaeological research has given fresh insight into what happened in the Roman amphitheatre. Cruelty and violence became the cornerstone of political and social life. The entertainment often ended in horrible scenes of torture and bestiality. Features computer reconstructions of the Colosseum.
Tells the story of the largest armoured battle ever fought. It took place at Kursk, south of Moscow in 1943. It lasted seven weeks, resulting in 254,470 dead on the Russian side and 100,000 on the German side. Hitler was determined to launch this last great offensive on the Eastern Front which, in the event, he lost. The programme uses archive footage of the battle, specially-shot scenes of the terrain where the battle was fought and the testimony of many who fought there.
he inside story of how 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands, starved themselves to death in the Maze Prison in 1981, featuring interviews with surviving strikers, IRA victims and politicians including Dr Garret Fitzgerald and Lord Whitelaw.
Documentary following a meeting in Israel of two adult groups: one comprising the children of Nazi war criminals, the other - children of Holocaust survivors. The meeting was arranged by Israeli psychologist Dan Bar-On in an attempt to exorcise their shared past.
Investigative biography of Lee Harvey Oswald. Covers his life from a troubled childhood to his service in the US Marines, to his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959 and his return to the United States in 1962. Aims to enable the viewer to make a decision about who was reponsible for Kennedy's assassination.
Report on the extent of the tyranny of Mao Tse Tung's regime from 1949 until his death in 1976. His rise to power and the revolution which swept away the corruption of Chiang Kai Chek was accompanied by optimism, but in the followinging 25 years he was to almost destroy China. His doctor speaks of Mao's sexual encounters with young girls and a former Red Guard reveals that cannibalism played a part in the Cultural Revolution.
Explores the role of British merchant seamen during World War II, through the personal testimony of the men who braved the North Atlantic storms and U-boat attacks to keep Britain supplied with essential provisions.
Biography of Gregori Efimovich Rasputin reassessing his position in history and discussing his private life.
Documentary revealing details of secret spy flights made by the RAF over the Soviet Union in the 1950s as part of an undeclared 20-year espionage war.
Documentary about the injustices of the divorce system prior to the reform of the divorce laws in 1969. The stories of several women who were particularly vulnerable, both legally and socially, are told.
A debate with representatives from government and the civil service of the 1950s and 60s about the immigration policy and legislation of Great Britain during that period. Participants include Enoch Powell, Merlyn Rees and John Bean, founder of the British National Party.
Documentary on the causes of the First World War. Uses archive film from eight countries to try and piece together the attitudes of the leaders of the Great Powers. Also looks at whether it could happen again.
Through special access to the secrets of the Spanish Inquisition's own archives, a very different version of events from that of popular mythology is uncovered about the Inquisition. It was certainly not blameless and on occasion would be ruthless. However its actions pall in comparison with the scale of persecution in other European countries. In the 16th century for example, 10 times as many heretiocs were burned in England as in Spain. The programme examines and how and why the myth of the Inquisition developed.
Uses the archives of the Nazi's to show the history of the V1 missile and the V2 rocket, which in London alone between June 1944 and March 1945 killed more than 8,000 people. Reveals how the German's developed these weapons.
A discussion on the English Civil War using letters, diaries and memoirs of ordinary people in 17th century England.
Investigates the claims of tour guide John West who believes that the Sphinx was carved thousands of years before the Pharaohs.
Explores the contradictions in the character of Nikita Khrushchev, using previously unseen home movies and interviews with members of his staff.
Discusses whether the teachings of Niccolò Machiavelli are still relevant in politics today. Machiavelli has become synonymous with sinister and unscrupulous intrigue, but recent work shows him as a pragmatic patriot. Some British politicians, including David Mellor, Roy Hattersley, Lord Carrington, Clare Short and Alan Clark, put forward their views on Machiavelli's legacy and extracts from `The Prince' are read by Ian Richardson.
Documents the true story of the woman, Mary Mallon, judged to be such a danger to public health that she was incarcerated by the city of New York for 23 years. She was thought to be America's first known healthy typhoid carrier. The programme also explores the contemporary relevance of the story in the light of AIDS and a recent outbreak of TB in New York, it debates the rights of individuals against the wider interests of society.
Three children of victims of the Holocaust tell the almost unbelievable stories oftheirparents' survival. From ghetto, through concentration camp, on to displaced persons camp, and out to a new life beyond, these stories are harrowingand inspiring in turn.
Uses archive material from Vietnam and interviews with US agents to tell the story of the secret alliance between the USA and Ho Chi Minh in 1945 when Japan and USA were still at war and Japan was running Vietnam.
Reviews the BBC's coverage of the Vietnam war.
A portrait of Oscar Wilde and his family. Includes contributions from his grandson Merlin Holland and Lady Alice Douglas a descendant of Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas.
The extraordinary story of one of the Second World War's most secret alliances, between US Naval Intelligence and the Mafia.
A look at the final days of Adolf Hitler's life, with a definitive account of how he died. Fearing that Hitler had survived the war and escaped from Berlin, Stalin's security services launched a massive secret investigation. 'Operation Myth' began with brutal interrogations of captured survivors from Hitler's bunker, and ended with forensic detective work that led to the discovery of Hitler's skull.
Examines the doomed struggle of the Ibos to secede from Nigeria, during the 1967-1970 Biafra War. Includes interviews with the wartime leader Colonel Ojukwu, British High Commissioner Sir David Hunt and other witnesses.
Sets out to discover whether the Vikings deserved their reputation for rape and pillage, and explores how they might have achieved their remarkable feats of navigation and discovery. Reveals new evidence that is leading to a change in the modern perception of the Viking people. Contributors to the programme include the yachtsman, Robin Knox-Johnston.
Tells the true story of the Indian Princess Pocahontas including interviews with some of her descendants.
An investigation into those kamikaze pilots who survived the Second World War, includes interviews and archive footage.
Looks at the revolution that took place in the home. At the beginning of this century one in three working women was a domestic servant, this documentary looks at the way we live, the design of our houses and how the role of women was caught up with the changes that the First World War, gas and electricity brought to the home.
Examines how the Chicago mafia controlled Hollywood's biggest union and was paid off millions by the major studios between 1934 and 1941.
Traces the story of the tank during the First World War. Uses archive film and accounts from Tank Corps veterans to build up a picture of this technological novelty which was pushed to the limits in battles sometimes, as in the Third Battle of Ypres, with disastrous consequences.
Reveals the history behind the temple at Karnak in Egypt which took 2,000 years to build and was the greatest religious shrine of the ancient world.
Investigates Stalin's real role in the Korean War. Includes documents from the Soviet archives and interviews with key witnesses.
Explores the mysteries surrounding Sir Francis Drake's last voyage to the West Indies, which ended with his burial at sea off the coast of Panama in 1596. Also investigates the truth behind his reputation as a great naval hero.
Update of a 1973 documentary looking at offenders at the Peper Harrow young offenders institution. This programme follows the lives of six of the offenders asking whether the centre helped them break the circle of violence.
Brings to life the interviews carried out by Henry Mayhew in Victorian London which he undertook to document ordinary people's lives.
Documentary exploring the reputation of Field Marshall Douglas Haig, once known as "The Butcher of the Somme". There is now a new perspective on the man and veterans of the Somme as well as historians give their views. Includes archive footage of the general.
Norman Schwarzkopf discusses his military hero Hannibal and how his strategies were the inspiration for the allies' tactics in Desert Storm in the Gulf War. Follows Hannibal's route from the ruins of Carthage to the walls of Rome, recreating ancient battles with the aid of computer graphics.
Seeks to sort out the fact from fiction regarding Rennes-le-Chateau in Southern France.
Recounts the story of Will White through his letters home. He was one of thousands of amateur prospectors who rushed to the Klondike river in 1896 for the Goldrush.
Uses newly released archive film and testimonies from former prisoners in this documentary discussing the tens of thousands of foreigners who were sent to the Soviet Union's labour camps.
Investigation into how close the world came to a nuclear war in the 1960s. Looks at evidence that between 1948 and 1964 Curtis E LeMay and Thomas Power, who controlled the nuclear bombers of US Strategic Air Command, built up a huge nuclear arsenal and made plans for a US first strike called "preventative action" without presidential knowledge. It claims they tried to provoke the USSR into a nuclear strike with over-flights of US spy planes. Also considers the war mentality and state of minds of LeMay and other top American generals of the time and the Cuban missile crisis.
Documentary revisiting the town of Aberfan where in 1966 a coal tip collapsed and killed over one hundred children. Uses personal photographs and archive film to remember what happened and how people have coped.
Reunites three of those who fought in the Hungarian uprising in 1956, Bela Liptak, Greg Pongratz and Imre Mecs who view the orginal 1986 film CRY HUNGARY and discuss how far the ideas of the revolution were achieved.
A Women Making Movies release of a British Broadcasting production.
Re-examines the claim that a Welsh Prince, named Madoc was the first European to discover America, reaching there in 1170 and settling with the Mandan Indians of North Dakota.
Recounts the stories of British secret agents in the Second World War. Uses archive footage and personal testimonies from people such as Oluf Reed-Olsen, Brian Stonehouse and Tony Brooks.
Uses diaries, memoirs, photographs and archive film to examine the role that the media played in the Boer War 1899-1902.
Documentary showing the changes in childbirth over the past fifty years. Looks at the shift to hospital deliveries after the Second World War and the dehumanising experience that many women complained they suffered from. Discusses how the switch to hospitals changed the relationship between the mother and the midwife.
Uses archive footage, recently released documents and interviews with war veterans to discuss the Karen tribe of Burma's role in fighting against the Japanese in the Second World War. After the war the Allies rejected Karen's demands for independence. Veterans who fought with the Karen in the war returned to Burma to help their old friends and by 1949 aided and trained by elite British forces they had overrrun nearly all of Burma. They were prevented from victory by British intelligence cutting supply lines and the consequences of this defeat which has been a constant state of civil war against the Burmese government are explored in the documentary.
Documentary which reassesses a project from 1977 which was designed to discover more about prehistoric life. A group of young people lived and worked on a replica of an Iron Age farm. The success of the project is questioned in the light of recent archaeological discoveries. The orginal volunteers now middle-aged go back to the site to talk about the experience.
The true story behind the real bridge and the man who had to supply the men to build it, Lt. Col. Toosey. Toosey left behind nearly 50 hours of audio-tapes detailing his experiences in captivity. The programme draws on these tapes, interviews with British and Japanese war veterans, and previously unseen post-war correspondence with Toosey's former captor, Sergeant Major Saito.
This edition sheds new light on the origins of the ancient Mayan cities of Central America. Drawing on new evidence, Alan Ereira's film shows how, at the same time as Christianity was becoming the dominant religious force in Europe, a messianic, millenarian religious movement from outside the Maya world was reshaping this ancient civilisation.
In 1988, the third film about the inspirational life of Alison French, who has cerebral palsy, saw her get married to Mark John. Ten years and two children later, she talks candidly about her experiences as a disabled person as well as her new career as a youth and community worker
Drawing on secret documents which will be released to the Public Records Office for the first time in November 1997, this programme examines the role played by the mysterious Vernon Kell, known as `K', in the setting up of MI5 in 1909, and documents the fight against German spies sent to Britain during World War I.
Transatlantic slavery was responsible for the largest, long-distance, forced migration in history. But, since Europeans did not venture into the interior until after abolition, how did around 12 million Africans fall into their clutches? This programme delves into history and finds that, contrary to popular belief, most of the business was conducted by black slave merchants trading on the coast with Europeans.
Stored deep underground by Soviet authorities, secret files documenting the life of Lenin were hidden away for decades in a labyrinth of vaults, behind blast-proof steel doors, specially strengthened to withstand nuclear attack. The programme's exclusive access to the intimate dossiers reveals a disturbed man with a turbulent personal life whose political reign involved terror tactics against the enemies of socialism to force the pace of revolutionary change and direct orders for mass executions.
Twenty-five years ago, the Ugandan Asians arrived in Britain. Expelled from their homes in Uganda, they came with just £50 in their pockets to face two very different sides of British hospitality. This year, a report has shown them to be one of the most successful communities in Britain, and Uganda has asked them to return. With interviews, propaganda footage and news archive, this programme explores the emotional history of the Ugandan Asians and examines how they feel about Britain and the home they left behind.
This film explores the myths that surround the legendary Egyptian queen, and attempts to unravel the truth behind a life, and death, that helped to shape the civilised world for the next 500 years.
A fresh look at why Hitler abandoned plans to invade Britain in 1940 and prepared, instead, to attack the Soviet Union.
Nine former grammar-school boys recall their schooldays and reflect on how that system affected their lives.
In 1976, a mummified body was found in a ghost train at a Californian fairground, which researchers claimed belonged to an incompetent outlaw called Elmer McCurdy. This documentary investigates what happened to his remains after his death, delving into the world of showmen and exploitation movie-makers.
Trajan's Column, constructed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus, and completed in AD 113, at the order of the Roman Senate, is located in Trajan's Forum near the Quirinal Hill to the north of the Roman Forum. The memorial column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which commemorates Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars The structure is about 30 metres (98 ft) in height, 38 metres (125 ft) including its large pedestal. The shaft is made from a series of 20 colossal Carrara marble drums, each weighing about 40 tons, with a diameter of about 4 meters (13 ft). The 190 metre (625 ft) frieze winds around the shaft 23 times. Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 stairs provides access to a viewing platform at the top. According to coins depicting the column, it was originally topped with a statue of a bird, possibly an eagle and later by a heroically nude statue of Trajan himself which disappeared in the Middle Ages.
A look at Las Vegas, the world's gambling capital. Over 30 million people visit each year, but most are unaware that it was the clean-living Mormons who played a major part in creating `sin city'.
As the Aborigine people fight for their land rights, Australia's historians are uncovering new evidence that white settlers made concerted efforts, through breeding and eugenics, to wipe out the native Australians.
An exploration of the history and extent of homosexuality in the armed forces.
The story of World War One from the point of view of Lloyd George, Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922. After the British victory, he declared that the whole event was one of sorry military incompetence and senseless sacrifice.
This programme charts the Pilgrim Fathers' dangerous journey in the Mayflower, disentangles the surprising history from the legends, and tells the story of the Pilgrims' descendants.
This programme examines the case of the Allied bankers who continued their business dealings with the Nazis during World War Two. The US Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, began investigating Nazi finances 60 years ago and found Allied banks, including many British and American high street names, who continued to do business with Hitler's Germany throughout the war. When Pres. Roosevelt died in April 1945, Morganthau lost his protector and his crusade against the banks came to an end. This incredible story contains interviews with surviving members of banking families and Morgenthau's investigative team as well as newly found archive material.
Documentary examining the legacy of the British rule of India. Historian Andrew Roberts believes that Britain should take enormous pride in its imperial past, but this thesis is forcefully challenged by many. Kirsty Wark chairs a discussion on the issue.
In October 1993, elite units of the US army were pinned down on the streets of Mogadishu in Somalia by forces of Mohammed Farah Aidid, whom they were trying to capture. The ensuing battle left 18 American soldiers dead and 75 wounded. This programme explores this peace-keeping mission gone wrong.
Tells the story of one of the century's great imposters, the eco-warrior known as Grey Owl.
Two former prisoners of war recall a World War Two tragedy that occurred as the men, one Briton and one Australian, were being transported in a rusting cargo ship to Japan after having worked on the Thai-Burma `Death Railway'. Lying in wait for the convoy were three US submarines, unaware the ships were carrying Allied prisoners.
This programme looks back to the Oklahoma land runs of 1893 when 150,000 men and women rushed to claim land in the US state.
The exploration of a remarkable construction that lay hidden in the jungle for more than 1,000 years.
The aftermath of the Nazi occupation of France, when more than 10,000 women went on trial to face charges of sleeping with the enemy.
Investigation into a shipping collision in 1909 in which over 1,500 lives were saved.
This programme investigates the fate of the two-and-a-half million Indians who fought for Britain during the Second World War. It looks at how they were forgotten by Britain, and disowned by India after the war and faced racism and prejudice.
This programme looks at what motivated Denmark's politicians in 1969 to abolish the country's traditional obscenity laws, against the objections of the religious opposition, making it the first country in the world to legalise all forms of pornography.
Exposing the undercover dealings of enemy agents and the MI5 counter-deception, known as the double-cross system, in the Second World War. Captured German spies were turned into double agents and used to deceive the Axis forces. One of the most famous of these spies was nicknamed 'Garbo', originally based in Lisbon, but brought to Britain by MI5 where he convinced the Germans that he ran an outfit of many agents scattered across the country. The programme also shows how these agents played a crucial role in the success of the Normandy landings, and includes interviews with Pat McCallum, who was in charge of the double agents' files at MI5; Alan Shanks, a member of the MI5 interrogation centre, Camp 020; Hugh Astor, an MI5 agent; and Anthony Simkins, former Deputy-Director of MI5.
For four centuries Ivan the Terrible has epitomized the image of a vicious, cruel despot and tyrant. In his own land he is remembered as a statesman who held his country together through difficult times.
The history of the Eiffel Tower, examining its original design and construction and the strong feelings the "Iron Lady" first provoked among the Parisians.
Documentary about the biggest ever wartime mutiny in the British Army. Includes first-hand evidence from survivors of the mutiny in 1943.
In 1946 almost half a million German prisoners of war were still being held in Britain. Interviews, archive footage and photographs shed light on the experiences of the people of Oswaldtwistle, a Lancashire town that offered the hand of friendship to the prisoners of war located near the town.
Documentary about the love affair between a Nazi housewife and mother (Lilly Wurst), and a young Jewish woman (Felice Schraderheim) living "underground," in Berlin during World War II. Historical footage and interviews with survivors.
hile everyone knows of the history of slavery in the USA, few people realize that Brazil was actually the largest participant in the slave trade. Forty percent of all slaves that survived the Atlantic crossing were destined for Brazil, while only 4 % were sent to the U.S. At one time half of the population of Brazil were slaves. It was the last country to officially abolish slavery (1888) and one of the ex-slaves is still alive today. This well researched BBC production charts Brazil's history using original texts, letters, accounts and decrees. From these original sources, we learn firsthand about the brutality of the slave traders and slave owners, and the hardship of plantation life. With the Portugese colony of Angola acting as a "factory" supplying Africans to Brazil, it was cheaper to replace any slave starved and worked to death than to extend his life by treating him humanely. Few plantation owners sent for their wives to live in this hot climate, so the softening effect of family life was absent among the rough white settlers. Historians Joao Jose Reis, Cya Teixeira, Marilene Rosa Da Silva, anthropologist Peter Fry, and others recount the effect of centuries of slavery on Brazil today.This is an important documentary for Black history, African history and Latin American studies.
Escapologist Harry Houdini was one of the icons of the early 20th century. Restored archive footage and interviews with historians and illusionists recall his extraordinary impact on audiences and reveal the secrets behind some of his most amazing escapes.
Chronicling the construction of the Empire State Building in New York, which was the world's tallest skyscraper when opened in 1931. The programme investigates the building's history through interviews with the people who contributed to the construction of this iconic building.
Documentary looking at the relationship between Hitler and Himmler, and how the latter made secret approaches to the Allies as the Second World War in Europe drew to a close, a betrayal of the Nazi principle of absolute loyalty and obedience to the Fuehrer. Also looks at his failed attempts to use Jewish hostages to barter for money or equipment with the Allies, and at instances where other SS generals contradicted or refused to follow unnecessary suicidal military orders from Hitler.
Historical drama-documentary. Professor John Guy attempts to unravel the myth of Thomas More, a man whose final years covered one of the great turning points of British history.
It was once the grandest, most ostentatious building on earth. It was built by the most infamous emperor in history to satiate his many and various lusts. It was a building that played host to violence, sexual perversion and great beauty. Even the Romans found it too much and built the Colosseum on top of it. Today a few rooms remain - and a new investigation is taking place to try and distinguish fact from fiction. It will be one of history's great detective stories - can the building help prove whether the Emperor Nero was as bad as they say - or worse? Or was he actually an inspired artist and designer unfairly maligned through the centuries? Is the 'Golden House' one of the unrecognized architectural wonders of the world? Rome's most notorious emperor was trying to create a model of Roman domination on land and sea. There were hundreds of rooms, and thousands of frescoes and statues. Only the best was considered worthy. To cap it all, a 120-foot statue of Nero, as absolute ruler, stood at the entrance - (this was the Colossus - from which the Colosseum would later derive its name). On completing the Golden House Nero exclaimed, "Good, now I can at last live like a human being." This visually bold and exciting film examines the reality behind the myth of this extraordinary building. Moreover, the film explores just who was the real Nero - and what does his rule tell us about the rule of the Roman emperors.
The story of bank robber John Dillinger, who in the Depression era of 1930s America became the first person to be named public enemy number one.
Recalls the WWII battle for Crete in 1941 - the first entirely airborne invasion and places it in a wider historical and military context. The German victory was achieved at a high cost, and Hitler and Churchill drew entirely opposite conclusions from the event. Includes contributions from German and British veterans of the battle and archive footage.
In 1974 Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, a 52 year old Japanese officer, made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle. Never having received his formal surrender orders, he had, for nearly thirty years, loyally continued fighting the Second World War. Until now Onoda has never talked to Western Press. The Last Surrender pieces together his complex and ultimately sinister story.
A film examining the debutante experience of 1939 through the eyes of a colourful collection of debs and debs' delights, including the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, the Duke of Wellington, and the Duchess of Northumberland. While Europe was steeling itself in the face of fascist aggression, the upper-class marriage market was in full swing, and here the participants talk vividly about the parties, ballgowns and broken hearts.
Twenty-one years after the series STRANGEWAYS was screened, the original producer and director Rex Bloomstein, returns to the prison to see how things have changed. He traces the story of eight former inmates and staff who featured in the series. Prisoners Vinny Valente, Harry Longmuir, Barry Bispham and Terry McDonald speak of their experiences. In 1980 4,000 young offenders passed through the Borstal Allocations Centre in Starngeways. One of these was Paul Wood. His tragic fate after Strangeways is told by his sisters.
This programme investigates the last voyage of the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst.
Eight volunteers undergo the same sort of training as Roman soldiers 2000 years ago.
Documentary examining at the tactics of Bomber Command, under Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris in WW2. The programme contends that Bomber Command Intelligence began to target towns with little military value after most German industrial centres had been destroyed. It is claimed that Harris favoured the tactic of destroying entire areas rather than bombing specific targets. This tactic is said to have been encouraged by Churchill who later distanced himself from Harris. The raid on Dresden in February 1945 caused the deaths of 30,000 civilians. This lead to accusations of the terror-bombing of civilians. The programme contains archive footage and interviews with former members of Bomber Command and German survivors of such raids.
An investigation into new research about the first 30 years of the Nazi leader's life. The programme challenges the claim. made in `Mein Kampf' that he had a long-held blueprint for politcial power, revealing instead that Hiter was a drifter and opportunist. Also assesses the evidence for and against Hitler's homosexuality.
The Iron Bridge is an icon of the Industrial Revolution the world’s first metal structure and an outstanding example of 18th-Century British technical ingenuity.Yet, incredibly, no-one knows how this vast aerial jigsaw spanning the river Severn in Shropshire was actually constructed. Timewatch sets talented young engineer, Jamie Hillier, the task of solving the mystery.
Following the military and civilian divers working to unravel the reasons behind the sinking of both HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse by the Japanese Air Force in the South China Sea in December 1941, a loss considered to be one of Britain's greatest maritime disasters.
The story of the No Gun Ri massacre in which Korean civilians were killed by the American army. Uses eyewitness accounts (from the civilians and army) as well as recently declassified documents.
A look back at how Britain celebrated the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.
Documentary exploring the public's enduring fascination with the White Star Line's most famous ship, the Titanic. The programme attempts to uncover the truth behind the many myths which have grown up around her sinking in 1912, and asks why the tragedy continues to attract such attention.
Timewatch looks at the Red Army's sweep to Berlin and battle for the city, and the great loss of life and suffering endured. Historian Antony Beevor looks at the scale and tactics of the battle, and at the rapes, murder, looting and destruction that went on against the civilian population, not just Germans but liberated camp and slave labour victims as well.
After the Soviets forced the Germans to surrender, Joseph Stalin secretly purged Leningrad, executing the people who had ensured it's freedom, and imprisoning their families. This documentary draws on previously classified Russian documents and survivors' testimony to explain the dictators actions.
Documentary investigating what really occurred at the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn : the scene of Custer's Last Stand. The programme aims to reveal the truth behind the events that have passed into American folklore, exposing as myth the Hollywood image of the chivalrous soldier who gave his life defending his crack troops against a ferocious attack from a deadly enemy.
The story of Akhenaten, the heretic king of Egypt, who introduced a new religion and demanded that he be worshipped like a god on Earth.
In 1849, Harvard professor John White Webster was hanged for the slaying and dismemberment of prominent Bostonian George Parkman, apparently over money. Historian Simon Schama investigates the case in the light of ongoing doubts about Webster's guilt, and attempts to solve the celebrated murder mystery once and for all.
Dan Cruickshank investigates the circumstances and rituals surrounding death in Victorian Britain by piecing together the fate of five apparently unrelated corpses. The story he uncovers is one of bizarre extremes - of bodysnatchers and the bodies they snatched; of inner-city graveyards so overflowing that the limbs of the dead could be seen protruding from the newly dug earth; of the great new cemeteries where a tomb cost as much as a terrace of houses in east London; of the suspicious resistance which greeted the 'heathenish' practice of cremation; and of the carnage of the Western Front where Victorian ideals about death - and the afterlife - were finally shattered by the violence of the Great War.
The discovery of a shipwreck off Salcombe in Devon, uncovers much more than a glittering haul of Islamic coins and jewellery - it also reveals a forgotten time, when coastal Europe lived in terror of the `Barbary Pirates', buccaneers from North Africa. Was the wreck an infamous Barbary `xebec', on its way to another slave raid?
After ruling for more than 1,000 years and becoming masters of astronomy and architecture, the Maya abandoned their cities in the Central American jungle and vanished, creating one of history's most enduring mysteries. Here, archaeologist Kathryn Reese-Taylor and her team of international experts journey into the snake-infested Guatemalan jungle to uncover the reasons behind the ancient civilisation's collapse, hoping that the discovery of the lost city of Naachtun will answer the 1,000-year-old riddle
An ambitious restaging of the Rainhill Locomotive Trials using replica engines, providing the rivals of Stephenson's Rocket with a fair chance to beat the famous locomotive : which won the original 1829 competition by default. Through this remarkable event, the story of the world's first inter-city railway is told : a tale of innovation and brinkmanship
Film about the man remembered as Egypt's last great pharaoh, using an ancient papyrus to reveal the dark workings of a leader in crisis. Shot in Cairo, Luxor and the Valley of the Queens, a story of conspiracy, vengeance and murder is uncovered.
Documentary examining how the whole nature of warfare changed after the first few months of the First World War, moving from initial traditional cavalry skirmishes between the German and British troops to trench warfare and stalemates that lasted the rest of the War. Looks at the reasons for this.
Concorde, the world's only supersonic jet, reached the end of its flying days in 2003, but the love affair between the public and the plane is likely to endure for many years longer. This documentary reveals the inside story of how such a remarkable plane was designed and built, and how it survived against all odds to become an international icon and in the process changed the face of air travel for ever. Told by celebrity frequent fliers like David Frost and Henry Kissinger, by engineers, test pilots, stewardesses and charter passengers, this is the story of Concorde's life and death.
Battle re-enactments shot on location and dramatisation of Queen Victoria's journals illustrate the story of how, in what is now South Africa, Britain experienced a humiliating military defeat.
In January of 1953, unusual weather conditions caused Britain's worst national peacetime disaster of the 20th century. A storm surge flooded the eastern coast of England, killing more than 300 people and leaving thousands homeless. Fifty years later, 'Timewatch' re-examines a calamity which is largely forgotten today.
A profile of 19th-century circus strongman-turned-adventurer, Giovanni Belzoni, who was responsible for unearthing some of ancient Egypt's greatest treasures. Among his exploits was the discovery of the tomb at the heart of the great pyramid and the Temple of Abu Simbel. Sadly, a bitter feud with his employer meant he died in obscurity, while a rival claimed the fame.
The truth about the disappearance of the RAF's "most valuable pilot". In 1944, Wing Commander Adrian Warburton went missing in action, sparking a 60-year mystery. One of the most glamorous and highly decorated pilots of World War II, he was known as "Lawrence Arabia of the sky". He became a living legend on the besieged Mediterranean island of Malta, where he flew daredevil reconnaissance missions and fell in love with a beautiful cabaret dancer. He disappeared during a controversial American mission over Germany and for decades speculation was rife about the reasons he vanished without trace. Theories ranged from suicide to racing back to Malta to be with his one true love. But in the summer of 2002, a diverse group of historians, archaeologists and air crash investigators from Europe and America began unraveling a series of seemingly unrelated investigations. But when pieced together, they created a compelling theory about Warburton's disappearance. What caused a German historian and a Welsh hobbyist to realise they were on the right track? Why did a burnt roll of film seem to hold the most vital clue? How did the RAF conclude " beyond all reasonable doubt" that this was the man they were looking for?
Who was Piltdown Man? Early in the twentieth century the story of Piltdown Man came out at just the time when British scientists were in a desperate race to find the missing link in the theory of evolution. Since Charles Darwin had published his theory on the origin of species in 1859, the hunt had been on for clues to the ancient ancestor that linked apes to humans. Sensational finds of fossil ancestors, named Neanderthals, had already occurred in Germany and France. British Scientists, however, were desperate to prove that Britain had also played its part in the story of human evolution, and Piltdown Man was the answer to their prayers - because of him, Britain could claim to be the birthplace of mankind. On 18 December 1912 newspapers throughout the world ran some sensational headlines - mostly along the lines of: 'Missing Link Found - Darwin's Theory Proved'. That same day, at a meeting of the Geological Society in London, fragments of a fossil skull and jawbone were unveiled to the world. These fragments were quickly attributed to 'the earliest Englishman - Piltdown Man', although the find was officially named Eoanthropus dawsoni after its discoverer, Charles Dawson. Dawson was an amateur archaeologist, said to have stumbled across the skull in a gravel pit at Barkham Manor, Piltdown, in Sussex. Some forty years later a team of English scientists attempted to discover if Piltdown Man was genuine or a deliberate fraud. So what had really happened?
A re-examination of the World War One Gallipoli landings, which were designed to break the deadlock of the 1915 Western Front, but became a massive blunder claiming 250,000 Allied casualties and almost destroying Churchill's burgeoning political career. Featuring underwater footage of submerged British battleships, and interviews with relatives of those who fought and died.
A dramatised documentary following the experiences of Henry Metelmann a German soldier caught up in the most destructive conflict in history - Hitlers invasion of Russia. The film travels the route that Metelmann and his fellow soldiers took and sees how the choices he made meant he emerged from the war a brutalised man. The film is Metalmanns confession.
The amazing true story of Britain's X-Files examines the bizarre and intriguing history of Britain's UFO phenomena. The journey takes in sceptical prime ministers, senior RAF officers, and royal believers Prince Philip and Lord Mountbatten. The X-Files opened in 1950 when Clement Attlee's government established the extraordinary Flying Saucer Working Party, and ended in 2000 when the Ministry of Defence disbanded its UFO intelligence unit.
The passenger liner Persia was sunk off Crete, while the passengers were having lunch, on December 30, 1915, by German World War I U-Boat ace Max Valentiner (commanding U-38). The Persia sank in five to ten minutes, killing 343 of the 519 aboard. The sinking was highly controversial, since it broke naval international law, or the "Cruiser Rules", that stated merchant shipping carrying passengers should be given opportunity for the passengers to disembark before combat could commence. A warning shot across the bow should have been given first. Instead, the U-Boat fired a torpedo with no warning. At the time of sinking, Persia was carrying a large quantity of gold and jewels belonging to the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh.
This programme explores the secretive life of the Ferrari brand creator, Enzo Ferrari, who died in 1988.
Dr John Davies presents a history of Wales. In this episode he introduces an intriguing archaeological detective story, as the discovery of an eighty-foot medieval merchant ship hidden deep in the mud of the River Usk reveals a longlost story of piracy and bloody civil war.
A revealing look at whether King George III was really the mad king who lost America, introduced by HRH the Prince of Wales himself. Our future king helps explore the life of Britain's longest-reigning king, revealing a dutiful, plain-living monarch and loving family man whose 60 years on the throne saw a flowering of the arts and sciences.
It's one of the most notorious murders of all time - the killing of Grigory Rasputin in Russia in 1916. The accepted version of events was supplied by self-confessed murderer Prince Felix Yusupov. Acting with a group of fellow conspirators, he is famously said to have poisoned, then shot and finally drowned Rasputin. But astonishing new evidence has now come to light linking the British Secret Service with the murder
On 11 September, 1943, a small team of men set out on what official records described as 'the most daring attack of the Second World War'. The secret mission pitted just a handful of British volunteers against an enemy several thousand strong. Crammed into four-man midget submarines, they battled for eleven days across treacherous Arctic seas. Their objective - an impregnable Norwegian fjord holding a foe one thousand four hundred times their size. The battleship Hitler called 'the Beast' - Tirpitz.
For years, it has been believed that the Black Death, which swept through Europe in the Middle Ages, was Bubonic Plague. In the light of powerful new research, the true identity of this medieval killer has come under scrutiny. Timewatch explores whether the terrifying speed and deadly impact of the Black Death could possibly be explained by an epidemic of Bubonic Plague.
Documentary telling the story of the Black African Kingdom of Kush and its battles with ancient Egypt for supremacy of the Nile Valley. The kings of Kush ruled Egypt for 100 years and became the most powerful emperors of the ancient world. Though archaeologists were convinced Kush's influence had been underestimated, they had lacked proof until the recent discovery of an inscription in a tomb that tells of an invasion by a Kushite army.
Over 20 years after the Tudor ship Mary Rose was lifted from Portsmouth harbour, maritime archaeologists attempting to complete the jigsaw return to the wreck site. It tells of not only the artefacts discovered - cooking utensils, prayer books, weapons - but also reveals the stories of the sailors themselves. Dramatic reconstruction and detailed graphics provide a picture of what life would have been like on a Tudor warship.
In 52BC, the future of Rome and Gaul - and that of their peoples - hangs in the balance. It will be determined in three great encounters. The battles are the culmination of a momentous personal duel between two great leaders. A duel, which this documentary recreates. The name of one leader, Julius Caesar, will resound through history. His rival a young chieftain called Vercingetorix is virtually unknown. Vercingetorix's people, the Gauls, are history's victims. In a bitter eight year campaign, through what is known as France, Caesar killed a million people, took a million more hostage and destroyed 800 cities. Julius Caesar's Greatest Battle is told through the eyes of Mark Corby a Roman historian with a professional admiration for Caesar and Neil Faulkner an archaeologist for whom Rome's great achievement was no more than robbery with violence. Mark takes on the role of Caesar and Neil that of Vercingetorix in this gripping 50 minute documentary.
Leading criminologist David Wilson reopens one of the most compelling mysteries of all time: the death of Russia's first dictator. He was a man who took what he wanted and ruled his huge empire by terror - but was Ivan the Terrible himself murdered? David Wilson's investigations begin with age-old rumours that Ivan was strangled by enemies in his court, his search takes him across Russia, back to London, unravelling a story of intrigue centring around the English Queen Elizabeth I. Timewatch gathers medical experts and forensic scientists to prove that Ivan was in fact poisoned, and by someone he trusted, but there's one final twist in the tale...
Forget the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus, the greatest public spectacle in ancient Rome took place in the Forum, where trials were packaged as entertainment, with life or death outcomes. Thousands flocked to see the spectacles, drawn by the prospect of lurid tales of murder, intrigue and violence. After all, there was no state prosecution service so the law was only open to the rich and famous, meaning the trials were a fascinating window on a world of debauched privilege. The stars of these bloody shows were the lawyers and the greatest of them all was Cicero (Paul Rhys). Proud of his achievements, Cicero kept a record of his most famous case. This dramatisation of his trial transcripts makes for compulsive viewing, packed full of numerous twists and intriguing characters such as Sextus Roscius Junior (Mark McGann). Accused of his father’s murder, the odds are stacked against him: not only did he have the means, motive and opportunity but the prosecutor is Erucius (Owen Teale) – one of the finest in the city. Nevertheless, by the time Cicero has finished, not only is Sextus Junior absolved, but Cicero has unmasked a conspiracy that reaches right to the top of Roman society.
A complete re-appraisal of the death of this notorious 20th Century dictator. Was the official account of Stalin’s death a cover-up for what really happened? Secret KGB files are examined for the first time to discover the truth.
Documentary that looks back to the furore caused by Princess Margaret's affair with Peter Townsend, a divorced commoner. Billed as a constitutional crisis, Margaret's dilemma was the first modern royal scandal which would shape the future of royal relations with the media. In 1955 she chose to sacrifice love for duty by ending the affair, but new evidence presented here suggests that hers was a needless sacrifice.
At 9am on 20 January 1607, a massive wave devastated the counties of the Bristol Channel. It came without warning, sweeping all before it. The flooding stretched inland as far as the Glastonbury Tor. Two hundred square miles of Somerset, Devon, Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire were inundated. Up to 2,000 people died. Yet for 400 years, the killer wave of 1607 has been forgotten. Timewatch relives the terror and the human tragedy of 1607 and follows the research of two scientists who are increasingly convinced that the wave was not simply a freak storm but a tsunami.
Archaeologists Tony Wilmott and Dan Garner lead us through three months of hard graft, excavating Britain's largest Roman ampitheatre in Chester, possibly built by Emperor Vespasian, the man who built the Colosseum in Rome. With the help of computer animation, they bring Chester's magnificent ampitheatre back to life.
Two experts try to piece together how the biggest volcanic eruption ever recorded, at Mount Tambora in eastern Indonesia in 1815, brought about worldwide climate change and altered the lives of hundreds of thousands of people
At the end of World War II Japan was under American control. It was widely anticipated that Emperor Hirohito would face trial for war crimes, but no trial ever took place. This film sets out to explore why, and to ask whether the Emperor escaped his responsibility. The film's archival footage provides powerful testimony about a nation on the verge of war, the atrocities committed during the war in the name of the country, the fierce and tragic battles fought by the people, and the country's post-war management. Based on his aide's diaries and other records, the dramatisation sheds light on the Emperor's decisions to go to war, continue the war and end the war.
Documentary which re-examines the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 - one of the most famous, yet least understood events in British history. It shows how the plot was almost England's 9/11, and asks why a group of young Englishmen became so radicalised and so hell-bent on terrorism. Computer graphics recreate what the Houses of Parliament looked like in 1605, and show just how close the plotters came to success.
There have been many ruthless dictators in the last century, who have killed millions in their quest for power, but few have managed to inflict such enormous damage on one small country. During Pol Pot's four-year reign of Cambodia he exterminated nearly a third of his own people. Between one and three million Cambodians died during the three years, eight months and 20 days of Pol Pot's rule. Timewatch examines the history behind the horror
The tragic loss of the SS City of Benares was the worst disaster involving British children in World War Two. Timewatch producer and director Steve Humphries tells their story.
Timewatch producer David Stewart describes filming the story of the men who put the Führer on the psychoanalyst's couch at the height of World War Two.
In 2003, archaeologists set out to solve two ancient murder mysteries. The victims were incredibly rare bog bodies. Timewatch discovers who these men were, when they lived and how they died.
Dramatised documentary telling the gripping story of a deadly duel at sea and one of the best intelligence bluffs of WWII. Commodore Henry Harwood takes on Captain Hans Langsdorff and the pride of the German navy, the Graf Spee, in a battle of courage and wit. One would return home a hero, while the other would lose his reputation, his ship, and ultimately his life.
Three modern day women trace their ancestors and uncover the rags-to-respectability tale of three feisty convict women who bucked the system and became the unlikely founding mothers of modern Australia. Timewatch follows this extraordinary story which starts with The Lady Juliana, the all-female transport ship sent out to Australia, and its cargo of whores, thieves and canny con artists who saved a dying colony and redeemed themselves.
When the remains of two soldiers from World War One were discovered in a field in France in 2003, a unique unit of the American military was called in to identify them. This case proved to be one of their greatest challenges.
Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, a unique unit of the American military goes in search of two pilots who were shot down in 1967 while returning from a dangerous bombing mission over Hanoi.
Timewatch examines The Secret History of the Mongols, said to have been written by the Khan's adopted son, to reveal how an illiterate nomad inspired his successors to conquer the largest land empire the world had ever seen.
In October 1178 Baldwin set out to construct a castle which would destabilise Saladin's nascent empire and shift the balance of power in his own favour - the fortress of Jacob's Ford. His new castle was designed to be a defensive tool as well as an offensive weapon, to severely inhibit Saladin's ability to invade the Latin kingdom while simultaneously undermining the sultan's security in Damascus. If completed, this fortress could thwart Saladin's ambitions for an empire stretching into northern Syria and Mesopotamia.
Timewatch investigates the discovery of 30 decapitated Romans in York. Who were they and what happened? An expert team takes us on this fantastic detective story that goes right to the heart of the Roman world.
The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 saw its people take on the might of the Nazis. Timewatch examines one of the most heroic, and tragic, military operations undertaken by any resistance movement in World War Two.
Documentary about an epic battle which changed the course of the American Civil War and transformed the face of naval warfare forever. It was the world's first combat between the ironclads, The Monitor and The Merrimack, but the technology which made these ships almost invincible also changed the nature of life on the seas. Shut out from daylight, depending on their machine for the air they breathe, the crew of the Monitor immediately feared their own vessel, naming her the iron coffin.
In the early hours of Wednesday 18 April, 1906, America's greatest ever natural disaster struck San Francisco. Told through the words and images of those who were there, Timewatch marks the centenary by revealing the true extent of the catastrophe.
Documentary about Noor Inayat Khan, who in 1943 became the first woman wireless operator to be sent into war-torn France. It was the most dangerous job in SOE, Churchill's secret army, and she was not expected to survive long. The daughter of an Indian mystic and a writer of children's stories in pre-war Paris, she was a curious choice for a secret agent, but became London's vital link with Nazi-occupied Paris. Betrayed, captured and tortured, Noor revealed nothing before she was executed.
Dramatised documentary telling the true story of how the HMS Venturer hunted down and sank the U-Boat U864 in February 1945, the only time two submarines duelled to the death underwater. Eyewitness accounts, secret and long-forgotten archive material and a dive into the Baltic's frozen depths bring to life the full amazing story of U864's last hours.
Documentary which tells the inside story of the rise and fall of Beatlemania, using previously unseen archive footage and interviews with those who accompanied the Fabs on tour. By 1966 the Beatles had played over 1,400 gigs, toured the world four times and sold the equivalent of 200 million records. At the height of their popularity, and without warning, they pulled the plug and never toured again.
In 1783, thousands in Britain died as a result of an environmental disaster, choking on poisonous gases from a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland. The ensuing winter was one of the harshest ever recorded and claimed even more lives. This forgotten disaster has remained a mystery for the past 200 years. 'Timewatch' reveals the evidence and reviews the likelihood of a repetition.
It is unique in the Roman World. A spectacular and complex stone barrier measuring 74 miles long, and up to 15 feet high and 10 feet thick. For 300 years Hadrian's Wall stood as the Roman Empire's most imposing frontier and one of the unsung wonders of the ancient world. Almost 2,000 years after it was built, Hadrian's Wall is proving to be a magical time capsule - a window into the human past. Archaeologists have properly excavated less than 1per cent of it, but they have unearthed extraordinary findings. With presenter Julian Richards Timewatch journeys back through time to unlock the secrets of a lost world.
Long before World War II, in WWI in fact, Germany began the world's first strategic bombing campaign. In an attempt to demoralize the people of Britain, in early 1915 a German zeppelin airship dropped bombs on the Norfolk town of Great Yarmouth. It was the start of a campaign lasting two-and-a-half years which killed 1,500 people. Timewatch reexamines the forgotten Blitz.
After quarreling over a bank loan, two men took part in the last fatal duel staged on Scottish soil. BBC News's James Landale retraces the steps of his ancestor, who made that final challenge. On 23 August 1826, two men met at dawn in a field just outside Kirkcaldy in southern Fife. Only one walked away alive. One was David Landale, a linen merchant and pillar of the community. The other was George Morgan, a soldier-turned-banker with a fiery temper. The pair had quarreled over a bank loan, an argument that had led the banker to spread rumours about his client's creditworthiness. The merchant had in turn taken his accounts elsewhere and written a stiff letter of complaint to the Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh. And that is where it would have stayed had not Morgan's temper got the better of him one morning when he struck Landale about the head with an umbrella in Kirkcaldy High Street.
The story of the worst British disaster of the Falklands conflict of 1982 is told in Timewatch: Remember The Galahad. Two troopships were bombed by Argentine planes at Fitzroy Inlet, with the loss of 50 lives. One of them, Sir Galahad, was packed with Welsh Guards who had been waiting for six hours in broad daylight to disembark. Twenty-five years on, survivors and others affected by the tragedy tell how this act of war continues to shape so many lives.
In 1970 a flight with more than twenty children on board was hijacked by a Palestinian guerrilla group. It was the only time a British commercial aircraft has ever been hijacked. Timewatch probes the ethics of negotiating with hijackers and discusses the alternatives.
Told in their own words, these are the hair-raising stories of four young Jewish children in France secretly hidden from the Nazis. They were taken in by individuals and organisations determined that even as their parents were killed, they should live.
A team of archaeologists and scientists comb Crete for conclusive evidence that Europe's first great civilization, the Minoans, was destroyed by a devastating natural disaster. Is it possible that the sudden fate of the Minoans was the origin of Plato's tale of Atlantis, the fabulous city that was swallowed by the sea?
In June 1953 Britain was still suffering from the privations imposed by World War II. Despite the hardships, the country was excited by a once-in-a-lifetime event. A young queen was beginning her reign. Thanks to television, the common Briton was able to see his monarch crowned for the first time in Britain's 1000 year history. Observers and participants shared their memories of the historic occasion.
Thanks to the revolutionary work of forensic anthropologists Dr Fabian Kanz and Professor Karl Grossschmidt, 'Timewatch' has been able to establish a detailed picture of how gladiators may have lived, fought and died 2000 years ago in Ephesus. A tombstone identified one 50 year-old body as gladiator trainer Euxenius. His remains, and the skeletons of 68 other gladiators nearby, reveal much about the diet, lifestyle, medical care and fighting conditions of the legendary warriors.
In 1943 Noor Inayat Khan became the first woman wireless operator to be sent into war torn France. It was the most dangerous job in SOE (Churchill's secret army) and she was not expected to survive more than 6 weeks. The daughter of an Indian mystic and a writer of children's stories in pre-war Paris, she was a curious choice for a secret agent. But London was desperate. They had a traitor in their midst and that summer Noor would become their vital link with Nazi-occupied Paris. Betrayed, captured and tortured, Noor revealed nothing of SOE before she was executed. Awarded the George Cross for her bravery, Timewatch tells the story of the Princess Spy
On 1 July 2007, 65 volunteers are setting off on an extraordinary voyage. After ten years of meticulous preparation, a crew of intrepid volunteers will sail a reconstructed Viking warship, the 'Sea Stallion' from Glendalough (the Irish location where she originated), from Denmark to Dublin - a journey of over 1,000 miles through some of the most challenging waters in the world. The project is not just a thrilling adventure on the high seas, it is one of the largest experimental archaeology projects ever conducted. The team behind the boat's construction hope to gain a unique understanding of Viking technology, and the men who made these ships one of the most feared sights of the Dark Ages. This is experimental archaeology pushed to its limit - the crew will be crossing the same waters in the same type of vessel as the Vikings. They will gain an insight into the hardships, risks and realities that those intrepid warriors would have faced a millennium ago. Each member of crew has less than one square metre where they must live, sleep and eat. Privacy is impossible. The ship has no shelter from the weather, no cleaning facilities and no lavatories. They will be living virtually on top of each other for six weeks and this will test their camaraderie to the limit. It will also be a challenging test for the boat itself. No one knows whether the structure they've built will be able to withstand the rigours of the open sea. If a mistake has been made in the reconstruction, the ship could be destroyed by the forces of the waves and wind. Every crew member knows there's a risk of shipwreck in the North Sea.
Researchers and historians are still arguing about why Omaha Beach was the hardest beach to capture in the D-day landings. Presenter Richard Hammond analyses the latest theories with Dr Simon Trew of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
In January, the MSC Napoli ran aground, spilling its cargo on Branscombe beach in Devon. The public were delighted, but the authorities were determined to police opportunists. Looters of the Napoli were reviving a centuries' old tradition: 'wrecking'. Author Bella Bathurst discovers the social history of a national crime.
Dr Saul David investigates the violent world of the medieval melee tournament. Unlike the better known joust, this was a brutal brawl with sharpened weapons, few rules, and one undisputed champion- William Marshal. Saul investigates Marshal's life, discovering his epic rise from a tournament champion to the Regent of England who saved a kingdom on the battlefield. Saul also experiments with Marshal's weapons.
More than 3000 years ago, the rebel Pharaoh Akhenaten marched his people from his capital Thebes to build a new city in the desert. It took 20 years to build. The people of this city worshipped in the world's first monotheistic religion, overseen by Akhenaten and his beautiful Queen Nefertiti. The city was designed as a religious utopia. But, after 25 years of digging, experts are suggesting that Akhenaten was nothing but a despot.
The stories of the one million post-war Britons who paid ten pounds to emigrate to Australia under the Assisted Passage Scheme. It was one of the biggest planned migrations of the twentieth century. The catch was that they had to stay for a minimum of two years. Many loved their new country, but one quarter fled home disillusioned, fleeing 'pommy bashing' or believing that they had been sold a lie.
An investigation into a radical theory that Stonehenge, far from being a place of burial as is commonly assumed, was in fact a place of healing - a Bronze Age Lourdes. The investigation takes in forensic testing of bones excavated over the past decades and hard-won permission for the first dig in 50 years at the Henge, watched live online by millions of viewers around the world. Does the theory of the healing stones bear up to modern-day forensic science?
Tsunamis are among the most destructive forces known to Man, but most of us in Britain think they are one thing we don't need to worry about. Professors Simon Haslett and Ted Bryant have already challenged this view with their belief that the Bristol Channel flood of 1607, one of Britain's greatest natural disasters, was in fact a tsunami. But the story doesn't stop there. In Britain's Forgotten Floods, Simon and Ted investigate evidence for what they believe are at least four more British tsunamis.
Timewatch exclusively reveals the dramatic true story behind the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, when Imperial troops and Chinese rebels laid siege to the diplomatic quarter in Beijing. Told through Chinese sources and the diaries and memoirs of the outnumbered European defenders, the siege helped to bring down the imperial monarchy, precipitating a century of destruction, revolution and ultimate renewal.
The story of how an unassuming little girl rose to be the most powerful woman in the world. At her birth few believed Princess Victoria would ascend the throne, but a number of untimely deaths and the failure of her uncles to father any children meant that Victoria became heiress to the British throne. The battle between her and her mother the Duchess of Kent, however, was to become a fierce maternal struggle, as the duchess schemed to share in the power and riches that would one day be Victoria's.
Michael Palin tells the story of how the First World War ended on 11th November 1918 and reveals the shocking truth that soldiers continued to be killed in battle for many hours after the armistice had been signed. Recounting the events of the days and hours leading up to that last morning, Palin tells the personal stories of the last soldiers to die as the minutes and seconds ticked away to the 11 o'clock ceasefire.
A mile off the coast of the channel island of Alderney lies a shipwreck that could rewrite English naval history. Presenter Saul David joins a team of divers and experts as they attempt to find and raise the ship's four-hundred-year-old cannons. By recasting and firing them, they hope to demonstrate how Elizabeth I became the mother of British naval dominance.
Over 40 years after her launch, Timewatch boards the most iconic ocean liner in the world as she embarks on her final voyage and glides gracefully towards retirement. The world's longest-serving and best-loved cruise ship has come a long way since her humble beginnings as piles of steel and timber on the River Clyde. Overcoming technical problems, rogue waves and even bomb threats, she has enjoyed an eventful and colourful career that has won the hearts of millions. A proud reminder of the dazzling golden era of ocean liners, she is a time capsule offering a tantalising peek into a distant age of discovery and decadence. Built at the end of the swinging sixties, she defied cultural trends and became a reassuring bastion of Britishness and tradition in an ever-changing world.
Hollywood portrayed them as the most glamorous outlaws in American history, but the reality of life on the run for Bonnie and Clyde was one of violence, hardship and danger. With unprecedented access to gang members' memoirs, family archives and recently released police records, Timewatch takes an epic road trip through the heart of depression-era America, in search of the true story of Bonnie and Clyde.
In the late 18th century, Captain James Cook led three great voyages of discovery which pushed the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the earth. In just over a decade, his ability as a navigator and chart maker would add one-third to the map of the known world. For many he was the greatest explorer in history, but for others he was a ruthless conqueror. While the exploits of Captain Cook are well documented, much less is known about James Cook the man. Presenter Vanessa Collingridge sets out on her own voyage of discovery - travelling in his footsteps to uncover the forces that drove him to success, and ultimately to his own death.
Edward Mannock VC and James McCudden VC rose from modest backgrounds to become two of Britain's greatest fighter aces in World War One. As the number of their victories grew, so did their chances of dying in flames. Timewatch tells the story of their battle to survive against the odds, and of the 90-year-old mystery surrounding the death of one of them.
For centuries archaeologists have been trying to work out how the ancient Egyptians raised huge stone blocks to the top of the Great Pyramid. This documentary presents a radical theory by French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin. He believes that an internal ramp was used, which is still inside the Pyramid waiting to be discovered. If he is right, it is the greatest discovery since Tutankhamun.
A small group of British men have some unfinished family business in Antarctica. One hundred years ago, their ancestors, under the leadership of the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton, tried and failed to become the first men to reach the South Pole. Following in their footsteps, the team set off on a 900-mile trek across frozen wastelands. Timewatch follows their remarkable journey.
The investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales took place in 1969. It was a day of pomp and pageantry but also a day of bombs and threats to the lives of the royal family. Huw Edwards goes back in time to investigate the events of an extraordinary day when police, politicians and royalty held their breath as a few nationalist extremists violently plotted against the investiture of Prince Charles. Show less
Over two nights in November 1940, the city of Coventry was reduced to rubble by an aerial bombardment that was so devastating that a new word was coined to describe it – Coventrated. It was the most terrifying air raid on a British city in the war so far, and was to prove a turning point in the conflict. The Luftwaffe weren't just attacking the many armaments factories that surrounded the city – their firepower was directed against ordinary civilians and their homes.
Historian Bettany Hughes unravels one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time. She presents a series of geological, archaeological and historical clues to show that the legend of Atlantis was inspired by a real historical event, the greatest natural disaster of the ancient world.
Documentary that reveals the secret story behind one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II, a feat that gave birth to the digital age. In 1943, a 24-year-old maths student and a GPO engineer combined to hack into Hitler's personal super-code machine - not Enigma but an even tougher system, which he called his 'secrets writer'. Their break turned the Battle of Kursk, powered the D-day landings and orchestrated the end of the conflict in Europe. But it was also to be used during the Cold War - which meant both men's achievements were hushed up and never officially recognised.
Lord Ashdown, a former special forces commando, tells the story of the 'Cockleshell Heroes', who led one of the most daring and audacious commando raids of World War II. In 1942, Britain was struggling to fight back against Nazi Germany. Lacking the resources for a second front, Churchill encouraged innovative and daring new methods of combat. Enter stage left, Blondie Hasler. With a unit of twelve Royal Marine commandos, Major Blondie Hasler believed his 'cockleshell' canoe could be effectively used in clandestine attacks on the enemy. Their brief was to navigate the most heavily defended estuary in Europe, to dodge searchlights, machine-gun posts and armed river-patrol craft 70 miles downriver, and then to blow up enemy shipping in Bordeaux harbour. Lord Ashdown recreates parts of the raid and explains how this experience was used in preparing for one of the greatest land invasions in history, D-day.
James Holland presents an analysis of the legendary 1943 Dam Busters raid, a low-level night mission that took 19 Lancaster bombers deep into the heart of enemy territory to destroy German dams with a brand new weapon - the bouncing bomb. Of the many extraordinary things about the Dams raid, the biggest is that it almost never happened. When finally green lit, it set off an incredible race against time to form and train a new squadron. Their mission was to deliver a weapon that did not yet exist. Unprecedented by any scale, and even more remarkable because the crews were not the experienced elite that legend sometimes suggests, Holland believes this truly is the greatest raid of all time. Yet, whilst arguing that the true impact of the successful raid has been underestimated, he also sets out to investigate whether the results should have been even greater.
Following on from his hugely successful BBC2 documentary, Operation Mincemeat, based on his book of the same name, writer and presenter Ben MacIntyre returns to the small screen to bring to life his other bestselling book - Agent Zigzag. As part of the Timewatch series, MacIntyre reveals the gripping true story of Britain's most extraordinary wartime double agent, Eddie Chapman. A notorious safe-breaker before the war, Chapman duped the Germans so successfully that he was awarded their highest decoration, the Iron Cross. He remains the only British citizen ever to win one. Including remarkable and newly discovered footage from an interview Chapman gave three years before his death in 1997, the programme goes on the trail of one of Britain's most unlikely heroes - a story of adventure, love, intrigue and astonishing courage.
There have been many shipwrecks, but none has captured the public's imagination like the Titanic. From the moment Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on 14 April 1912, the public has been captivated by the story. Of over 2,200 passengers and crew, only 705 survived. In 1912, the newspapers were full of stories of heroism and villainy, and the story of the Titanic has been told and retold ever since in an endless stream of books and films. Some of the stories are true, many are myths which were first told in 1912, but have been passed on from generation to generation ever since. With the help of rare archive footage and location filming in America, Britain and Northern Ireland, Timewatch attempts to answer the mystery - why does the story of the Titanic have such a hold on people?
Dan Cruickshank investigates the circumstances and rituals surrounding death in Victorian Britain by piecing together the fate of five apparently unrelated corpses. The story he uncovers is one of bizarre extremes - of bodysnatchers and the bodies they snatched; of inner-city graveyards so overflowing that the limbs of the dead could be seen protruding from the newly dug earth; of the great new cemeteries where a tomb cost as much as a terrace of houses in east London; of the suspicious resistance which greeted the 'heathenish' practice of cremation; and of the carnage of the Western Front where Victorian ideals about death - and the afterlife - were finally shattered by the violence of the Great War.
In this Timewatch special, historian Bettany Hughes unravels one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time. She presents a series of geological, archaeological and historical clues to show that the legend of Atlantis was inspired by a real historical event - the greatest natural disaster of the ancient world.
King Edward VII has always been an enigma. Twentieth-century dynasty builder and sex addict, boorish philistine and civilised cosmopolitan - he was all of these. Using extensive new research, this documentary unravels the mystery of a thoroughly modern monarch and shows that his legacy is still relevant today.
