Season 1 · Episode 1
Railway enthusiast Michael Portillo leads a landmark journey through 200 years of rail, marking the moment Britain’s modern railway was born.
In this 200th year since the birth of the modern railway, train enthusiast and former politician Michael Portillo reveals how the first railways in Britain transformed the country.
Docuseries exploring lost railway lines, each with their own unique history revealing the vibrant industries that were once dotted along their routes and the ingenious engineering involved
2024
Jonathan Meades gives a personal perspective of British history.
2005
This 2-part documentary series reveals the truth about King Edward VIII's affair with American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and the espionage operation that accompanied the investigation.
2017
Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on British Channel 4 from 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode featured a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining the process in layman's terms. This team of specialists changed throughout the series' run, although has consistently included professional archaeologists such as Mick Aston, Carenza Lewis, Francis Pryor and Phil Harding. The sites excavated over the show's run have ranged in date from the Palaeolithic right through to the Second World War.
1994
Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain is a 2009 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers the period of British history from the death of Queen Victoria to the end of the Second World War. It was a follow-up to his 2007 series Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain.
2009
The Hundred Years’ war between England and France gave us the victories of Crecy and Agincourt, and made the reputations of Edward III and Henry V. It gave France a national heroine in Joan of Arc. But, even now, the jury is out as to its causes and outcome. Was it the final swansong of a redundant knightly class whose only reason for being was to fight? Was it a battle over ever more important territory to the emerging economies of England and France? Or was it the painful birth of two distinct national identities, forged through their long and violent divorce? Dr Janina Ramirez guides us through the stories of kings, great knights, bloody battles and cultural triumphs of this momentous conflict.
2013
Lucy Worsley re-investigates some of the most dramatic chapters in British history. She uncovers forgotten witnesses, re-examines old evidence and follows new clues.
2022
In four chapters, largely based on and illustrated with archaeological finds and sites, Neil Oliver explains how, as far as is known, the Iron Age Celtic tribes known as the Ancient Britains evolved and entered European civilization. Their internecine tribal phase was warlike and partitioned. Overseas contacts, especially metal trade, brought wealth and progress. Ultimately, it attracted the superior Roman empire, which would conquer and pacify Britain into a province, like Gaul shortly before, but Caesar's invasion wasn't the definitive annexation yet, that was left to emperor Claudius; even afterward some Celtic traits and even rebellions remained.
2011
Happy birthday! Mary Berry is joined by famous friends to share memories and recipes. Celebrating the joy of food, they'll revisit old favourites and discover new delicious dishes.
2025
Seven Ages of Britain is a BBC television documentary series which is written and presented by David Dimbleby. The seven part series was first aired on Sunday nights at 9:00pm on BBC One starting on 31 January 2010. The series covers the history of Britain's greatest art and artefacts over the past 2000 years. Each episode covers a different period in British history. In Australia, all seven episodes aired on ABC1 each Tuesday at 8:30pm from 7 September 2010.
2010
In this four-part documentary series, leading Hollywood actors undertake a fascinating journey into their family's past by re-tracing the footsteps of their grandparents during World War Two. We follow the moving, personal stories of Helena Bonham Carter, Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Carey Mulligan as they travel to historic locations, from the beaches of Dunkirk to prisoner of war camps in Asia, to learn about the war their grandparents experienced. All of the actors have unanswered questions about the scars war left on their grandparents, and in each episode one of the actors explore how six years changed the lives of their family and the world forever while learning about the life and death decisions that their grandparents faced.
2019
Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.
2002
On the edge of London stands Hampton Court, one of Britain's biggest palaces and most popular tourist spots, attracting almost a million visitors every year. Spanning 750 acres of grounds, it boasts 1,300 rooms and 23 courtyards...along with a host of secrets and historic stories. This two-part special provides an exclusive and intimate look at life inside the court today for the people keeping Henry VIII's world alive in the modern age, and also explores what life was like in the palace where the private world of the Tudors began.
2021
Historian Lucy Worsley presents a series marking the 200th anniversary of one of the most explosive and creative decades in British history, the Regency.
Through this three part series Art Historian Dr Janina Ramirez tells the story of the Medieval monarchy as preserved through stunning illuminated manuscripts from the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection.
2012
Presented by Dr Clare Jackson of Cambridge University, this new three-part series argues that the Stuarts, more than any other, were Britain's defining royal family.
2014