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Categories: Factual: History

  1. Moving Pictures

    Emrys Evans recalls the 1939 evacuation of the National Gallery's entire art collection.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  2. Cooking Up A Royal Treat

    What was it like to serve in a 1930s country house?

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  3.

    From Dunkirk to D-Day

    Charles Wheeler recalls the epic of strategic success that made victory possible.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  4.

    The People's D-Day

    Libby Purves follows the way Britain prepared for the assault on Normandy in June 1944.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  5. Past Presence

    Why has King John’s Magna Carta of 1215 endured through wars and even EU arguments?

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  6. Balalaikas In Blackpool

    Cold War invasion plans revealed by maps of major British cities, ports and railheads.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  7. Losing The Children

    Michael Rosen explores the meaning behind one of Germany's greatest fairy tales.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  8. Barbed Wire Ballads

    Songs and stories recorded in German prisoner-of-war camps during the First World War.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  9. Champions of Civil Rights

    Davis Miller tells the story of Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali.

    BBC Radio 4

  10. The Boy who Bought a Field

    Francis Pryor meets the archaeologist who bought the land covering a lost medieval town.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  11.

    A Right Royal Rescue

    HRH the Duke of Edinburgh recalls his role in a daring rescue during WWII.

    BBC Radio 4

  12. The Man Who Sold Peerages

    Shaun Ley tells the tale of Maundy Gregory, who sold peerages on behalf of Lloyd George.

    BBC Radio 4

  13. Camel Train

    Matthew Parris joins traders on the ancient salt route in Ethiopia's Danakil Depression.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  14. Comrades

    Ivor Gaber recounts the history of the British Communist Party.

    BBC Radio 4

  15. The Q Camp

    Jolyon Jenkins recounts a forgotten story of the Second World War.

    BBC Radio 4

  16. When CB Ruled the Waves

    Dominic Arkwright recalls the heady days of CB radio, introduced in the UK in 1981.

    BBC Radio 4

  17. The Radical and the Emperor

    The story of feminist pioneer Sylvia Pankhurst's campaign for Ethiopian independence.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  18. A Thor in One's Side

    Tony Robinson tells the story of Thor Heyerdahl’s epic journey.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  19. Miss Buttolph's Marvellous Menu Collection

    The tale of a unique collection of 25,000 menus and the stories they can tell us.

    BBC Radio 4

  20.

    Prescott at Your Service

    Exploring a strange coincidence from 1957, when John Prescott was a cruise ship waiter.

    BBC Radio 4

  21. The World in a Briefcase

    Stephen Phelps recalls one of the most secret diplomatic missions of the Second World War.

    BBC Radio 4

  22. Endangered Sounds

    Simon Fanshawe explores how life's familiar sounds have changed with the times.

    BBC Radio 4

  23. Paradise Lost: The Story of the Chagos Islands

    The story of the islanders forced to leave to make way for a military base in the 1960s.

    BBC Radio 4

  24. Roots

    Actor and playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah explores the impact of the TV drama series Roots.

    BBC Radio 4

  25. The Road to Rome

    On its 50th anniversary, Allan Little recalls the tortured birth of the Treaty of Rome.

    BBC Radio 4

  26. 1707: Take an Englishman and a Scotsman

    Graeme Garden presents a tongue-in-cheek look at the supposed Anglo-Scottish antipathy.

    BBC Radio 4

  27. 1707: The Birth of Britain

    Dramatised account of the wheeling and dealing which led to the Act of Union of 1707.

    BBC Radio 4

  28. Auld Firm Old Family

    John Wilson explores the history of Glasgow's bitter sectarian divide.

    BBC Radio 4

  29. WW2: War and Words

    Twenty momentous years that changed the course of world history, from 1936 to 1956.

    BBC World Service

    Show available episodes

  30. American Voices: A History of America 1917-1941

    A fascinating look at America through the eyes of different characters of the era.

    BBC Two

  31. The Victoria Cross: For Valour

    Historical documentary. In September 1944, Major Robert Cain won the Victoria Cross.

    BBC Two

  32. Into the Arms of Strangers

    Oscar-winning documentary about the Jewish children evacuated from Germany.

    BBC Two

  33. The Miners' Strike

    Documentary capturing the extraordinary passions unleashed by the 1984 miners' strike.

    BBC Two

  34. The Elgin Marbles

    Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how the Elgin Marbles were removed from Athens.

    BBC Two

  35. Mary Seacole: A Hidden History

    Biography of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who saved thousands of lives in the Crimea.

    BBC Two

  36. Krakatoa Revealed

    What really happened during the eruption of volcanic island Krakatoa in 1883?

    BBC Two

  37. Genghis Khan

    Film about the warrior Genghis Khan, conquered an empire larger than the Roman Empire.

    BBC One

  38. When We Were Scouts

    Celebrities go camping to mark the 100th anniversary of the Scouting movement.

    BBC Four

  39. A Tudor Feast

    A group of historians and archaeologists prepare a Tudor feast without modern techniques.

    BBC Two

  40. Jeremy Clarkson: Greatest Raid of All Time

    Jeremy Clarkson tells the story of the 1942 raid on the Nazi dry dock in France.

    BBC Two

  41. Victoria and the Jubilee

    Documentary examining the significance of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.

    BBC Parliament

  42. The Bermuda Triangle: Beneath the Waves

    An attempt to prove whether there is any truth behind the legend of the Bermuda Triangle.

    BBC One

  43. The Somme: From Defeat to Victory

    How the British Army learnt modern warfare from the Battle of the Somme.

    BBC One

  44. Jonathan Ross's World of Robin Hood

    Exploration of the enduring popularity of a Robin Hood, celebrated for over 600 years.

    BBC One

  45. Ms Dynamite in Search of Nanny Maroon

    Ms Dynamite explores the legend of Nanny Maroon, a Jamaican slave turned revolt-leader.

    BBC One

  46. Hippies

    Julian Carey visits a Welsh valley where people have been living under canvas since 1976.

    BBC Radio 4

  47. The Conchies of Holton-Cum-Beckering

    Billy Bragg meets the surviving members of a unique group of war conscientious objectors.

    BBC Radio 4

  48. Up to the Port

    Amateur film of family holidays in Portrush during the late 50s.

    BBC One Wales

  49. Lit by Love and Sunshine

    A film of exciting times in Ballycastle, County Antrim, during the 1950s and 1960s.

    BBC One Northern Ireland

  50. The Evacuees

    Documentary about the thousands of children evacuated from Belfast during WWII.

    BBC Two Northern Ireland

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