Born into a world of treachery, violence and death, William of Normandy defied all expectations, forging a legacy that lasts to this day. Born out of wedlock and dismissed as an upstart, he was originally known as William the Bastard. Inheriting the Duchy of Normandy at just eight years old, William was faced with betrayal, bloodshed, and anarchy. From the restless Normans, who expanded across Europe as mercenaries and horsemen, to the growing threat of Anjou, the early years of his reign were blighted by power struggles. Following the brutal murder of his guardians, and with Normandy on the brink of collapse, William was forced to survive in a world without loyalty, where ambition was the ultimate currency. Meanwhile, across the Channel, the English throne was in turmoil, as the sons of Æthelred the Unready fought for survival and power…

Join Tom and Dominic as they trace William’s rise from a vulnerable child to a formidable young duke, setting the stage for the ultimate confrontation: his claim to the English crown.

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude

Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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Following the bloody St Brice’s Day Massacre, of the 13th of November 1002, which saw King Æthelred brutally exterminating the Danes from England, the Vikings were hungry for revenge. None more so than the terrifying Scandinavian King, Sweyn Forkbeard. Having capitalised on his famous father, Harold Bluetooth’s unification of Norway and Denmark, through his aggressive christianisation of the formerly pagan peoples there, Sweyn had built up a formidable force. It was this power that Æthelred had unwisely taunted, underestimating the might of the Danes. He would pay the price only a few short months later when Sweyn’s terrible fleet landed at Wilton Abbey in Wessex - one of the greatest symbols of the House of Alfred the Great - to bleed England dry, and destroy her King. Time and time again, from this date onwards, Sweyn’s Danish raids would devastate England, even going so far as to lock the Archbishop of Canterbury in a cage…by 1013 Æthelred’s reign was essentially over, his family having fled to Normandy, and England under Danish rule. But then, the death of Sweyn Forkbeard would change everything, setting in motion another titanic war of succession, this time pitting the Scandinavian Cnut against Æthelred’s son Edmund Ironside. Who would triumph in this climactic clash of would-be kings?

Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the revenge of the vikings and the rise of Cnut, as 1066 and the Battle of Hastings loom into view...

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

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Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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The Norman Conquest of 1066, culminating in the legendary Battle of Hastings, is perhaps the greatest turning point in the history of the English nation. It was a year that changed the fate of England forever, forging empires, and settling continents. And yet, despite its infamy and significance, the true nature of those totemic events are often forgotten. So what happened in the build up to the Battle of Hastings? The dramas of 1066 were set in motion by a succession crisis in 975 AD, following the death of King Edgar. England by that time was the wealthiest and best run government in Northern Europe, a kingdom of united English speaking peoples, established by Alfred the Great and his successors. Following the mysterious death of Edgar’s first son, Edward, his second son, Æthelred - later known as ‘The Unready’ - took the throne. For many years his kingdom flourished, until disaster struck: the Vikings returned to reign terror upon the Anglo-Saxon people, under the leadership of the terrifying Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway. With his coffers straining, his people enslaved, and his lands shrinking, Æthelred, now wed to the foreign Emma of Normandy, finally decided to take drastic action, and weed the Vikings out once and for all. So it was that with the dawning of the millennium, a terrible, bloody massacre began….

Join Tom and Dominic as they set out upon one of greatest narratives in all English history, with the build up to 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. Would England survive the wrath of the Vikings?

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

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Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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The second revolution that engulfed France over the course of 1792 reached its climax in December, with an astonishing, world-changing spectacle, which held all the eyes of Europe spellbound: Louis Capet, formerly King Louis XVI of France, was on trial for his very life. A guilty verdict would undermine millennia of thought and tradition, ripping apart the longheld inviolability of the king, still held sacred in some quarters of France, and setting a dangerous precedent for the other monarchs of Europe. For the revolutionary leaders, then, this was a cosmic strike against tyranny, unpicking the very foundations of French society. The trial would serve to proclaim the institution of the new regime; a ritualistic rebirth born of the death of the king. It would last a month. Then, on the 15th of January, a verdict was finally reached: Louis was found guilty, and condemned to death by guillotine. With the former king’s day numbered, was there any way the judgement could be overturned? And if not, what would the consequences of this seismic event be for the future of France, Europe, and the world…?

Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the climax of the French Revolution - itself one of the most important moments of all history - with the extraordinary trial and death sentence of King Louis XVI. Would the sacrificial spilling of his royal blood cleanse the world of monarchy, and launch a new dawn for the Republic of France, once and for all?

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

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Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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“From this place and from this day forth commences a new era in the world’s history, and you can all say you were present at its birth!”

By September 1792, the Prussians, under the leadership of the formidable Duke of Brunswick, were closing in on revolutionary Paris. There, the streets roiled with the clanging of church bells, thousands of volunteers, patriotic songs and slogans, and of course; the dead bodies of all those killed during the September Massacres. It was against this feverish backdrop that on the 20th, the new National Convention - the most democratic of the assemblies yet, with unlimited powers to remake the nation - met at the famous Riding School. And though it was riven by internal rivalries under the contentious three headed triumvirate of Danton, Marat and Robespierre, remake the nation it did. Voting to abolish the monarchy once and for all, the Convention declared the institution of a new world and a new beginning for France, with all state documents from that day forth bearing the immortal words, ‘Year One’. But, with their Prussian enemies baying at the gates, would revolutionary France survive to see more than one year? A great military reckoning was approaching, which would decide the fate of the new Republic and perhaps, universal liberty. As the armies of France and Prussia met for what would prove to be one of the most ideologically significant battles of all time, political tensions were mounting in Paris…

Join Dominic and Tom for this crucial, tremulous episode of the French Revolution. With Prussia closing in, bodies littering the streets, and the revolutionary leaders hungry for each other's blood, would the Revolution survive?

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude

Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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In the summer and Autumn of 1792 - with the Prussians bearing down on Paris, the streets thronged with the stirring swell of the Marseillaise, but also the rotting bodies of those brutally killed during the September Massacres - the French Revolution bore a new symbol of optimism and hope: Liberty. Embodied by a female figure, later known as Marianne, and famously enshrined in Eugène Delacroix’s iconic painting, she was an important reminder that the revolution was about more than just violence, but also the dream of a brighter future, in which all the people of France would have a steak. Marianne was the new Republic personified, and manifested all those virtues most desired by the new order; freedom, equality and reason. But, did this new symbol have any resonance for the actual women of the revolution? Certainly, they had played a major role in bringing the King and Queen back to Paris from Versailles in 1789, helping patriots who stormed Tuileries in 1792, and were keen spectators to the febrile politics of the revolution. For this, women were enshrined as ‘mothers of the nation’, a vital mass of humanity thought to be inspired by an animating emotional power. And yet, unlike their male counterparts, few women save Marie Antoinette, at whom sexualised misogyny was constantly hurled, have stood the test of time. So who were the women at the very heart of the French Revolution? And what did they do to change the course of history?

Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the evolving ideology of the French Revolution - one of the most decisive moments of world history - and some of the women at the centre of it all from the very start.

Watch 'A Thousand Blows’, a new original series, now streaming on Disney+ globally and on Hulu in the US

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude

Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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‘Still more traitors, still more treason…"

It is 1792 and France has been at war since April; it is not going well. In Paris, the Tuileries Palace has been stormed, and the royal family imprisoned. Meanwhile, tensions are rising between the main political factions of the Revolution, the Girondins and the Montagnard, led by the icy Maximilien Robespierre. The streets of Paris teem with armed young men - the Federes and the Sans-Culottes - responsible for the brutal slaughtering of the Swiss Guard earlier that year. They have arrested and imprisoned thousands of people. It is into this progressively febrile atmosphere of paranoia and fear that terrible news arrives: the Prussians, hungry for vengeance, have taken the fortress of Verdin. Rumours swirl of treason and betrayal from deep within Paris itself, and a new, chilling idea is raised to wash the city of counter revolutionaries once and for all: cleanse the prisons. So it is that on the 2nd of September, a group of Prisoners being escorted from one prison to another is stopped, and methodically hacked to death. The survivors face an impromptu tribunal before receiving the same treatment. Over the next few days, all prisoners across Paris are likewise judged, and many similarly damned and mutilated. A tide of bloodshed is rising, which will soon flood the streets of Paris, taking thousands of lives with it. Who will survive the massacre?

Join Dominic and Tom for the next series of the French Revolution, as they pick up this epic story - one of the most resounding and complex historical events of all time - with arguably the most horrific episode of the whole revolution: the September massacres…

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude

Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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“Anyone who even thinks of abandoning this mission will be cut up into a thousand pieces…I am the wrath of God!”

At the height of the age of exploration, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, one story in particular gripped the imagination of European colonialists: El Dorado, a legendary city of gold, hidden in the very heart of the South American Rainforests. But no kingdom sought this prize more furiously than the mighty Spanish Empire. Determined to restore their fortunes with El Dorado’s treasures, they sent countless expeditions in search of the golden city, to no avail. Then, in 1559, the authorities in Lima assembled a new expedition, bigger and better than ever before, under the leadership of the knight Pedro de Ursula. The group he mustered to go with him would prove ill chosen indeed. Among them was his famously beautiful mistress, Dona Inez, and more ominously still, a fierce eyed, limp-footed man by the name of Lope de Aguirre. Little did his companions know that they had a devil in their midst. Aguirre would prove to be one of history’s strangest and most unsettling characters, and one of the great villains of the Spanish conquests of the New World. Cruel and psychopathic, he would eventually violently usurp Ursula’s command, and lead his companions not in search of El Dorado, but further and further into the Amazonian interior, enacting a regime of paranoid terror as they went. It would prove to be one of the strangest, most gruesome, and also the most horrific journeys of all time, replete with murder, betrayal, treason, and above all, madness….



Join Tom and Dominic, as they discuss the iniquitous Spanish conquistador Aguirre, and his journey both into the heart of the South American wilderness, but also into human madness. It is a story of mystery and adventure, gold and greed, horror and death.

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude 

Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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In Tudor England, during the reign of Elizabeth I, there lived in the very heart of her court a magician, alchemist and polymath, bent upon conversing with the angels of heaven and other supernatural beings. His name was John Dee, and he would prove to.be one of the most remarkable men of his age, living long enough to witness both the dying days of the reign of Henry VIII, and the succession of Elizabeth’s heir. Throughout it all, he existed near the very epicentre of English royal power and religious controversy, dabbling with both treason and heresy, and the gruesome punishments for both, on multiple occasions. His life therefore holds a tantalising mirror up to the tumultuous periods through which he lived, and features some of the great stars of Tudor England. From the religious persecutions of Bloody Mary, when Dee came closest to destruction, to the rise of Elizabeth I, a learned scholar in her own right, who looked to him to explain the signs of the universe to her, and the birth of the British Empire - with Dee one of its earliest champions. His obsession with reading the divine language of heaven and thereby understanding the very deepest secrets of the universe, would see him scrying in mirrors to read the future at the risk of his immortal soul, travelling to Prague - Europe’s bastion of magic - and forging his famous relationship with the wily Edward Kelly. But, was it angels or demons who lured Dee across Europe, and into the very deepest depths of the occult..?

Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss England’s very own Merlin; John Dee, and his extraordinary life as the court magician of Elizabeth I, during a time of dawning empires and clashing religions.

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude

Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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“The horror! The horror!”

Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ - the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's ‘Apocalypse Now’ - is one of the most celebrated literary works of all time, though now increasingly contentious. Based on Conrad’s own terrible journey into the Congo in 1890, and the horrors he beheld there while it was under the sway of King Leopold of Belgium’s monstrous regime, the novella, published in 1899, delves into man’s capacity for evil - the primal beast lurking beneath the surface of all humans - and has long stood as the preeminent cultural representation of European colonialism. It tells the story of Mr Kurtz, a great ivory trader who has disappeared deep into the African interior, and appears to have lost his mind, having penetrated some terrifying, ancient truth. Initially, Conrad’s disturbing account was viewed as the ultimate attack on imperialism, though aspects of the novella have also invited accusations of racism and imperialism, in part owed to Conrad’s own sympathy for Empire. So what is the truth at the heart of 'Heart of Darkness'? And who was Joseph Conrad himself? What horrors did he behold to have inspired such a poignant account of the nightmares within and without…?

Join Dominic and Tom as they discuss Joseph Conrad, ‘Heart of Darkness’ and the real life events that inspired it, and the long term reverberations of the novella in culture and literary criticism today.

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Producer: Theo Young-Smith

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude

Editor: Jack Meek

Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

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