Extraordinary Stories of Britain

Hear the story of the extraordinary life of Samuel Johnson.  The sicky, part blind, provincial boy, a failure at Oxford University he went on to create the first great dictionary of the English language.

Christopher Marlowe was the star writer of the 1580s.   The Elizabethans flocked to his plays.   But Kitt’s life was shrouded in mystery. Was he a secret agent? A Catholic spy? A double agent for Queen Elizabeth’s government.  There is evidence that he was heretical atheist.  And he may have been England's first gay poet   Hear how this ended with a murder mystery on May 30, 1593.

Amazing stories of animals in Britain.  From performing pigs, to medal-winning pigeons.  From war elephants to bears who appeared in Shakespeare plays.  From a runaway goose to the famous ravens in the Tower of London. 

Hear the history of Christmas traditions.  Who invented the Christmas card?  Why do we say Merry Christmas? Who put up the first Christmas tree in England?  How old is Father Christmas? And why did Canterbury riot over Christmas?   Find out in this podcast

From September 1940 to May 1941 London was the target of a brutal bombing campaign.  We tell the story of the eight months of misery and resistance.    From the spirit of London’s East End,  to a special team that saved St Pauls Cathedral. From the evacuated children, to the families sleeping on the underground.  Hear about the firefighters, bomb squads, the home guard and the unique role of London’s women.
 

This podcast tells the dramatic story of the life of Charles Dickens.  When his father was imprisoned for debt,  he had to work as a child labourer.   The excitement of his first publication,   his troubled early romance, eventual marriage, success and secret affair – and relentless campaigning to improve the life of the poor and needy

St Mary’s Bethlem was England’s first psychiatric hospital.  This podcast tells the story of the hospital, from its medieval origins to its home in a grand 17th century palace.  We follow the lives of its famous inmates: the woman who tried to kill King George III, the first documented case of paranoid schizophrenia and a brilliant Victorian artist who murdered his father.  

In 1665 plague devastated England.  The remote Derbyshire village of Eyam was spared the horror - until a tailor bought a roll of cloth from London.   To stop the pestilence spreading, the local vicar closed down Eyam -  and the villagers were locked in.  Hear the dramatic story of the plague village in this podcast.