Michael Portillo's 200 Years of the Railways

InterCity 125: The Train That Saved Britain's Railways

December 2025 •English

Intercity 125 – Britain's own original high-speed train – rules the rails today, but this national icon is set to give way to hi-tech imports. It's time to celebrate the heroic story of a design classic that saved Britain's railways from terminal decline.

Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency

December 2025 •English

Historian Lucy Worsley presents a series marking the 200th anniversary of one of the most explosive and creative decades in British history, the Regency.

The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family

December 2025 •English

Part documentary, part historical drama, this series follows the fortunes of the different members of the Boleyn family, ultimately made notorious for daughter Anne’s marriage to Henry VIII and execution.

My Grandparents' War

December 2025 •English

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.

Time Team

December 2025 •English

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.

Seven Ages of Britain

December 2025 •English

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.

Die gefährlichsten Bahnstrecken der Welt

December 2025 •German

Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings

December 2025 •English

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.

Abroad Again in Britain

December 2025 •English

Jonathan Meades gives a personal perspective of British history.

Inside Hampton Court Palace

December 2025 •English

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.

Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain

December 2025 •English

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.

Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History

December 2025 •English

Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, explores how the physical and mental health of our past monarchs has shaped the history of the nation.

Britain's Biggest Dig

December 2025 •English

Profiling two of the massive archaeological digs along the 150-mile route of HS2, the UK’s new high-speed rail link, ahead of its start of construction. These cemetery excavations reveal forgotten stories of the rich and poor, and how Georgian-era London and industrial Birmingham left their mark on the thousands of skeletons buried there.

British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

December 2025 •English

Lucy Worsley explores how British history is a concoction of fibs and stories manipulated by whoever was in power at the time.

Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

December 2025 •English

Historian Lucy Worsley debunks popular myths and royal as well as anti-royal propaganda about key events from British royal history including the English Reformation, the attack of the Spanish Armada and Queen Anne's forgotten legacy.

Railway Murders

December 2025 •English

Investigating the most notorious murders ever to take place on the British railways. The cases start from 1864 with the the first murder on a British railway.

1066: The Battle for Middle Earth

December 2025 •English

In this blend of historical drama and original source material, the story of this decisive year is remagined, not from the saddles of kings and conquerors, but through the eyes of the ordinary men who fought on their behalf.

Secrets of Great British Castles

December 2025 •English

Historian Dan Jones explores the millennium of history behind six of Great Britain's most famous castles: Warwick, Dover, Caernarfon, the Tower of London, Carrickfergus, and Stirling.

Six Wives with Lucy Worsley

December 2025 •English

In an ambitious and groundbreaking approach to drama and history featuring dramatic reconstruction, historian Lucy Worsley time travels back to the Tudor Court to witness some of the most dramatic moments in the lives of Henry VIII's six wives.

Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths & Secrets

December 2025 •English

In this 3-part documentary series, Lucy Worsley travels across Britain and Europe visiting the locations where royal history was made. In palaces and castles and on battlefields she investigates how royal history is a mixture of facts, exaggeration, manipulation and mythology.