The Origins of London

For more than a thousand years, Delphi was considered a cultural centre of the ancient world. Every year a throng of pilgrims climbed the slopes of Mount Parnassus to seek the words of Apollo through the famous Oracle of Delphi.Today Tristan Hughes is joined by Michael Scott to u ...  Show more

What if the secrets of Stonehenge lie not just in the stones, but in the people who hauled them there?Tristan Hughes sits down with best-selling novelist Ken Follett to uncover and imagine the lives of the Stone Age builders, the rival communities around Salisbury Plain, and the ...  Show more

From ghost town to ceremonial, ecclesiastical and economic hub - how did London develop in the Saxon era, and how is that crucial to what London has become? 

Dr. Rory Naismith is the author of Citadel of the Saxons: The Rise of Early London and a lectur ...

Archaeologist Dominic Perring discusses what we know about London’s Roman past with Emily Briffett, examining the city’s key turning points and exploring how life there was affected by fire, plague and warfare. Using archaeological and historical records, he ties London’s story i ...  Show more

Why do we call the Great Fire of London in 1666 “great”? Was it because of the significant challenge it posed to authorities and residents as they sought to bring it under control? Was it because of the extent of its devastation? Or was it because it occurred during an eventfu ...

Though today it is just a muddy field, the small hamlet of Yeavering was once a bustling centre of Anglo-Saxon power in the North of England. At its heart was a 7th century palace - known in Latin as Ad Gefrin - which was built by King Edwin in 616 AD, the first king of a unit ...