Absolute History

Join historian Rebecca Rideal and Helen Castor at the site of one of London’s largest plague pits as they uncover the harrowing reality of 17th-century life during the pestilence. From the "madness" that gripped the infected to the wealthy who fled the city and the poor left to face the "arrows of death," we explore the dehumanizing symptoms, the myth of the Great Fire "ending" the plague, and the chilling legacy of the most famous disease in history.

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Tony Robinson sets out to sift the fact from the fiction on whether Robin Hood, the legendary dispossessed nobleman hiding out in Sherwood Forest did actually exist.

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The railways changed Britain forever, but they also offered new opportunities for the oldest of crimes. In 1957, a 73-year-old Polish Countess named Teresa Wubenska was fatally stabbed on the platform of Gloucester Road tube station. But who was this mysterious woman with a Nazi concentration camp number tattooed on her arm, and why was a celebrated World War II resistance hero murdered in a seemingly random attack on the London Underground?

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In an epic, two-part season finale, Forensic Geologist Scott Wolter returns to his roots, gathering new evidence to support the theory that started him down the path of investigating mysterious artifacts and sites in the United States. That theory? That some members of the Knights Templar came to America after escaping death on Friday, October 13th, 1307. He uncovers shocking new secrets and sites, both stateside and abroad, linking the Knights Templar to cryptic symbols he believes represent one thing--a connection to Jesus's rumored bloodline.

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Archaeologists have made an astonishing claim that could change our understanding of the life of Tutankhamun forever. Many of the burial goods found in Tutankhamun's tomb may not have been his at all. Working with Tutankhamun expert Nicholas Reeves, the Egypt Detectives try to determine the daunting problem faced by his successors and how it was solved.

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In China, there exists an astonishing place. A burial ground to rival Egypt's Valley of the Kings, where pyramid tombs of stupendous size are full of astonishing riches. In 221 BC, China's first Emperor united warring kingdoms into a nation that still exists today. To memorialize this achievement, he bankrupted the national treasury and oppressed thousands of workers to build one of the world's biggest mortuary complexes. China's second dynasty, the Han, inherited the daunting challenge of building larger tombs to command respect and establish their right to rule without running the nation into the ground. Although no Han emperor's...

Explore the history of the legendary aircraft.

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This is the grizzly true crime story of James Olcott. After being pardoned for a murder in Germany, Olcott found work on the railways. He returned to his old ways, casing a busy ticket officer before carrying out a brutal, planned attack on fellow railwayman Jeffrey 'Dixie' Dean to rob the day's takings.

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Step back in time as four modern-day baking professionals tackle 63 years that utterly transformed their trade and our diet: the Victorian Age. Watch the team manage a busy 1900 high-street shop, grapple with complex new recipes (and shocking ingredients like beef tongue and lard), and navigate the intense competition, social mobility, and international influences (like German immigrant bakers) that define the birth of the modern bakery.

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Four professional bakers leave their modern businesses behind to experience what their profession was like in the past as they bake their way through the Victorian era.

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Tickets are now on sale for the 2026 Chalke History Festival! chalkefestival.com @chalkehistoryfestival

Join us at Chalke History Festival, the UK’s biggest celebration of living history, as we explore how human careers have evolved from the Stone Age to the Age of Exploration. Join Kyle Cairns as he tries his hand at ancient and historic trades — from Neolithic cordage weaving to the mastery of sail making.

Each craft is judged on skill, difficulty, working conditions, social status, and whether our host could actually do the job — all to find the ultimate historical career! Expect hands...

This documentary unveils the monumental engineering and scandalous history behind the Château de Chambord, a structure so ambitious it was once deemed impossible. Commissioned by the young, visionary King Francis I and designed in collaboration with the legendary Leonardo da Vinci, this "stone giant" was built on a treacherous swamp using revolutionary 3D-like geometry, including its famous double-helix staircase. From hiding the Mona Lisa during WWII to bankrupting the French treasury, the video explores the construction secrets, the "coded messages" in its architecture, and the 500-year-old mystery of its missing floor plans.

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Suzannah Lipscomb shows us how sugar, bread and milk and chicken led to diseases and even death throughout history.

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In this film, we walk the modern streets of London to uncover the scars of a night that should have broken the nation's morale. From the "grimy-faced heroes" of the Auxiliary Fire Service—many of whom were taxi drivers towing pumps with rope—to the frantic struggle to save St Paul’s Cathedral under direct orders from Winston Churchill, we explore the courage that kept the city standing.

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Scott Wolter does not believe in Bigfoot--but he sure hears about it a lot. That's because the earliest Bigfoot sightings were supposedly recorded in--guess what? Rocks. Bigfoot sightings are pervasive along the West coast, but lately, reports of the big beast have started popping up in Minnesota--his home state--and he heads to investigate. Entering into the investigation as a skeptic--which is not a role we often see Scott in--he decides to tackle the question of whether Bigfoot is real. He goes in search of proof, checking out rock paintings of Bigfoot in California and even traveling to Nepal where...

Biographer A.N. Wilson uncovers the intriguing personal life of Queen Victoria through her journals and letters in this psychological portrait of Britain's longest reigning monarch. With Queen Victoria's writings read by Anna Chancellor.

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Among the thankless tasks tackled by Tony this week are the work of the midshipman, lighthouse keeper, stoker and trimmer, the men of Britains first navy who survived on minimal rations, and the men who wore sacks on their heads on the luxury liners. Finally he experiences the dangerous occupation of the Victorian lifeboat man.

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Francis Pryor examines the history of Britain near the end of the Roman occupation. The first instalment focuses on Britain under Roman rule, revealing a much greater degree of collaboration with the natives than was previously recognised.

Sheep-farming archaeologist, Francis Pryor, presents a historical series which explores Britain A.D, the British national character and the ultimate British icon King Arthur.

Finding new and previously unexplained evidence, Francis Pryor overturns the idea that Britain reverted to a state of anarchy and disorder after the Romans left in 410 AD. Instead of doom and gloom Francis discovers...

This documentary highlights the early, turbulent years of Prince Harry—from his "spare" status and academic struggles at Eton to his infamous scandals and the "fiery Spencer temper" he inherited from Diana’s side.

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Did the Japanese Imperial family and General Yamashita bury hundreds of tons of looted gold across the Philippines during WWII? The legend of Yamashita's Gold has fueled the dreams of treasure hunters for decades, but it's a story tangled with billion-dollar lawsuits, political deception, and murder.

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Tony Robinson continues his look at The Worst Jobs in History with a rundown on the worst royal jobs. As Tony takes on the work traditionally done at court we learn of the miserable lot of food tasters, whipping boys, falconers, and laundry women who beat Elizabethan laundry with paddles similar to cricket bats.

Tony has a go at knitting chain mail; marvelling at the intricacies and tedium of fashioning one link, let alone a suit which used 200,000. Then there was the lance-makers' task of carving hundreds of lances for jousting tournaments or the shining of shoes...

In an era when women were expected to be silent ornaments of the drawing room, Margaret Fuller was a "mountainous me." A child prodigy who read Virgil at age four, she became the intellectual heartbeat of the American Transcendentalist movement, besting the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in heated debates.

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Scott Wolter investigates a 3000-pound boulder hidden inside the Chicago History Museum's secret storage location. The Waubansee Stone used to be even bigger when it sat along the Chicago River outside Fort Dearborn. Known as the city's oldest piece of art, the stone features the face of a man with closed eyes, parted lips and a chin beard. Some think it was an homage to a local Native American chief, but others believe the stone may have had a more sinister use hundred of years earlier. Scott's search for the truth about the Waubansee stone results in a wild...

Iran is one of the earth's final frontiers. It's a country little visited by western travellers in recent years, yet it has been at the centre of world affairs for millennia. I wanted to take a peek "behind the veil" of modern-day Iran. What I discovered was a complex, incredibly hospitable people living in a much-misunderstood country at the heart of a troubled region. My journey takes me from the bustle of Tehran, via the Valley of the Assassins to ancient cities unchanged since Marco Polo first entered them eight centuries ago. But this isn't just a journey through...

The 1950s: a decade that took Britain from the drab, smoke-stained austerity of the post-war years to a "technical wonderland" of color and convenience. In this episode, experimental engineer Brendan Walker transforms a typical 1950s house to reveal the radical scientific breakthroughs that modernized the home.

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From a "shy" university student to the most influential woman in the House of Windsor, Catherine, Princess of Wales, has redefined what it means to be a modern royal. But behind the polished public appearances lies a story of extreme discretion, fierce protection, and a battle for health that stopped the world in its tracks.

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In contrast with the common representation of the middle ages as a gloomy era haunted with famine, this episode provides a more positive view on medieval cuisine. Throughout Europe, medieval kitchens were often filled with innovative, healthy and savory dishes. Enjoy the elaborate information on the preparation of bread, meat, wine and herbs consumed in castles, monasteries and the growing cities.

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Archaeologist Tim Sutherland unearths historical clues as he digs up burial sites from the Battle of Agincourt, which took place in 1415 in northern France.

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Edwardian farmers Alex, Peter, and Ruth head out of the tranquil Tamar Valley and onto Dartmoor for summer. Discover the traditional—and surprisingly difficult—craft of hand shearing as the team cashes in on Devon's historic wool industry ("white gold"). Plus, learn about the Edwardian adoption of silage for winter feed, and explore how the rise of tourism and the arrival of the motor car began to change the ancient moorlands forever.

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Tony Robinson explores the major uprising across large parts of England in 1381; it's origins, motives and aftermath.

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Two thousand years ago one of history's most notorious individuals was born. Professor Mary Beard embarks on an investigative journey to explore the life and times of Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus - better known to us as Caligula.

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Go back in time with Suzannah Lipscomb to the Victorian times, the Edwardian era and the 50s and see what hidden killers most affected women.

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In 1950, the average British woman spent her life in a kitchen virtually unchanged from her grandmother's era—hauling coal, scrubbing laundry by hand, and shopping every single day to prevent food from rotting in the larder. By 1959, that same room was a "Technical Wonderland."

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During the fourteenth century the Renaissance started in Italy, and slowly spread throughout Europe. As shown in this episode, the refreshing Renaissance era indicates an intellectual, philosophical, artistic and religious revolution and is mainly influenced by humanism. The objective of this movement to improve humanity also had its effect on the kitchen and dinner table. Strict table manners and consumption of imported vegetables are examples of the many culinary changes discussed in the episode.

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Tony Robinson's Romans series continues as he examines the life of Caligula.

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Born with the weight of a future crown, Prince William’s life has been a delicate balancing act between thousand-year-old traditions and the "modern" influence of his mother, Princess Diana. From the tragic public mourning of 1997 to his years as a search-and-rescue pilot, William has navigated a path defined by duty, heartbreak, and a quiet determination to be "the people’s king."

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With continuing releases of major films and TV series on Sherlock Holmes, the fictional character has never been more popular. But what about his creator, the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose own life was at times as dark and as mysterious as the man he created?

How was this extraordinary character formed and did he, as so many believe, really exist? The story behind the creation of this Victorian phenomenon is both disturbing and mystifying. It takes the viewer on a journey through the Edinburgh of the young Conan Doyle and the darker influences in his...

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In 1950, "teenagers" didn't exist—you were either a child or a mini-adult wearing your father's old blazer. But over ten short years, a scientific revolution transformed Britain from a grey, austere post-war nation into a technicolor wonderland. In this episode, experimental engineer Brendan Walker fast-forwards a typical 1950s house to reveal how crude oil, transistors, and electromagnetic induction created the modern world. From the "ma...

For centuries, history claimed the native Gaelic Irish were nomadic, with villages and towns only built by invaders. Now, a team of archaeologists in Western Ireland is uncovering shocking evidence that could rewrite Ireland's history forever. Follow their groundbreaking five-year excavation near Lough Key, searching for the fabled 13th-century Gaelic market town mentioned in ancient manuscripts.

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Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home: In a genuine horror story, Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the lethal products, gadgets and conveniences that lurked in every room of the Victorian home and shows how they were unmasked.

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