Journey Through Time

Now the witch trials have been set up, what evidence is used to send many innocent people to their death? Why are young women shrieking and convulsing at the sight of those accused? Finally, what are Sarah’s tips for...Read more

What were the Salem Witch Trials that resulted in the deaths of more than 20 innocent people? Why was this puritan community in New England so vulnerable to being gripped by a violent witch hunt? What were the crimes...Read more

What did it feel like to be at the centre of the most popular Reality TV moment of the century? Why was the nation captivated by Big Brother? What can we learn about a country from who wins their game shows? <...Read more

What unbelievable and ethically dubious Reality TV concepts made it onto our screens in the 2000s? What was behind Big Brother’s game changing popularity?  How did Trump’s time on The Apprentice pave the way for his p...Read more

Who was Lance Loud, America's first openly gay TV celebrity? What ethically dubious tactics did producers pioneer in MTV's hit show 'The Real World' to manipulate participants and storylines? What does it mean when re...Read more

What was David's experience on Celebrity Traitors like? How can we trace the origins of this beloved show back to WWII? How has Reality TV shaped the modern world? Join David Olusoga and Sarah Chur...Read more

Why did the Confederate states think that stopping the global supply of cotton would force Britain to join their side in the American Civil War? What extraordinary humanitarian effort did the Union pull off to help st...Read more

Why did Britain and America nearly go to war over the capture of two Confederate officers from a British Ship? What did President Lincoln’s Emergency War Cabinet respond to Britain’s threatening ultimatum? How did Pri...Read more

David has just come off stage with Barack Obama - what does the 44th President think about the ‘Special Relationship’ between the UK and the US? What is the history of this relationship? What about during the American...Read more

Harry Belafonte, Josephine Baker, Bob Dylan, and which other celebrities joined the 250,000 marching on Washington in August 1963? How were the American Nazi Party planning to incite violence? How did Martin Luther Ki...Read more

How were figures like Martin Luther King organising to fight for Civil Rights in the Jim Crow era? Why were tensions so exceptionally high in America in 1963? What caused hundreds of thousands of people from all over...Read more

How many times did Billy the Kid escape from prison? Who was Pat Garrett, the man who murdered Billy? Why does the story of Billy the Kid remain one of the most retold in history? Join Sarah Church...Read more

Who was the notorious Western icon, Billy the Kid? How did he get caught up in the murder which made him famous? And, who was really in charge in the lawless Wild West? Join David Olusoga and Sarah...Read more

How did Hitler get caught after leading the failed Beer Hall Putsch, which killed 20 people? Why was he allowed to turn his 24 day trial into a piece of internationally received political theatre? How did a botched co...Read more

The Nazis were voted into power in 1933, but how close did they come to seizing power 10 years before? What catastrophic economic conditions fuelled them? And where did Hitler take his inspiration from? Listen...Read more

How did the NRA manage to gain so much control over the American President and the Supreme Court? Who are the armed citizens masquerading as secret police in America today? Why is an understanding of history so impor...Read more

Was the Wild West really lawless? Why did the 1960s mark a turning point in the gun debate? How did a convicted killer become one of the most influential figures in modern gun politics? Join Sarah...Read more

How does the history of the National Rifle Association explain how the pro-gun lobby got such a stranglehold on modern US politics? Was the United States always a firearm-loving nation? How did race and class shape ea...Read more

How did the flames engulf the stone building of St Paul’s Cathedral, jump over the River Fleet, and reach 1,700 degrees celsius? After four days, how was this monstrous fire finally put out? What scars remain on the m...Read more

What caused London to go up in flames on 2nd September, 1666? How did a fire that started in a bakery grow to engulf so much of the city? Who was Samuel Pepys, the great diarist who documented the fire? </...Read more

What role did WWII enigma hero Alan Turing play in the early development of AI? Why are games so important to the history of AI? Did 2001: A Space Odyssey influence the design of the iPad? Sarah Chu...Read more

What death and destruction did the people of England wake up to after the 1703 storm? How did people make sense of this biblical devastation? Why do we remember The Great Fire of London and not The Great Storm?...Read more

How did a storm in November 1703 turn into one of the deadliest natural disasters in England’s history? Why is Daniel Defoe, ‘father of the British novel’ and author of Robinson Crusoe, at the centre of this story? Wi...Read more

Why did the audience of Macbeth begin hurling theatre seats and food then cobble stones and bricks? What caused the militia, drafted in by New York’s mayor, to fire on the crowd? How did this riot change theatre and S...Read more

How did a fight about Shakespeare descend into America’s bloodiest riot during peace time? Why were tensions so high in New York City in May 1849? Who were Edwin Forrest and William McCready, the actors whose personal...Read more

What piratical crimes did ‘good girl’ Anne Bonny and ‘bad girl’ Mary Reed commit on the high seas? Who were the bounty hunters chasing Calico Jack’s crew? How did the swash buckling, gender bending pair finally get ca...Read more

How did ‘good girl’ Anne Bonny and ‘bad girl’ Mary Reed end up sailing with Pirates of the Caribbean?  Who was ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham, the infamous Pirate Captain and ladies man? Did our notorious female pirates have a...Read more

Eleanor Rathbone was instrumental to the implementation of child benefit and the welfare state, why have we forgotten her?  Who were the two million “superfluous women” recorded in the 1921 census? How did Eleanor cam...Read more

17 murders in, what finally brought serial killers Burke and Hare to justice? How did the notorious partners in crime turn against each other? Which of the pair met a grisly end and who got off totally scot-free?...Read more

How did Burke and Hare get into the lucrative business of murder? Why was there such a demand for fresh corpses in 1820s Edinburgh? What gruesome methods did the pair use to kill their victims? Joi...Read more

Why did a military training exercise seem like an imminent threat of nuclear attack? Despite being minutes away from launching Nuclear missiles, what made the Soviets back down? Why does no one know how close we came...Read more

Why was the world so close to the brink of nuclear war in November 1983? What tactics were the Americans employing to play high stakes mind games with the Soviets? And, what mad...Read more

Why did Iva Toguri get branded America’s first female traitor, despite there being no evidence to convict her? How did her case become important to President Harry Truman’s re-election campaign?...Read more

How did Tokyo Rose, a woman who never existed, become one of WWII’s most well known Japanese figures? Who was Iva Toguri, the American citizen caught up in the myth? How did sensati...Read more

Paranoid predictions of crime fill the newspapers - so how will the well-to-do react to the incoming crowds of the working-class? From Harrods to the Eiffel Tower, what iconic attractions do we have T...Read more

The Great Exhibition is to open in May 1851 and millions of people will descend on the capital to marvel at exhibitions of culture and industry. Victorian engineering and determination will transform one million squar...Read more

From the trading floor of Wall Street to the campaign trail, Victoria Woodhull was a force to be reckoned with. Sadly, her scandalous presidential campaign ends in disaster, and she spends election night in a cell. Sh...Read more

The American public is outraged by the announcement of a woman running for president. The year is 1872 and the candidate is Victoria Woodhull. Victoria Woodhull’s fascinating life started in a rural...Read more

New York harbour erupts with an explosion as Black Tom island is ripped apart. The shock waves ripple out around Manhattan and New Jersey, shattering windows miles away and even registering on the Richter scale. Howev...Read more

New York, 1916. America is supposedly neutral in the war but they are shipping huge quantities of supplies to the allies. However, it being a nation of immigrants means loyalties across the United States are divided a...Read more

Join historians Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga on Journey Through Time, as they expose forgotten history, and bring to light extraordinary events you should have heard of. Journey through Time, a new show from Goa...Read more