Extraordinary Stories of Britain

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.

Our history of London pubs pubcast visits the oldest tavern in London, including a pub haunted by phantasmal spirits.  Hear about Parliamentary boozers, the smallest bar in the world, the Pilgrim Fathers Mayflower pub,  and Gandalf’s riverside alehouse.

What is the oldest pub name in Britain? And the most popular pub name in the country? Where is our oldest pub?   What are the boozy origins of the nursery rhyme “Pop Goes the Weasel”? What caused the London beer flood?  And where is Britain’s most haunted pub? Find out in our latest History of Beer podcast

The story of Beer.  From Britain’s first brewer,  to ancient  ales made with psychedelic plants.     From rules on Viking drinking horns to the English king who drank himself to death.   From the rise of female brewers,   to a drunk Queen Elizabeth I.  From the legend of the ale-conner, to pubs forced to change names.  

The story of sewage:  from the Romans taxing urine,  to York's Bog on the Bridge; from Henry VIII's Groom of the Stool, to pure finders selling dog faeces.  Hear about the life of a Gong Farmer,  and how a lav affair with toilets lead to the Great Stink, which brought London's mighty Thames to a standstill.  

We investigate the history of cats:  from mummified felines in the British Museum to George the Lion who lived in the Tower of London;  from the world’s favourite pantomime cat, to the pussy who helped write an English dictionary. Hear about only cat to win the prestigious wartime Dickin Medal, and political cats  - from Churchill's mouser to the famous Downing Street Larry.  

In 1666, a stray ember turned London into a blazing inferno.  Our podcast brings to life the Great Fire of London:  dramatising the lives of the people caught up in the worst disaster the capital has ever witnessed.

400 years ago,  in 1623,  Shakespeare’s plays were brought together in one book:  The First Folio  -  the most important work in English literature.   This podcast tells the story of the Bard’s life in London: how the writer left the tiny village of Stratford-Upon-Avon in search of success in the capital,  how he became an actor, writer and theatre owner; how his company dismantled an entire theatre building and moved it across the River Thames -  and how his beloved Globe burned down.   And why we,  very nearly,   lost half his plays forever.

For a thousand years, British kings and queens have been crowned at Westminster Abbey.  This podcast tells the story of the coronation:   from babbling bishops to falling dukes,  spurned queens to monarch murders,  stolen stones to dazzling diamonds and belly-busting banquets to mighty majesty.   

Thee hundred years ago, Jack Sheppard was the most famous man in the country.    Britain’s first celebrity was not a royal,  an actor,  or aristocrat -  but a petty thief.    This podcast tells the story of how an East End chancer became so famous, that a third of London’s population took to the streets to see if he could cheat the noose. 

For 700 years Newgate Jail was the darkest, dirtiest and most miserable dungeon in London.  We uncover some of its terrible and terrifying prison stories:  from cannibals to the fearsome ghost of a black dog;    from a boy chimney sweep sent to hang at Tyburn, to a world-famous novelist imprisoned for his ideas.   Hear about London’s Georgian Mafia boss,  and the man who inspired Dickens’ Fagin.  Songs, stories and strange tales in this prison podcast.

For our December episode, we are at Stonehenge for the winter solstice.   We investigate the mystery of  Stonehenge’s little-known  neighbouring sister  Woodhenge -  was it once home to the largest “city” in the world?  We hear about the strange legend of the Cuckoo stone.   

 We find out how – 4,500 years ago -  the first stones at the henge were dragged 180 miles from Wales.    We tell the story of how the first metalworker in Britain came to be buried near the henge,   and find out how to dowse the mysterious lay lines that run under the great monument.  Are the initials of Britain’s most famous architect inscribed into the monument?    We wait with the druids, wiccans and witches for the winter solstice.   

This podcast tells the story of witchcraft.   From the ancient witches of Wales to the medieval sorceress known as the Witch of Eye.   From the brutal torture of the pilliwinks, to the British king who wrote a book on witches.  From the gruesome story of the Pendle Witches, to a “witch” imprisoned during WW2 by the British government.

Our Halloween special tells the story of the Pendle witches  - the most famous witch trials in British history.    This chilling court case saw dozens of Lancashire women imprisoned for witchcraft, with accusations of stolen babies,  teeth taken from corpse skulls,  talking dogs and crippling curses.