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A photograph of Nelson Mandela. Peter Hain told the History Extra podcast about the South African leader’s remarkable achievements in the face of tremendous adversity. (Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

Peter Hain on Nelson Mandela: “A symbol for good leadership in the world”

Robert Burns. (Getty Images)

7 facts about Robert Burns, Scotland’s national bard

Poldark. (Image by BBC/Mammoth Screen/Mike Hogan)

History TV and radio: what’s on next week (21-27 July 2018)

Deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, German officer Paul Schmidt and Adolf Hitler survey damage at Hitler's eastern front military headquarters, ‘the Wolf’s Lair’, hours after a failed bombing attempt by Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. (Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Second World War

Should we be glad the plot to kill Hitler failed?

Lady Jane Grey's execution, as imagined by painter Paul Delaroche in 1833. (VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images)

Lady Jane Grey: why do we want to believe the myth?

Andrew Roberts.

History Weekends 2018: 5 minutes with Andrew Roberts

Men enjoying a drink and a chat in a coffee house, 1674. Coffee houses became known as ‘schools of the wise’, where people would gossip, argue and discuss the breaking news of the day. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A drink for the devil: 8 facts about the history of coffee

Nelson Mandela

Mandela: the 20th century’s greatest leader?

Colour portrait of Jane Austen (1775–1817) drawn by her sister Cassandra. Dated 1810. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about Jane Austen

c1400, English troops use siege towers to capture a French town during the Hundred Years' War between England and France. Original Artwork: An illumination from Froissart's Chronicles. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

7 facts about the Hundred Years’ War

Historian, presenter and author Dan Jones. (David Levenson/Getty Images)

Dan Jones on the Templars and ‘Knightfall’

Henry VIII's Mary Rose (© 19th era/Alamy)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose

The last Russian royal family, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra and their five children, were shot and bayonetted to death by their Bolshevik guards in the early hours of 17 July 1918. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

The legacy of the Romanovs: how is the last Russian royal family remembered in Russia?

While young ladies may have been daydreaming of handsome film stars such as Cary Grant, pictured here kissing the cheek of Ingrid Bergman in a publicity still for the 1946 film ‘Notorious’, agony aunts were keen to bring them back down to earth. (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

How to be a man: tips from 1930s agony aunts