HistoryExtra Podcast

From the rise of Christianity to the Russian Revolution, David Potter analyses the causes of huge events that transformed human history. (Image by Getty Images)

Why do things change?

Public historians Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb explore how we should make sense of studying the past in 2021

History in 2021, with Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb

Moves still from Rob Roy

How Walter Scott’s stories shaped Scotland

Food on a platter

Food history: everything you wanted to know

As Tokyo hosts the summer Paralympics, Ian Brittain chronicles the history of competitive sport for disabled people. (Image by Getty Images)

The rise of the Paralympics

Owen Emmerson, who recently appeared on BBC docu-drama The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family, traces the clan’s meteoric rise – and crushing fall. (Image by BBC)

Behind the scenes of The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family

A panel of experts tackle the big questions surrounding period drama in the 21st century and ask: what’s next? (Images by Getty, Channel 5 and Alamy)

What’s next for period drama?

Christian Cooijmans explains what we know about Viking raids on Francia and Europe’s western seaboard. (Image by Getty Images)

Vikings and Franks

Annie Garthwaite discusses her new novel based on the life of Cecily Neville, who worked tirelessly to help her family seize the throne. (Image by Getty Images)

The forgotten matriarch of the Wars of the Roses

Chris Williams responds to your questions on law enforcement in Britain over the past 300 years. (Image by Getty Images)

British police history: everything you wanted to know

Andrew Lownie discusses the opulent and eccentric lifestyle of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson after the abdication crisis of 1936. (Image by Getty Images)

The Windsors in exile

Hester Barron and Claire Langhamer reveal what we can learn from essays written by Bolton schoolgirls in 1937. (Image by Getty Images)

Working-class girlhood in 1930s Bolton

Eric Berkowitz describes the lengths to which rulers – from the first Chinese emperor to Henry VIII – have gone to suppress freedom of speech. (Image by Getty Images)

Censorship: waging war on free speech

Fatima Manji talks about objects and landmarks that are often obscured by the traditional stories told in many heritage sites. (Photographed by Sophie Davidson)

The history hidden in British heritage sites

Paul Kenyon charts the turbulent story of modern Romania, and its colourful, chaotic and often corrupt leaders. (Image by Getty Images)

Monarchs, fascists & communists: Romania’s modern history