HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-11-21T16:34:29.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Why do ‘wicked’ witches wear pointed hats? The real history explained
items: The REAL history behind Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and more
items: Was Robin Hood ACTUALLY real? The history explained
items: The REAL history behind 'All Creatures Great and Small'
items: The real history behind The Forsytes
items: 9 things you might not know about Sherlock Holmes
items: Is Oppenheimer a true story? Meet the real Robert Oppenheimer, ‘father of the atomic bomb’
items: The real Paddy Mayne of SAS Rogue Heroes
items: The real SAS Rogue Heroes: the true stories behind the WW2 drama
items: Upcoming in 2025: historical anniversaries, exhibitions and television

Why do ‘wicked’ witches wear pointed hats? The real history explained
type: item
date: 2025-11-21T15:20:39.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: General History
subject: Period
subject: TV interest
subject: Witches
description: There have been many examples of pointed hats in history, but it remains unclear how any of them became a must-wear for the witches
encoded: We’re off to see… the Wicked Witch of the West, as she returns to the silver screen in Wicked: For Good, the second part of the fantasy epic based on the popular stage musical. But where would Elphaba be without her trademark look, including the iconic black, pointed and wide-brimmed hat? Along with a cat, broomstick and black robes, the pointed hat is a required feature of any depiction of the typical ‘evil witch’, and has been for centuries. How it became the headgear of choice, however, remains the subject of numerous theories – as there is no single hat to point the way to the archetypal witch. The myth of the alewives Before getting to the major theories, there is one that can be debunked. The internet is well-populated with the claim that the image of the witch began with alewives, medieval women who brewed ale in their homes and sold it locally. Dominating the brewing industry for a time, these women could achieve a degree of financial independence. In an era where any woman who baulked social norms was suspicious, this autonomy would have been enough to single them out, putting them at risk of being accused of witchcraft. In addition, the fact that they stood over bubbling cauldrons while brewing and wearing pointed hats to be easily spotted at markets, it is clear why some have argued that alewives were the inspiration for the image of the witch. Except, there is just zero historical evidence to back this up. The highly symbolic history of the pointed witch hat Instead, theories have taken in pointy hats from throughout history, some with highly symbolic meaning. The Phrygian cap of antiquity, for instance, came to represent liberty and freedom in the American and French Revolutions of the 18th century, while the ancient Romans presented freed slaves with a special pointed felt cap, called a pileus. In medieval Europe, the hennin came into fashion: an extremely tall cone with flowing material hanging out of the top. Yet while it certainly has a resemblance …

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The REAL history behind Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and more
type: item
date: 2025-11-20T13:17:18.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: TV interest
description: If you thought Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power or The Hobbit was pure fairytale, you would be way off. HistoryExtra's James Osborne explains more
encoded: From the epic battles of Beowulf to the myths of Old Norse sagas and the real-world struggles of the Anglo-Saxons, Tolkien’s legendary world was deeply rooted in the past. But how exactly did these influences weave their way into The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit? In this video, we explore the sources that helped Tolkien forge his fantasy masterpiece, uncovering the warriors, monsters, and lost kingdoms that made Middle-Earth feel so real. View Green Video on the source website

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Was Robin Hood ACTUALLY real? The history explained
type: item
date: 2025-11-07T12:01:08.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: Dive into the myth and historical speculation surrounding Robin Hood, a legendary outlaw famed for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, as HistoryExtra's David Musgrove presents the real details from history that might have inspired the Sherwood Forest hero
encoded: Was Robin Hood one man – or many? In this video, Dr David Musgrove shares some of the medieval rebels who may have inspired England’s greatest outlaw, and discover how history has turned him into a folk hero. Drawing on expertise from Dr Sean McGlynn, Musgrove examines figures such as King Richard the Lionheart and King John to anchor the Robin Hood legend in real history. But the earliest stories don’t depict Robin Hood as particularly kind – in fact, he’s often violent. And his iconic green outfit? A mere invention. From chopping off heads to fighting the French – dig into the real history behind the Robin Hood that has so often featured in Hollywood blockbusters. View Green Video on the source website

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The REAL history behind 'All Creatures Great and Small'
type: item
date: 2025-11-04T14:49:06.000Z
creator: Lauren Good
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: TV interest
description: Discover the vet who inspired a legacy that is still enjoyed today by fans of PBS America and Channel 5's All Creatures Great and Small
encoded: HistoryExtra's Lauren Good explores the life and career of James 'Alf' Wight, and what led him to write about his experiences as a veterinarian in the Yorkshire Dales. From his early years to his struggles with mental illness, this video shines a light on the man who wrote a series of books that would capture the public imagination and go on to sell in their millions. View Green Video on the source website

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The real history behind The Forsytes
type: item
date: 2025-10-30T15:57:14.000Z
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: The Forsytes, a new drama adaptation of John Galsworthy's novels, has landed on British screens, giving viewers a sumptuous look at late Victorian London – a world of dazzling excess and great divide. Historical consultant Dr Victoria Bateman introduces the real historical detail behind the action
encoded: By the late Victorian era, having emerged from the Industrial Revolution, Britain was the wealthiest country in the world. Cotton, coal and iron and steel had propelled the island nation from poverty to prosperity, while putting Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle – along with Scotland and Wales – on the map. In a situation quite the reverse of today, London had been left lagging behind, with the northern regions the far wealthier side of the divide. But the emergence of the ‘City’ as the financial centre of the world was to change this. Home to the London Stock Exchange and the Bank of England, the (quite literal) Square Mile, whose skyline is dominated by St Paul’s Cathedral, forms the backdrop to The Forsytes – Channel 5’s new period drama. Is The Forsytes a true story? No, The Forsytes is adapted by Debbie Horsfield from John Galsworthy’s classic novel series The Forsyte Saga, published in 1922. But as with many historical dramas there are truths underpinning the fiction. The star-studded six-part series follows the fortunes, personal rivalries, and revelries of a wealthy family of stockbrokers in 1880s London. We get to know Jolyon Forsyte, who is reluctantly set to inherit the family firm but whose wife – Frances (played by Tuppence Middleton) – would have it no other way. Waiting in the wings is his cousin and rival, Soames, who considers himself to be a far more worthy heir and who is as hellbent on ‘possessing’ his love interest Irene (played by Millie Gibson) as much as his stocks and shares. From Lady Carteret (played by Susan Hampshire, who won an Emmy Award for the original 1967 series) and the Forsyte matriarch Ann (played by Francesca Annis) to the dressmaker and former maid Louisa, the characters of The Forsytes span the British class system and give us a glimpse of life in a pivotal but often overlooked period of British history. Here are five important real details in The Forystes that true fans of historical drama won’t want to miss… The Forstyes …

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9 things you might not know about Sherlock Holmes
type: item
date: 2025-09-04T08:35:03.000Z
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: TV interest
description: The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by Arthur Conan Doyle, has for more than 130 years been a star of stage and screen, played by actors including Benedict Cumberbatch and Ian McKellen and serialised in countless books. But how much do you know about this famous crime-buster, who made his first appearance in 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual? Here, author Martin Davies shares 11 lesser-known facts about Sherlock Holmes...
encoded: 1. The first actor to play Sherlock Holmes was American… The first actor to take on the role of Sherlock Holmes in any official capacity was the American William Gillette. His 1899 stage play was adapted from a script by Arthur Conan Doyle himself. Opening six years after the author had attempted to kill off his creation at the Reichenbach Falls, the play was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic: between 1899 and 1932, Gillette performed the role more than 1,000 times. Gillette is also credited with introducing the curved briar pipe that was to become synonymous with the great detective – possibly because a straight pipe obscured the actor’s face when he delivered his lines. On the podcast | Sherlock Holmes: the real history that inspired the detective stories On first meeting Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Gillette is said to have appeared in character, complete with deerstalker, and after examining Conan Doyle most minutely, to have opined: “Unquestionably an author!” 2. … who introduced a love interest Gillette was also one of the first to annoy the purists by introducing a love interest for Holmes. When he telegraphed Conan Doyle with the question “May I marry him?” the author is said to have replied: “You may marry him, or murder or do what you like with him!” It’s impossible to count the number of writers who, since then, have taken Doyle at his word. Read more | Real-life Sherlocks: the detectives of Scotland Yard and their curious cases 3. He defied death Holmes, having survived the Reichenbach Falls, refused to die with his creator. By the time of Conan Doyle’s death on 7 July 1930, Holmes was already a star of stage and screen. His film debut, Sherlock Holmes Baffled, came as early as 1900. Just a few seconds long, the film used stop-motion camerawork to show Holmes attempting to grapple with a burglar who repeatedly disappears, then reappears in a different part of the room. 4. A 1940s duo cemented Holmes and Watson's on screen personas One of the olde…

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Is Oppenheimer a true story? Meet the real Robert Oppenheimer, ‘father of the atomic bomb’
type: item
date: 2025-07-13T16:38:11.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Historical people
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb, a weapon so powerful that it redefined the world order. And at the centre of its development was of the first nuclear weapon, and the paradoxes and moral questions that dogged him for the rest of his life
encoded: Few famous scientists have left quite as complex a legacy as J Robert Oppenheimer, the 'father of the atomic bomb' who reflected, in aftermath watching the raw power of the first ever nuclear test in 1945, "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Oppenheimer's moral quandaries and personal demons nestled alongside his scientific brilliance, and all are explored in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which tells the story of the Manhattan Project during the Second World War. Starring Cillian Murphy ( perhaps known to history fans for his role in Peaky Blinders) in the title role, the film follows Oppenheimer’s journey from acclaimed theoretical physicist to director of the top-secret Los Alamos laboratory, where he led team of brilliant minds in a race to unlock the destructive power of the atom. The star cast also includes Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Robert Downey Jr as Lewis Strauss, and Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves. But is any of what we see in the film true? Read on for a full breakdown of the real history in Oppenheimer. Is Oppenheimer a true story? Yes, Oppenheimer is based on true events. The film tells the story of J Robert Oppenheimer, a real-life American physicist who played a central role in the Manhattan Project, the United States’ secret programme to develop the first atomic bomb, which began in 1942. Kitty Oppenheimer, Lewis Strauss, Jean Tatlock, General Leslie Groves – they were all real historical figures who shaped Oppenheimer's life and work. So too were the questions around his political leanings, and the intense scrutiny he endured during the post-war era. Briefed with weaponising atomic energy, the 38-year-old Oppenheimer was chosen by General Leslie Groves to head up the project’s secret research laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and oversaw the development of the world’s first atomic weapons between 1943-45. Prior to taking up the post, he had carried out research into the quantity of radioact…

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The real Paddy Mayne of SAS Rogue Heroes
type: item
date: 2025-01-01T08:52:23.000Z
creator: Joshua Levine
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Historical people
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: Paddy Mayne was one of the original members of the SAS, and later its commander, whose exploits are dramatised in BBC’s SAS Rogue Heroes
encoded: Season 2 of SAS Rogue Heroes – the rambunctious WW2 drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight – swaps Africa for Italy, pitting our ill-disciplined crew of motley misfits against the mighty Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. Heading the charge this time is Jack O’Connell’s Paddy Mayne, the subversive and frequently drunk warrior-poet from Ireland, taking the command of the SAS and its new intake while former anarchist-in-chief David Stirling (played by Connor Swindells) languishes as a prisoner of war. Who was the real Paddy Mayne? Paddy Mayne was a real soldier and perhaps the SAS’s most iconic fighter, but his story is so bound up in tales of violence and excess, that truth and legend have grown near inseparable. Born in 1915 in Newtownards, County Down, to a landowning Presbyterian family, Robert Blair Mayne excelled at sport at school. He went on to study law at Queen’s University and was capped six times for Ireland at rugby. He was also selected to play for the British Lions on their 1938 South African tour. Standing at 6’ 3” and 15.5 stone, Mayne had an intimidating reputation but was, in reality, a man of contradictions: of kindness and cruelty, sensitivity and rage, humour and solemnity. It was not always clear which version would emerge in any given situation – though alcohol often had a major part to play. When did Paddy Mayne join the SAS? Paddy Mayne first attracted wartime attention as a troop commander in No. 11 (Scottish) Commando, being mentioned in dispatches after a fight against the Vichy French on the Litani River. On the podcast | The SAS in WW2: everything you wanted to know He joined the Special Air Service as one of its original members in 1941, and soon made his mark within the unit by leading a triumphant raid on Tamet airfield in December of that year. Planting bombs that put two dozen enemy aircraft out of action and won him the first of his four Distinguished Service Orders. At one point, he climbed onto the wing of an Italian fighter pla…

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The real SAS Rogue Heroes: the true stories behind the WW2 drama
type: item
date: 2025-01-01T08:16:39.000Z
creator: Joshua Levine
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: It’s a story of extravagant lies, homemade bombs and adrenaline-pumped commandos. Joshua Levine charts the formative years of the SAS through the exploits of six extraordinary servicemen
encoded: The SAS changed the way that the Allies fought the Second World War. A group of motley misfits whose origins lay in a spy’s propaganda exercise, these bearded ruffians started as joke and yet redefined the art of covert warfare during the Africa campaign. Formed in Cairo in 1941, the Special Air Service – to give the SAS its full appellation – was tasked with attacking enemy airfields. And it did so, after a couple of harrowing missteps, with an assiduous aplomb. Once the war against Erwin Rommel was won, the SAS (as a taskforce called the Special Raiding Squadron – SRS) would spearhead the invasion of Sicily and the liberation of Italy from Benito Mussolini, then once again as the SAS take an active role in the invasion of France, swelling from a few dozen men to several thousand. It’s this early history of the SAS in WW2 that is dramatised in SAS Rogue Heroes, a historical piece from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, two seasons of which are available now on BBC iPlayer. Is SAS Rogue Heroes a true story? Yes, SAS Rogue Heroes is a true story at its core, though there are significant liberties taken with historical events. Don’t let that put you off. Though the show itself prefaces each episode with the words ‘This is not a history lesson’, there is a great truth running though both seasons of SAS Rogue Heroes. Here, historian and SAS expert Joshua Levine explores the real history through the exploits of six men who shaped the unit. On the podcast | The SAS in WW2: everything you wanted to know They include founder members David Stirling, Jock Lewes and Paddy Mayne; season 1 stalwart Mike Sadler and season 2 newcomer John Tonkin; and one man who will never appear in the show, who was SAS before there was an SAS. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/10/357820-0329cb3-e1666954977271.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="SAS Rogue Heroes, l-r: Jock Lewes (Alfie Allen), David Stirling (Connor Swindells) and Paddy Mayne (Jack O'Conn…

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Upcoming in 2025: historical anniversaries, exhibitions and television
type: item
date: 2024-12-29T06:00:07.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Period
subject: Trends-Anniversary
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: Discover the exciting historical television, movies, exhibitions, anniversaries and events coming up in 2025
encoded: From D-Day’s 80th anniversary and the 75th anniversary of the creation of NATO, to the release of the second season of hit Tudor drama Wolf Hall, history has never seemed too far from the public consciousness in 2024. The coming year looks set to be no different, with lots to enjoy for history lovers in 2025 – from new period dramas and the latest films, to exciting new exhibitions. There are also major anniversary milestones to keep in mind, too. New period dramas in 2025 New Year's Day saw the release of the second season of SAS Rogue Heroes, exploring the early years of the unit during the WW2 – read more on the real history behind the drama. Also early in the year is the return of 1923 for its second season, marked for February. A spin-off prequel of hit series Yellowstone, 1923 season 2 will return audiences to early 20th-century Montana on the newly settled border of the American Frontier. The series is superficially a series about cowboys and their changing role in an unforgiving landscape filled with enemies, but it’s deeply rooted in its post-First World War and colonialist historical context with these issues central to the drama. Tune in for Harrison Ford in a cowboy hat. Spring will see the second season of Wolf Hall airing in the US, having already been released in the UK. Meanwhile, A Thousand Blows will debut on Disney+. Created by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight, this gritty drama follows two friends as they navigate the high-stakes and brutal world of bare-knuckle boxing in the East End of Victorian London. Toward the end of the year, marking 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth, will be Miss Austen starring Keeley Hawes. This four-part drama set in the early 1800s will explore the rift between Austen and her sister, Cassandra Austen. Also keep an eye out for King and Conqueror, an as yet undated series expected to arrive on the BBC in 2025. This production will explore the end of the Anglo-Saxon era and the Viking age, through the onset of the Norman …

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