HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-01-30T09:00:22.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: History TV and radio in the UK: what's on our screens this week?
items: Could Benedict and Sophie have lived happily ever after? The true history behind Bridgerton's cross-class romance
items: Is Amadeus a true story? The real history of Mozart's feud with Salieri
items: Who was Roscoe Conkling? The real story of how US politics’ ‘spoils system’ met its match
items: Was Robin Hood ACTUALLY real? The history explained
items: Who was the real Lucretia Garfield? Inside the forgotten life of a fleeting First Lady
items: Who was the real Chester Arthur – and what was his relationship with James Garfield?
items: Who was the real James Garfield, ‘the man from Ohio’ and doomed president of Death by Lightning?
items: Death by Lightning real history: the true story of Charles Guiteau and a president’s assassination
items: The real history behind The Forsytes

History TV and radio in the UK: what's on our screens this week?
type: item
date: 2026-01-30T09:00:22.000Z
subject: Period
description: Can't decide which shows to watch or listen to this week? Here are the latest history radio and TV programmes airing in the UK that you won't want to miss
encoded: Archive On 4: Taxi Driver At 50 – New York, Then And Now BBC Radio 4 Saturday 31st January, 8pm In the mid-1970s, New York faced bankruptcy. The city was visibly decaying. The era was vividly captured in director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader’s Taxi Driver, starring Robert De Niro as traumatised and violent Travis Bickle. Ex-Big Apple cabbie Michael Goldfarb looks back at the film and considers how New York has changed over the past 50 years. Read more The Assassinations Of Queen Victoria 5 Saturday 31st January, 8.30pm There were eight separate attempts on the life of Queen Victoria during her reign, including an attack in 1840 when a teenage gunman fired at her from close range. But despite the risks involved, as this feature-length documentary charts, the monarch insisted on being visible to her subjects, many of whom only admired her more because of this courage. Read more Walden BBC Radio 4 Sunday 1st February, 3pm Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854) was a reflection on a year the author spent living simply and “deliberately” in a remote cabin located next to a pond in Massachusetts. Matthew Needham stars in Paul Farley’s dramatisation of the text. Broadcast as part of Radio 4’s ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Read more Bolton: The Happiest Town On Earth? BBC Radio 4 Sunday 1st February, 7.15pm Broadcast in the Illuminated strand, Katherine Longworth looks back to the 1930s, when researchers descended on Bolton to discover residents largely happy with their lot in life. What’s changed in the years since? Is it tougher to be happier today than during the interwar era? Read more Call The Midwife BBC One Sunday 1st February, 8pm Despite its cosy reputation, Call The Midwife is never worried about tackling difficult subjects. The latest episode is a case in point as a newborn baby is snatched from the maternity home, an incident that hits Sister Catherine badly. Elsewhere, the Turners have concerns o…

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Could Benedict and Sophie have lived happily ever after? The true history behind Bridgerton's cross-class romance
type: item
date: 2026-01-29T17:20:15.000Z
creator: Felicity Day
subject: Georgian
subject: Period
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: The fourth season of hit Regency period drama Bridgerton tells the story of second son Benedict’s relationship with Sophie, a lady’s maid in disguise. But could a real romance like this have ever had a happy ending? And are there any figures from history who lived out the upstairs/downstairs fantasy? Felicity Day explains more
encoded: We’re back in the candlelit ballrooms of the ton this month for a new series of Netflix’s Bridgerton, this time watching second sibling Benedict waltz his way towards marriage. But his love interest is no debutante expensively dressed by a fashionable modiste, drilled in the latest dance steps and declared a diamond by Queen Charlotte. Sophie Baek is a working lady’s maid in the household of the Bridgerton family’s neighbour, Lady Araminta Gun. It’s an upstairs/downstairs romance that could only ever prosper in the pages of a romantic novel – or so you might think… Were there cross-class romances in the Regency era? In fact, there are several true stories from the late Georgian age that give hope to those wanting to hear wedding bells chiming for Benedict before the end of season four. In early 1789, for instance, it was an open secret in the Banbury area of Oxfordshire one Mr William Wykeham, the young owner of the stately Swalcliffe Park, was besotted with Elizabeth Marsh, who was the cook to the tenants then occupying his ancestral home. As the sun came up on a bright day in early March, he stopped his carriage a discreet distance from the house where she toiled long and hard every day. When she jumped in, he whisked her away from a life in service for good – to the mingled indignation, amusement and anxiety of her employer, MP’s wife Henrietta Wrightson, who shared the news of their flight in a letter to her sister. It was an unlikely match between the teenage nephew of a viscount and the daughter of a Lancashire smallholder – not to mention that Elizabeth was some 18 years senior to her determined suitor. But they went on to wed in a local church not long after their elopement. Their marriage was tragically short, but Elizabeth gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl, before she died in 1792. When William followed her to the grave in 1806, their surviving daughter inherited not only the great house where her mother had once been employed, but another even …

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Is Amadeus a true story? The real history of Mozart's feud with Salieri
type: item
date: 2025-12-22T17:33:01.000Z
creator: Lauren Good
subject: Georgian
subject: Period
subject: TV interest
description: A new Sky Atlantic miniseries revives the tale of Mozart’s supposed rivalry with Antonio Salieri. But how much of it is based on truth?
encoded: The Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stands as one of the most iconic figures in musical history. In his short life, he produced more than 800 works, giving him a firm place in the canon of classical music. Amadeus, a Sky Atlantic miniseries starring Will Sharpe as Mozart, dramatises his ‘golden years’ in Vienna and the rumoured feud between him and fellow composer Antonio Salieri. Is Amadeus a true story? No, Amadeus is not a true story. While Amadeus centres on an assumed rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, the story owes far more to theatre than genuine biography. The miniseries draws heavily on Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play, also called Amadeus, which was inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s 1830 short drama Mozart and Salieri. This was a reimagination of the rumour that Salieri murdered Mozart in a final act of revenge. The miniseries clearly embraces this dramatic tradition, with Paul Bettany’s Salieri declaring: “He [Mozart] had written a masterpiece, and I was nothing but a spectator.” There are strands of truth, however. The miniseries takes place during Mozart’s years in Vienna where he did experience huge success, and when he was married to a woman named Constanze Weber (played by Gabrielle Creevy). He and Salieri did also compete as musicians, but in a way that seemed much more professional than vengeful. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/12/01003Amadeus-ceb6d1c-e1766423415885.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Paul Bettany's Salieri (left) watched on amid a crowd as his purported rival Mozart (Will Sharpe) dazzles at a piano" title="Paul Bettany's Salieri (left) watched on amid a crowd as his purported rival Mozart (Will Sharpe) dazzles at a piano (Photos credit Sky studios_Adrienn Szabo)" /> Did Salieri murder Mozart? There is no good evidence that Salieri murdered Mozart. Mozart died on 5 December 1791 in Vienna, at the age of just 35. His early death has led to much mythology, including the theory that his ri…

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Who was Roscoe Conkling? The real story of how US politics’ ‘spoils system’ met its match
type: item
date: 2025-11-11T15:50:59.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: In the turbulent Republican Party of the late 1870s and early 1880s, Roscoe Conkling loomed as the hard-edged master of machine politics. Who was Conkling, and how did he ‘go to war’ with James Garfield, sparking a chain of events that would end with the president’s untimely death?
encoded: Netflix drama Death by Lightning has revived interest in the turbulent politics that shaped James Garfield’s brief presidency, and at the heart of that drama stood two Republican powerbrokers – Roscoe Conkling and James Blaine. Their rivalry helped fracture their party and set the stage for Garfield’s rise and the collapse of a corrupt brand of politics known as the 'spoils system'. Conkling was charismatic, theatrical, and ruthless. More importantly, he controlled a powerful faction within the Republican party known as the Stalwarts, whose influence depended on the spoils system – an issue which had flourished unchallenged in the politics of the United States of America since the 1820s. While Death by Lightning is ultimately the story of Garfield’s untimely death in 1881, following his shooting by Charles Guiteau, much of the action derives from this seemingly unsurmountable rift in the Republican party of the time. What was this system, what was Conkling’s role in it, and why was it so important to the assassination of President James Garfield? Here’s the real history. The Stalwarts, the Half-Breeds, and the spoils system Speaking on an upcoming episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, historian and biographer CW Goodyear describes Conkling as “a colourful bantam rooster of a politician” who walked through Congress “like a bird of paradise amid a barnyard of DC fowl”. And as for the system in which he thrived, Goodyear explains that in this era “the civil service, all of the jobs in the federal government, were awarded by politicians to their cronies”. That arrangement allowed corrupt networks to flourish, and created something called the spoils system through which politicians could “basically rig elections” and “bribe people, and then reward places on the public payroll to their loyalists”. Read more | Your guide to the American Civil War These loyalists, in turn, would often “skim money from the public to enrich themselves and give money back to their political pat…

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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, FSA
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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Who was the real Lucretia Garfield? Inside the forgotten life of a fleeting First Lady
type: item
date: 2025-11-06T17:31:03.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: Lucretia Garfield, also known as Crete, was the wife of US President James A Garfield and served briefly as First Lady in 1881. She was admired for her stoic devotion during the president’s long illness that followed his wounding by assassin Charles Guiteau (as depicted in the Netflix drama Death by Lightning), and for her later efforts to preserve his papers and legacy
encoded: When US President James A Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau in July 1881, the nation’s focus turned not only to the wounded president and his successor Chester A Arthur, but also to his wife, Lucretia Garfield, sometimes known to history as ‘Crete’. She was with him for more than two months as he died, dividing her time between his sickroom in Washington, DC, and the New Jersey seaside house where doctors hoped the air might help him recover. Contemporary newspapers heaped praise upon her for her strength and devotion, at a moment of personal and national anxiety. But her stoicism in the face of personal tragedy is just one part of Lucretia’s story – part of which is dramatised in the Netflix series, Death by Lightning, which follows the assassination of President Garfield. Behind her composure was a life of intellectual interest and loyalty that was present long before she became First Lady. Who was Lucretia ‘Crete’ Garfield? Lucretia Rudolph Garfield is remembered in history as the wife of James A Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. She served as First Lady for only six months before her husband died of fatal wounds following an attack by assassin Charles Guiteau. She had previously been a teacher and scholar, and retained passion for education and literature throughout her life. Her poise during his slow death earned wide admiration across the United States, and in the decades that followed she became a guardian of his papers and legacy. Read more | How many US presidents died in office? <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/11/GettyImages-1410610111-5277a01-e1762429347504.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="This late 19th-century portrait shows Lucretia Garfield, wife of U.S. President James A. Garfield. Known for her intellect and dignity, she brought refinement to the White House during her husband’s brief presidency in 1881." title="A portrait of Lucretia Garfield, wife of President Garfield." /> Lucretia…

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Who was the real Chester Arthur – and what was his relationship with James Garfield?
type: item
date: 2025-11-06T17:30:12.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: When US President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881, his Vice President, Chester A Arthur, assumed the presidency amid widespread distrust. But once viewed as a party insider tied to political corruption, Arthur surprised the nation
encoded: When US President James Garfield was shot in July 1881, few Americans expected his vice-president, Chester A Arthur, to be able to manage the crisis that followed. Known as a New York Republican party bureaucrat, with a background in patronage and machine politics, Arthur had little public confidence backing him. But when Garfield died of his wounds later that year, Arthur was thrust into the spotlight as the 21st President of the United States. Arthur story simmers in the background of Netflix’s 2025 drama Death by Lightning, the story of the assassination of Garfield (played by Michael Shannon) at the hands of frustrated political hopeful Charles Guiteau (played by Matthew Macfadyen). In Death by Lightning, Chester Arthur (played by Nick Offerman) is portrayed as something of a low man pushed in high office, a Republican enforcer famed for his carousing. But how does real history remember him? Who was the real Chester Arthur? Prior to becoming the 21st US President, serving from 1881–85, Chester Alan Arthur had been a lawyer and political organiser from New York, and was closely associated with the patronage system of the Republican Party. As president, however, his administration is perhaps best known for passing the 1883 Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act – ending the easily abused ‘spoils system’ of political patronage that he had once supported. His presidency is often viewed as a meaningful step toward cleaner government and a more professional civil service. Arthur was born on 5 October 1829 in Fairfield, Vermont, as one of nine children. His father, Reverend William Arthur, was a Baptist minister from Northern Ireland. His mother, Malvina Stone Arthur, came from a New England farming family. He attended Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he graduated in 1848. He taught at a school for several years before studying law in New York City. In 1854, in his mid-twenties, he was admitted to the bar. Arthur’s early legal work included a notable civil rig…

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Who was the real James Garfield, ‘the man from Ohio’ and doomed president of Death by Lightning?
type: item
date: 2025-11-06T17:27:53.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: The 20th President of the United States had the potential to be one of the greats, according to many – until his assassination less than a year into the job. As a new drama comes to Netflix about what set him and his killer on their tragic collision, here’s why it’s time to better remember James Garfield
encoded: In the history of the presidents of the United States, James Garfield is too easily overlooked. It’s not hard to see why: his time in the presidential spotlight had been brief, emerging late as a surprise candidate for the 1880 election and serving only 200 days in office. He is perhaps best known as one of the four US presidents to be assassinated, alongside Abraham Lincoln (1865), William McKinley (1901) and John F Kennedy (1963). But while he does not rank as one of the ‘greats’, Garfield is the great ‘what if’ of American politics. A brilliant mind, commanding yet humble, and driven by principle, he fought against corruption and for the modernisation of the country. If he had lived, who knows what he might have accomplished. Now Garfield is back in in the spotlight again in 2025 Netflix limited series Death by Lightning starring Michael Shannon as the doomed president and Matthew Macfadyen as his killer, Charles Guiteau. How and why was US President James Garfield assassinated? On 2 July 1881, President James Garfield travelled to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington DC, on his way to speak at his college reunion before heading off on a family holiday. Only a couple of members of his cabinet accompanied him; even after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination 16 years earlier, it was not common practice for a president to have a security detail. As he entered the waiting room, a man named Charles Guiteau approached from behind, and fired his British Bulldog revolver twice. The first shot grazed Garfield’s arm – causing him to cry out, “My God, what is this?” – and the second hit his back, becoming lodged near his pancreas. While Garfield was rushed away for medical care, police seized the gunman. Guiteau, almost certainly suffering from a severe mental condition, had a lifetime’s worth of failed enterprises and disappointed ambitions that stretched well beyond his ability. The latest had been a role in politics. He had supported Garfield in the electi…

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Death by Lightning real history: the true story of Charles Guiteau and a president’s assassination
type: item
date: 2025-11-06T17:27:01.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: Pick a word to describe the life of Charles Guiteau and you may go with ‘failure’. Another option would be ‘assassin’. So why did he murder James Garfield, 20th President of the United States?
encoded: On the morning of 2 July 1881, Charles Guiteau secured his infamous place in American political history when he fired two shots at James Garfield. The 20th President of the United States would die almost three months later. Guiteau’s life was ended the following year, at the end of a rope. The assassination was Guiteau’s last violent response to a life of not receiving what he thought he deserved from the world. Almost certainly living with an undiagnosed mental health condition, Guiteau failed as a lawyer, journalist, author and preacher; he failed as a husband and as a member of a religious commune; and he failed, risibly, in his foray into politics. It could be said the only thing he succeeded at was killing the president. And he almost failed in that. Death by Lightning, a 2025 Netflix four-episode drama starring Matthew Macfadyen as Guiteau and Michael Shannon as Garfield, tells Giteau’s story while acknowledging that, as presidential assassins go, his name is hardly as well known as John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald, killers of Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy respectively. The opening line of the series, delivered as Guiteau’s preserved brain rolls across the floor in a jar, sums it up: “Who the f*** is Charles Guiteau?!” Who was the real Charles Guiteau? Charles Julius Guiteau had a rough start. Born on 8 September 1841 in Freeport, Illinois, he was the fourth of six children to a mother suffering from psychotic episodes. She died when Charles was seven, and his father was a disciplinarian, and often abusive. Like the man he later killed, the young Guiteau looked to better his situation through education, only to fail in in his attempt to get into the University of Michigan, stumbling at the entrance exam. Leaving schooling behind, he instead joined a religious sect – the Oneida Community – in New York state in 1860. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/11/GettyImages-615251932-faec44a-e1762443683976.jpg" width="15…

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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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