A focus on spectacles

Looking at the history of an invention many of us take for granted

• 39 mins

The Devils: Dostoevsky’s novel of political evil

Dostoevsky’s study of terrorism and poisoned ideals in pre-revolutionary Russia

• 40 mins

The Malayan Emergency

One of the earliest Cold War conflicts in Asia

• 39 mins

Mary Somerville: The queen of 19th-Century science

The 19th-Century polymath who popularised science for generations of readers

• 39 mins

Laskarina Bouboulina, the mother of modern Greece

An intrepid sea captain who commanded daring naval attacks with her own fleet of ships

• 39 mins

The original Goths

How did a Germanic tribe come to inspire an architectural style and a global subculture?

• 39 mins

Algae: Slime life

The evolution of life’s original alchemists

• 39 mins

Don Quixote: Spanish masterpiece

The multi-layered masterpiece by Miguel de Cervantes

• 39 mins

Antarctic Treaty: Protecting the icy continent

Safeguarding peace and wilderness with the Antarctic Treaty

• 38 mins

Harry Houdini: Escape artist and showman

Pulling back the curtain on the master of illusion

• 39 mins

Boudica, warrior queen

The Iron Age English warrior queen who led a rebellion against the Romans

• 39 mins

Writer Agatha Christie: Murder and mystery

How the queen of crime achieved her extraordinary success

• 39 mins

Copper: From mining to microprocessors

The shiny red metal our lives depend on that has powered human development

• 39 mins

Pleasure and pain: The philosophy of Jeremy Bentham

The radical ideas of the 18th-century legal reformer Jeremy Bentham

• 39 mins

Machu Picchu: Secrets of a forgotten city

The enigma of the Inca mountain retreat

• 39 mins

Sofya Kovalevskaya: The eventful life of a maths pioneer

A brilliant Russian whose scientific discoveries helped to reshape European universities

• 40 mins

Joseph Heller's Catch-22: A novel of twisted logic and absurd bureaucracy

Bridget Kendall explores a novel that gave rise to a new term in the English language

• 39 mins

Franz Liszt: Hungarian pianist and painter in sound

A charismatic musician who transformed classical concerts

• 40 mins

Vincent van Gogh: The struggling artist

Charting the highs and lows of the influential Dutch post-Impressionist painter

• 39 mins

The invention of numbers

How numbers and counting shaped our world

• 39 mins

Pinocchio: The real story of the mischievous wooden puppet

The original Italian novel about the wooden puppet with the growing nose

• 39 mins

Money: From coin to cryptocurrency

The origins of coins, paper money, shares and other financial instruments

• 39 mins

Margaret Fuller: Early feminist and war correspondent

A brilliant American journalist determined to live her life to the full

• 39 mins

The Truman Doctrine: Beginnings of the Cold War

The speech that committed the USA to a 40-year struggle with the Soviet Union

• 40 mins

Kwame Nkrumah: Ghana’s Pan-African idealist

Assessing the complex legacy of a man who campaigned for a United States of Africa

• 39 mins

Mirror Mirror on the wall: The history of the looking glass

The magical role of the mirror that's revealing ground-breaking secrets of the universe

• 39 mins

Emperor Nero: Bad boy of Ancient Rome

Historical accounts of the notorious Roman emperor skew our interpretation of his legacy

• 39 mins

Fertiliser and poison gas: The legacy of chemist Fritz Haber

The scientist who helped feed billions, and unleashed a new kind of death

• 40 mins

Vikings and their quest for silver

How Viking trade and raids transformed medieval economy and society

• 39 mins

Eunuchs and empires

The painful route to power for some young boys and men

• 39 mins