Real History

This documentary tells the story of the Crimean War through the first hand accounts of the soldiers who fought in it. Featuring letters and statements from soldiers from both sides, we learn about the mixed emotions of the frontline.

In this episode, Simcha looks into the discovery of a cave just outside of Israel that houses some very peculiar stone carvings. The cave is not far from where an ancient roman garrison was housed in the year 70AD and bares evidence of both Roman and Christian iconography carved into the ancient walls.

The Battle of Balaclava, 1954. The Light Brigade, an elite cavalry unit was ordered to charge a battery of Russian artillery head on, resulting in tremendous casualties. Only after the fact would they find out that this death trap wasn't the commander's intended target and their charge "into the valley of death" was all for nothing.

History tells us that the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the 4th century. But did Christianity conquer Rome or did pagan Rome conquer Christianity?

Taking place in the mid 19th century, the Crimean War was the first war to be photographed. It was also one of the first conflicts to hit home the hard truth of what war is really like to the soldiers that took part. In stark contrast to the messages from the government propaganda that got them there in the first place.

The inside story of Alexander Litvinenko's murder in London in 2006 and the international manhunt that led to the Kremlin, told in full for the first time with exclusive access to key individuals and investigators from this unprecedented case.

There is a quaint perception that Jesus spent his entire ministry - prior to going to Jerusalem where he was crucified - in northern Israel, walking along the shores of a tiny fresh water lake called the "Sea of Galilee". But is this historical reality or theological fantasy?

In this moving and insightful two part series, five well known personalities, entertainer Len Goodman, comedian Johnny Vegas, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, actress Michelle Collins and reporter Daisy McAndrew go on an emotionally charged personal journey to investigate their family's experience of prison and punishment.

In 1990, the tomb of the High Priest Caiaphas - who, according to the Gospels, sent Jesus to the cross - was unearthed in Jerusalem. Along with other artifacts, two Roman nails were recorded in the official excavation report! The nails disappeared, and the tomb has literally been covered up. A dramatic and shocking investigation ensues.

In this moving and insightful two part series, five well known personalities, entertainer Len Goodman, comedian Johnny Vegas, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, actress Michelle Collins and reporter Daisy McAndrew go on an emotionally charged personal journey to investigate their family's experience of prison and punishment.

It is commonly assumed that the Apostles Peter and Paul spread Christianity across the planet, turning a tiny religious sect into the world's largest religion. Is this possible? Can two people really have had such global influence?

In 1940, the English channel and fighting spirit of the RAF famously saved England from Nazi occupation in WW2. However this wasn't the case for the English channel islands of Jersey and Guernsey. This documentary explores this forgotten part of history through the accounts of surviving residents.

He lived in ancient Israel, was called the "Good Shepherd". He was killed by the Romans and he rose in 3 days. But he's not Jesus. Shockingly, an ancient stone tablet that has emerged from the Jordanian antiquities market seems to suggest there was a dying and rising Messiah before Jesus.

This is the story of the S.S. Ventnor, which left Wellington, New Zealand on October 26th, 1902, on a mission to return the bodies of 499 Chinese gold miners to their place of birth in Guangdong, China. The ill-fated ship tragically sank ten miles off the coast of Hokianga, in the north of New Zealand. According to Chinese beliefs, their souls are restless at the bottom of the sea.

In the early years of WW2, British agents were tasked with the dangerous tasks of flying across the channel into Nazi occupied France. Their goal was to supply the French resistance with weapons and supplies as well as make contacts with French agents and trade information vital to the war effort. This documentary interviews some of these agents about their experiences risking everything for their country.

Burma's Open Road explores the lives of every day Burmese intertwined with the fortunes of the reconstruction of the Burma Road through Asia's last great wilderness. Guided by the insights of a Buddhist monk, the film offers unprecedented access into Myanmar and the plight of opium growers, soldiers, villagers, poachers and prospectors, each connected by the reconstruction of an ancient road and is impact on their environment.

Two Finnish filmmakers and a team of international divers go in search of a WWII German U-boat and attempt to uncover the facts of a 60-year mystery. The U-479 went missing in November 1944, in the Gulf of Finland.

In the 1960s, a stone tablet from an ancient Mayan city surfaced in the art market, sparking a new search for an ancient site untouched for thousands of years. The unfortunate looting of the site as well as a dense jungle to search made this quite the undertaking.

One of the many ways Princess Diana breathed new life into the Royal Family was through the way she dressed. Turning away from the pomp of royalty, she crafted her own unique style whether it be through casual or classy outfits.

Close to 10,000 German refugees are estimated to have died in the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945. The ship was torpedoed by a Soviet U-Boat in freezing conditions meaning only around 400 people survived and the wreck was almost perfectly preserved.

In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire spread from Bagdad to Budapest, ruled by Suleiman the Magnificent from the jewel in the Ottoman crown, Istanbul. Inside the imperial palace there existed a group of Ottoman wives, female relatives and slaves known as the Harem. Inside this huge subordinate there was constant infighting and a huge power struggle.

No other woman in modern times has commanded so much attention as Diana, Princess of Wales. Adored by the public as a fairy-tale princess, caring wife, devoted mother and fashion icon, this documentary examines the deeper side to her personality and reveals a woman constantly under extreme pressure.

Two Finnish filmmakers and a team of international divers go in search of a WWII German U-boat and attempt to uncover the facts of a 60-year mystery. The U-479 went missing in November 1944, in the Gulf of Finland. Soviet sources claimed that their submarine, the Lembit sunk the boat, but the official story has never been considered a satisfactory explanation so the filmmakers decide to do some digging of their own.

Leading experts present compelling arguments on both sides of the controversy about the divisive nature of the Michigan Relics, leaving the viewer to decide if the Michigan Relics are really history, or merely hoax.

CS Lewis's biographer AN Wilson goes in search of the man behind Narnia - bestselling children's author and famous Christian writer, but an under-appreciated Oxford academic and an aspiring poet who never achieved the same success in writing verse as he did prose.

Chronicling the romantic life of Britain's royal family in the 20th century, this documentary explores the history of royal marriages and asks what's next for a royal family increasingly battered by media pressures and whose business is shared with the whole world.

Meet the new royal couple and their entourage as we follow their story from the beginning of their romance through their engagement announcement and discover how an American actress will soon be a member of the British Royal family.

An investigation into the use of creativity, art and entertainment as a form of survival during the Great Depression of 1929; parallels are drawn between the creativity generated during the Great Depression and the global recession of 2009.

After the impact of Diana's death, the focus has shifted to Charles, widower and parent and heir to the throne. This program examines his relationship with his sons, his long-term lover Camilla and his future as King. With contributions by royal experts David Starkey and Anthony Holden.

In this four-part series, Professor of Egyptology Joann Fletcher examines Ancient Egypt's extraordinary rise and fall. She traces the mighty empire's humble nomadic beginnings to its zenith as prime architects and pyramid builders and, of course, its descent from worshipped pharaohs to tomb robbers and finally subjugated by the Romans.

This is the story of a man caught between the pressures of public duty and the demands of a private life with a publicly deteriorating marriage. This documentary shares a unique insight into the man whose destiny it is to be King and lifts the lid on what it's really like to live the royal lifestyle.

For two of The Queen's sons, Charles and Andrew, it started with high hopes and fairytale royal weddings. It ended with scandal and bitter accusations as both couples announced that their were finished and Diana and Sarah the 'Royal Wives of Windsor', became royal outcasts. Using unique BBC archive footage - including exclusive, specially-shot pictures- this dramatic and revealing documentary tells the story of two remarkable young royals who flew in the face of convention and made shock waves that rocked the monarchy to its very foundations.

CUBA: THE FORGOTTEN REVOLUTION tells the virtually unknown story of Cuban revolutionaries Frank Pais and Jose Antonio Echeverria - a school teacher and architecture student - whose names seldom appear alongside their more famous contemporaries, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. These young men, who worked independently from each other, played critical roles in the eventual overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldíva in 1950s Cuba. New scholarship and recently accessed footage challenge the prevailing view - in part advanced by Che Guevara - that Castro's army of 200 guerillas single-handedly defeated tens of thousands of Batista's professional soldiers and liberated the people of Cuba. In actuality, Pais and Echeverria's insurgencies in Santiago and Havana held the key to generating popular support for resistance and undermining the authority of Batista and his secret police. Both Pais and Echeverria rivaled Castro in popularity and power during the height of the Revolution, yet neither man lived to see the movement succeed.

Few buildings in human history are as iconic as the world famous Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, France. This documentary takes a deep dive into the history of the 860-year-old cathedral to discover what makes this incredible building such a one off.

Known by few, a small group of Westerners grew up and lived inside Mao's China. Starting in 1966, they witnessed first hand the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution. At the same time young leftist activists In Western Europe idolized Mao as a harbinger of a utopian society. As China eased its isolation in the early 1970's, both groups were in for a harsh reality check.

Few things have remained a constant in Great Britain, the Royal Family is one of them. They've always been there to guide the nation through times of hardship and change. This is perfectly symbolized by the evergreen marriage of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip.

It is a great 'what-if' of the last century. What if Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the murdered JFK, had not himself been assassinated while campaigning for the Presidency in 1968? This documentary reveals how Kennedy transformed from Cold War warrior to advocate of peace, from son of privilege to champion of the down-trodden, from timid adolescent to potential President.

In 1936, 3 years before the start of WW2, Germany seized it's chance to showcase their Nazi ideology to the world. Hitler and Goebbels embraced the spectacle of the Olympic Games to prove that their twisted vision of the world is superior. However, not all would go to plan and Hitler would be embarrassed by a young athlete called Jesse Owens.

In 1958, Chairman Mao announced an ambitious 5 year plan known as 'The Great Leap Forward'. The idea of this would be to rapidly industrialise China to catch up to the rest of the world. Instead of producing the grand success promised to Chinese citizens, this would instead be the start of the largest famine in the world killing more than 45 million people.

According to the Bible, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God's wrath as an example to humans because they were so full of sin. Thousands of years later, a team of professional shipwreck hunters trawl the dead sea to find evidence of these lot cities.

In 2005, the wreck of a German U-Boat was discovered in the Ligurian sea, just off the coast of Italy. The wreck was in almost perfect condition, leading researchers to question why this wreck was here in the first place. This documentary follows the amazing story behind how this U-Boat met it's tragic end.

Kings James II succeeded his brother King Charles II in 1685. He was a Catholic monarch of a Protestant nation and attempts had already been made to prevent him from claiming the throne. The last of the Stuart Kings would reign for only three years and it would be his own daughter, Mary who would be his downfall. She, along with her husband William of Orange, would overthrow the House of Stuart.

The Cold War saw a huge espionage on both sides of the iron curtain, with each superpower doing anything it could to gain the upper hand on its enemy. One of the more inventive methods of spying that the Soviet Union implemented was training "Romeos". These men would be moulded into the perfect man and sent to win the hearts of lonely female office workers in government institutions in order to steal confidential information.

Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth comes to an end soon after his death in 1660 an exiled King returns to London with an enormous fanfare. Kings Charles II's reign is a dramatic shift away from the rule of the Puritans that precede him but dual tragedies of the worst outbreak of plague in generations and the Great Fire Of London strike the nation's heart.

Professor Williams studies the reign of Charles I, who succeeded James I in 1625. Hear how religious upheaval and authoritarian rule led to civil war and a beheading. The Stuart dynasty lived through arguably the most eventful, bloodthirsty and trying period in British history, and this series reassesses the royal house's history and legacy in a new and unique way.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, King James VI of Scotland claims her throne along with a new title of King James I of England. He faces numerous attempts on his life, including the notorious Gunpowder Plots, and the threat of the terrifying Thirty Years War raging on the continent.

Did ancient Phoenicians, a powerful Mediterranean nation of seafaring traders also known as the Canaanites in the Bible, really sacrifice their children in rituals involving human sacrifice, or was this claim just a fabrication?

In 1885, Britain invaded Burma under false pretences to expand their overseas empire and steal natural resources. They exiled the Royal Family who were beloved by their people and sent them to India. This fascinating documentary follows the last King of Burma's great grandson as he lives a very different life to the one in which he should have inherited, in a country that still bares the scars of colonisation.