Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in History

Kris Marshall and Katherine Jakeways star as Mr & Mrs Pepys in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the world famous diaries. Samuel Pepys was 26 when he decided to start keeping a diary, in January 1660. For the next 10 years he faithfully recorded the day's events and confessed his innermost thoughts. That diary has since become one of our most important, and fascinating, historical documents. Pepys gave us eyewitness accounts of some of the great events of the 17th century, including the Great Fire of London and the Second Dutch War.

The first five volumes from the landmark BBC radio series This Sceptred Isle. Christopher Lee's epic history tells the story of Britain from the Romans to the death of Victoria. This collection includes the original first five volumes.

In 2010, the BBC and the British Museum embarked on an ambitious project: to tell the story of 2,000,000 years of human history using 100 objects selected from the museum's vast and renowned collection. Presented by the British Museum's then director Neil MacGregor, each episode focuses on a single object - from a Stone Age tool to a solar-powered lamp - and explains its significance in human history.

In this compelling book, highly acclaimed author and broadcaster Laurence Rees tells the definitive history of the most notorious Nazi institution of them all. We discover how Auschwitz evolved from a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners into the site of the largest mass murder in history - part death camp, part concentration camp, where around a million Jews were killed. 

Bill Bryson is the world's funniest travel writer, and a master of comic observation. His hugely popular books, spanning topics from linguistics to Shakespeare to the human body, have sold over 16 million copies and been translated into 30 languages, and his 2003 science book A Short History of Nearly Everything won the prestigious Aventis and Descartes prizes.

Author, broadcaster and 'rock star classicist' Natalie Haynes is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. In these four series, she explores some of the most prominent historical and mythological figures from the classical world, telling their stories through a mix of stand-up comedy and conversation.

Writer, broadcaster and recovering comedian Natalie Haynes mixes comedy and conversation to bring the ancient world entertainingly up to date in these four radio series. Each episode sees her profiling a key figure from ancient Greece and Rome, and, aided by her special guests, creating a stand-up show around them. 

All five volumes from the landmark BBC radio series This Sceptred Isle: The 20th Century. Christopher Lee’s vivid, compelling history tells the story of Britain from the death of Queen Victoria to the dawning of a new millennium. This collection includes the original volumes 1-5.

Author, broadcaster and 'rock star classicist' Natalie Haynes is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. In these series, she explores some of the most prominent historical and mythological figures from the classical world, telling their stories through a mix of stand-up comedy and conversation.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a highly secretive totalitarian state - and one that poses an increasing threat to the West due to its rapidly expanding nuclear weapons programme. This unique three-part collection takes an in-depth look at the country, encompassing its history, the human stories behind the regime and its possible future. 

Power struggles have a constant presence in Martin Sixsmith's story of Russia. Collected here in 50 episodes, he chronicles the Mongol hordes invading in the 13th century, through the iron autocratic fists of successive tsars, to the fall of the Soviet Union and Russia's re-emergence as a superpower. Sixsmith brings his first-hand experience of reporting from Russia in the 1980s and 90s to his narrative, witnessing the critical moment when the Soviet Union lost its grip on power.

Eleven compelling BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramas telling the stories of the Russian tsars. Broadcast to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, this extraordinary drama cycle by Mike Walker comprises 11 ambitious plays spanning over 400 years, exploring the lives of Russia’s key rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin. 

The BBC Radio 4 show where Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that perplex, amuse and beguile. His methods may be unconventional, but he gets the job done in this collection of all 18 epsiodes from series 6-10 of Punt PI. 

In these two series of the award-winning BBC Radio 4 show, comedian Mark Steel is on the road again, visiting places that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. Along the way, he delves into the history, heritage and culture of each town, before going on to write and perform a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents. His first stop is Hastings, where he finds that a lot’s happened since 1066 - including an annual Pirates’ Day. 

In this selection of historic recordings from the BBC Archives, British, French and American servicemen recall their harrowing experiences of the conflict. German officers also tell their stories, their misery palpable in defeat. Inevitably the horrors of the Western Front dominate and the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele evoke bitter memories. 

The BBC Radio 4 show where Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that perplex, amuse and beguile. His methods may be unconventional, but he gets the job done in this collection of all 17 episodes from series 1-5 of Punt PI. 

Glaswegian comedian and history enthusiast Susan Morrison mines the rich, sometimes murky, depths of Scotland's past in this thrilling radio series. Aided by producer/historian Louise Yeoman and a host of 'history detectives', the amazing stories she uncovers are sometimes dark, sometimes funny - but always fascinating.

Inspired by Holinshed's Chronicles, this series of radio dramas about the Plantagenet dynasty tells the story of the birth of a new Europe after the dark ages. The issues of control, freedom, belief and the temptations of power were new to an age which had no template for domination on this scale.  

For the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental Europe. Thirty years ago, a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people now understand themselves? Neil MacGregor argues that uniquely for any European country, no coherent, over-arching narrative of Germany's history can be constructed, for in Germany, both geography and history have always been unstable. 

Alistair Cooke was the greatest of all twentieth century reporters of life in America to the rest of the world. This book presents the cream of his writings on the events that shaped modern American history, from the end of the Second World War through to the assassination of John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy (Cooke was actually present), the moon landings and the Monica Lewinsky scandal.