Hannibal's March on Rome • 2019

44:10

1940. Nine months after the outbreak of World War II, Hitler attacks in the West, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Great Britain. The "phoney war" ends, the real war begins, in an unleashing of violence never seen before. The devastating blitzkrieg exceeds all expectations in intensity and its soldiers push back all human limits by consuming Pervitine, a synthetic drug that prevents them from sleeping. After a four-year-long First World War, Hitler's feat was to defeat Belgium and the Netherlands in 18 days and France in barely 45 days... The Nazi apocalypse swept through Sedan, on the Somme and to the English Channel, the last rampart of Great Britain. At Dunkirk, which had become a bottleneck, the British fled en masse under enemy fire. Can Churchill save them?

S1E1 • Apocalypse: Hitler Takes on the West • 2020 • History

50:10

When the Vikings attack the shores of the Frankish kingdom, they are met with resistance that is very different from what they are used to, as the Emperor Charlemagne has no intention of giving up his Christian territory to pagans and pirates. We follow the Vikings as they try to push deeper into Frankish lands to reach great cities like Paris. At first, the defense is staunch, but surprising and tumultuous events in both Denmark and France soon change everything.

S1E2 • The Last Journey of the Vikings • 2019 • History

58:31

Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Normans on southern Europe and the Middle East. The Normans spread south in the 11th century, winning control of southern Italy and the island of Sicily. There they created their most prosperous kingdom, where Christianity and Islam co-existed in relative harmony and mutual tolerance. It became a great centre of medieval culture and learning. But events in the Middle East provoked the more aggressive side of the Norman character. In 1095, the Normans enthusiastically answered the Pope's call for holy war against Islam and joined the first crusade. They lay siege to Jerusalem and eventually helped win back the holy city from the muslims. This bloody conquest left a deep rift between Christianity and Islam which is still being felt to this day.

S1E2 • The Normans • 2010 • History

67:09

The USSR's grasp on Eastern Europe weakens as the Berlin Wall comes down and the Communist Party mounts a coup against a prominent Soviet Union leader.

S1E6 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History

58:48

Alastair concludes the epic story of Egyptian art by looking at how, despite political decline, the final era of the Egyptian Empire saw its art enjoy revival and rebirth. From the colossal statues of Rameses II that proclaimed the pharaoh's power to the final flourishes under Queen Cleopatra, Sooke discovers that the subsequent invasions by foreign rulers from the Nubians to Alexander the Great and the Romans produced a new hybrid art full of surprise. He also unearths a seam of astonishing satirical work, produced by ordinary men, that continues to inspire Egypt's graffiti artists today.

S1E3 • Treasures of Ancient Egypt • 2014 • History

44:59

Caesar's wealth grows as one-third of the triumvirate, but his brutal tactics make enemies, forcing him to remake his image as a military conqueror.

S2E2 • Roman Empire • 2018 • History