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True Crime on the Elizabethan Stage
Episode 68
The true crime genre - stories of actual murders and other crimes that are then fictionalised - is not a new phenomenon. More than four centuries ago…
4 years, 5 months ago
The Murder of Rizzio, Mary Queen of Scots' Favourite
Episode 67
On 9 March 1566, David Rizzio - close friend and private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots - was stabbed dozens of times in front of the pregnant Que…
4 years, 5 months ago
Black Tudors
Episode 66
Our image of the Tudor era remains overwhelmingly white. But the black presence in England was much greater than has previously been recognised, and …
4 years, 5 months ago
How Powerful was Henry VIII?
Episode 65
Was Henry VIII as all-powerful and tyrannical as we have come to believe? Is the scheming of Thomas Cromwell portrayed in Wolf Hall close to the trut…
4 years, 5 months ago
The First Gun Crime in London
Episode 64
Early in the morning of Sunday 13 November 1536, a London merchant named Robert Pakington was shot dead crossing Cheapside as he walked to church. It…
4 years, 5 months ago
Henry VIII's Wives on Stage: Six - The Musical
Episode 63
Since its first outing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017, the stage musical Six has become a worldwide theatre sensation. In it, the six wives…
4 years, 5 months ago
Did Thomas Seymour Groom Elizabeth Tudor?
Episode 62
In 1547, the 14-year-old future Queen Elizabeth I is living with her step-mother Queen Catherine Parr and her new husband Thomas Seymour, uncle to El…
4 years, 5 months ago
Oliver Cromwell
Episode 61
Oliver Cromwell - the only commoner to have become Britain's head of state - has puzzled biographers for centuries. He was a complex character, coura…
4 years, 5 months ago
The Last Witches in England
Episode 60
In 1682, three impoverished women from Bideford in Devon were hanged, becoming the last people to be executed for witchcraft in England. The evidence…
4 years, 6 months ago
England: Devil-Land 1588-1688
Episode 59
In the 17th century, England was known as "Devil-Land" - a diabolical country torn apart by seditious rebellion, religious extremism and royal collap…
4 years, 6 months ago