History Channel

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Monday 1 September, 8.30pm

This film peels away the stereotypes to reveal a surprisingly different picture of Queen Victoria. In modern times Queen Victoria is traditionally thought of as not only a thoroughly regal figure but also a dowdy one, unsmiling and forbidding. That image is highly misleading. The real Victoria was a creature of extraordinary passions. She was headstrong and stubborn, prone to wild tantrums and uncontrolled outbursts of romantic feeling. Her passions would lead her into one of the greatest romances in history with Prince Albert; entangle her in scandalous relationships with her Prime Ministers and her servants; and set her on a collision course with her Royal court, her family and her public. Drawing on authentic letters and diaries, this film features extensive drama reconstructions, shot on location at Victoria’s various residences including Windsor Castle, Osborne House, Balmoral and Holkham Hall.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL –Monday 1 September, 10.00pm

Archaeologists and architects restore and build a Colosseum in Rome, an Acropolis in Greece and the Great Wall in China. The Colosseum was the world’s first super stadium. Its magnificent ruins stand today as testament to Rome’s power and glory – a flamboyant display of theatrical engineering and design. The Acropolis built in the golden age of Athens, was intended as a sanctuary; a holy place fit to house the gods. It has since been called an exercise in perfection.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Wednesday 3 September, 8.30pm

In the spring of 1982 a brief but vicious conflict between Britain and Argentina over the bleak and windswept Falkland Islands 8,000 miles away in the South Atlantic, captured the attention of the world. It brought about the downfall of an Argentine dictator, revived the fortunes of an unpopular UK Prime Minister and liberated a tiny colony loyal to the crown. Twenty five years on, this ‘small war’ still looms large in the thoughts, dreams and nightmares of hundreds of British servicemen and their families. A measure of the price they have paid is that at least ten Falklands veterans take their own lives every year: more have now died through suicide than in the entire course of the conflict.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Monday 25 August, 9.30pm

At present, there are over 1400 active volcanoes on this planet. A small number are situated in the middle of populated areas and, although inactive, have troublesome histories. One is Mt. Vesuvius, which dominates the Bay of Naples. The volcano has remained dormant since 1944, but geological evidence suggests that Vesuvius is on the move again. Over two million people live under the shadows of Vesuvius. This program will look at the threat posed by a new eruption, and at the historical day of August 24, 79AD, when Pompeii died.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Wednesday 27 August, 10.30pm

He was one of history’s shrewdest military minds, a human chameleon who combined brutality with personal charm. Latest underwater forensic techniques reveal the truth about history’s most notorious pirate, Sir Henry Morgan. Three years into his quest to find the real Henry Morgan, salvage specialist Klaus Keppler made a sensational discovery – battleships from Sir Henry’s time, the 1660s. The ships were lying in only 5 meters of water in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Haiti, all accessible and perfectly preserved. We join Keppler and his team as they scour the ocean floor and unlock the secrets behind history’s most notorious pirate. Lovable rogue, brutal mercenary, successful businessman, alcoholic and loyal servant of the British Crown, The Real Henry Morgan tells a tale that puts ‘Treasure Island’ to shame.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Friday 29 August, 8.30pm

The creature is a Woolly Mammoth. It is 10,000 BC and the hunt is on. It is a time of fantastic change on earth, early humans are just beginning to inhabit North America, and great climate fluctuations swing the world back into a mini-Ice Age. Many mega fauna like the sabre-toothed cat, the giant ground sloth, the camel and the woolly mammoth are suddenly becoming extinct. What is causing these sudden changes; excessive hunting, a mysterious disease, a meteor? What species cope and adapt? How does man survive? In a forensic investigation, we will travel with scientists to major mammoth and early human archaeological sites in North America and uncover fossilized bones, ancient homes, and weapons of stone.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Thursday 21 August, 10.30pm

History has overlooked the unimaginable hardships Russian designers faced under the paranoid rule of Josef Stalin. Frequent purges represented a constant threat. Yet, in spite of the ever-present danger, Soviet aircraft designers mastered technical hurdles astonishing even by today’s standards. This hour features extensive archive images of never-before-seen aircraft and the designers who brought them to life. The innovative aircraft profiled include a swept-wing Delta aircraft design; a rocket-powered fighter; a long distance fixed-wing aircraft with features later incorporated in the U-2 spy plane; a flying tank prototype; a submarine-bomber combination; and a canard-wing aircraft. And we highlight remarkable aircraft launched after Stalin’s death in 1953, like the delta-winged supersonic Concordski and the world’s largest plane, the Antonov 124 Ruslan.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Wednesday 20 August, 9.30pm

This documentary brings to light the true story of the buccaneering, charming robber of legend, Dick Turpin. In an action-packed story using academic testimony, dramatic reconstruction and twenty-first century science, a picture of a ruthless 18th century career criminal comes to light whose taste for the high-life eventually led him to the gallows. For most of his criminal career Turpin operated not alone on the highways of England, as legend would have us believe, but as one thuggish element of the notorious Essex Gang. Police experts reveal how this gang’s crimes were a prototype for modern, urban organised-crime syndicates. Cutting edge equine science is used to examine the mathematical and logistical reality of the ride-to-York on Black Bess, one of the most enduring escape stories in history. And the programme also takes a look at the use of weapons by eighteenth century criminals and their heavily-armed opponents, the coachmen, with forensic experiments conducted on just how lethal these weapons could be.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Tuesday 19 August, 9.30pm

In this exciting documentary we see the findings of the latest excavation to this 4,500 year old site in south-central England. The two-week dig tries to establish, once and for all, some precise dating for the creation of the monument. It targets the significance of the smaller bluestones that stand inside the giant sarsen pillars. Researchers believe these rocks, brought all the way from Wales, hold the secret to the real purpose of Stonehenge as a place of healing. The researchers leading the project are two of the UK’s leading Stonehenge experts – Professor Tim Darvill, of the University of Bournemouth, and Professor Geoff Wainwright, of the Society of Antiquaries. They are convinced that the dominating feature on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire was akin to a “Neolithic Lourdes” – a place where people went on a pilgrimage to get cured.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL – Sunday 17 August, 8.30pm

The phenomenal success of Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code brought the Holy Grail and its myriad hunters into the spotlight. The Last Supper lies at the heart of any quest for the Holy Grail, because the Holy Grail is the cup from which the disciples shared the wine. Or is it? The existence and the identity of the Holy Grail is one of the most enduring mysteries of all time. Like so many Grail hunting epics, Dan Brown’s book claims to be based on much research and fact, revealing the existence of a hitherto secret organisation supposedly set up to protect the Grail in the 11th century. This is the true secret of the Grail, suppressed by the Christian church for the last two millennia. They have erased Mary Magdalene’s real importance to Christianity, and reduced her instead to a prostitute. To understand how Dan Brown ends up at this extraordinary conclusion, Tony Robinson goes on his own personal Grail hunt in this entertaining but thoughtful inquiry. Travelling to the Middle East, France, Spain, Italy and America and Glastonbury of course, he gradually strips away the layers of myth to arrive at his own extraordinary conclusion.