2RPH - Program Updates

WHO WAS HENRY VIII AND WHEN DID IT ALL GO WRONG? - Suzannah Lipscomb looks beyond the stereotypes that surround our most infamous monarch.

SILENCE, EXILE AND CUNNING. As Europe polarised between Right and Left in the 1930s, many artists and authors nailed their reputations to either extreme. Others, says Nigel Jones, took refuge in the 'inner emigration' of silence. Even in stable Britain, writers felt compelled to take a stand - often in the service of the secret service.

SLAYING MYTHS. St. George only gained popularity in England in the 15th Century and Richard the Lionheart had nothing to do with it, writes Marc Morris.

QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE PALACE MARTYR. Kate Williams looks at the scandal that rocked court and parliament in the early years of Victoria's reign, resulting in a personal and political crisis for the young queen.

ELIZABETH TOLLET AND HER SCIENTIFIC SISTERS. Though lacking opportunities to the taken seriously, bright women from the 17th Century onwards were developing their interest in science. Patricia Fara investigates the life and work of one such woman, Elizabeth Tollet, whose poetry reflects a passionate engagement with natural philosophy and a firm gasp of Newtonian ideas.

THE GAIN FROM PAINE. - Thomas Paine, who died 200 years ago, inspired and witnessed the revolutions that gave birth to the United States and destroyed the French monarchy. A genuinely global figure, he anticipated modern ideas on human rights, atheism and rationalism. David Nash looks at this enduring impact.

THE PEASANTS' REVOLT - in 1831 England witnesseed a 'summer of blood' as the lower orders, emboldened by the labour shortages that followed the Black Death, flexed their muscles. Dan Jones tells the story of one of medieval England's most dramatic yet curiously neglected events.

THE FATHER OF THE PERMISSIVE SOCIETY - Geoffrey Best looks at the life of A.P. Herbert, writer, wit and MP, who played a major role in the liberalisation of British Life with his reform of the draconian divorce laws.

INTO THIN AIR - In 1926 Umberto Nobile, a young Italian airship designer, became a hero of Mussolini's Fascist state, when he piloted Roald Amundsen's Norge over the North Pole. But his subsequent attempt to make the journey on behalf of his own country ended in tragedy. Irene Peroni tells his story.

THE THREE SIEGES OF QUEBEC - Marking the 250th anniversary of General Wolfe's victory over the French at Quebec, Jeremy Black considers the strategy employed by British forces in their struggle to gain and hold Canada.

ABOVE AND BEYOND. In 1969 m men set foot on the Moon for the first time. The Apollo space programme that put them there was the product of an age of optimism and daring very different from our own, argues Andre Balogh

SPANNING CENTURIES. Until 1729, London bridge was the capital's only crossing over the Thames and microcosm of the city it served, lined with houses and shops on either side. On the 800th anniversary of its original construction, Leo Hollis looks at the history of an icon.

WILLIAM JONES AND HIS CIRCLE: THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE CONCEPT OF PI. In 1706 a little known mathematics teacher William Jones first used a symbol to represent the platonic concept of pi, an ideal that in numerical terms can be approached, but never reached. Patricia Rothman discusses Jone's significance among his contemporaries and the unique archive that forms his legacy.

THE FIRST COMMON MARKET? In the 13th century a remarkable trading block was formed in northern Europe. Stephen Halliday explains how the Hanseatic League prospered for 300 years before the rise of the nation state led to its dissolution.

STRANGLEHOLD ON VICTORIAN SOCIETY. "Garotting", or the stangulation of a victim in the course of a robbery, haunted the British public in the 1850's. Emelyne Godfrey describes the measures taken to prevent it and the range of gruesome self-defence devices that were often of a greater danger to the wearer than to the assailant.

History Today