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1918: Very British Victory

1918 was the critical year of battle as the Great War reached its brutal climax. Warfare of an epic scale was fought on the Western Front, where ordinary British soldiers faced the final test of their training,...

A History of Ancient Britain

Who were the first Britons, and what sort of world did they occupy? In A HISTORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN Neil Oliver turns a spotlight on the very beginnings of the story of Britain; on the first people to occupy these...

A History of Scotland

Scotland`s history has been badly served over the years. Defined by its relationship to England, Scotland`s popular history is full of near-mythical figures and tragic events, her past littered with defeat, failure...

Alchemists Daughter

And Furthermore (Judi Dench)

From the moment Judi Dench appeared as a teenager in the York Mystery Plays it was clear that acting would be her career. Trained at London`s Central School of Speech and Drama it was her performance in her twenties...

Anna of All Russians (Life of A.Akhmatova)

Anna Akhmatova is recognised as one of the greatest poets of Russian literature, an iconic figure who gave voice to the suffering of the Russian people during the brutal years of Stalin`s Terror. Akhmatova began...

Around the World in Eighty Days

`The pace of this kind of travel has not much changed since Fogg set out in 1872. Trains may be a little faster, but there are certainly no high-speed rail links yet across India, China or the USA. Passenger services...

Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography

This is the long-awaited biography of one of the twentieth century`s greatest playwrights whose postwar decade of work earned him international critical and popular acclaim. Arthur Miller was a prominent figure in...

Believers: Bernard Madoffs $65 Billion Investment Scam

It was luxurious Palm Beach, by the manicured lawns and Olympic-sized swimming pool, that financier Bernard Madoff ravaged the world of philanthropy and high society he had strived so hard to join, vaporising the...

Belle de Jours Guide to Men

Belle de Jour is a woman who`s met men of every conceivable type. She knows what they want, and how to give it to them. And outside the one-hour appointments, she`s also had her heart broken, picked herself back up,...

Blood of Victory

Breaking of Eggs

Change is in the air in a shabby apartment in the 19th arrondissment in Paris. One unremarkable day Madame Lefevre invites Feliks to call her Sandrine. As his indomitable landlady`s manners have been as unvarying as...

Britain Since 1918: Strange Career of British Democracy

The history of democratic politics in Britain since the coming of universal male suffrage in 1918 is a dramatic one, crowded with events and colourful figures. As well as the great events of war and economic crises,...

Call Midwife: True Story of East End in 1950s

Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their...

Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes

Though Sir Arthur Conan Doyle`s name is recognised the world over, for decades he was overshadowed by his creation, Sherlock Holmes - one of literature`s most enduring characters. Conan Doyle was a man of many...

Coronation

Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich arrives in Moscow for the coronation, with three of his children. During an afternoon stroll, daughter Xenia is dragged away by bandits, only to be rescued by an elegant gentleman and...

Cuba Libre

Dante Trap

Dark Star

Dark Matter

The charismatic and cunning Spenser Mallon is a campus guru in the 1960s, attracting the devotion and demanding sexual favours of his young acolytes. After he invites his most fervent followers to attend a secret...

Dark Voyage

Dark places

Libby Day was just seven years old when her older brother massacred her family while she hid in a cupboard. Her evidence helped put him away. Ever since then she has been drifting, surviving for over twenty years on...

Death and the Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley & Fate of Amy Robsart

Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 a 25-year-old virgin - the most prized catch in Christendom. For the first ten years of her reign, one matter dominated above all others: the question of who the queen was to marry...

Death of Achilles

Erast Fandorin returns to Moscow after an absence of six years, only to find himself instantly embroiled in court politics and scandal. His old friend General Sobolev - the famous "Russian Achilles" - has been found...

Diaries 1969-1979: Python Years

Michael Palin has kept a diary since newly married in the late 1960s, when he was beginning to make a name for himself as a TV scriptwriter (for the Two Ronnies, David Frost etc). Monty Python was just around the...