Queen Victoria was synonymous with grief and the Victorian cult of death. Yet her own funeral wasn't that at all. Today Dan O'Brien explains to Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling how to bury a Queen like Victoria. Dr Dan O'Brien is a of historian of undertakers and funerals in Eighteenth Century England and researcher at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free...

The violent death of Captain James Cook, British explorer, on a Hawaiian beach in 1779 has become the stuff of legend. Should we believe the story that's been handed down? How should we remember a man who means so many different things to so many different people? Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling the story of the Final Days of Captain Cook. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick and Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released...

The ghost of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, screaming down a corridor. A nursemaid's spinning wheel clicking in the walls. Robed Tudor figures slamming open fire exits. A noisy group of ghosts haunt Hampton Court Palace. Tracy Borman, Joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, joins Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney to guide them through the spectres of Hampton Court. Edited by Tomos Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimited access...

Part 2/2. Iceberg, panic and lives changed forever. Loss, survival, and myth-making. Today is part two of the most famous maritime disaster in history. Maddy Pelling takes Anthony Delaney through the tragic sinking of Titanic, from the fateful moment the iceberg is spotted through to what the wreck means today for people around the world. Special thanks to our guest Marnie Wood a cultural historian and a producer on Titanic: In Colour. Voice acting by Lucy Davidson and Stephen...

Maddy and Anthony have a new TV documentary out all about King James VI of Scotland's witch hunts, available on History Hit TV. When James VI of Scotland's new wife, Anne of Denmark, is almost lost in a storm at sea he thinks he knows who is to blame. Witches. The King personally leads the investigation that follows, coming face-to-face with at least one of the accused, Agnes Sampson. What on earth is going on here? Anthony and Maddy are joined by Dr Louise Yeoman, historian of witchcraft and...

Part 1/2. Come on board the White Star Line's latest marvel, the splendour of the sea, the Titanic. Today we begin the story of the most ill-fated voyage in history. Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney the story this week with special thanks to our guest Marnie Wood a cultural historian and a producer on Titanic: In Colour. Written by Maddy Pelling. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original...

Pumpkins, trick or treating and ghost stories are what we associate with Halloween, but what about turnips, fairies and a fortune-telling cake? Anthony and Maddy are joined by historian Dan Snow, and host of sister podcast Dan Snow’s History Hit. They go in search of the origins of Halloween, rooted on the island of Ireland, in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when the harvest ends and winter looms. The trio try Barmbrack cake, a fruit loaf filled with charms that foretell the fate of...

This Tudor's story is intense and tragic. She's known as Lady Jane Grey but we ought to change that to 'Queen Jane'. That's who she was, even though she didn't want it, and it cost her her life in the end. Hear how Jane Grey became Queen Jane and how the shortest reign in English history ended in execution. Our guest is Dr Tracy Borman who has a documentary on Channel 5 about Queen Jane and whose latest book is Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History. Edited...

Today we’re exploring the grim and heroic final days of the Anne Boleyn, the thousand day queen. We are joined by the one-and-only Dr Tracy Borman who bestselling book on this topic is Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign here for up to 50% for 3 months...

Edith Thompson was the model 1920's flapper girl. Her husband Percy was more suburban. When young Freddy Bywater entered the marriage home, things became deadly. This week Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney the story of a murder case that gripped the nation. Written by Maddy Pelling. Edited and Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign here for up to 50% for 3...

John Reginald Christie was the most notorious murderer of his era. On the outside he was every inch the Old Fashioned Englishman, respectable norms personified. But inside the walls and under the floors of his flat at 10 Rillington Place were the bodies of the women and babies he had killed. Our guest today is Kate Summerscale, groundbreaking true-crime writer whose new book is The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place. She guides Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney through this shocking...

Part 4/4. By looking at the men accused of being Jack the Ripper, we uncover dark truths about Victorian society - and our own. Why were these men, most of them almost certainly innocent, singled out as monsters? Today Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling about how quack doctor Francis Tumblety, an American, became a prime suspect in the case. He is a shining example of medical malpractice but does that make him a murderer? Written by Anthony Delaney. Edited by Freddy Chick & Tomos...

Discover the true story of Burke and Hare’s murderous rampage through the streets of Edinburgh, all to serve the needs of the city’s scientific minds. We're rerunning this early episode to mark the release of Maddy and Anthony's new documentary on History Hit TV all about Burke and Hare's story. Anthony tells Maddy the unnerving details about the infamous 19th century serial-killing duo. Written by Anthony Delaney. Edited by Tom Delargy. Producer is Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte...

Part 3/4. By looking at the men accused of being Jack the Ripper, we uncover dark truths about Victorian society - and our own. Why were these men, most of them almost certainly innocent, singled out as monsters? Today Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling about how the celebrated artist Walter Sickert became a leading suspect for many. His art is unsettling, gruesome even, but does that make him a murderer? Written by Anthony Delaney. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick and...

The wounds that Christ received on the cross - the stigmata - have had a strange afterlife, reappearing on the flesh of followers from St Francis of Assisi right through to the present. The stigmata are most commonly found on young women and are often accompanied by other miracles. What can this strange history teach us? Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney are joined today by Kristof Smeyers author of Supernatural Bodies: Stigmata in modern Britain and Ireland Edited and produced by Freddy...

Part 2/4. By looking at the men accused of being Jack the Ripper, we uncover dark truths about Victorian society - and our own. Why were these men, most of them almost certainly innocent, singled out as monsters? Today Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling about Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew living in Whitechapel who later became suspected of being Jack the Ripper. It's a story of immigration and antisemitism; of mental illness and of an effort to use DNA to link Kosminski to the crime. Written...

Ned Kelly is a murdering, bank-robbing, Australian folk hero. What is the true history of this mythic figure? And how did an outlaw - or bushranger - rise up to become a symbol for a new nation? Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling are joined by Dr Meg Foster, research fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney and award winning author of Boundary Crossers: the hidden history of Australia's other bushrangers. Edited and produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long. Enjoy...

Part 1/4. By investigating the men accused of being Jack the Ripper, we uncover dark truths about Victorian society - and our own. Why were these men, most of them almost certainly innocent, singled out as monsters? Today Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling about how Prince Albert Victor, grandson to Queen Victoria, became suspected of being Jack the Ripper. It's a story of Victorian masculinity and how our twentieth century relationship with monarchy helped ferment baseless...

The colonists of Roanoke Island in the 1580's were the very first English people to try to establish a permanent settlement in America. They completely disappeared. The only clue was the word 'CROATOAN' carved into a tree where they had been. What happened? Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney are joined today by Misha Ewen, author of The Virginia Venture: American Colonization and English Society, 1580-1660 and lecturer in early modern history at the University of Sussex. Edited by Tomos...

The myth of the Minotaur has endured thousands of years for good reason... it's hard to forget! Today, Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney the story of King Minos of Crete, the monster in his maze, and the son of Athens that comes to kill it, thanks largely to the cunning of Princess Ariadne. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign here for up to 50% for 3 months...

It was beyond Biblical in its horror. Around half of all Europeans are estimated to have died in the Black Death. Death ravaged towns and villages, castles and hovels. What did it feel like to live through this darkest of histories? Bestselling author Helen Carr guides Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling through disease, death and self-flagellation! Helen's new book on the fourteenth century, Sceptred Isle, will be out next May. Edited by Max Hennessy and Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy...

Edgar Allan Poe was a poster boy for the macabre whose work thrilled readers throughout America and beyond. How did he end up in a gutter in Baltimore, delirious, and wearing clothes that were not his own? Maddy Pelling takes Anthony Delaney through the mysterious death of a mysterious man. Written by Maddy Pelling. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign here for up...

A skull a day! People ate people in the name of medicine across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Charles II kept powdered skull in a bag on his belt and mummified corpses were the greatest cure of all... but why? Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney visit the apothecary with guide Hannah Slajus, whose PhD was on human ingredients in medicinal remedies in seventeenth century. Edited by Max Hennessy. Produced by Freddy Chick. The senior producer is Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimited access to...

Picture a serial killer in your mind’s eye. What do you see... Is it your gran? Today is the story of one of America’s most notorious female serial killers: Nannie Doss, aka the Giggling Granny. She killed 11 people, four of which were husbands. This lead to her also being known as the Lonely Hearts Killer, due to her supposed search for love. This is an episode from our sister-podcast Betwixt the Sheets with host Kate Lister. Kate was joined by Tori Telfer, author of Lady Killers: Deadly...