Released every Wednesday and Friday, each episode will explore history’s most impactful ideas and the genius minds who created them — from the stream engine to the condom. 

Hosted by science broadcaster and author Dallas Campbell (The Gadget Show, BBCs Bang Goes the Theory, National Geographic), listeners can expect revealing interviews with scientists, historians and even a few real-life inventors. 

Early guests include Dr Adam Rutherford on gene editing and eugenics, Timandra Harkness describing a time before ‘zero’ and Matt Ridley on the steam engine and the myth of the lone inventor. 

The podcast launches 16 March and is available to stream for free wherever you can listen to podcasts. 

Dallas Campbell The history of inventions is full of myths, from the genius lone inventor to the eureka moment. With this podcast, I wanted to investigate the real origin stories… because I have a sneaking suspicion they are just as fun as the mythical ones!

Dan Snow Of all the broadcasters that I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside and learn from, Dallas Campbell stands out for his knowledge, enthusiasm, and ability to explain what can be a complicated subject. I’m so excited that Dallas is coming abroad as the host of our 7th podcast. His will be dedicated to the history of science and technology. We know this topic is a favourite of our audience and Dallas will give them plenty to get their teeth into.

About Dallas Campbell: Dallas has presents some of television’s most popular factual programmes including: Science of Stupid, Bang Goes the Theory, The Gadget Show, Stargazing Live, The Sky at Night, and Britain Beneath Your Feet. Beyond television, Dallas is an author, speaker, and ambassador for STEM education.

About History Hit: History Hit is the UK’s biggest digital history brand across podcasts, Video on Demand, social media and the web. Go to historyhit.com for more. Their podcast network has 6 million listeners a month and is home to Britain’s most listened to history podcast, Dan Snow’s History Hit. 

Patented: History of Inventions launches on Wednesday 16th March 2022.

Episode 1-5 Details 

16th March – Genetic Engineering 

Over the course of only half a century, genetic engineering has developed from an intellectual concept to a medical reality. Yet the ethical and moral questions underpinning remain unanswered. 

We dig into the story of this invention that is still very much in progress with Dr Adam Rutherford (The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, BBC R4). 

16th March – The Steam Train and Simultaneous Invention

What does the steam engine and the search engine have in common? They were created by multiple people, at the same time. 

In this episode, we talk to Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works, about the myth of the lone inventor, the reality of simultaneous inventions, and the importance of trial and error. 

20th March – Spacesuits

Creating a successful spacesuit was one of the biggest challenges in man’s quest to land on the moon. And, it required borrowing skills from some surprising places to pull it off. 

With the help of Ryan Nagata, artist and replica spacesuit maker, we chart the evolution of the spacesuit from the Wiley Posts, to the iconic Apollo suits and beyond. 

23rd March – Condoms

As today’s guest puts it, there have been condoms of sorts as long as there have been penises. But, how did condoms as we know them — thin, latex and single use — come about?

This episode, Dr Jessic Borge, author of Protective Practices: A History of the London Rubber Company and the Condom Business, explains it all through the story of the world’s most popular contraceptive brand, Durex.  

27th March – The Atomic Bomb 

In a world at war, and no end in sight, the atomic bomb was touted as the one weapon that could end the conflict for good. In this episode, we are joined by Dr Craig Campbell who argues that it may have put an end to World War Two — but also laid the foundations for the Cold War that was to define the second half of the twentieth century.

Go to https://www.historyhit.com/podcasts/ for more.

Contact: partnerships@historyhit.com

Guests include Jamie Oliver, Eshita Kabra-Davies, Jake Humphrey, Sir Tim Smit, BOSH!, Dale Vince, & Bez from the Happy Mondays.

Jimmy Doherty I’ve been wanting to do this podcast for some time and now it’s a reality. I’ve got some great guests, from well-known faces, to experts in their field. They’ll be chatting to me about how we can all do our best for the environment, and get a bit of the good life along the way. Full of facts, tips and a lot of laughs. Everything from fashion, eating in season, wild swimming… and even viagra honey! Looking forward to you joining me on my farm.

From bug burgers and sustainable football clubs, to viagra honey and foraging fungi, Jimmy’s new weekly podcast will cover all things ecology. A new episode will drop every Thursday, kicking off with Jamie Oliver and Eshita Kabra-Davies.

Episode 1: Jamie Oliver

Friends since childhood, Jamie tells Jimmy about the dismissiveness he faced from other TV chefs at the beginning of his career, post-pandemic nutrition, and seasonal eating. 

Find out how Jamie nearly killed Oprah Winfrey (yes, really), how the British food industry can move forward, and how lockdowns affected his relationship with food.

Episode 2: Eshita Kabra-Davies

Did you know that in the UK, approximately £140 million worth of clothing items are sent to landfill every year? Ecopreneur Eshita Kabra-Davies is the founder of ByRotation, the UK’s leading peer-to-peer fashion rental app. Eshita talks to Jimmy about the polluting world of fast fashion, and how we can make dressing a little greener.

Born in Essex, Jimmy’s interest in the natural world led him to pursue a degree in zoology and a PHD in ecological entomology.

In 2003 he set up Jimmy’s Farm, an old dairy farm based just outside Ipswich which had stood empty for 50 years.

The farm is now home to species like giant anteaters, capybaras, guinea pigs, wallabies and many more animals. It’s also a events venue, and has seen acts like Badly Drawn Boy, KT Tunstall and Scouting for Girls all play at festivals.

Jimmy’s been a regular on British televisions for decades, presenting shows like Jamie & Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, Food Unwrapped, and Jimmy’s Farm.

He is currently based in Suffolk, and lives with his family and Irish terrier, Whiskey.

On Jimmy’s Farm launches Thursday 27th January 2022.

History Hit is the UK’s biggest digital history brand across podcasts, Video on Demand, social media and the web.

Go to https://www.historyhit.com/podcasts/ for more.

Contact: partnerships@historyhit.com

James’ interrogates Robert Harris on his controversial reappraisal of Chamberlain, a politician who has traditionally been seen as foolish and weak, in a new light and the pair discuss the perhaps surprising picture painted of the Prime Minister as a “tormented but stoic hero in the face of insurmountable pressure”. 

As well as BAFTA Scotland Award-Winner and BAFTA Award-Nominee George MacKay, the most fascinating revelations perhaps come when James speaks to his co-star Jannis Niewöhner about his personal attachment to the period in history. Niewöhner talks about his recent discovery that his grandmother and her father had in fact been personally invited to Hitler’s house, where Hitler had kissed his grandmother and whispered a private message to her. The pair discuss the contemporary importance of a story that explores the difficulties around how the political actions of your country or your friends may go against your personal beliefs, and the issues around wanting to make your country great again whilst remaining sceptical about the politics involved in doing so. 

Munich: The Edge of War is available from Friday January 21st on Warfare.  

History Hit is the UK’s biggest digital history brand across podcasts, Video on Demand, social media and the web.   

Go to https://www.historyhit.com/podcasts/ for more.  

Contact: partnerships@historyhit.com 

Then on 1 December, prolific film director and producer Ridley Scott joins Dan in a very special episode upon the release of his latest film, House of Gucci. Particularly interesting is their detailed discussion of Ridley’s approach to the sex scene as portrayed through opera. They also discuss the secrets of Ridley’s directorial process, his inspired relationship with history, what periods he is drawn to and why World War Two is particularly important to him, as well as what he is working on next.

First of all, in an episode set for release on Saturday 13 November, Matt talks to Buffy Bailey, an NHS nurse from Lancaster who was metal detecting in farmland near Sheriff Hutton Castle in North Yorkshire with her husband Ian when she discovered a solid gold book. Incredibly, the pair didn’t appreciate the area’s significance until they arrived at the site of the accommodation they happened to find available on a farmer’s field.

Dated between 1280 and 1410, we hear how the piece is thought to be far too valuable an item to have simply been lost, so its owner may have intentionally buried it as an act of religious worship or to show gratitude for childbirth.

In an episode planned for Tuesday 16 November, we hear about another fascinating item that has spent more than a thousand years buried underground. In it, Cat talks to Prof. Martin Carver, who has directed excavations at Sutton Hoo, and is now heading up the massive project to reconstruct the Sutton Hoo longship, which inspired the recent Netflix film The Dig. Prof. Carver talks passionately about how the ship, the most important machine in the lives of the people alive at the time, represents a type of evidence about the period that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Matthew Lewis is a popular medieval historian and author of various historical fiction and non-fiction books. Lewis has a passion for the Wars of the Roses, especially the reigns of Richard III and the Tudors.

Dr Cat Jarman is a bioarchaeologist and field archaeologist specialising in the Viking Age. She is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and author of the Sunday Times bestseller River Kings – Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads. 

The series sees Conrad explore each river from top to bottom in his one-of-a-kind lugger, Bounty’s End, meeting a myriad of interesting people along the way to talk about history of the rivers and the sailing boats that have shaped the local area. 

Of particular note is the exploration of the River Exe, which is where Conrad learned to sail from the age of eight, making the documentation of his revisiting it particularly magical.

Conrad Humphreys
Sailing a traditional boat on these rivers has really helped me to understand just how much our waterways have shaped our history. It’s all too easy to think about the big round the world exploratory voyages that Captain James Cook and Robert Fitzroy undertook, but around the UK every river, estuary and harbour has made its own unique contribution to our prosperity, our way of life and our understanding of the world.

Conrad Humphreys is a professional yachtsman and presenter that has spent over two decades sailing in some of the most hostile places on the planet. Conrad has raced three times around the world and is the fifth British sailor in history to complete the legendary Vendée Globe. More recently, Conrad was the professional skipper for Channel 4’s historical recreation of Captain Bligh’s 4000-mile open boat journey, Mutiny.

The first episode of four-part documentary Ancient Britain is set for release on Friday 23rd July, with the three-part Invasion series to follow in the Autumn. In Ancient Britain, Ray will take us on a journey back in time to explore the earliest traces of human habitation on our shores.

From mysterious footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk through to signs of early warfare in the Malvern Hills. Ray will chart the course of human development through changes in technologies that in turn drastically changed these people’s ways of building, hunting, living and fighting.  

Following on, Invasion will see Ray chart both Caesar’s and Claudius’ invasion of the British Isles. He will delve into first-hand accounts to bring to life the story of Caesar’s two expeditions to Britain, before telling the story of the Claudian invasion and the establishment of the fledgling Roman province of Britannia.  

Ray says: 

“I’ve always been a firm believer that the past informs the present and can provide a guide to the future. Across these films, I’m excited to be getting to grips with ideas and practices of our ancestors in the hope of shedding some light on our nation’s earliest histories.”

Father of British bushcraft & professional tracker, Ray Mears is best known for his series of television shows surrounding bushcraft and survival. The praise that Mears’ work received early in his career meant that he was contacted to present the 1994 BBC series Tracks.

By 1997, he had begun hosting his well-known Ray Mears’ World of Survival which has now split off into various spin-off series including Ray Mears’ Bushcraft and Wild Britain with Ray Mears. With the success of his TV series blowing up, he also released a book series with titles including The Survival Handbook, The Outdoor Survival Handbook and Ray Mears’ World of Survival. More recently, Ray has become a household name within TV presenting.  

To meet with the growing demand for more ancient history content, History Hit recently launched The Ancients podcast following the runaway success of the now daily Dan Snow’s History Hit. Alongside its fast-growing audio network of 5 podcasts, History Hit also runs its own Subscription Video On Demand Channel. History Hit TV has launched several ground breaking new documentaries focused on ancient history in recent months, on topics stretching from the assassination of Julius Caesar to the mystery of the Ninth Legion to the truly extraordinary story that is the heist of Alexander the Great’s corpse, with more to come.

In particular, in a new documentary to be released on 2 July, The Ancients presenter Tristan Hughes, together with expert input of Roehampton University’s Dr Shushma Malik, tells the story of one of the most famous figures in the whole of British history: Boudica.

Boudica: Death to Rome is just one of several exciting projects in which History Hit has joined forces with Colchester Museums to showcase Colchester’s rich heritage and history and give an amazing insight into Colchester’s bloody past.

Further projects include work on Colchester’s Roman Invasion highlighting the town’s Gosbecks Archaeological Park and late Iron Age Colchester featuring commentary from Colchester + Ipswich Museums Manager, Dr Frank Hargrave.

Dan Snow says of the partnership, “Colchester was one of the first places I ever filmed, 20 years ago when I started at the BBC. I was there looking into the story of Boudicca’s revolt. I was so impressed by the deep connection with Roman Britain but there was frustration because for all the archaeology there was still a sense of so much more to be discovered and deciphered. Decades later I’m honoured to be involved as experts do just that. Cutting edge technology is being deployed to tell us more about the inhabitants of Roman Colchester. I can’t wait to learn more about who they were, where they came from and how they lived”.

Councillor Darius Laws, Portfolio Holder for Economy, Business and Heritage for Colchester Borough Council says, “Colchester Museums collaboration with History Hit is an incredible opportunity for viewers across the country to understand more about Britain’s First City and the importance of Colchester in the history books. Make sure you are following @ColMuseums and @HistoryHit on social media so you don’t miss out on new content about Colchester and lets encourage people to come and visit our historic town this summer”.

For all editorial and commercial partnership enquiries relating to History Hit, please contact partnerships@historyhit.com

For more information on Colchester Museums, please contact communications@colchester.gov.uk or call 07815 088150

The partnership includes a new amphitheatre-style outdoor ‘History Hit stage’, on which History Hit’s Dan Snow will bring his accessible presenting style to the festival in a range of highly interactive events including audience re-enactments of some of history’s most famous battles, live music, late-night storytelling around the fire and a chance to hang out with him and the team. In addition, there will be photo opportunities with the branded History Hit inflatable tank and a History Hit shop selling History Hit merchandise. All festival-goers will also receive an exclusive subscription offer for History Hit TV.     

In addition to the History Hit stage, the festival has a really exciting schedule of events spread across two marquees with socially distanced seating, plus another new outdoor stage. There will also be Sword School, a vintage fairground, and some of the country’s most brilliant, successful and eminent historians. 

Tented events will require an individual ticket, which will include access to the outdoor events otherwise a single outdoor programme ticket will cover all the outdoor events for that particular day. The festival will begin on Wednesday 23 June, with all the relevant Covid measures in place, and will run until Sunday 27 June.

The festival has a more complete and wide-ranging programme than ever before, promising visitors the chance to see history, touch history, taste history and smell history too – and all in the stunning ancient downland of the Chalke Valley – a place of immense history in its own right.  

To purchase tickets, go to the festival website at www.cvhf.org.uk where the full programme of events is available. Alternatively, call the ticket hotline on 01722 781133.  

Bismarck Double Documentary

Across two-parter Hunt the Bismarck and Sink the Bismarck, Dan Snow tells the story of the extraordinary battle to sink the German flagship through breath-taking new research.

We hear from the world’s leading experts and veteran testimony including the voice of the man who we now believe to have dropped the torpedo on Bismarck that disabled it, Kenneth Pattisson.

The Bismarck, pictured in 1940

Image Credit: Deutsches Bundesarchiv / CC

We also have little-seen footage of the film taken from the Prinz Eugen (the ship that went out with Bismarck) which recorded Bismarck actually at the battle of the Denmark Strait (the battle where HMS Hood was sunk).

The two films will be released on 27 May.

New Discoveries for D-Day

For the D-Day documentary, History Hit worked with historian Stephen Fisher to conclusively prove that two wrecks in Poole Harbour are D-day veterans and the film features visually stunning drone footage of the wreck today as well as footage from 1940s and 50s.

Through a process of painstaking research (drawing on resources including a postcard aerial photo of Poole Harbour in the 1950s and an out-of-print book) and a dose of luck, these wrecks have been identified as landing craft that delivered tanks ashore on the beaches of Normandy on D-day itself.

Joby Stephens / History Hit

Image Credit: Joby Stephens / History Hit

By happy coincidence these discoveries have been made just as a LCT has been restored and recently opened as the centrepiece of the D-day Story, a museum in Portsmouth, so the public can get a sense of what they looked like when they took part in the largest amphibious invasion of all time.

Our new D-Day documentary will arrive on 4 June.

You can subscribe on our 30 day free trial at historyhit.tv to watch the new shows.

You can also download stunning drone images from our D-Day film and use for articles. By using these images, you agree to place a followed HTML link to the production source – historyhit.com or historyhit.tv in all articles that uses them. Any used images should be credited to Joby Stephens / History Hit.

For all editorial and commercial partnership enquiries, please contact partnerships@historyhit.com.