Zimbabwean writer and political activist, Jeremy Brickhill, who survived an assassination attempt, searches for his would-be killers and examines the war waged against Mozambique and the murder of opponents of apartheid in South Africa.
Looks at the history of the Ukraine from World War Two to the present, taking as its starting point the mass graves, people killed by Russians, Germans and the Ukrainians themselves.
An investigation into the escape of thousands of Nazi war criminals after World War II with the aid of the British, French, Italian and United States Governments and the Vatican. Looks especially at the case of Ante Pavelic a Croation leader during the war who was responsible for the death of 500,000 people.
Investigates the events surrounding the shooting of 13 men in Londonderry by the British Army on 30th January 1972 dubbed `Bloody Sunday'.
Investigates the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964.
In 1943, the Imperial Japanese Army Secret Service forced a group of Australian servicemen to appear in a film to show the 'exemplary conditions' under which prisoners of war were treated by Nippon, and also to soften up the Australian public for the anticipated occupation of their country by Japanese forces. For 40 years, the making of this film remained a mystery. This documentary tells why the film was made and how it has come to be forgotten.
Developed by scientists in Britain and the USSR in the 1930s, deep sleep therapy was believed to be beneficial to people suffering from anxieties, depression and some forms of mental illness. The film suggests that these attempts to manipulate the human mind led to patients being subjected to brutal experimental treatment at a hospital in New South Wales
After the First World War, the newly formed RAF was used to bomb peasant villages as a cheap, quick, easy and casualty-free way to keep troublesome areas under control. Conveniently, it also tested new equipment and trained young airman. These included Sqdn-Ldr Kendall and Wing Commander Gale who describe the machine gunning and bombing of the Kurdish guerillas.
Documentary exposing the story behind a massacre of Algerian immigrants by police in Paris on October 17, 1961. 30,000 Algerians took part in a peaceful protest over the French-Algerian war. There were 11,000 arrests and allegedly 200 were killed. The programme shows how the French government suppressed the story for 30 years and interviews a number of those who took part in the events.
A leader of Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democracy, DC), Moro was considered an intellectual and a patient mediator, especially in the internal life of his party. He was kidnapped on March 16, 1978 by the Red Brigades (BR), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization, and killed after 55 days of captivity.
Reports on the attempted genocide of more than 1.5 million Armenians by Turkish forces, begun in 1915, and the denial by successive Turkish governments. Traces the rise of the 'Young Turks' whose belief in the restoration of national honour, based on increased militarism and Turkish racial purity, was later reflected in Hitler's treatment of the Jews.
Looks at the mystery surrounding the death of Czech Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk who was found dead in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry in March 1948 two weeks after the Communists had seized power in Czechoslovakia. Reporter Tlmas Kotik argues that his death plunged Europe into the Cold War.
In 1932, 400 black men from Macon County, Alabama, suffering from syphilis were recruited for the Tuskegee medical study. They were not treated for syphilis. The purpose was to study the course of the untreated disease and to perform autopsies after death. Even after the discovery of penicillin during world War II they were given fake treatment.
Television documentary on the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968, which illustrates arguments contrary to those which give Sirhan Sirhan as the lone assassin. Interviews with witnessess to the shooting and previously unseen police reconstructions suggest that Kennedy was killed by a gunman standing behind him, and not by Sirhan who was in front of him.
In the early 1940s, 33 British servicemen stationed in Russia fell in love and married Russian women. They were called home very soon afterwards and the British Government in 1942 legislated that if a British serviceman married a Russian woman he would have to leave the Soviet Union immediately.
For nearly 40 years, a clandestine operation, based in the heart of London, provided secret but crucial support for the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Founded by Canon Collins of St Paul's Cathedral, the Inter- national Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) outwitted every move of the South African security services (BOSS) while still managing to smuggle in more than a hundred million pounds to the victims and opponents of apartheid. For the first time, people involved with IDAF explain exactly how they managed to defy BOSS, and agents of BOSS reveal how they tried to infiltrate and discredit IDAF.
The demolishing of two dams in northern Germany by Lancaster bombers in 1943, was remembered as one of the war's triumphs. But historians are now questioning whether it had any military value, and using film never seen before, the untold story of the Dambusters Raid is finally revealed, including the allegations that details of the bomb fell into enemy hands and the intended breaching of the Moehne and Sorpe dams was not as extensive as newspapers claimed. Includes an interview with pilot Ken Brown, who led the Sorpe raid and who is reunited with his crew.
The aftermath of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 left almost 2,000 people missing. Bitter recriminations from the relatives of the missing has divided the island further. This programmes reveals the existence of previously unknown mass graves, the possible last resting place of the missing people.
A report on the Lynchburg Colony for the Epileptic and Feebleminded in Virginia where, in the 1930s and 1940s, children were the victims of a `pioneering social policy' which sterilised people in order to prevent heredity defects.
When US Marines invaded the Pacific island of Saipan in 1944, they were astonished to discover hundreds of Japanese civilians committing suicide by jumping from a high cliff into the sea. The programme has uncovered colour film of the episode and traces survivors.
The story of the first land battle in the Falklands war in which British soldiers defeated an Argentinian force and at which The Parachute Regiment's Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. H Jones was killed charging an Argentine trench and awarded the Victoria cross.
Documentary on the possible identity of "Jack the Ripper" in which David Jessel presents evidence, using up-to-date forensic methods, which point to an original suspect as being the correct one.
A look at the story of the St. Louis, the last ship to leave Germany carrying Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler. Sailing for Cuba, it left in May 1939 but was refused permission to dock at Havana. It sailed on to Florida, where Roosevelt was unwilling to givethe refugees asylum, and eventually they returned to Europe, to face a dangerous future.
In 1946 more than fifty thousand British airmen serving overseas staged the biggest mutiny in air force history. They were angry at the slow rate of demobilisation and suspected they were being kept abroad to quell any nationalist movements in India and the Far East. They were also angry at the contrast between their appalling living conditions and those of their superiors.
In March 1976 Harold Wilson resigned. Rumours circulated that he had been involved with the KGB and blacklisted by the CIA. With evidence from some of the prominent `insiders' of the period the programme reveals the results of James Callaghan's unoffical inquiry into allegations of security service `plotting' and provides a verdict on the true nature and extent of the M15 plot against Wilson.
Documentary revealing the truth behind the crash of the Soviet supersonic passenger jet at the Paris air show in 1974.
An examination of the unusual relationship between Lord Boothby and East End gangster Ronnie Kray.
How did HMS Glorious meet her end? This documentary looks at the mistakes and blunders that resulted in her sinking
A look at little-known details of Britain's Home Guard during the Second World War.
Michael Wood uncovers the real story of the Nazi quest to find the Holy Grail
Film telling the untold and brutal story of what really happened during the Mau Mau independence uprising in Kenya in the 1950s.
During World War II the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), a clandestine British body located in the English countryside, was created to disseminate 'black' propaganda to German troops and civilians illustrating the sexual perversions of their leaders.
The story of the attempted mutiny of the Soviet missile frigate Sentry, which inspired the novel, The Hunt for Red October.
Documentary looking at the massacre of three Roman legions (numbering about twenty thousand men) in the forests of Northern Germany in 9 AD. Considers events leading up to the massacre and the deception and ambush that occurred and the impact it had on the Romans and Roman society. Also considers the legacy of this event on both Roman expansionism and German nationalism.
This documentary originally aired as part of Channel 4's Secret History series in 2002. Narrated by David Hemmings, it used computer graphics to reconstruct the charge itself, and several of the preceding battles from the Crimean War. It is based primarily on Mark Adkin's 1996 book, The Charge. Highly recommended for military history buffs.
The Crucified Soldier refers to the widespread story of an Allied soldier serving in the Canadian Corps who may have been crucified with bayonets on a barn door or a tree, while fighting on the Western Front during World War I. Three witnesses said they saw an unidentified crucified Canadian soldier near the battlefield of Ypres, Belgium on or around 24 April 1915, but there was no conclusive proof such a crucifixion actually occurred. The eyewitness accounts were somewhat contradictory, no crucified body was found, and no knowledge was uncovered at the time about the identity of the supposedly crucified soldier. During World War II the story was used by the Nazis as an example of British propaganda.
On 12th October 1984, the IRA carried out the most audacious terrorist attack in its history. At 2:53am, a huge explosion ripped through the front of Brighton's Grand Hotel, in an effort to kill Margaret Thatcher and decapitate her administration. It was the first attempt to wipe out an entire government in Britain since the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. Now, for the first time, Secret History talks to the victims of the bomb, those charged with the rescue effort, the aides who were with Mrs Thatcher on that fateful night, and a former member of the IRA. What emerges is the real tale of an historic event, including a dramatic assessment of just how close the IRA came to achieving their primary aim: the assassination of the Prime Minister.
In 865AD a great Viking army invaded Britain. The violence that followed engulfed half the country and altered the course of British history. At the head of the army was a mysterious, fearsome warlord called Ivarr, known to history by his nickname, 'Ivarr the Boneless'. Little is known about Ivarr from historical sources but in the Danish Sagas, larger than life tales written down centuries later, he emerges from the shadows of the Dark Ages in full colour: a great military strategist; a ruthless invader driven by revenge. But an intriguing detail about Ivarr has sparked a remarkable historical quest. The Sagas describe Ivarr's traumatic birth and claim that he had 'only the like of gristle where bones should have been'. They also say he needed staves on which to be carried into battle. Could Ivarr's nickname 'boneless' hint at something exceptional? Nabil Shaban, a writer and performer who suffers from a condition called Brittle Bones Disease, believes that Ivarr may have suffered the same disability. This programme recounts the story of the most brutal invasion Britain has ever suffered and follows Nabil's quest to explore the possibility that Ivarr, the leader of the invasion, was physically disabled. (C4 Press) In 2003 Nabil Shaban, a disability rights advocate with osteogenesis imperfecta, made the documentary 'The Strangest Viking' for Channel 4's Secret History, in which he explored the possibility that Ivarr 'the Boneless' may have had the same condition as himself. It also demonstrated that someone with the condition was quite capable of using a longbow, and so could have taken part in battle, as Viking society would have expected a leader to do.
The story of Sefton Delmer and the use of pornography as a weapon of propaganda during the Second World War.
Nearly a century after Howard Carter's momentous discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Egyptologist Dr Chris Naunton returns to Carter's vast excavation files to uncover clues that point to a mysterious burning of the Boy King's mummy.
Queen Victoria's grandson, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, was born with a permanently paralysed arm: a disability considered shameful at the time.
The Hanging Garden of Babylon is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world for which no archaeological evidence has ever been found. Centuries of digging have turned up nothing, and many people assume it never existed. But has everyone simply been looking in the wrong place? Oxford academic Stephanie Dalley has decoded an ancient, long-overlooked text in the British Museum and now believes that the gardens were built by another man, in another time, in another location. She travels to war-torn northern Iraq to gather evidence to support her controversial new theory and try to solve this ancient mystery. Part of Channel 4's Secret History strand, which showcases the best historical journalism.
The discovery of China's Terracotta Army in 1974 revealed just a fraction of this extraordinary treasure. This documentary has exclusive access to the latest discoveries.
The extraordinary story of how two RAF squadrons sank Germany's most dangerous Second World War battleship, after 34 failed attempts
Bubonic plague is still around today, but kills in small numbers. Why did it kill so many people in 1348? The discovery of 25 medieval skeletons in London provides new answers.
The astonishing story of Dr Irving Finkel, a world expert on ancient Babylon, and his incredible discovery of a 4000-year-old tablet that sheds new light on the iconic and world famous biblical tale of Noah's Ark. Having spent 20 years translating the tablet, Dr Finkel sets out to show that the biblical narrative originated from stories that had been embedded in Sumerian and Babylonian society and literature for thousands of years. He also casts new light on the shape of the ark, believing that it was round. The ancient clay tablet, discovered on a mantelpiece in a UK suburban home, is inscribed with the world's oldest language. It tells of the story of Noah and the great flood and gives precise and detailed instructions on how to build an ark. Inspired by his find, Dr Finkel and a team of archaeological boat builders set out to build a real Noah's ark and discover if the ancient immense coracle-shaped boat can float. This iconic and universal story in human history is one of the most epic stories in three of the world's greatest religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This tablet and Dr Finkel's dedicated research and discoveries provide a fascinating new perspective on this pivotal religious story.
This documentary sheds new light on Hitler's poor health, hypochondria and extraordinary drug dependency, drawing on his personal physician's previously secret medical diaries and journals.
Documentary in which former Royal Marines commando Arthur Williams embarks on an emotional journey to explore the experiences of nearly two million British soldiers who suffered life-changing injuries and disabilities during the First World War. When the conflict ended an unprecedented number of amputees and disfigured servicemen returned home to face a new set of challenges. Largely forgotten or ignored after the war, they fought for recognition, respect and equality and many became pioneers who helped to transform the nation's attitude towards disability.
With access to the first nationwide survey and state-of-the-art drones mapping the Great Wall of China, this documentary offers new evidence that reveals its extraordinary magnitude, rewrites its millennia-long history and decodes its complex signals system. Using cutting-edge chemistry, the programme also finds out what has kept the wall standing for so long - a simple cooking ingredient found in kitchens across the world.
Engineers from the Crossrail construction project have uncovered a 300-year-old graveyard that reveals intriguing new information about the people who built London.
Secret History reveals the untold story of the tensions unleashed by the Queen’s marriage to Prince Philip, when she struggled to reconcile love with the suspicions of her family and her government.
Secret History has exclusive access behind the scenes of the momentous expedition that found HMS Erebus: the Royal Navy ship that disappeared in 1845 while searching for the Northwest Passage
The Other Prince William tells the tragic story of Prince William of Gloucester, the Queen’s cousin whose good looks and playboy lifestyle made him the idol of a young Prince Charles. Prince William, a pageboy at the Queen’s wedding and fourth in line to the British Throne at the time, was described as the most dazzling Royal of his generation. He embarked on a forbidden love affair with Zsuzsi Starkloff, a glamorous divorcee, model and former air hostess which was to end in disaster. In her first televised interview, Zsuzsi Starkloff will tell the story of their forbidden relationship and the disapproval it caused behind the doors of Buckingham Palace, still reeling from the scandal of Edward’s abdication for the love of Mrs Simpson.
Documentary following the discovery of fossilised remains in a deep and nearly inaccessible cave in South Africa. The bone fragments recovered were found to have come from a previously unknown species of human ancestor.
An insight into the pioneering work of criminal lawyer-turned-archaeologist Dr Kathleen Martinez, who has made it her life's mission to locate the final resting place of Cleopatra, Egypt's last queen.
A look at the relics found in the tombs of China's Han Dynasty - an era that is generally considered the golden age of ancient China. It's up there with the Roman Empire in terms of international power at the time and has been a defining influence on the country's cultural identity ever since, with China's majority ethnic group referring to itself as the "Han people" and the Chinese scripts referred to as "Han characters". This programme examines how the emperors arranged to have their dead bodies mummified in the search for immortality and looks at a newly discovered version of the famous terracotta army - sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.
Michael Dillon and Roberta Cowell’s pioneering sex change operations caused a press sensation in 1950s Britain, but ultimately ended in tragedy.
This chilling documentary brings together medieval manuscripts, new archaeological finds and a shocking interview with a vampire slayer to cast new light on medieval beliefs in vampires
This documentary reveals the surprising results of the first ever archaeological investigation of William Shakespeare's grave, using state-of-the-art radar technology
Engineers digging for Crossrail have made a chilling discovery: dozens of skulls under London's Liverpool Street station. It's clear the skulls are from Roman London, but nothing like this has been found before. This documentary unravels the mystery, using ground-breaking archaeological investigation. Who are these people and how did their skulls get there? There are many theories: they could be victims of a massacre, or gladiators; they could have naturally washed out of cemeteries in times of peace or be executed rebels; they could even be the victims of some grisly, long-lost ritual. Now the tools are available to solve the mystery. The investigation covers Boudicca's rebellion, the bloody gladiatorial arena, and head-hunting sites in France. Does the investigation answer the mystery of the Crossrail skulls?
A landmark expedition sets out to uncover the truth about the Battle of Jutland Thousands of British sailors died in the Battle of Jutland. It has been plagued by controversy ever since. This Secret History film joins a landmark expedition to uncover the truth about the battle.
Extraordinary footage has been found in the basement of Manchester Town Hall: messages recorded on film from British soldiers in Burma in World War II, to their loved ones back home.
For 1300 years, Wu Zetian - China's only female Emperor - has been remembered as a callous tyrant who brought calamity to China. But new discoveries paint a very different picture of her reign.
The extraordinary true story of Saddam Hussein's farcical venture into the movie business: a story involving Oliver Reed, big budgets and debauchery, set to a backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war.
In Afghanistan, in 2006, a small Band of Brothers called Easy Company fought one of the most intense and least talked about battles in British military history. This Secret History documentary reveals for the first time how a company of British soldiers came under siege for more than 50 days in a remote desert town in Afghanistan. Trapped in a small compound, outgunned, outnumbered, and at the mercy of the Taliban, the fight to hold Musa Quala became one of the most important last stands in British history - a quarter of all the ammunition used by the British Army in Helmand for the whole of 2006 was fired in less than two months. For the first time, surviving ex-soldiers tell their story and share the footage they captured.
Tony Long is Britain's most prolific police marksman. Deployed on hundreds of dangerous operations to bring down terrorists, killers and hostage takers, he has been behind some of the UK's most controversial police shootings. But it was the death of Londoner Azelle Rodney in 2005 that landed him in court for murder and brought his career to an end. Long reveals what it is like to shoot and kill people in the line of duty, and how his life crumbled during the Rodney case
A century on from the last offensive in the Battle of the Somme, this documentary tells the rarely-told story of the men who helped spur Britain towards victory, in a key World War I turning point First shown: 13 Nov 2016
Academic experts and military veterans give their opinions on whether the attack was a cock-up or conspiracy
She was the largest ship ever built and believed to be unsinkable. When RMS Titanic went down on her maiden voyage taking 1500 people to their death, it sent shock waves across the world and started a debate that still rages today. Why, when the Titanic received several warnings of icebergs ahead, did the captain steam full speed towards them without changing course? Two hours after the collision, the Titanic was safely afloat before she inexplicably gave way and took hundreds of passengers to their deaths. What happened to make her sink so rapidly? For the first time, investigative journalist and Titanic expert Senan Molony can reveal the real story. In a television exclusive, Titanic: The New Evidence draws on new evidence to reveal that a fire was raging in Titanic's boiler rooms before she left port, that it was kept secret and, it's now believed it led to the tragedy.
It's known as the Miracle of Dunkirk: in May 1940, approximately 340,000 Allied troops were trapped with their backs to the sea. Sitting ducks, the troops were subjected to an endless barrage of bombs and bullets as the Luftwaffe apparently bombed at will. The situation seemed hopeless. Then a fleet of ships appeared on the horizon, mostly sent by the Royal Navy but joined by smaller craft captained by plucky civilians. The soldiers were rescued from the beaches and taken safely back to Britain. They would later return to win the war. But behind the Miracle of Dunkirk there's another, hidden story. Soldiers and mariners, angry that they'd apparently been left undefended against the Luftwaffe, blamed the RAF. Historians have long viewed Dunkirk as the RAF's poorest hour. But now, recently released MoD files reveal that, far from being absent, the RAF were suffering massive losses supporting the evacuation.
The world's largest palace, the Forbidden City, stands at the heart of Chinese history, as the home to the emperors for 600 years. And it's full of secrets. This documentary goes behind closed doors to explore this extraordinary palace-city and to discover the clues to its creation. Unique access to the latest conservation works uncovers evidence hidden in locked halls and high in the mighty roofs, revealing a ruler who governed by fear but also created an exquisite and enormous work of art and technology. Tests on the paints reveal trade with Europe, and the programme experiments with an ice road to move an entire marble stairway. And another huge experiment tests the Forbidden City to destruction, as a giant scale model is placed on a seismic shake table to replicate the earthquakes that shook Beijing and to explore the design secrets that enabled the Forbidden City to stand up to the greatest shocks on earth.
This documentary reveals the story of the 140,000 Chinese workers who came to Europe in 1917 and risked their lives for the Allied war effort but whose vital contribution was painted out of history
The story of a remarkable secret group of Holocaust survivors who decided to avenge the Holocaust by poisoning German cities' water supplies, to kill millions of German civilians.
Follows the UK's most ambitious and cutting-edge ancient DNA project to date. For the first time, a team of top scientists at the Natural History Museum and University College London have analysed the DNA of Britain's oldest complete skeleton. Known as Cheddar Man, this human male fossil was originally unearthed over 100 years ago in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset. Building on the advanced genetic testing of his 10,000-year-old bones, two of the most acclaimed palaeontological model makers in the world, Dutch identical twins Adrie and Alfons Kennis, have recreated Cheddar Man's entire head to give his extraordinary skeleton a real identity for the first time.
The story of Carthaginian general Hannibal crossing the Alps with an army of 40,000 men, 9000 cavalry and 37 elephants is one of history's greatest legends. But the details of the journey - what route he took and how he and his entourage managed to conquer the treacherous mountain terrain - were a mystery, until now. For the first time, an international team of scientists is searching for clues hidden deep beneath the Alps' rocky soil, and their extraordinary discoveries are shedding new light on Hannibal's almost-impossible journey. The scientists are joined by paleobiologist Dr Tori Herridge and historian Dr Eve MacDonald, who follow in Hannibal's footsteps to experience what it must have been like as this ancient army battled raging rivers, hostile tribes and mighty mountains.
The traditional story of the birth of Christianity is dominated by men. Only men could be priests, and only men were close disciples of Jesus. But now Bible experts Helen Bond and Joan Taylor lay out a striking alternative version of events, with women central to the origins of Christianity. But why has this pivotal role played by women disappeared from history? In a journey that takes them to ancient caves in Israel and catacombs in Italy, Helen and Joan question centuries of Christian thought. Were female disciples crucial to Jesus' mission, preaching, healing, baptising and even financing the movement? Helen and Joan believe that what they've found will mean that millions of Christians will have to rethink the origins of their faith.
This documentary has exclusive access to a startling research project that is revealing an ancient hidden civilisation in Central America and transforming what we thought we knew about the Maya
A unique, cutting-edge scientific investigation reveals surprising new information about the crew of Henry VIII's favourite warship, redefining what we thought we knew about Tudor England.
Investigates the claim that an alien spaceship crash landed on 4th July 1947 at Roswell, New Mexico. Includes eye witness accounts and film footage that is reported to document an autopsy on one of the aliens found near the crash site.
In the summer of 1857, over 1,000 British people in Cawnpore (now Kanpur), nothern India, were killed by Indian soldiers as bloody retribution for ill treatment. The massacre sent shockwaves through Britain, prompting Queen Victoria to declare a National Day of Humiliation. In India itself, the massacre triggered around 20,000 revenge executions by British troops and the British Government established direct rule over the subcontinent. This documentary tells the story of the tragedy using contemporary records and diaries and shows how its aftermath played a part in bringing about the movement for Indian independence.
