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We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

WINDSORS' WAR: The continuing controversy surrounding the war-time role of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Victims of a bad press, they remained tactfully silent, but now answer back through Maitre Blum, their lawyer, who gives her first television interview.

OPERATION HURRICANE: Britain's first atomic test took place 30 years ago. Film of that secret explosion has been specially declassified by the Ministry of Defence for Timewatch.

CHATHAM DOCKYARD: Now under threat of Government closure, the story of its contribution to naval history from the Armada to HMS Victory, to the Falklands.

THE CHINA OF THE MANCHU EMPERORS and the signing of the treaties which gave Britain Hong Kong. Why do the Chinese regard these treaties as unequal?

SCOTLAND AND THE GREAT WITCH HUNT OF THE 17TH CENTURY: A thousand women were strangled or burnt. Was this persecution a political act by James VI which got out of hand? Why was it directed at women?

The recently discovered diary of a Lancashire weaver JOHN O'NEIL who, a century ago, recorded his experiences as an early trades union leader in the recession of the 1860s.

New research on the founding father of the Irish Republic, EAMON DE VALERA. Was he as committed to a united Ireland as was always believed, or was he prepared to compromise?

'IF THE SPANISH ARMADA HAD LANDED ...' What would have happened if on Monday 7 August 1558 a Spanish Army had marched on London from the invasion beaches of Margate? Timewatch re-examines the fate of the 16th-century Spanish task force and asks how close did it come to success?

WHAT MAKES BEGIN TICK? Vladimir Jabotinsky was the philosopher behind the fighting Jew and is the man whom Menachem Begin considers his mentor. Timewatch examines the vision of Jabotinsky and its influence on Begin both in his early life and in his years as Britain's most wanted terrorist.

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD - THE FIRST AND LAST INDEPENDENT PRINCE OF WALES: Simon Winchester tells his story and assesses his important place in Welsh nationalism today.

Film 1: Sir Thomas More, the Tudor statesman who lost his head on the scaffold in 1535, was made a saint in 1937; now the heroic reputation of the 'man for all seasons' is under attack.

Film 2: Unemployment in Britain 150 years ago when the workhouse became the symbol of oppression and poverty that lasted over a century. Bernard Clark investigates the Poor Law of 1834, designed to cut spending on the poor and unemployed and which left bitter memories for generations.

Film 3: The Russian spy scare of 1927 when the British Cabinet unwittingly betrayed to Moscow the code-breaking secrets of British intelligence.

HOW DO YOU DEMOCRATISE A NAZI? On the 50th anniversary of Hitler's elevation to the chancellorship of the Third Reich Simon Winchester reports from Washington and Nuremberg on how America in 1945 tried to remake a nation in its own image through a process of forced re-education.

THE VENERABLE BEDE - BRITAIN'S FIRST HISTORIAN: Who was he? Where and how did he live? Why is he so important? The story of a remarkable man who, over a thousand years ago, could have travelled from Northumbria to Rome.

THE LEVELLERS: three months ago in Putney church Michael Foot and other members of the Labour Party associated themselves with the men of the 'New Model Army' who spoke there 300 years before. Who were these men who, in their radicalism, saw Cromwell as the modern equivalent of establishment and right wing? How does the philosophy of these Levellers find echoes in the Labour Party today?

In a new edition of THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS, editor Robert Latham has uncovered previously unknown details of Pepys's life.

THE WEEDERS: Are civil servants destroying vital historical evidence when they decide Government records should not be kept?

THE HISTORICAL CLEOPATRA: As the BBC drama series ["The Cleopatras"] approaches its climax, Timewatch asks, "Was Cleopatra's reputation as a lustful tyrant really deserved?"

THE PEACE MOVEMENT IN THE 1930s AND TODAY: Fifty years ago, British politics was dominated by campaigns for peace. What are the parallels with the 1980s?

THE LAST MUGGLETONIAN: In 1652, the Muggletonians were a radical sect in Revolutionary England. Simon Winchester traces their secret survival until the death of the last Muggletonian in 1979.

THE VICTORIAN POLICE: What sort of force was the Police intended to be? With a new Police Bill before Parliament, Bernard Clark returns to their original beat.

THE LOVED AND HATED KING: Richard III - hunchback murderer of the princes in the Tower, or victim of Tudor propaganda? On the 500th anniversary of his coronation, historians go into battle again over his reputation.

THE SILENT YEARS OF TELEVISION: In 1950 politics were not allowed on British television. By the end of the decade television dominated the political scene. As an election approaches John Bowman asks how television has changed British political history.

ANIMALS AND MEN: Throughout history man has used animals for food, companions and labour. John Tusa talks to Keith Thomas about his new history of Man and the Natural World -the background to today's concern for animal liberation and ecology.

FRANCE AND THE NAZIS: Following the arrest of Klaus Barbie, butcher of Lyon, memories of Nazi collaboration have again returned to haunt a generation of Frenchmen. Dr Christopher Andrew goes to Drancy, the Paris housing estate turned in 1940 into a transit camp for Auschwitz and uncovers the ghost of Marshall Petain's Vichy Government. He talks to stout supporters of the 84-year-old Marshall, such as tennis champion Jean Borotra.

FAKING HISTORY: The Hitler diaries are just the latest in a long line of historical forgeries. The Drake Plate found near San Francisco in 1936 and which claimed California for Queen Elizabeth I was shown to be fake in 1977. The Vinland Map was bought in 1959 for ~£100,000 as the first map to show the North American Continent. Instead it was shown to be a forgery in 1967. Are there other fake historical documents masquerading as genuine? Can any fake survive today's scientific analysis? Timewatch talks to the experts.

BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE: During the Falklands war, the Argentinians made great capital of the last time they'd fought the British - and won, in 1806. SIMON Winchester reports.

BODYLINE BOWLING: Was the England captain, Douglas Jardine, aware of the political implications when he said that he would regain the Ashes but lose a dominion? Timewatch talks to cricket veteran Gubby Allen.

DEATH ON THE DOLE: In a time of high unemployment John Bauman looks back at how the health of the unemployed was damaged in the 1930s.

LOUIS XIV: The story of the 'Sun King' of France, who was the first 'politician' deliberately to mould his own favourable image by setting up the 17th-century equivalent of Saatchi and Saatchi.

SHADOW OF THE GALLOWS: After Parliament's vote on hanging, an investigation into the history of Tyburn and the mass public executions in the 18th century. Did hanging deter?

SPYING FOR RUSSIA: Christopher Andrew investigates why the British Secret Service failed to detect Blunt, Burgess and Maclean and he uncovers their Soviet 'control'. He talks for the first time to an Oxford mole who was recruited by Moscow in the 30s.

THE FORGOTTEN WARRIOR KING: William Rufus, son of William the Conqueror, is a king of whom little is known but legend. David Drew reports on new research that throws fresh light on a formidable ruler of England.

A special programme devoted to the life and historical reputation of Prince Albert, husband to Queen Victoria. From Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, designed by Albert for his family, the many different sides of his remarkable character are brought into focus.

Albert the foreigner - his upbringing in Coburg, the tiny German principality where he was born.

Albert the reformer - his belief in improving public services.

Albert the instigator of the Great Exhibition - the biggest triumph of his life.

Albert the politician - his huge and controversial influence on British politics.

Historians Asa Briggs-Robert, Rhodes James, and David Cannadine reassess one of the most important figures of Victorian Britain.

(Re-aired 9 December 1983 as a standalone program titled 'Albert The Early Years')

THE BATTLE FOR MARTIN LUTHER: Martin Luther, the German priest who split the Catholic church and began the Reformation, was born 500 years ago. Today, East and West Germany both struggle to claim him. From East Germany, Bernard Clark reports on how the Marxist government has tried to transform Luther into a revolutionary hero.

LEBANON - CRUSADER BATTLEFIELD: The Christian and Muslim militia, who have been fighting around Beirut, trace their enmity back to the first Crusades. How does the history of the Crusades still affect the Middle East power struggle today?

BEFORE THE NATIONAL HEALTH: A remarkable newly discovered archive of silent film reveals hospital life in the 1920s and 30s. How did people afford medical care in the days before the National Health?

ROYALIST OXFORD: In 1642 King Charles I set up his capital in Oxford as the English Civil War began. Simon Winchester returns to Oxford to see what clues remain there to the character of the Cavaliers.

MERRIE ENGLAND: An affectionate look at the days when history at school was about great men of sturdy British stock who made our island's story. Do you remember L. du Garde Peach, one of Britain's bestselling historians?

In May 1945, British soldiers near the Austrian border town of Klagenfurt handed over 26,000 Yugoslav anti-Communist refugees to Tito's Communist partisans, who disarmed then machine-gunned them. Who was responsible? Timewatch has investigated the records and, for the first time, British officers and Yugoslav survivors describe what happened.

In 1348, the Black Death killed one in three of the population. Until now we have always assumed it was an outbreak of bubonic plague. Now a zoologist suggests a far more fearsome disease was the cause. Christopher Andrew investigates.

PREVENTING THE THIRD WORLD WAR: 1984 opens amid the greatest fears of international tension and nuclear holocaust since the Cold War. Lord Bullock, biographer of British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, talks about the foundation of NATO and how the West learnt to deal with the Soviet Union after the War.

THE KITCHENER ENIGMA: In 1916 Lord Kitchener was drowned on his way to Russia. Now underwater pictures reveal clues as to how his ship, HMS Hampshire, was sunk. Will they lay to rest the rumour that still remains about the secrets surrounding the Imperial War Lord?

THE LAST BATTLE IN ENGLAND: In 1745 the Stuarts had their last chance of being restored to the English throne. Bonnie Prince Charlie reached Derby but then retreated. If he had marched on towards London, could he have seized the crown?

THE LAST FÜHRER: Among the Nazi war leaders tried at Nuremberg, Hitler's successor Admiral Doenitz received the lightest sentence of all. Now new research suggests Doenitz was far more deeply implicated in the atrocities of the Third Reich than previously imagined.

'THEY BE EVIL PEOPLE': Such was how British newspapers described the Russians in the late 17th century. A cautionary tale of how Englishmen in the 1720s feared Tsar Peter the Great planned to conquer the world.

THE CULT OF THE DEAD: How different were medieval attitudes towards death from our own today? The wills and funeral expenses of the 16th century help provide an answer.

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE: A meeting with the man who met the men who charged with the Light Brigade. Now aged 97, he has devoted his life to tracing all those who took part in the most celebrated action in Victorian history.

KOREA AND THE BOMB: Newly-released documents reveal the extent of American plans to use atomic weapons in the Korean War. The British feared they were being kept in the dark and risked being dragged into world war.

SIR ARTHUR BRYANT: Britain's most famous popular historian celebrates his 85th birthday. His latest book celebrates the greatness of our past. But is it good history?

SEX AND THE VICTORIANS: Did Victorian wives really 'lie back and think of England'? New research suggests they enjoyed a far more liberated sex life than conventional image allows.

GOD SAVE THE KING was first associated with George III. Why did the king who lost the American colonies become adored by his people, with the first royal souvenirs manufactured in his name?

STALIN'S FAMINE: Fifty years after millions of Ukrainian peasants died in Stalin's collectivisation, survivors remember the tragedy the Soviet Union still ignores. Malcolm Muggeridge recalls reporting the suffering.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION: In 1924, 28 million people visited the last of the great imperial exhibitions at Wembley - now it is almost forgotten.

GOING MAD IN THE 19TH CENTURY: In 1807 there were 2,000 certified lunatics in England. By 1880 there were more than that in one institution.

ROBERT OWEN: Celebrated as defender of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, founder of the Cooperative Movement and a father of British socialism; was Robert Owen in fact a Victorian capitalist, his social reforms designed for greater profits?

THE CASE FOR KING WILLIAM: Why did William of Normandy believe the Crown of England was his right? What do we know of the barons who stamped their authority on their newly-conquered possessions?

THE SECRETS OF DOMESDAY: The Domesday Book is the greatest achievement of Norman government - it surveyed every acre of William's kingdom. Now a computerised study reveals details hidden for 900 years.

Two names that shaped Britain in two World Wars.

SECRETS OF THE KAISER: The private papers of Germany's last Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, uncover his secret life. In public the figurehead of swaggering Prussian militarism, in private a manic personality obsessed with fantastical schemes for himself and Germany. Christopher Andrew reports.

SIR WILLIAM BEVERIDGE: If D-Day was the moment victory over Hitler began, it was Beveridge who gave the vision of the new world for which Britain was fighting. His report established the system of social security in Britain. He was known as the father of the welfare state. In 1984, as the entire system comes under government scrutiny, John Tusa examines the most influential blueprint for Britain this century.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH: In North Carolina they are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first settlement in North America. Colonisation of the New World was Walter Raleigh's most ambitious scheme, but what was its aim?

THE RISE OF THE VICTORIAN TOWN HALL: With the future of the GLC at stake Mark Jones examines the spectacular growth of Victorian local government and the moment the Tory Government in 1898 tried to abolish the London County Council.

THE LEAKING EMBASSIES: Christopher Andrew reports on the security leaks in the British embassies in Rome and Berlin in the 1930s. The Foreign Office was stunned by the sorry state of British security.

ELECTION 1784: It was the first modern General Election. Two parties, two national leaders - the King versus Parliament. With a computer analysis of the crucial results, Timewatch fights again the election that marked a watershed in English political history.

1914 - WAS GERMANY GUILTY? Seventy years on, the question remains: did Germany conspire to cause war in the summer of 1914? Norman Stone, Professor of Modern History at Oxford, untangles the evidence from the years of crisis, in the vanished empires of Tsarist Russia, the Kaiser's Germany, and Austria-Hungary.

THE FIRST FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS: How new is soccer violence? Christopher Andrew uncovers new evidence that pitch invasions, mob riots and attacks on rival supporters were at their height before 1914.

THE FIRST OIL CRISIS: The Abadan oil crisis of 1951 brought Iran and Britain into open conflict. Then the British Government planned for an invasion; today the memory shadows Iranian suspicions of the West. Sir Anthony Parsons, former adviser to Mrs Thatcher and Ambassador to the Shah, assesses this turning-point in post-war Iranian history.

CLIMATE OF TREASON: The plight of Catholics in Elizabethan England. With their allegiance divided between the Pope and their Queen, should they put their conscience or country first? Were they martyrs or traitors?

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: How true are historical novels? Gore Vidal's 'Lincoln' draws the political battlefield in Washington during the American Civil War. What does it add to our portrait of one of America's greatest presidents?

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ARISTOCRACY: The British landed Aristocracy held undisputed power and unparalleled property for over 300 years. How did they keep power for so long and why did their collapse come when it did?

THE FIGHTING TEN: A tin trunk in Ascot reveals the forgotten history of one of the most celebrated families of the Victorian Raj: the story of the ten Battye brothers who fought for British India has been pieced together by their descendants.

THE LAST UPRISING: In 1839, 7,000 Welsh miners and ironworkers marched on Newport to demand their democratic rights. The result was the last mass treason trial in British history. Now new research suggests that it was planned as a prelude to a revolution.

THE FALKLANDS AND THE MURDEROUS GAUCHO: The strange case of Antonio Rivero, who caused the Cabinet of 150 years ago serious doubts as to whether Britain had sovereignty over the Falklands or not.

GOERING: Hermann Goering was portrayed by war-time propaganda as the fat buffoon of the Third Reich. A new study reveals him as the most effective political operator in Nazi Germany.

NELSON: Heroes inevitably suffer at the hands of those who worship them, few more so than one of the most popular of all, Nelson. Since his death in 1805, how have subsequent generations perceived him?

THE TORIES AND THE WORKERS: Mrs Thatcher's election victory last year was unparalleled since Lord Salisbury in 1900. How does her electoral achievement compare with her 19th-century predecessors? Why do the working class consistently vote Conservative?

WYCLIFFE: In 1428 the body of John Wycliffe was dug up, burnt and scattered to the wind. The Peasants' Revolt claimed him as their inspiration. Yet on the 600th anniversary of his death practically nothing is known of him.

REAGAN'S COWBOYS: Why have successive presidents celebrated the cowboy as all-American hero?

THE AGE OF CHIVALRY IS DEAD: But did it ever flourish? How true is the picture painted of the knights in shining armour, enchanted castles and fabulous tournaments in medieval romance.

THE HIDDEN HIPPOPOTAMUS: A hundred years ago the scramble for Africa by the European imperial powers began. Timewatch reconstructs a single incident between Christian missionary and African chieftain that suggests the dominance of European over African was not always as straightforward as might be thought.

TAFF VALE: In 1900 the railway workers of Taff Vale embarked on a strike which has political implications to this day. Timewatch examines the first great clash between the Trades Unions and the law.

THE ISLAND AND ITS PAST: How the people of the Isle of Dogs in the Thames Estuary are rediscovering their past.

SPECIAL BRANCH: At the height of her powers, Victorian Britain boasted that she didn't need a political police. After explosions in the Underground, the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament, she changed her mind. Timewatch investigates the birth of the Special Branch.

'Let not poor Nellie starve.' With those words Charles II, the 'Merry Monarch', died 300 years ago. Of all British sovereigns, this womanising, yachting, horse-racing king has a fond place in popular myth. During his 25-year reign England returned from the horrors of civil war to peace and plenty. David Drew looks at some of the lasting achievements of the age of Charles II and at the man who, somewhat waywardly, presided over them.

CHURCHILL AND ROOSEVELT exchanged 2,000 letters during the Second World War. Collected for the first time, they reveal the tensions behind the friendship and Britain's collapse as a great superpower.

A BLACK AND TERRIBLE TROOP was the name given to a gang of burglars and forgers who terrorised Westmorland 300 years ago. Timewatch traces their rise and fall through the private papers of the Justice who ran them to earth.

RING A RING O' ROSES is the nursery rhyme everyone knows has its roots in the Great Plague. But does it? Iona Opie investigates its origins.

THE UNUSED WEAPON: By 1945 the Allies and the Nazis had stockpiled five times more chemical weapons than had been used throughout the First World War. They were never used. Why? Robert Harris reports.

SUICIDE OF A CAVALIER: At the battle of Newbury in 1643, Lord Falkland charged headlong to his death. His friends thought it was suicide. Now a psychiatrist has reopened the case and offers an explanation.

THE FORGOTTEN BRITISH EMPIRE: Who has heard of Carausius? Yet in the third century, he ruled Britain as his separate empire and defied the power of Rome. Timewatch uncovers the few traces of him that remain.

In April 1945, British and American troops were sweeping across Western Germany. Charles Wheeler was among them. They stopped 50 miles short of the German capital and Berlin became the prize of the Russian army. Forty years on. Charles Wheeler tells how the Soviet Union fought its bloodiest final battle and how the manner of its victory determined the future of Berlin, and Europe, in the postwar world. With previously unseen film of the battle and its aftermath, some in colour, the story is told by men and women veterans of the Russian forces, the Hitler Youth who defied them, and a man who was with Hitler in his final hours.

This month's programme comes from the centre of Oxford where Peter France introduces three stories which have their roots deep in the confused and bewildering fortunes of the Boer War.

Film 1: Images of the later, tragic stages of the conflict were captured by the newly-invented Box Brownie camera, which went to war for the first time in the knapsack of the ordinary soldier. (Director: ROBERT MARSHALL)

MASTERSPY: Christopher Andrew tells the still secret story of 'C', the first, eccentric head of the puny amateur organisation which was eventually to become the modern Secret Intelligence Service. (Director: JONATHAN DENT)

Film 3: Extracts from the diaries of THE REV ANDREW CLARK reveal the way the momentous events of the First World War touched and changed daily life in his tiny Essex village of Great Leighs. (Director TONY TYLEY)

Executive producer ROY DAVIES

Editor BRUCE NORMAN

SUMMER OF THE HANGING JUDGE: An examination of the life and times of Judge George Jeffreys 300 years after he presided over the infamous Bloody Assizes which followed the Monmouth Rebellion.

BIRTH OF THE EXPERT WITNESS: Christopher Andrew assesses the important developments in forensic evidence in the hands of medical experts in major trials during the 19th century.

TWELVE GOOD MEN AND TRUE: Jennifer Brooks analyses events at the Old Bailey in September 1670 when 12 men established for all time the right of a jury to return an independent verdict after hearing a case involving William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.

Film 1: As the world waits for Halley's Comet, a recently discovered diary written by a 17th-century merchant from Rye in Sussex reveals the feelings of a man caught up in a scientific revolution, when the new discipline of astronomy shouldered aside the age-old belief in astrology. Author Aubrey Burl, authority on stone circles, outlines new theories which suggest that the ancient peoples of Britain used the world's most famous circle as a lunar as well as a solar observatory.

Film 2: A look back at events earlier this year when Stonehenge and the hill fort at Maiden Castle were at the centre of English Heritage's controversial plans to preserve our past - a controversy that still rages over who digs what and where, that has split the usually placid world of archaeology.