Mark Juddery introduces The Story of the Kelly Gang, possibly the first-ever feature film, now largely lost, that was made a hundred years ago in Australia about the notorious outlaw with the unusual body-armour. Hugely popular when it was first released in 1906, it spawned a genre of bushranger movies and epitomized the significance of the Kelly legend in Australian cultural identity.
Gervase Phillips examines the extent and significance of an often misunderstood phenomenon.
A century ago international anarchists were causing public outrage and panic with their terror tactics. Matt Carr considers the parallels with al-Qaeda today.
Why does England have a special fondness for the three kings – or magi – of the Christmas story?
Martin Kemp explores the complex and ambiguous relationships between humans and animals in their depictions by artists, and investigates the ways in which animal characteristics have been used to mirror human foibles.
Richard Cavendish remembers the life of Louis B. Mayer, who died on October 29th, 1957.
Laurence Rees, whose work as a TV historian has brought him face to face with many people involved in mass killings, discusses the opportunities and dangers of oral history.
Mark Bryant takes a look at a pioneering magazine that acted as a school for a whole generation of cartoonists.
As Britain gets used to the ban on smoking in public spaces, Virginia Berridge looks at the way attitudes to public health have changed in the last fifty years, particularly among the medical profession.
Will the new super-casinos bring about the demise of the commercial bingo hall? Carolyn Downs traces the history of the game back to the eighteenth century and finds that then – as now – it had a strong attraction for women gamblers.
