Empire, Slavery and Race

01: The Equalizer | Hidden Empire

A young boy survives the Amritsar Massacre of 1919, in which troops under British command kill hundreds of Indian demonstrators. He vows re...

Black Power: A British Story of Resistance

An examination of the Black Power movement in the late 1960s in the UK, surveying both the individuals and the cultural forces tha...

03: Calling London | Hidden Empire

June 1943: an RAF plane drops a British agent into occupied France. The agent is a woman, a high-born Sufi Muslim driven by the need for a...

02: Why You Marry? | Rainbow City

Second episode of a groundbreaking BBC drama series from 1967 about the experience of the West Indian community in Birmingham, featuring Er...

03: A Better Fortune | Rainbow City

Third episode of a groundbreaking BBC drama series from 1967 about the experience of the West Indian community in Birmingham, featuring E...

01: What Sort of Boy? | Rainbow City

First episode of a groundbreaking BBC drama series from 1967 about the experience of the West Indian community in Birmingham, featuring ...

03: 1965-2011 | George Alagiah: Mixed Britannia

George Alagiah tells the story of couples facing violence on the streets during the 70s, how adoption became a battleground a...

02: 1940-1965 | George Alagiah: Mixed Britannia

George Alagiah tells the story of the GI babies labelled war casualties, the boom in mixed-race couples following mass migrat...

Black Peoples of the Americas: 01: The Atlantic Slave Trade | History File

The development of the triangular trade is described from its ancient origins, through the Europea...

01: Profit and Loss | Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

In 1834 Britain abolished slavery, a defining and celebrated moment in our national history. What has been largely for...

Mahatma Gandhi | Icons

Mahatma Gandhi employed non violent tactics of passive resistance in the face of the largest empire the world had ever known, he not only helped to se...

01: Martial Races | The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire

David Olusoga challenges our perceptions of the First World War with the stories of the millions of Indian,...

A Scottish Soldier: A Lost Diary of WWI

Poet Jackie Kay tells the story of Arthur Roberts - one of thousands of black soldiers who fought in WWI. His diary provides a unique...

Episode 1 | Empire with David Olusoga

David Olusoga tells the story of the British Empire, from its origins under Elizabeth I to the establishment of colonies in America, th...

Episode 2 | Empire with David Olusoga

David Olusoga reveals how the loss of the American colonies led to the colonisation of Australia and how the Indian indenture system wa...

S01E11: HHTV News: British Empire Report | Horrible Histories

Bob Hale gives a report on the British Empire.

03: The Jewel in the Crown | British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

Lucy explores how British history is a concoction of fibs. She debunks the fibs that surround t...

Episode 1 | The Birth of Empire: The East India Company

Dan Snow travels through India in the footsteps of the company that revolutionised British lifestyles and laid the fo...

06: Age of Empire | Seven Ages of Britain

David Dimbleby travels through Britain, America and India, tracing the British Empire from 1750 to 1900.

01: Why Britain? | Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World

In this programme we learn about the origins of the British empire in the 17th century and how its foundations w...

Episode 3 | Empire with David Olusoga

David Olusoga reveals how the Empire reached its maximum size after the First World War but within a generation had begun to collapse, ...

20th Century World: 02: The British Empire | History File

The programme uses silhouette images and archive material to illustrate the life of the fictitious Grant family who...

06: Freedom | Michael Wood: The Story of India

Michael Wood examines the British Raj and traces the events that led to the Partition of India in 1947.

Transportation of Convicts to Australia | Empire with David Olusoga

David explains how Britian sent their problem convicts abroad to the colonies for cheap labour, and many ...

S03E05: The Independence of India | Days That Shook the World

The story of the Independence of India.

Treatment of Aboriginals in Australia | Empire with David Olusoga

David explains the horrendous treatment of the Aboriginal peoples of Tasmania by the British.

Learning Zone | The Birth of Empire: The East India Company

A compilation of short films made specially for schools on the rise and fall of the East India Company, which acc...

Episode 2 | The Birth of Empire: The East India Company

Dan Snow traces the rise and fall of the East India Company, and reveals how the British government controlled the Ea...

Black Peoples of the Americas: 01: The Atlantic Slave Trade | History File

The development of the triangular trade is described from its ancient origins, through the Europea...

Black Peoples of the Americas: 03: Resistance, Rebllion and Abolition | History File

An overview of the methods used by the abolitionists, such as the famous poster of the s...

01: A People Stolen | Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson

Samuel L Jackson and a team of journalists and divers explore 400 years of slavery. What happened to the 12 million ensl...

02: A Precious Cargo | Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson

Samuel L Jackson examines how, for over 400 years, the transatlantic slave trade became the greatest wealth-generating ...

Black Peoples of the Americas: 02: Everyday Life on a Plantation Island | History File

The schools history series reconstructs the day-to-day experience of slavery for Betty...

03: Resistance | Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson

Samuel L Jackson and the team travel through the US to tell the stories of those who resisted slavery, often making the dange...

Episode 1 | Slavery: Scotland's Hidden Shame

David Hayman presents the first of a two-part documentary exploring Scotland's role in the transatlantic slave trade.

04: Making a Fortune | Empire

Jeremy Paxman travels from Jamaica, where sugar made plantation owners rich on the backs of slaves, to Calcutta.

Bunce Island | Black and British: A Forgotten History

David Olusoga visits Bunce Island, where the first slave fortress was built in the 17th century.

04: Our People | Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson

Samuel L Jackson and the team examine the events that ended the slave trade and piece together the heritage and identity take...

The Windrush Generation | Black and British: A Forgotten History

David Olusoga discusses the Windrush Generation.

The Extraordinary Equiano

The story of Olaudah Equiano, a black slave who emerged from the horrors of the African holocaust to become an English gentleman, marry a white wom...

Mississippi cotton | Black and British: A Forgotten History

David Olusoga discusses the cotton industry in Mississippi and how it fuelled Britain's industrial revolution.

The Remains of Slavery | Civilisations Stories

Documentary in which Miles Chambers recounts the history of the slave trade in the West Country through objects and architectu...

02: Sugar Dynasty | The Slavery Business

A drama-documentary chronicling the true story of the Beckford family, a ruthless 18th-century dynasty which ran Britain's first glo...

02: Freedom | Black and British: A Forgotten History

In the second part of his four-part series, historian David Olusoga explores the business of slavery and remembers the b...

Episode 1 | The Long Song

Born a slave, July is taken from her mother to a plantation house and forced to work for the odious Caroline. But as she matures she starts to lear...

John Blanke | Black and British: A Forgotten History

David Olusoga discusses Catherine of Aragon's black servants.

01: The Colour of Money | Racism: A History

In its first episode the series begins by assessing the implications of the relationship between Europe, Africa and the Americas ...

The beginnings of the British slave trade | Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

David Olusoga investigates the beginnings of the British slave trade in Barbados.