History of Medicine

05: Bloody Beginnings | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

Michael Mosley looks at how surgery dragged itself kicking and screaming out of the dark ages, transforming itse...

The Great Plague

The Great Plague of 1665 killed 100,000 Londoners - one in three of the people living in the city. While kept diaries have provided terrifying testaments to...

04: Fixing Faces | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

Series about the history of surgery continues with a look at the development of plastic surgery, which started over 4...

02: Bad Blood: Stuarts to Hanoverians | Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History

Lucy Worsley explores how the health of monarchs has shaped the nation. She looks at t...

02: Bleeding Hearts | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

The series about the history of surgery charts the development of heart surgery. Michael Mosley witnesses a breath...

Medicine Through Time (1989): 04: Medicine and Long Term Change | History File

Paul Viragh presents programme on medicine and long-term change - Harvey's theory of the circu...

01: Into the Brain | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

Documentary series looking at the brutal, bloody and dangerous history of surgery begins with the area of the body ...

Carrel-Dakin Method | The Crimson Field

A dramatic clip to show the Carrel-Dakin method; a WWI-era wound treatment developed by surgeon Alexis Carrel and chemist Henry Dakin...

05: The Triumph of Art | Civilisations

Simon Schama examines how traditions developed in the years following the Renaissances.

Measuring levels of oxygen in the blood | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

Using a pulse oximeter to show what happens with the levels of oxygen in the blood when you st...

S01E05: Historical Hospital: Montague Fuzzlepeck, Georgian Doctor | Horrible Histories

Master of medicaments' Montague Fuzzlepeck diagnoses a patient.

Casualty 1906

Ground-breaking drama that uses case notes, ward reports, autopsy records and intimate diaries from 100 years ago to bring actual doctors, nurses and patients ...

03: Body Fantastic | James May's 20th Century

James May discovers just how far he can push his body, exploring some of the most remarkable medical advances over the last hun...

Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen

Drama illuminating a doctor's efforts to protect the people of Manchester from the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic as millions of soldiers ...

The Story of John Snow | Moments of Genius

Clinical geneticist Professor John Burn follows in the footsteps of one of his great scientific heroes - Dr John Snow.

The doctor who discovered how cholera spread | Witness History

In the 1800s cholera was a mysterious disease killing millions around the world. No-one knew how to stop it ti...

02: Pus | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

Dr Michael Mosley explores our earliest attempts to tackle infection and how scientists, chemists and doctors...

Medicine Through Time (1989): 05: Medicine, Technology and The Individual | History File

The principal of the germ theory of disease is credited to Louis Pasteur. But why wa...

Medicine Through Time (1998): 05: Medicine and Surgery | History File

Programme concentrates on looking at medicine and surgery, and looks at the rise of surgery and inventi...

Medicine Through Time (1998): 03: Medicine and Government | History File

Using historical evidence to recreate 19th century life this programme looks at the relationship bet...

Florence Nightingale: Nursing Pioneer

Film following the life of an extraordinary woman, a trailblazer who revolutionised modern nursing and reformed healthcare at home and ...

The Medical Detectives | 01: Death in the Parish

When a cholera epidemic strikes London in 1854, the brilliant but mercurial Dr John Snow investigates. Starring Bill Nighy.

03: Scientists | Icons

Chris examines the lives of Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Alan Turing and Tu You You. He explores some of their most famous discoveries - as well as t...

Social Darwinism and Eugenics | Victorian Sensations

Paul McGann investigates how Victorian scientists were developing theories about ways to prevent biological and social d...

Anaesthetics | In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of anaesthetics, from laughing gas in the 1790s to the discovery of ''blessed chloroform''.

The Medical Detectives | 02: The Last Infirmity

Two ambitious young doctors tackle a yellow fever epidemic in 19th-century Cuba. Starring Colin Stinton and William Hope.

Isaac Newton: The Last Magician

Isaac Newton - brilliant rational mathematician or master of the occult? This innovative biography reveals Newton as both a hermit and a tyra...

04: Florence Nightingale | Great Britons (1990)

Philippa Stewart, biographer of Florence Nightingale, narrates her life story through on-location reports from places she liv...

The Medical Detectives | 04: The Stranded Eagle

After Salomon August Andrée's doomed Arctic crossing by hydrogen balloon, investigators piece together events. Stars Ken Stott.

The Medical Detectives | 03: The Epping Jaundice

A strange epidemic sweeps through the inhabitants of a quiet Essex suburb. Starring Bernard Hepton and Roger Allam.

01: Nerves of Steel | The Courage to Fail

1830 - a smoke-filled room, crowded with spectators. Their eyes are fixed on a man, restrained on a wooden table, with a leg ravage...

03: Happy Families: Hanoverians to Windsors | Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History

Lucy Worsley explores how the health of monarchs has shaped the nation. She expl...

S01E04: Madness of King George | Lucy Worsley Investigates

How did George's mental illness change Britain? Lucy Worsley uncovers Royal papers and explores how the attempt on...

Queen Anne's Pregnancies | Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History

Lucy Worsley investigates Queen Anne's gynaecological record.

01: Black Death | World's Worst Century

Was the 14th century the worst time in history to be alive? The population of Britain was ravaged by a plague that drove mankind to t...

Black Death | Ken Follett's Journey Into the Dark Ages

Ken Follett tells the story of the Black Death through the true stories of a monk in Winchester, a doctor in Florence ...

The symptoms of Black Death and how it spread | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

Simon Schama discusses the black death, explaining it's symptoms and how it spread.

Medieval treatment and beliefs on the cause of the Black Death | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

Simon Schama discusses the Medieval beliefs about what caused the Black...

S01E05: King Death | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

Simon Schama continues his look at British history with the Black Death, the horror of medieval Britain. Those it d...

Medicine Through Time (1989): 01: Medicine, Religion and Natural Causes | History File

This programme looks at ancient Egypt, Hippocrates, Christianity and Islam.

03: The Great Famine and the Black Death | Michael Wood's Story of England

Michael Wood's portrait of one village across the whole of English history reaches the 14th centur...

How the Black Death changed social structure | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

Simon Schama explains how the Black Death changed Medieval social structures.

How the Lollard religion grew from the Black Death | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

Simon Schama explains how the Lollard religion was developed from the Black Death.

06: The Scientist | Colosseum

One of the most famous scientists of the ancient world, Galen of Pergamon, makes a name for himself as a doctor for gladiators in the arena.

Anglo-Saxon Britain | Learning Zone

One of the children is sick, and this is used as a means to explore the different approaches to medicine and medical care in Saxon times.

Jenner's Marvellous Medicine | A History of the World

Professor Mark Horton tells the epic story of the world's greatest medical discovery. Edward Jenner's vaccination for s...

Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin

History books tell us that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but that's not the whole story. This drama uncovers the forgo...

Medicine Through Time (1998): 04: Medicine and War | History File

This prog looks at the relationship between medicine and war. Does war help or hinder medicine? Surviving r...

S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift

The shocking story of health before the NHS. In the early 20th century, getting treated if you were ill was a...

On Call to a Nation

Casting real doctors instead of actors, this film uses scripted scenarios and interviews to see the National Health Service through their eyes. The docum...

The NHS: A Difficult Beginning

The story of the birth of the NHS, revealing how close its opponents came to defeating it and why the some of the fiercest opposition came fro...

03: Brave New World | Pandemic 2020

From the Amazon to churches in the US and the slums of Delhi, reason and science battle conspiracy and denial.

19: 1954: Living Longer | People's Century

Medical advances allow people to live longer and healthier lives. Penicillin is developed in time to save lives during the Second ...

S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift

Robert Winston explores the extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian workhouse to modern c...

05: End of an Era | The Courage to Fail

Christiaan Barnard became the most famous surgeon in the world by successfully transplanting a human heart. Yet so disastrous were th...

03: Doers Not Thinkers | The Courage to Fail

By the early 1970s, surgeons were riding the crest of a wave. But controversy and uncertainty surrounded one of the commonest op...

04: A Gift of Life | The Courage to Fail

Richard Herrick, a young man dying of kidney disease, is about to make medical history. Surgeons will save his life by transplanting...

02: Into the Heart | The Courage to Fail

Crippled children, blue and breathless with congenital heart disease, were sent home to die. Operating on the inside of the heart wa...

S08E08: Children Of The Iron Lung | Secret History

For the greater part of the twentieth century, polio spread panic throughout the Western world and caused paralysis in its...