logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2024
40m 54s

Dinosaurs: a Victorian obsession

IMMEDIATE MEDIA
About this episode
Through the 19th century, people began to find strange and spectacular bones of "impossible monsters" in the earth. But what creatures could these bones belong to – and what did that mean both for religious beliefs and new evolutionary theories? Michael Taylor joins Rebecca Franks to discuss how the discovery of dinosaurs shook up Victorian Britain. (Ad) M ... Show More
Up next
Today
Uprising: the Civil Wars untangled
On 30 January 1649, Charles I was led on to a freshly erected scaffold outside Whitehall’s Banqueting House in London. Thousands of spectators watched in shock and awe as the king of England, Scotland and Ireland was executed as a traitor. It was the climax of one of the most des ... Show More
37 m
Yesterday
The Nazis’ crimes laid bare
When the Nazi leaders went on trial in Nuremberg from November 1945, the true horrors of their regime were exposed to the world. In the second episode of our four-part series on the trials, the lawyer and author Philippe Sands chronicles the dramatic days when the likes of Herman ... Show More
46m 30s
Nov 22
What does Hitler’s DNA really tell us?
A recent documentary drawing conclusions from new analysis of Adolf Hitler’s DNA has sparked headlines around the world. But how did the programme’s researchers get hold of the key evidence? And what issues – and implications – are prompted by linking the Nazi leader with a range ... Show More
48m 17s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2022
The Rise of the Dinosaurs
<p>Dinosaurs! Spectacular resilient beings who were able to adapt and survive the most terrifying of events. Evolving from a group of mostly humble-sized creatures, into the most enormous beasts that ever existed on land. But how did the first true dinosaurs emerge? In this episo ... Show More
45m 10s
Oct 2021
109. Dinosaurs
How did the existence of dinosaurs come to be discovered, & what role have they played in the popular imagination over the past 200 years? And what can humanity learn from the extinction of dinosaurs - if indeed they ARE extinct? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook explore the cons ... Show More
52m 38s
Jan 2023
Feathered Dinosaurs
<p>Having dominated the earth for millions of years, it's no wonder Dinosaurs have always fascinated us. Depicted in films and TV shows as monstrous scaly beasts - they inspire a terrifying image. But what if we told you that the T-Rex could have been covered in feathers? It's a ... Show More
41m 22s
Sep 2019
Dinosaurs
Brian Cox and Robin Ince return for a new series of their multi-award winning science/comedy show. They kick off with arguably any child's first interest in science - dinosaurs! They are joined by comedian Rufus Hound and palaeontologists Susannah Maidment from the Natural Histor ... Show More
46m 49s
May 2024
200 years of dinosaur science
In 1824, 200 years ago, Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to ever be described in a scientific paper. William Buckland studied fossils from Stonesfield in Oxfordshire in order to describe the animal. In this episode, Victoria Gill visits palaeontologist Dr Emma Nicholls at the ... Show More
27m 52s
Mar 2023
Les dinosaures
Pars sur les traces des dinosaures, ces grands reptiles aujourd’hui disparus qui ont peuplé la Terre il y a 235 millions d’années. Quelle Histoire dépoussière les fossiles du diplodocus, du tyrannosaure et du stégosaure, de leur apparition à leur découverte par l’homme, et te pro ... Show More
9m 15s
Sep 2022
Top Five Dinosaurs
<p>They’re big. They’re fierce. And they’re extinct. </p><p>This is how today’s guest - palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist and Senior Editor of the science journal Nature, Henry Gee, sums up why we have a continued fascination with dinosaurs.</p><br><p>Join Tristan and Henry ... Show More
45m 44s
Dec 2021
The Origins of Life on Earth
<p>Today we’re going back to the beginning – no Romans, Celts, Egyptians or Macedonians in sight. We’re going much further back, covering billions of years of prehistory as we look at the emergence of life on Earth. From the rise of the earliest microscopic membranes to the arriv ... Show More
1h 24m
Oct 2022
The Bone Wars
October 4, 1915. President Woodrow Wilson designates Dinosaur National Monument as a national historic site. That’s a big deal, right? There must’ve been a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony, maybe even a parade. But no. In 1915, nobody really cares about dinosaurs. But that is all ab ... Show More
35m 11s
Mar 2023
Dinosaurs: The Last Days
<p>Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid the size of Mount Everest slammed into our planet, triggering the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and countless other species unable to adapt to the sudden environmental catastrophe that followed. What exactly happened on that fateful ... Show More
42m 34s