The History Channel's blog

Monday October 8 at 8.30pm on THE HISTORY CHANNEL

London- what put this city on the map? A Tale of Two Cities will search out and examine the clues that reveal the century century that made the London we know today On a fascinatin that made the London we know today. On a fascinatingg journey back in time this film will take us to the very journey back in time this film will take us to the very heart of the city and a period unlike any other in its history, the 17th century. We see London through surveys conducted firstly by John Stow, a city merchant and chronicler, whose work was published in the very late 16th century and then by John Strype, a clergyman and London historian who updated Stow’s work in 1720.

Monday February 27 at 8.30pm on The History Channel

In 1881, 25 men led by Lieutenant Adolphus Greely sailed from the harbor of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Their destination was Lady Franklin Bay in the high Arctic, where they planned to collect a wealth of scientific data from a vast area of the world’s surface that had been described by a British admiral as a “sheer blank.” Three years later, only six survivors returned, with a daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism. The Greely Expedition, from producer Rob Rapley (Wyatt Earp), tells a harrowing tale of one of the great scientific adventures of all time. Drawing on an impressive documentary record that includes scientific accounts, diaries, photographs and letters, the film reveals the nearly unbearable pressures experienced by the members of the expedition, and shows how poor planning, personality clashes, questionable decisions and pure bad luck conspired to turn a noble scientific mission into a human tragedy.

Sunday February 26 at 8.30pm on The History Channel

Anne Frank’s diary, written between 1942 and 1944 in hiding in Amsterdam, has made Anne Frank one of the bestknown figures of the 20th Century. She was four when she left her native Germany, thirteen when she went into hiding, and not yet sixteen when she died in a concentration camp – one of the six million Jewish victims of Hitler’s racial madness. Over the past fifty years Anne Frank has become a universal symbol of the oppressed in a world of violence and tyranny. Her name invokes humanity, tolerance and the will to live. Her diary, required reading in schools throughout the world, has been interpreted as an eternal testament of courage and hope.

Saturday February 25 at 7.30pm on The History Channel

On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world’s two largest oceans and signaling America’s emergence as a global superpower. American ingenuity and innovation had succeeded where, just a few years earlier, the French had failed disastrously. But the U.S. paid a price for victory. It literally required moving mountains, breaking the back of the great range that connects North and South America. The French began the Canal in 1880, but were ultimately defeated by the enormity of the task and the virulence of the endemic tropical diseases; they left behind not only a partially completed canal, but also an immense financial debacle. The successful completion by the Americans in 1914 – only months before the start of a World War – marked the end of the Victorian age and the beginning of “the American Century.” It weaves together the stories of the powerful men, whose decisions shaped the enterprise, including larger-than-life characters such as Ferdinand de Lesseps and Theodore Roosevelt, with the stories of the ordinary labourers from Jamaica and Barbados whose labour and sacrifice actually dug the canal. Along the way it tells a story of innovation that literally changed the course of history.

Sunday February 19 at 7.30pm on The History Channel

On February 19 1942, the same Japanese forces that attacked Pearl Harbor struck Darwin, dropping more bombs, killing more civilians and sinking more ships.

On the 70th anniversary of the Darwin bombing The History Channel presents an exclusive and world premiere on Australia’s first “physical contact with the war”. In examining the events of February 19 1942 we ask why the government kept the attack a dark secret and why the Australian military was totally unprepared for this major attack.

Saturday February 18 at 8.30pm on The History Channel

The story of the Marquis De Lafayette and his quest to bring democracy to America and France, told through the eyes of Sabine Renault Sabloniere, a 21st century descendant. The film traces the life and legend of this intriguing, neglected, and controversial figure, who left France at the age of 19 and fought courageously for the independence of the United States. He returns to France, risking his life to help start the French Revolution and then struggles in vain to bring democracy to his country by peaceful means. Years later, after being imprisoned for bringing freedom movements to Europe, he returns, triumphantly, for the 50th anniversary of the American Revolution – the country’s first great patriotic celebration.

Sunday February 13 at 10.30pm on The History Channel

The incredible exploits of 303 squadron might have been lost to history forever had it not been for one of the Polish pilots, Miroslav Feric. He made it compulsory for his comrades in the squadron to write an entry on a regular basis. This diary has never been fully translated into English before and is a key source of information on which the dramatised documentary is based. The film tells how initial mistrust and prejudice against the Polish pilots by RAF top brass, delays their decisive entry into the war. Shock and disbelief soon replaces any doubts, as these battle hardened pilots become the most successful squadron in the Battle of Britain.

Monday February 13 at 8.30pm on The History Channel

The European obsession with Chinese porcelain began in the 16th century and by the 18th century it was a full-blown craze that swept up kings, princes and the emerging middle classes alike. In this documentary Lars Tharp, the Antiques Roadshow expert and Chinese ceramics specialist, sets out to explore why Chinese porcelain was so valuable then – and still is now. He goes on a journey to parts of China closed to Western eyes until relatively recently. Lars travels to the mountainside from which virtually every single Chinese export vase, plate and cup began life in the 18th century – a mountain known as Mount Gaolin, from whose name we get the word kaolin, or china clay. He sees how the china clay was fused with another substance, mica that would turn it into porcelain – a secret process concealed from envious Western eyes. For a time porcelain became more valuable than gold – it was a substance so fine, so resonant and so strong that it drove Europeans mad trying to copy it.

Sunday February 12 at 6.30pm on The History Channel

The Zephyr was unlike any train seen before. Known as a “Streamliner” for its long, sleek look, and powered by a revolutionary compact diesel engine, it would cover 1,015 miles in a record 15 hours. By the 1940s, fleets of streamliners crisscrossed the country making the US passenger rail system the envy of the world. Using beautiful period footage and photographs – some of which have been held in private collections and never viewed by the public – and interviews with the men and women who rode and worked on the rails, Streamliners: America’s Lost Trains uncovers the dramatic story of the rise and fall of an American passenger rail system that was the envy of the world.

Friday, December 30 at 8.30pm on THE HISTORY CHANNEL

Meet cold war warrior Colonel Charles Spry – head of national security and intelligence, a major player in the political life of the country and a law unto himself.

From 1950 to 1970, Spry led Australia’s newly-established Intelliggence Service, ASIO. In a nuclear-charged world of spies, double agents and domino theories, he investigated hundreds of thousands of people – including the Prime Minister. Spry was particularly concerned by the Soviets and their corrupt ways of compromising those in high office. The sensational 1954 defections of Soviet Embassy officials, Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov, delivered him a great intelligence victory. But was Spry really the curse of the communists and defender of freedom and democracy? Or was he, like Hoover, guilty of the very sins he looked so hard to find in others?

Based on newly declassified information, including Spry’s secret testimony at the 1974 Royal Commission, II S , Spry unearths original ASIO surveillance footage and features candid interviews with former intelligence officers that at last reveal the true story.

Narrated by Hugo Weaving, I, Spry lifts the veil of secrecy from the man who ran Australia’s spy agency for almost 20 years – from his first fumbling counter-espionage operations to the agency’s evolution beyond government scrutiny and its its ultimate infiltration by the KGB ultimate infiltration by the KGB.