Browse - Most popular history shows

Set in Japan in the year 1600, at the dawn of a century-defining civil war, Lord Yoshii Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village. Its English pilot, John Blackthorne, comes bearing secrets that could help Toranaga tip the scales of power and devastate the formidable influence of Blackthorne's own enemies - the Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants. Toranaga's and Blackthorne's fates become inextricably tied to their translator, Toda Mariko, a mysterious Christian noblewoman and the last of a disgraced line. While serving her lord amidst this fraught political landscape, Mariko must reconcile her newfound companionship with Blackthorne, her commitment to the faith that saved her and her duty to her late father.

VIKINGS follows the adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok, an actual historical figure, and the greatest hero of his age. The series tells the gripping sagas of Ragnar's band of Viking brothers and his family, as he rises to become King of the Viking tribes.

This TV series focuses on the Shelby family, whose many brothers and sisters, cousins and uncles, make up the fiercest gang of all, the "Peaky Blinders". Named for their practice of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, the Peaky Blinders make their money from off-track betting, protection and robbery.

Set to follow a new generation of Duttons in the Great Depression.

The show spans the genres of romance, science fiction, history, and adventure. It follows Claire, a married WWII combat nurse, who mistakenly steps back in time to year 1743 where she is immediately thrown into an unknown world of adventure that sends her on the run and threatens her life.

Chernobyl is a tale of lies and cowardice, of courage and conviction, of human failure and human nobility. The five-part mini-series focuses on the heart-breaking scale of the nuclear plant disaster that occurred in Ukraine in April 1986, revealing how and why it happened, and telling the shocking, remarkable stories of the heroes who risked their lives to save others.

A drama charting Elizabeth the second's ascension to the throne and the political climate at the time.

Set in 1813, this show follows Tom Hardy's James Keziah Delaney who returns from Africa with 14 ill-gotten diamonds and seeking to avenge his father's death. Refusing to sell the family business to the East India Company, he sets out to build his own trade and shipping empire and finds himself playing a dangerous game with two warring nations, Britain and America.

This eight-episode, hourlong historical drama series is adapted from Bernard Cornwell's best-selling novels, The Saxon Stories by writer Stephen Butchard.

Follow-up series to 'Vikings' set 100 years afterward and centering on the adventures of Leif Erikson, Freydis, Harald Harada and the Norman King William the Conqueror.

Set up as a twenty-year prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic book Treasure Island, Black Sails will follow the adventures of cutthroat corsair Captain Flint and his crew of brutal buccaneers, whose plundering ways have led them to the brink of extinction.

Prolific award-winning producer Ryan Murphy, whose American Horror Story franchise invented the anthology miniseries format, has come up with his next entry - a companion anthology focused each season on a different true crime story which made headlines and captivated the imagination of the public.

Set against the backdrop of San Francisco's Chinatown in the aftermath of the Civil War, "Warrior" tells the story of a young martial arts prodigy, newly arrived from China, who finds himself caught up in the bloody Chinatown Tong wars.

Starz is set to bring gladiators to the small screen with "Spartacus" from executive producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Joshua Donen.

The Great is a genre bending, anti-historical ride through 18th Century Russia following the wildly comic rise of Catherine the Nothing to Catherine the Great.

The series chronicles the life and times of Nucky Thompson, the undisputed ruler of Atlantic City, who was equal parts politician and gangster.

Those About to Die is a large-scale drama set within the spectacular, complex, and corrupt world of gladiatorial sports in Ancient Rome. The series introduces an ensemble of diverse characters across the many layers of Roman society where sports, politics, and business intersect and collide. The large scale Ancient Rome gladiatorial epic is inspired by the nonfiction classic from acclaimed author Daniel Mannix.

Downton Abbey is an ITV drama set in 1912 about the Crawley household. It is written by Julian Fellowes and stars Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, and Elizabeth McGovern.

This is a drama based on Dan Simmons's 2007 best-selling novel set in 1847 when the crew of a Royal Naval expedition to find the Arctic's treacherous Northwest Passage discovers instead a monstrous predator.

A prequel to the popular series Spartacus: Blood and Sand is currently in the works. It shows the rise of the House of Batiatus and its champions before Spartacus entered the picture.

Marco Polo, the legendary pioneer and explorer from the 13th century, has his tale told in an epic new scripted original series.

"Rome" is the saga of two ordinary Roman soldiers and their families. An intimate drama of love and betrayal, masters and slaves, and husbands and wives, it chronicles epic times that saw the fall of a republic and the creation of an empire.

A historical fantasy series that tells the story of the great genius in his youth. Join a twenty five-year old Da Vinci as he takes on Renaissance Florence, with a life full of art, invention, sword fights, love and excitement. Can this extraordinary genius live in a world full of confines?

The rise and love life of a young Queen Charlotte.

Knightfall chronicles the mysterious but true accounts of the Knights Templar, the elite warriors of the Crusades. It delves into the great secrets protected by the Templars and tells the story of faith, loyalty and brotherhood that help sustain these warriors on the battlefield, and the dark events that would forever sear the infamous date of Friday the 13th into the world's psyche.