Bettany Hughes

Bettany travels across three continents following in the footsteps of ancient warriors, pilgrims, emperors and tourists as she visits each of the world's seven wonders, including the Great Pyramid of Giza, The Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.

Professor, seasoned adventurer, author and historian Bettany Hughes - with local experts and academics - guides viewers through her curated selection of the treasures of India

A forensic dig into history's most enduring mysteries. In Voices of the Dead, Professor Bettany Hughes leads a forensic investigation into some of the most enduring mysteries of the ancient world and brings viewers face-to-face with the extraordinary people of the past she unearths along the way.

Bettany Hughes is on the journey of a lifetime through France and Italy to discover how travel, the arts and culture, the finest foods, can enrich our lives.

Bettany Hughes take viewers on armchair travels to explore household-name treasures and new finds from across the world.

The historian and classicist explores Greece from the time of the Ancients up to the present day.

The historian and classicist explores Greece from the time of the Ancients up to the present day.

Historian and author Bettany Hughes, reveals spectacular monuments from her December 2019 trip to explore to ancient Egypt and Italy. Throughout this series Prof. Hughes will uncover the secrets of Cleoptra, The riches of the Pharaos, King Tut, Egyptian Mummies, Pompeii, and much, much more.

Historian and author Bettany Hughes, reveals spectacular monuments from her December 2019 trip to explore to ancient Egypt.

Join historian Bettany Hughes as she embarks on a journey along the Nile's 900 miles to uncover how it shaped Egypt. From the pyramids to the pharaohs, discover the fascinating history and culture of Egypt's Great River.

Exploring life in Pompeii during the final days of the doomed city.

Eight Days That Made Rome is a docu-drama that leaves behind the conventional chronologies of Rome's thousand-year history and brings razor-sharp focus to eight days that created, tested and defined its greatness. Each programme works as a stand-alone, as strong in its own right as part of a series and reveals a Rome relevant to us today, with its noblest and darkest instincts still resonating in the world around us. On-screen presenter Bettany Hughes discovers the significance and resonance of these Eight Days along with us, the viewer, as she explores key sites in Rome's empire and meets expert witnesses on subjects ranging from psychopathy to ancient religion.

Historian Bettany Hughes retraces the lives of three great thinkers whose ideas shaped the modern world: Karl Marx, Frederick Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Born in the 19th century, they lived through a time when old certainties were breaking down. Regimes were overthrown by mass uprisings, science was undermining religious authority. Their challenge was to figure out what makes us human in a fast-evolving world.

National Geographic's landmark event series, The Greeks, brings together historians, archaeologists, actors, athletes, scientists and artists to launch a groundbreaking exploration into the ancient Greeks' journey - not just to better understand their past, but to discover how their legacy illuminates our present, and will shape our future. The story of the Greeks is the story of us.

Historian Bettany Hughes travels to India, Greece and China on the trail of three giants of ancient philosophy - Buddha, Socrates and Confucius.

The show picks up where HISTORY's long running Ancient Discoveries left off. In this next generation of storytelling, Ancient Impossible reveals how many of today's technological achievements were actually developed centuries ago. Colossal monuments, impossible feats of engineering and technologies so precise they defy reinvention-the ancient world was far more advanced than we ever imagined. We'll travel through history to reveal a radically different picture of the past, with innovations so far ahead of their time, they're still in use today. New science uncovers a lost world more like our own than we ever suspected, and reveals how modern technology has its blueprint in the ancient world.

Secrets From The Sky takes a look at some of the country's most historic landmarks and glorious landscapes from a bird's eye view in the sky. The show uses an octocopter, a remote controlled helicopter carrying a camera, as Bettany Hughes and Ben Robinson look down on sites of great historical interest to offer a brand new perspective about our ancestors.

This series reveals the remarkable stories behind 50 of the UK's most secret and surprising homes. The five one-hour programmes, made in partnership with English Heritage, are presented by two award-winning broadcasters - journalist, Michael Buerk and historian and author Bettany Hughes.

Britain's Secret Treasures is a British documentary shown on ITV1 hosted by Michael Buerk and Bettany Hughes. The programme features fifty archaeological discoveries that have been made in England, Wales and Scotland by members of the public. With the exception of a single find made in Scotland, all the objects featured were recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). Since the PAS was set up in 1997, some 800,000 objects have been registered with the scheme, many of them discovered by amateur metal detectorists.

Bettany Hughes sets out on an epic journey across continents and back in time to trace the hidden and often controversial history of women in religion

This six-part series tells the story of the birth and flourishing of civilisation in the Middle East and its huge influence on the West. From the foundation of science, monotheism, commerce, justice, civil rights and artistic expression - look Eastward. The series contends that history that starts from an ancient Greek perspective distorts the true path of civilisation. For crucial phases in world history, the political, economic and cultural centre was the Middle East.

For several centuries, immediately after the time of Christ, the people of Britain found themselves if not the slaves then certainly the servants of one of the mightiest empires the world has ever seen - the empire of Rome. In this three-part series every phase in the long history of Roman Britain will be looked at. We will chart the way in which the Roman conquerors interacted with the native inhabitants of the land they called 'Britannia' and find out who gained most from the Roman occupation - us or them?

"The Glorious Rise and Mysterious Fall of Europe's First Civilization" is a captivating TV show that explores the history of the Minoan civilization on Crete, unraveling the mysteries behind its impressive architectural feats, intriguing cultural practices, and ultimate demise, through the lens of renowned archaeologists and historians.

Historian Bettany Hughes gives her personal take on the diverse cultures of the ancient world in this documentary series

The Spartans chronicles the rise and fall of one of the most extreme civilizations the world has ever seen, a civilization that was founded on discipline, sacrifice and frugality, where the onus was on the collective and the goal was to create the perfect state and the perfect warrior. Classical historian Bettany Hughes reveals the secrets and complexities of everyday Spartan life: homosexuality was compulsory, money was outlawed, equality was enforced, weak boys were put to death and women enjoyed a level of social and sexual freedom that was unheard of in the ancient world. After decades of war with Athens, Sparta finally emerged victorious as the most powerful city-state in Greece and an imperial power. But a collapsing birth rate, too few warriors, rebellious slaves and outdated attitudes to weaponry and warfare combined to sow the seeds of Sparta's destruction, until eventually the once-great warrior state was reduced to a destination for Roman tourists who came to view the bizarre sado-masochistic rituals.