Explore every episode of the podcast Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things

How did a builder's lamp, a velvet curtain and a tea break nearly destroy 900 years of royal history?

On 20 November 1992, fire broke out at Windsor Castle, turning one of Britain's greatest royal landmarks into an inferno. It was Queen Elizabeth II's 45th wedding anniversary, and the latest catastrophe in a year she would famously describe as her annus horribilis.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams revisit the extraordinary events of that day, from the frantic rescue of priceless paintings and royal treasures to the Queen's arrival at the burning castle. Robert also reveals what Prince Philip told him about the disaster and how the fire spread through Windsor's ancient rooms and hidden passageways.

But the flames were only the beginning. As the damage mounted, so did public fury. Why should taxpayers foot the bill for repairing the home of one of the world's wealthiest families? With royal popularity already in freefall, the fire threatened to become a constitutional and public relations disaster.

And then came the extraordinary rebuilding project, complete with proposals for a wave machine, a glass roof and even an eternal flame.

From a royal inferno to a remarkable restoration, this is the story of how Windsor Castle nearly went up in smoke.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Queen Victoria: Scandal, and a Funeral Fiasco.

What happens when the most powerful Queen in the world dies and even her funeral doesn't go according to plan?

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams bring their Queen Victoria story to a close, with a monarch who has become a global icon, an empire at the height of its power and a Royal Household still finding plenty to be scandalised about.

There's a new favourite at court: Abdul Karim, the young Indian servant who becomes Victoria's trusted companion and teacher, to the fury of her family and courtiers. Meanwhile, her wayward son Bertie is still waiting impatiently for the throne, and the Queen is enjoying the adoration of a nation celebrating her Diamond Jubilee.

But in January 1901, after more than 63 years on the throne, Victoria finally dies. The news sends shockwaves around the world and triggers a royal funeral of extraordinary proportions, complete with runaway horses, a furious new King and an astonishing gatecrasher at the graveside.

From the Queen's unlikely friendships to the extraordinary blunders of her final farewell, Robert and Kate explore the end of the Victorian age and the remarkable legacy of a woman who opposed votes for women but became an inspiration to the suffragettes

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Did Queen Victoria find love again and become more powerful than ever?

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the extraordinary second act of Victoria’s reign: a story of grief, scandal, royal gossip and an unlikely new man in the Queen’s life.

After the death of her beloved Prince Albert, the 42-year-old Victoria retreats into mourning and largely disappears from public view. Her popularity plummets, republican sentiment grows and then along comes John Brown, the blunt Highland servant who becomes one of her closest companions. Their intense friendship sets tongues wagging, infuriates the Royal Family and earns Victoria the nickname “Mrs Brown”.

But the Widow of Windsor is far from finished. There’s an assassination attempt, the recovery of her wayward son Bertie, the spectacular flattery of Benjamin Disraeli and, in 1876, an imposing new title: Empress of India.

By her Golden Jubilee, the Queen who had virtually vanished from public life had transformed herself into an imperial matriarch at the centre of a global empire.

So what brought Victoria back ... John Brown, Disraeli, or the Queen’s own formidable instinct for survival?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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A passionate marriage. Nine children. Assassination attempts, and the monarchy is threatened with a scandal.

In the second part of our deep dive into Queen Victoria, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore Victoria as wife, mother, monarch and increasingly formidable stateswoman.

Her marriage to Prince Albert begins as an intense love affair, but behind the carefully cultivated image of domestic bliss lies a more complicated struggle over who really holds power. As Victoria endures pregnancy after pregnancy, Albert carves out an increasingly influential role beside her, while together they reshape the monarchy and create the intimate royal getaways of Osborne House and Balmoral Castle.

Victoria survives multiple assassinations, embraces the new and controversial use of chloroform in childbirth and begins using her growing family to forge dynastic links across Europe.

But trouble is brewing much closer to home. Her wayward heir, Bertie, is caught up in a potentially explosive affair, and when an already ailing Albert intervenes, events culminate in his sudden death at just 42.

Victoria is left a widow, a mother of nine and a Queen devastated by grief. And she knows exactly who she blames.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Queen Victoria would give her name to an age, but she was never really supposed to be Queen at all.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams go back to the chaotic royal family of George III and the unexpected death that triggered a desperate race to produce an heir, a contest that eventually produced the baby Alexandrina Victoria.

Her childhood at Kensington Palace was anything but happy. Controlled by her mother and the domineering John Conroy, Victoria was rarely allowed to be alone, couldn't even walk downstairs without someone holding her hand and grew up knowing that others expected to rule through her.

Then, just weeks after her 18th birthday, two men arrived at Kensington Palace with the news that changed everything: William IV was dead, and Victoria was Queen. Her first requests? An hour completely alone – and to have her bed moved out of her mother's room.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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An unusual Royal connection to the Nuremberg Trials that prosecuted members of the Nazi leadership.

Eighty years after the trials, we know the names of the Nazi leaders in the dock and the MEN who prosecuted them. But what about the extraordinary women who helped bring them to justice?

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams are joined by Natalie Livingstone, author of The Nuremberg Women, to uncover the forgotten female stories behind one of the defining legal events of the 20th century.

One of these women was Countess Ingeborg Kálnoky, an aristocratic refugee with links to today’s Royal Family, who found herself running an extraordinary 'witness house' where Holocaust survivors lived under the same roof as members of Hitler’s inner circle as they waited to give evidence at the trials.

Above all, there is Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, the French Resistance fighter who survived Auschwitz and Ravensbrück before confronting the Nazi leadership at Nuremberg with an unforgettable eyewitness account of the horrors she had witnessed.

From castles and courtrooms to concentration camps, this is the remarkable story of the women who witnessed history, helped make history, and were then too often written out of it.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Grace Kelly had it all: beauty, an Oscar, Hollywood stardom and a glittering career ahead of her. Then she married a prince.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams revisit one of the great celebrity fairy tales of the 20th century: the marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco. But behind the wedding-of-the-century photographs lay a rather more complicated story.

From Grace’s battles to make it in the decidedly sleazy world of 1950s Hollywood to an extraordinary royal courtship – involving Aristotle Onassis, Marilyn Monroe and even a young JFK – they explore how an American movie star found herself transformed into a European princess.

There was also a price. Grace was required to give up acting, provide a $2 million dowry and even undergo a fertility test before the marriage could go ahead. Yet the woman who surrendered her Hollywood career would ultimately transform Monaco itself, bringing glamour, money and international respectability to the tiny principality.

So was Grace Kelly’s marriage really the fairy tale the world was sold or did becoming a princess cost her far more than anyone realised?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most famous works of art in the world: nearly 70 metres of kings, battles, betrayals and bloodshed. But how much of the story it tells can we actually believe?

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams unravel the extraordinary 11th-century embroidery that turned the Norman Conquest into a medieval propaganda epic. Who commissioned it? Why was it probably made by English women? And did Harold really die with an arrow in his eye?

There are mysteries in the margins too, including the enigmatic Aelfgifu, Halley’s Comet and a surprisingly large number of naked men.

And then there’s the remarkable survival of the tapestry itself. From revolutionaries who nearly used it as a wagon cover to Napoleon and the Nazis, it has repeatedly come within a whisker of disappearing altogether.

Nearly a thousand years after the Battle of Hastings, what can the Bayeux Tapestry really tell us about 1066, and about the people who wanted history to remember their version of it?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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We’ve had the Boleyn girls. Now meet the Aragon girls: two sisters born into perhaps the most powerful royal family in Europe, whose lives would take very different but equally extraordinary turns.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams head to Renaissance Spain to meet their formidable mother, Isabella of Castile: warrior queen, patron of Christopher Columbus and, with Ferdinand of Aragon, architect of a new Spanish superpower.

Her youngest daughter Catherine would become Henry VIII’s first wife, an educated, politically astute queen who proved considerably harder to get rid of than Henry expected. But Catherine’s elder sister Joanna faced an even darker fate. Married to Philip the Handsome and heir to Castile, she was declared insane and shut away while first her husband, then her father and finally her own son ruled in her place.

So was “Joanna the Mad” really mad at all? Or was one of Europe’s most powerful women simply the victim of the men who wanted her throne?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Wives, bloodshed, war: the end is approaching for Henry VIII, but England’s most notorious king is not going quietly.

In the final part of our epic journey through Henry’s life, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams meet his doomed fifth wife, Catherine Howard, and discover how a convenient change in the law helped send another queen to the scaffold.

Then comes wife number six: the clever, glamorous Catherine Parr, who proves more than capable of managing the increasingly ill-tempered king, but still comes perilously close to becoming wife number three to lose her head.

There’s war with Scotland, another invasion of France and catastrophe at sea as Henry watches his beloved Mary Rose sink before his eyes.

So, as the curtain finally comes down on Henry VIII, what are we left with: Renaissance prince, murderous tyrant or a king whose desperate obsession with producing a son changed England forever?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Henry VIII finally has his longed-for son. So why isn't he happy?

Continuing our Tudor season, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore one of the most dramatic chapters of Henry's reign. Within days of Anne Boleyn's execution, he's married Jane Seymour. At last, the Tudor dynasty has its male heir, but the triumph is heartbreakingly short-lived.

Then comes Henry's next great gamble: the disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves, the humiliating first meeting that became the stuff of legend, and the spectacular downfall of Thomas Cromwell. Along the way, discover why the Dissolution of the Monasteries transformed England forever, how Henry's relentless pursuit of power reshaped the nation, and why his search for the perfect wife was becoming ever more desperate.

By the end, another teenage bride is waiting in the wings, and Henry VIII's most tyrannical years are only just beginning.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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He broke with Rome. He defied the Pope. He turned England upside down to marry Anne Boleyn. Just three years later... he sent her to the executioner's block.

In this gripping third episode of our Henry VIII series, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams unravel the extraordinary rise and devastating fall of England's most fascinating queen, Anne Boleyn.

From the birth of the future Elizabeth I and the execution of Sir Thomas More to Henry's wandering eye, Anne's disastrous miscarriages and the ruthless conspiracy that sealed her fate, this is one of history's greatest political thrillers.

Was Anne really guilty of adultery and treason? Or was she simply the victim of a king who had already decided she had to die? Join us as we explore the evidence behind one of the most shocking Royal stories in British history.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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One king. One controversial romance. One decision that would change England forever.

In the second episode of our Henry VIII series, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams chart the extraordinary rise of Anne Boleyn, the brilliant, charismatic courtier who refused to become the king's mistress and instead demanded a crown.

As Henry's obsession deepens, Catherine of Aragon fights to save her marriage, Cardinal Wolsey's world begins to collapse, and England edges towards an unprecedented break with Rome. Was this really a love story? Or was Anne Boleyn simply the catalyst for a revolution Henry had already begun to imagine?

From glittering Tudor pageantry and secret courtship to political intrigue, religious upheaval and one of history's most consequential marriages, discover how the pursuit of one woman transformed the English monarchy forever.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Six wives. Beheadings. A tyrant on the throne. You think you know Henry VIII... but that's not where this story begins.

In the first episode of our Tudor season, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams go back to the making of England's most infamous king. Discover why Henry was never supposed to wear the crown, how the death of his older brother changed history forever, and why Catherine of Aragon may have been the greatest queen England never truly appreciated.

From the glittering Tudor court and the spectacular Field of the Cloth of Gold to the tragedy that shaped a dynasty, this is the untold story of the young Renaissance prince, long before Anne Boleyn, the break with Rome and the bloody legend of Henry VIII.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Kidnapped, blindfolded, locked in a cupboard for weeks and then caught on camera during a bank robbery.

In the second part of our look at America's closest thing to a royal dynasty, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams unravel the astonishing story of Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress whose abduction by a revolutionary gang became one of the most sensational crimes of the twentieth century.

Was she brainwashed into joining her captors? Or did she willingly cross the line from victim to outlaw? From ransom demands and armed robberies to one of America's most controversial trials, this is a story that still divides opinion today.

And, in an extraordinary twist worthy of Hollywood, discover how the woman once branded a terrorist ended up years later as an unlikely dinner guest of the future King Charles III.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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America's newspaper magnate who built himself a palace worthy of a king!

In this episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the extraordinary world of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper titan whose vast fortune, political ambition and spectacular California castle earned him a reputation as America's uncrowned monarch.

At the heart of the story is Hearst's lifelong relationship with actress Marion Davies. Was she simply the glamorous mistress history remembers, or a gifted Hollywood star unfairly overshadowed by the man who loved her? Together they created a glittering world of movie stars, priceless art, lavish parties and one of the most astonishing private homes ever built.

Discover how Hearst Castle became a playground for the rich and famous, why Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin were among its guests, how Citizen Kane transformed Hearst into one of cinema's greatest villains, and why the real Marion Davies deserves a far kinder verdict than history has often given her.

A story of immense wealth, irresistible ambition, Hollywood glamour and heartbreaking loyalty.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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What do Royals and hot dogs have in common?

Both are part of the most remarkable diplomatic relationships in modern history.

In this special Independence Day episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams mark America's 250th birthday by exploring the often surprising story of the relationship between the British monarchy and the United States.

From King George VI's triumphant pre-war tour of America and Princess Elizabeth's wartime broadcasts, to JFK and Jackie at Buckingham Palace, Ronald Reagan riding through Windsor Great Park, and the extraordinary role played by Queen Elizabeth II in managing relations with fourteen American presidents, this is a story of diplomacy, personality and history on both sides of the Atlantic.

Along the way, discover how a royal hot dog helped win American hearts, why Jacqueline Bouvier found herself covering the Coronation before she became Jackie Kennedy, how a recipe for royal scones reached the White House, and what really happens when presidents and monarchs meet behind closed doors.

A tale of friendship, politics, pageantry and personalities that stretches from the American Revolution to the celebrations of today. 🇺🇸🇬🇧

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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A wonderfully strange-but-true episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things with Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams.

From a mysterious sighting over Lord Mountbatten's estate at Broadlands to Prince Philip's fascination with UFO reports, the story takes in royal astronomers, Victorian visions of life on other worlds, Cromwell-era plans for a gunpowder-powered "space chariot", and the curious tale of an alleged extraterrestrial named Janus who reportedly wanted an audience with the Duke of Edinburgh.

Along the way, discover how George III became one of Britain's most enthusiastic royal stargazers, why Queen Elizabeth II left a message on the Moon, and how the modern monarchy found itself connected to everything from the Space Race to concerns about space junk.

Part history, part science, part mystery and just a little bit Mulder and Scully, this is a journey through the royal family's surprisingly close encounters with the final frontier.

The truth may be out there. 🚀👽🌙

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Secrets hidden behind the walls of one of England's greatest country houses!

In this special episode, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams step inside Badminton House with its chatelaine, the Duchess of Beaufort, to uncover the extraordinary royal and historical stories that lie beyond the immaculate lawns.

Spoiler alert: Prince Harry once demonstrated some very poor judgment after a party there.

The episode explores Badminton's long royal connections. Hear how Queen Mary spent the Second World War at the house, reportedly waging war on the estate's ivy, how a secret floor was discovered hidden within the building, and how the sport of badminton itself was born under its roof.

Along the way, the Duchess reveals what it's really like to live in a house that welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a year, hosts one of Europe's great sporting events, and is now opening its gardens to a new generation through the RHS Badminton Flower Show.

A story of queens, duchesses, gardeners, hidden rooms and English eccentricity, proving that some of the most fascinating chapters in royal history are growing quietly behind the garden wall.

Guest: Georgia, Duchess of Beaufort

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Love and death: Queen Cleopatra, Mark Antony, and the truth about that asp.

In this second episode on Cleopatra, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams follow the Egyptian queen through the final and most famous chapter of her life.

After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra found herself navigating a dangerous new world of Roman power struggles. Her alliance with Mark Antony would become one of history's most celebrated love stories, but was it really a great romance, or a brilliant political partnership designed to protect Egypt's independence?

We explore Antony and Cleopatra's extraordinary relationship, from their first meeting aboard her spectacular royal barge to the growing conflict with Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus. As Rome descended into civil war, the fate of Egypt hung in the balance.

The story culminates in the dramatic events surrounding the Battle of Actium, the fall of Alexandria, and Cleopatra's death. Did she really take her own life using a deadly asp, as legend claims? Or has one of history's most enduring stories obscured a more complicated truth?

Along the way, Robert and Kate separate fact from fiction, exploring the real Cleopatra behind the myths of beauty, seduction, and snakes.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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The Queen who captivated Rome and changed the course of ancient history: Cleopatra.

In this episode, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams begin a two-part exploration of Cleopatra, separating the woman from the myth, and tracing her rise in one of history’s most dangerous political worlds.

Born into the turbulent Ptolemaic dynasty, Cleopatra inherited a kingdom rich in power but riddled with family betrayal, Roman interference, and brutal succession struggles. Forced into exile by her younger brother, she faced a stark choice: disappear from history or outmanoeuvre the most powerful men in the world.

The episode follows her first encounters with Rome, and her pivotal alliance with Julius Caesar. Along the way, it revisits some of the most famous stories ever told about Cleopatra, including the legendary 'carpet' meeting and asks how much of her reputation was shaped by hostile Roman propaganda rather than fact.

From palace intrigue and dynastic murder to Caesar’s assassination and the uncertain future of her son Caesarion, this is the opening chapter in the story of a ruler who has been mythologised for two thousand years but whose real political brilliance may be even more remarkable than the legend.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Celebrating the extraordinary Roman legacy that continues to shape Britain.

In this episode, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the final centuries of Roman Britain, from the construction of Hadrian’s (Game of Thrones style) Wall to the collapse of imperial control in AD 410.

As Roman rule matured, Britain became one of the empire’s most important frontier provinces. Emperors came in person, vast engineering projects reshaped the landscape, and Roman military life became embedded in British soil. The episode visits Hadrian’s Wall, the frontier fort of Vindolanda, and Roman York, where emperors ruled, died, and made history.

But beyond the frontier, pressure never ceased. Northern tribes remained resistant, overseas raiders sensed weakness, and Rome itself came under increasing attack. As the empire began to fracture, Britain’s garrisons were gradually withdrawn, leaving the province exposed.

From birthday invitations written by Roman women in Northumberland to the moment Britain was effectively told to fend for itself, this is the story of how Roman Britain reached its height and how one of history’s greatest empires finally let it go.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Celebrating Britain’s warrior queen who led a revolt against Rome.

In this episode, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams examine the uprising of Boudicca in AD 60–61 — why it began, how it unfolded, and what it reveals about life under Roman rule.

After the death of her husband, the Romans annexed his kingdom, publicly flogged Boudicca, and assaulted her daughters. In response, she united several tribes in eastern Britain and launched a coordinated revolt.

The rebels destroyed key Roman centres, including Colchester, London, and St Albans, killing thousands of settlers and forcing Rome into a rapid military response. The episode traces the campaign from its origins through to its decisive confrontation with Roman forces, and considers how close the revolt came to ending Roman control in Britain.

Set against the unstable reign of Nero, this is an account of one of the most significant challenges Rome faced in Britain — and the magnificent woman who led it.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

'Boudicca Rap' by Matilda Hardman

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Did Julius Caesar really conquer Britain — or did he simply say he did?

In this opening chapter of our Romans in Britain trilogy, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams step back to the edge of the known world: Iron Age Britain. A land of tribal rivalries, painted warriors, and swirling myths — and, to Roman eyes, a place as strange and distant as the moon.

Twice, Caesar crossed the Channel in search of glory. Twice, he faced treacherous tides, reluctant troops, and fierce resistance. The result? No lasting occupation, no firm control — and yet, back in Rome, celebrations, triumphs, and headlines proclaiming victory.

So what really happened on those windswept shores? Was Britain ever truly “conquered” by Caesar — or was it one of history’s earliest and most effective pieces of political theatre?

With elephants, chariots, and a healthy dose of Roman propaganda, this episode asks a simple question with a surprisingly slippery answer:did Caesar win Britain?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Henry VIII’s fifth wife - was she a reckless flirt or a tragic pawn in Tudor history?

In this episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Professor Kate Williams is joined by the brilliant historian Professor Suzannah Lipscomb to unravel one of Tudor history’s most debated figures. Was Catherine a naïve teenager caught up in deadly court politics, or a young woman who made all the wrong choices?

From her chaotic upbringing in a crowded aristocratic household to her sudden elevation as queen at just 17 or 18, this episode explores the relationships that shaped her — and the rumours that would ultimately destroy her. Along the way, we step inside the glittering, perilous world of Henry VIII’s court, where favour could turn to fatal suspicion in an instant.

With insight, wit, and a touch of dark Tudor irony, this is a gripping re-examination of an English queen.

Victim or vixen? Or something far more complicated?

Host: Professor Kate Williams

Guest: Professor Suzannah Lipscomb

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Frogs, foxes, fossils—and four generations of royalty.

In part two of this special celebration, we continue our exploration of the remarkable parallel lives of Queen Elizabeth II and Sir David Attenborough—two figures born just weeks apart in 1926 who went on to shape how we see the modern world.

From wartime childhoods to global influence, we trace how both became defining voices of the 20th and 21st centuries: one through monarchy, the other through the lens of a camera. Along the way, we uncover surprising connections—shared beginnings in 1952, a mutual passion for the natural world, and a quiet but powerful influence on generations of royals, from Prince Philip to King Charles III and beyond.

There are stories of early wildlife filmmaking, royal expeditions, and the radical beginnings of conservation—long before it was fashionable. Plus, a glimpse of the man behind the legend: Attenborough the colleague, the traveller, the reluctant celebrity who chose economy class over first.

By the end, what emerges is something more than coincidence: two lives moving in parallel across a century of change, united by curiosity, duty, and an enduring belief that small actions can shape a much bigger world.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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What do Queen Elizabeth II and Sir David Attenborough have in common?

More than you might imagine.

In this third episode, celebrating the Centenary of Queen Elizabeth, we explore the remarkable parallel lives of two icons born just weeks apart in 1926 — figures who would go on to shape not just Britain, but the very way we see the world. One inherited a throne; the other helped invent television as we know it.

So, it’s a big happy centenary birthday to Sir David, who’s still going strong, and a remembrance of how those 100 years shaped and were shaped by two extraordinary people.

From wartime broadcasts to the birth of colour TV, from Buckingham Palace to the farthest corners of the natural world, their stories intertwine in surprising ways. Along the journey, we uncover Attenborough’s unlikely rise (his family never owned a TV set), his clashes with royal thinking, and his quiet influence behind the scenes — including his role in shaping how the monarchy presented itself on screen.

A witty, insightful look at two national treasures.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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What made Queen Elizabeth II smile?

In this special centenary episode, we look back at some of the happiest moments in the life of Queen Elizabeth II — the flashes of humour, the unexpected freedoms, and the small, human pleasures behind the crown.

Rather than the grand set-pieces of state, we focus on something more elusive: what actually made her smile. From dancing anonymously into the crowds on VE Day, to the rare, almost ordinary happiness of life in Malta as a young naval wife, these are the moments when the future queen stepped briefly outside the constraints of her role.

We revisit the Balmoral barbecues, where guests found themselves quietly astonished to see the monarch doing the washing up — and the curious aftermath of a gifted pair of yellow rubber gloves. We explore her lifelong love of animals, the joy she took in horses and racing, and the particular satisfaction of seeing her daughter succeed in the saddle.

There are glimpses, too, of her connection to a wider world: wartime memories that stayed with her for life, encounters that carried emotional weight long after the cameras had gone, and the enduring appeal of simple routines — driving, walking, small domestic rituals — that offered a sense of normality within an extraordinary existence.

Along the way, we ask a deceptively simple question: in a life so defined by duty, where did happiness really reside?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s life - her character, the scary look she gave those who displeased her, and what President Trump really thought about her majesty. It’s a packed first episode of a mini series of exclusive revelations.

Journalist and historian Robert Hardman opens up to Professor Kate Williams about his research and private recollections as a royal reporter, in celebration of her 100th anniversary. From the Queen’s unshowy political skill to her stoic sense of duty, this episode paints a vivid picture of a monarch who kept working to the very end. Along the way, there are striking glimpses of royal life that feel by turns funny, startling and deeply moving: the alarming account of Prince Andrew (as he then was) and his altercation with a senior member of the royal household; Donald Trump fussing over exactly where to hang a portrait of the Queen at Mar-a-Lago; and the extraordinary image of Elizabeth II still dealing with state papers and official business in the last days of her life.

The conversation also ranges across her wartime years, her relationships with prime ministers, her ability to deflate overblown personalities with a single look, and the immense pressures she absorbed during the final years of her reign during the Harry & Megan debarkle. The result is a portrait not just of a symbol, but of a working sovereign: pragmatic, disciplined, funny, devout, and, in Robert’s telling, much more politically astute than she was ever given credit for.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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When you receive more than twenty-six proposals from Europe’s most powerful men, why should you refuse them all?

In this final episode of our trilogy on Elizabeth I, we step into the most personal — and most politically dangerous — question of her reign: marriage. From the moment she becomes queen, Elizabeth is treated as a prize. Kings, princes and emperors line up to claim her, each proposal promising alliance and stability.

At the centre of it all stands Robert Dudley: not a king, nor even a prince, but the man Elizabeth trusts most. Their closeness is undeniable. Yet when Dudley’s wife is found dead at the bottom of a staircase, everything changes. Suspicion, scandal and political fear close the door on the one match that might have been possible.

From there, the suitors keep coming. Philip of Spain lingers in the background. Eric of Sweden writes devoted letters. Archduke Charles offers power and heirs. And finally, the Duke of Anjou arrives in person — young, charming, and bearing gifts, including the famous frog-shaped earrings that delight the queen. For a moment, it seems Elizabeth might finally choose.

But every option carries risk. Marriage could mean losing control of her kingdom. A husband might claim authority. A child might replace her. Around her, advisors push, Parliament demands, and the shadow of Mary, Queen of Scots looms ever larger.

As the years pass, the question shifts. It is no longer who Elizabeth will marry — but whether she ever intended to marry at all.

And as we follow her story to its final days — her long decline, her refusal even to lie down, and the quiet gesture that signals her successor — we see the ultimate consequence of that decision.

No husband. No heir. Just a legacy powerful enough to outlast them all.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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When the most powerful empire in Europe sends an Armada to invade your country, what do you do?

In this episode of our trilogy on Elizabeth I, we reach the moment everyone associates with England’s most famous queen: the looming threat of the Spanish Armada. But the great showdown of 1588 did not arrive out of nowhere. It was the result of years of political intrigue, espionage, religious tension — and a dangerous rivalry with Philip II of Spain.

Along the way we meet the other woman whose shadow hung over Elizabeth’s reign: Mary, Queen of Scots. Was she a genuine threat to the English throne, or a prisoner whose existence fuelled a web of plots and paranoia? From the murky world of spies and codebreakers to the dramatic fallout of the Babington Plot, Elizabeth’s government was constantly balancing mercy, survival and ruthless political calculation.

Then comes the crisis that would define the age. As Spain’s vast armada sails towards England, Elizabeth faces the greatest challenge of her reign — and delivers the famous rallying cry at Tilbury, declaring that though she has the body of a “weak and feeble woman”, she has the heart and stomach of a king.

The defeat of the Armada would become one of the most powerful myths in English history. Yet as we discover, the reality was far messier — with further armadas, failed invasions, and an emerging English maritime power that would shape the world in ways both triumphant and troubling.

Next time: the Virgin Queen’s most personal battlefield — her love life, her suitors, and the political game of marriage that defined the rest of her reign.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She was born a princess and declared a bastard before she could walk.

In this episode, we go back to the beginning of Elizabeth I: a child of extraordinary promise, born into splendour, then cast into uncertainty by the fall of her mother, Anne Boleyn. Courtly favour turned to suspicion. Affection turned to danger. And survival became a skill learned early.

From the shadow of Henry VIII’s volatile court to the careful education that shaped her formidable intellect, this is the story of a girl navigating power long before she wore a crown. Stepmothers rose and fell. Brothers and sisters shifted in rank and religion. Every alliance mattered. Every silence mattered more.

This is the first of three deep dives into the Virgin Queen, beginning with the precarious childhood that forged one of history’s most enduring rulers.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the instability, calculation, and emotional discipline that defined Elizabeth’s early years and ask how a child declared illegitimate grew into a monarch who would outlast them all.

Was her resilience instinct? Training? Or the necessary armour of a Tudor princess who learned, very young, that survival was everything?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shakespeare, Hollywood, the Oscars, the plague, and a little boy called Hamnet.

In this episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams are joined by historian Alice Loxton to explore the extraordinary new film Hamnet — the Oscar-tipped adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel.

Set in late 16th-century Stratford-upon-Avon and plague-stricken London, the film imagines the private world of William Shakespeare, his wife Anne Hathaway — here called Agnes — and their three children. When their son Hamnet dies in 1596, the story asks a haunting question: did that loss shape the creation of the play Hamlet?

We explore Tudor childbirth, superstition and healing, the realities of plague in Elizabethan England, and the fragile line between history and imagination. Who was Anne Hathaway really? A healer? A neglected wife? A woman left to manage home and grief while her husband built a theatrical empire?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Kennedy Curse didn't end with the assassination of JFK - far from it!

In this final episode of our Kennedy trilogy, we ask what happened after Camelot fell. With John F. Kennedy gone and Robert Kennedy gunned down just five years later, the dynasty’s hopes shifted once more — to the younger generation. Could the flame stay lit? Or was tragedy now woven into the Kennedy name itself?

From Ted Kennedy and the shadow of Chappaquiddick, to Jackie’s controversial marriage to Aristotle Onassis, and the rise — and devastating fall — of John F. Kennedy Jr., this is the story of heirs burdened by expectation, fame, and a family legacy unlike any other. Plane crashes. Scandals. Political ambition. And one final, haunting echo of a mother’s warning: never fly your own plane.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the weight carried by the next generation — the pressure to redeem the past, the struggle to escape it, and the events that cemented the idea of a “Kennedy curse” in the public imagination.

Is it fate? Is it recklessness? Or is it simply the peril of living so visibly, so ambitiously, and so publicly for over a century?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The assassination of JFK - an unforgettable moment in a changing and volatile world: the Berlin Wall rising, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then came the shocking events of Dallas.

In this second of three special episodes, we move from ambition to power, and from power to catastrophe. With John F. Kennedy now President, the Kennedys became global royalty: glamorous state visits, televised debates, Jackie dazzling Europe, and a youthful administration promising civil rights, a man on the moon, and a new American frontier.

But beneath the polish lies mounting pressures — Cold War brinkmanship, CIA miscalculations, the Bay of Pigs disaster, civil rights battles that split the South, and a president pushed to prove his strength. At home, private grief shadows public triumph, as personal loss and political peril collide.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams chart the heady rise of “Camelot” — and the moment it shattered.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

JFK’s assassination, plane crashes, scandals, and untimely deaths. Is there really such a thing as a Kennedy curse?

In this first of three special episodes, we go back to the beginning — to the making of a dynasty, forged in ambition and driven by a patriarch who expected greatness and tolerated nothing less. In the Kennedy household, sons were groomed for the presidency, daughters for perfection, and failure was not merely disappointing… it was unthinkable.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams unravel the astonishing rise of this Irish-American family from immigrant roots to global prominence, exploring the wealth, political muscle, wartime heroics and ruthless determination that built the Kennedy legend — and the immense personal pressure that came with it.

Before the building of a modern Camelot, before Dallas, there was a family determined to conquer America - but at what cost?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For Valentine’s Day, Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things goes full royal romance-with-a-body-count.

Robert Hardman and Prof Kate Williams delve into the whispered love story of Edward II and his dazzling courtier, Piers Gaveston — a friendship (or something more) so intense it detonates the English court. Why did the barons loathe Gaveston so much? Who gets the stuffed-crust portion of medieval “pizza” of land, titles, and power, and who’s left starving?

And then comes the infamous comeuppance: the notorious ending Christopher Marlowe gives Edward II —death by red-hot poker. True? Find out.

Royal love. A battle for lands. And a legend that refuses to die.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to royal history with bite.

In this episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams head east to Transylvania to unravel one of the strangest threads in modern royal history. King Charles III’s long-standing fascination with Romania turns out to involve more than rural preservation and beautiful churches — it also leads back, genealogically, to Vlad III, the ruler whose brutality helped inspire the Dracula legend.

But Vlad is not the region’s only blood-soaked aristocrat uncovered. Their conversation also takes in the infamous Countess Elizabeth Báthory, accused of torturing and killing young women in neighbouring Hungary — and asks whether her reputation reflects historical reality, political convenience, or deep-seated fears about power, inheritance, and women who ruled alone.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Royals, hot dogs, Hollywood, and the making of the “special relationship”

Robert and Kate conclude their deep dive into Britain and America’s long and complicated partnership. Joined once again by historian, broadcaster, and Gilded Age expert Julie Montagu, Countess of Sandwich, they trace how glamour, war, royalty, and politics combined to create the modern Anglo-American world.

From Edward VII’s fascination with wealthy, irreverent Americans, through the cultural explosion of Hollywood and jazz, to the shockwaves caused by Wallis Simpson, the episode explores how America became both Britain’s obsession and its future. As two world wars redraw the balance of power, monarchs and presidents begin meeting face to face, propaganda goes viral before the word exists, and American soldiers — and culture — flood into Britain at its darkest hour.

The story culminates with the Second World War, the rise of American global dominance, the humiliation of Suez, and Queen Elizabeth II’s pivotal visits to the United States. A final chapter in a long political divorce: no longer bitter, never quite clean, but undeniably special.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Revolution, the American divorce, and the true history of the sandwich!

Robert and Kate return to the American War of Independence as the story moves beyond declarations and slogans, and into the long, uncertain struggle of what independence actually meant. Joined by a special guest, historian, broadcaster, and Gilded Age expert Julie Montagu, Countess of Sandwich, they explore the years after 1776, when the war dragged on, loyalties fractured, and victory was anything but assured.

From Yorktown and the uneasy end of the war, to the daunting task of inventing a new nation from scratch, the episode examines how America decided not to become what it had just escaped. Should George Washington be a king? What should a president look like? And how does a former colony meet its former monarch again — as an equal?

The story stretches forward through fragile reconciliation, the burning of Washington in the War of 1812, and the long shadow of the Civil War, before arriving at the Gilded Age — a moment when old aristocracy and new American wealth collide, and the modern “special relationship” begins to take shape. A tale of ambition, miscalculation, reinvention, and the strange intimacy of a political divorce that never quite became a clean break.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of American Independence - unfolding the momentous history.

Robert and Kate kick off a three-part deep dive into one of history’s significant break-ups: how George III went from being “King of America” to the monarch who lost an entire continent. From the earliest English colonies - Jamestown’s swampy gamble, and the Puritans braving the Mayflower crossing - to the booming, self-confident 13 colonies of the 18th century, the stage is set for a spectacular falling-out.

Taxes, tea, troops in your living room, the Boston Massacre, the Sons of Liberty, Washington’s early defeats, and that electrifying moment in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence rewrote the world. Robert and Kate unpack the misunderstandings, blunders, loyalties, and sheer distances that pushed a loyal colony into open rebellion and forced a young George III to face the greatest divorce in royal history.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Love, loss, and a queen who deserves to be famous again.

This week, Kate is joined by historian and broadcaster Alice Loxton, whose new book follows a wonderfully bonkers idea: walking 200 miles in December to retrace the funeral route of Eleanor of Castile, England’s “lost queen.”

Eleanor was no mild medieval consort. She introduced carpets and forks, built dazzling Castilian-style gardens, amassed a property empire, travelled endlessly while almost constantly pregnant, and inspired her grief-stricken husband Edward I to build a string of spectacular monuments across the country. Alice and Kate plunge into Eleanor’s world of crusades, court politics, Arthurian myth, medieval plumbing, purgatory, poisoned daggers, and the unexpected origins of Charing Cross as a London landmark.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Behind every coronation, balcony wave and solemn procession lies a simple truth: royalty is theatre.

In this sparkling, story-packed episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pull back the velvet curtain on the royals’ surprisingly long, and often hilarious, love affair with pantomime.

From Henry VIII discovering Anne Boleyn through a masked performance, to the Restoration actresses who scandalised a queen, to Queen Victoria’s sentimental family tableaux, the stage has always been a royal playground. But nothing compares to the Second World War pantomimes at Windsor Castle, where a teenage Princess Elizabeth donned tights as Aladdin, Princess Margaret stole scenes as Cinderella, and a young naval officer named Philip watched from the audience.

History, romance, and panto all in one room… oh yes it was.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A seasonal cracker from the podcast that loves Royals and history - listen now.

In this special edition of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams unwrap the surprisingly rich, and frequently eccentric, festive legacy of the monarchy. From a 10th-century duke reinvented as a Victorian Christmas hero, to Henry VIII moonlighting as a carol writer, to the Tudor court’s rather questionable idea of “seasonal cheer,” it turns out the royals have been shaping our holidays for over a millennium.

We travel from medieval Bohemia to Cromwell’s anti-Christmas crackdown, before settling by the fire with Victoria and Albert, the couple who practically invented the modern festive season. Along the way, we explore SEDITION in much-loved carols, rogue wassailers, musical monarchs, and a surprising link between the Windsors and “Good King Wenceslas.”

This episode asks the big question: what have the royals ever given us for Christmas?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The real-life Game of Thrones continues - listen now.

In the second part of our deep dive into the Wars of the Roses, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pick up the story at England’s bloodiest moment: the Battle of Towton.

From boy kings and warrior queens to vanishing princes and spectacular betrayals, this is the era when the crown changed hands with alarming regularity.

We follow Edward IV’s meteoric rise, Warwick the Kingmaker’s dramatic change of sides, the astonishing comeback of Henry VI, and Margaret of Anjou’s final, desperate bid to win a throne for her son. And when the dust seems to settle, trouble brews again with the arrival of one very determined Tudor.

It’s a tale of power, politics, omens in the sky, and a kingdom exhausted by decades of feuding. Join us as the saga accelerates toward its thunderous finale at Bosworth Field.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wars of the Roses is the real-life Game of Thrones - the conflict that inspired George R. R. Martin’s world of rival houses, contested thrones, formidable queens, and sudden, shocking reversals of fortune.

But long before fantasy claimed it, this struggle was one of the pivotal turning points in British history.

In the first of a two-parter, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams trace the origins of a conflict that splintered a dynasty and set two branches of the same royal family on a collision course. What begins with a boy-king, a warrior queen, and a realm weakened by loss soon becomes a landscape defined by blood feuds, personal vendettas, and battles in which neighbours and brothers met across the field as enemies.

This is England at its most combustible: a nation undone by ambition, and ultimately reshaped by the dynasties fighting for its crown.

Join us as we return to the moment the red rose and the white first entered the national imagination, a struggle of extraordinary brutality, brilliance, and consequence.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A queen knelt, a sword flashed, a dynasty shifted. 

This episode looks at how and why the execution of Henry VIII’s second wife became one of the most iconic, mesmerising moments in British history.

Professor Kate dives straight into the charged final minutes of the execution, peeling back the myths, the melodrama, and the emotions of that fatal walk to the scaffold.

Anne hoped, right up to the last, that the King might intervene. She rehearsed her courage. She made jokes. She forgave people she absolutely did not need to forgive. And as she stepped onto that scaffold, there were rumours that she harboured a tiny ember of belief that Henry might still call it all off.

And then there’s the Frenchman: the swordsman from Calais, specially imported because he had a reputation for doing the dreadful job swiftly, silently… and with a trick. A trick that meant Anne Boleyn may not even have known the exact second her life ended. A trick that changed the choreography of English executions forever.

Kate and Robert break down the politics, the theatre, the psychological games, and the shocking tenderness of those last moments. 

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is Princess Diana’s legacy?

In our final episode on the Princess of Wales’s life, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pick up the story at the turning point: the Royal separation that launched the most consequential chapter of her life, her emergence as a global humanitarian supernova.

Diana shakes hands with patients in AIDS wards, embraces children with leprosy, confronts the landmine crisis in a bulletproof vest, and rewrites the royal rulebook with empathy and emotional intelligence. We follow the divorce negotiations, the media frenzy, the complicated final summer with Dodi Fayed, and the midnight chase that became one of the darkest moments in modern royal history.

Robert shares what it was actually like on those last Royal tours with Diana, while Kate uncovers how Diana bent royal protocol, political convention, and 20th-century misogyny to her will. 

And, then, of course, there was her funeral, a day unlike anything the nation had ever seen.

Brave, chaotic, glamorous, bruised, and brilliant, Princess Diana’s legacy still shapes the monarchy today, for the better.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fairytale is starting to fall apart ...

In the second part of our Diana deep dive, Kate Williams and Robert Hardman pick up the story just after that balcony kiss, and follow the new Princess of Wales through the most dazzling and difficult years of her royal life.

From the Riviera honeymoon aboard Britannia to the birth of Prince William, from the Australian tour that electrified a nation to the famous dance with John Travolta at the White House, this episode charts the meteoric rise of a young woman becoming the most photographed person on the planet. But behind the smiles, pressure is building: morning sickness that lasts for months, the demands of instant royal life, the relentless press pack, post-natal depression, and the first unmistakable cracks in the marriage.

This week, we follow Diana and Charles from the “love boat” towards the year the Queen would later call her annus horribilis. The glamour, the joy, the strain, the scrutiny: the contradictions that made Diana a global phenomenon are all here.

A rollercoaster chapter in the story of a princess who changed the monarchy forever.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first episode in our deep-dive exploration of the most influential figures in modern royal history - Diana, Princess of Wales.

It begins as the greatest love story of the age: a shy nursery assistant, a lonely prince, and a glittering wedding watched by nearly a billion people. But before the heartbreak, the revenge dresses and the headlines, there was the young Lady Diana Spencer - awkward, funny, occasionally lost, and totally unprepared for what came next.

In this episode, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams trace her rise from the fringes of Sandringham to the steps of St Paul’s. They uncover the aristocratic family that produced her, the fractured childhood that shaped her, and the courtship that captivated the world. There are guinea-pig prizes, polo parties, awkward proposals and that famous “Whatever love is” interview. All the moments that built the myth before it broke.

Part royal history, part social snapshot, this is Britain on the brink of the 1980s. Unemployment high, spirits low, and suddenly a fairytale to believe in. The first act of Diana’s story is pure spectacle: puff sleeves, flashbulbs, and a nation in love.

Join us as Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things begins its most revealing journey yet.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.