A fascinating and hilarious gallop through twentieth-century British history, by comedian Al Murray.An awful lot has happened in the last 100 years or so. In fact, when you look at how much went on in the 20th century, it's amazing it didn't take longer than that.And what have we learnt? A few obvious lessons include: megalomaniac men with moustaches in charge of countries tend to turn out to be BAD; anyone who thinks they can explain let alone sort out the...

On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, two acclaimed historians chronicle the remarkable stories behind the surrenders that ended the world’s most catastrophic global conflictIn May 1945 and then again in August and early September, the seemingly endless World War II finally came to a close in eight dramatic surrender ceremonies, six in Europe and the last two in Japan. On the 80th anniversary of those historic events, celebrated historians James Holla...

Discover the Sunday Times bestseller and incredible true story behind the most catastrophic 24-hours the British military faced in World War II from the bestselling author.‘Utterly brilliant... this book really is the last word on the Battle of Arnhem’ James Holland’Superb... A military historian of originality and insight to compare with the best’ Saul David_________The Battle of Arn...

Al Murray stars in this anarchic BBC radio reboot of Thackeray’s groundbreaking satirical novelComedian Al Murray plays his great-great-great grandfather William Makepeace Thackeray as the unreliable narrator in this radical makeover of his ancestor’s celebrated satire on class, sex, money, hypocrisy and snobbery in nineteenth-century England.As the curtain rises on our ‘story without a hero’, moneyless Becky Sharp leaves school with her upper-class best fr...

'What is it that makes the history of the Second World War so compelling? Why are the Afflicted afflicted? With these chapters we hope to offer some idea of our approach to, and understanding of, the war, while never forgetting the tumult and terror that came with defeating tyranny. Maybe you will become Afflicted too'AL MURRAY'At the time of writing, we have recorded nearly one thousand episodes of the podcast. That's a lot and has ...

Brought to you by Penguin.This audio edition includes an exclusive Q&A between James Holland and Al Murray.'If Hitler fails to invade or destroy Britain, he has lost the war,' Churchill said in the summer of 1940.He was right.The Battle of Britain was a crucial turning point in the history of the Second World War. Had Britain's defences collapsed, Hitler would have dominated all of Europe and been able to turn his full attention east to the...

Acclaimed World War II historian James Holland vividly relates the dramatic last months of the Italian Campaign in a masterful volume that brings new awareness to this vital hinge point of the war.As the new year of 1944 began in Italy, the Allied army’s momentum had ground to a halt just south of the vaunted German Gustav Line of defense, far short of their initial objective of liberating Rome by Christmas. The fighting up the Italian peninsula had been brutal—rug...

On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, two acclaimed historians chronicle the remarkable stories behind the surrenders that ended the world’s most catastrophic global conflict.In May 1945 and then again in August and early September, the seemingly endless World War II finally came to a close in eight dramatic surrender ceremonies, six in Europe and the last two in Japan. On the 80th anniversary of those historic moments, celebrated historians James Hol...

Al Murray's (AKA The Pub Landlord) musing on his childhood where his fascination with history and all things war began.Have you ever watched a film with someone who, at the most dramatic scene, argues that the plane on screen hasn't been invented yet? Or that the tank rumbling towards the hero at the end of the film is the wrong tank altogether?Al Murray is that someone. Try as he might, he can’t help himself.Growing up in the 1970s, Al, with the help of his dad, be...

From the pre-eminent WWII historian, an ardent chronicle of the unprecedented and far-sighted U.S. postwar decision to aid its enemies as well as its allies via the Marshall Plan, which led to eight decades of peace and prosperity in the West that could be upended in an “America First” environmentOn March 12, 1947, less than two years after the end of World War II, President HarryS. Truman gave a seminal speech before Congress, in response to a European cri...

A star-studded BBC radio production of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion – plus bonus drama The ‘B’ Word, telling the story of the play’s scandalous opening night.Irascible phonetics professor Henry Higgins makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can train Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to talk ‘like a lady’ and pass as a duchess at the Ambassador’s Ball. As the day of reckoning approaches, can Eliza convince the assembled aristocrats th...

In Let's re-Great Britain, Al Murray's Pub Landlord sets out his party's vision for the country, and explains how politics actually works.Citizens of Hope & Glory! It's time to bring common sense to the House of Commons.Parliament is a nest of slippery, poisonous vipers and only a bonkers, mental idiot would try to make sense of it. Yet in Let's re-Great Britain, Al Murray, the Pub Landlord, presents his guide to British politics and a vis...