Neil Oliver: News, Comment, History

In this, the last episode of the series Neil brings together the people who live, work, visit, are fascinated by and like him have a of love of the British Isles. Listeners from all over the world share their thoughts and ask Neil pertinent and diverse questions – love, life, whiskey, history, and the human story.Season 2, ‘A History of the World’ starts soon.To help support the making of this podcast, and get exclusive access to extra history & comment content sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Check out the Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g The Official Instagram account is called - Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil unties his walking boots and starts drawing the strands of history that run through the British Isles together. This week’s show is a celebration of the incomers and blow-ins, the folk who have come to these islands & woven a rich tapestry. Sacred places, formidable fortresses, and landscapes of breath-taking beauty it’s a set of islands that have had an influence on the whole world. A place with a rich, complicated, and compelling history, a place Neil loves.To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to the breathtakingly beautiful shingle headland at Dungeness – a place loved by artists, photographers, pop stars and fans of this archipelago’s raw natural coastline.On this windblown and storm-washed headland, that’s full of sky and sound, Neil explores the concept of how the land we grow up in becomes a part us – part of our actual physical being as well as our ‘souls’.For Neil, Dungeness Headland is an ever-changing landscape with a fragile feel to it, which strikes a very personal chord and reminds him of the British Isles themselves To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep99 The Tower of London In this episode we’re scaling the walls of one of the most famous fortresses in the whole of the British Isles – the Tower of London. Almost a thousand years old this beautifully kept Roya palace is now spic and span, and surrounded by the steel and glass of a thriving modern metropolis. But for centuries it was a place to dread. Packed to the rafters with history, this week Neil digs down to find the awful secrets that have been buried beneath the floorboards!  To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to meet a great mind; a scientist whose work laid some of the foundations that have helped shape the world we live in. James Clerk Maxwell grew up surround by the soft rounded hills, lochs and handsome woodland in Dumfries and Galloway. From his country upbringing and a slow start at school he went on to dazzle on the scientific stage.Einstein and the scientists that followed all pay tribute to the great beauty of Maxwell’s mathematics, his theorems, and the ground-breaking work he did showing that electricity, light and magnetism were all covered by the same fundamental and natural laws. Without him the world wouldn’t be as it is today. To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode a wave of devolution sweeps across the United Kingdom creating assemblies in Northern Ireland and Wales and a new parliament in Scotland.In 1999 as the balance of power across the whole of the British Isles starts to shift, the foundations are laid to cement a new age in Scotland. At the end of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile work begins on an ambitious building, which will herald Scotland’s move to devolution. Built with oak, sycamore, stainless steel and Caithness stone the finished design for Scotland’s new Parliament Building is celebrated, loved and loathed in equal measure.To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=enContact details: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode the countdown begins; will it be the dawn of a second coming or herald chaos and catastrophe? This week, as the dials turn and the 9s mutate to 0s the new millennium arrives and we’re standing in a landmark building designed by one of the world’s great architects. What does this building tell us about Britain? Hope you’ve got your streamers!To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil comes face to face with the exploits of the Solomon Brown lifeboat crew. With a hurricane battering the Cornish coast, 8 men set sail from Penlee Lifeboat Station in an attempt to save the passengers and crew of the Union Star.As the Union Star was being violently tossed ever closer towards deadly rocks a helicopter rescue pilot witnessed the bravery of the Solomon Brown crew as they attempted to rescue everyone aboard the Union Star – the helicopter pilot described what he saw and the lifeboat men as, ‘truly the greatest eight men I have ever seen’.   To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 In this episode Neil takes us along one of London’s most celebrated and infamous streets, the place that became a byword for the British Press - Fleet Street. We’re in the midst of the pounding heart of the city with gossip, scandal, exposes and politics ringing in our ears – we’re at St Brides Church on Fleet Street.Named after the river Fleet upon which it was built. In the C16th Wynkyn de Worde and his printing press set up shop on Fleet Street, and the foundations of a tradition were laid.In 1702 the capital’s first newspaper, the Daily Courant, was published as the street developed from printing books to newspapers. As the penny-press’s popularity skyrocketed a torrent of words started flowing down Fleet Street as the nation’s obsession with news was fed. To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to a set of three tiny spellbinding islands, shimmering with crystal clear water and pristine white sand – his ultimate desert island. This is the place he escapes to in his imagination when he needs to get away from the pressures of the world.In the C17th smugglers made one of the islands their secret hideaway. Another island was home to a self-styled king who swapped gifts with Queen Victoria – a basket woven from seaweed and filled with fresh fish and royal coat made of blue cloth. It’s a place where is still possible to glimpse magic! To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, as the Cold War and the threat of nuclear Armageddon sends a terrifying chill around the world Neil heads to Orford Ness in Suffolk.In the early C20th this isolated shingle spit, tucked away from prying eyes, came to the attention of the military who saw it as the perfect location for secret experiments. It was first used as a training base for the fledgling Royal Airforce during the First World War. Later, work on the radar system that would prove to be so vital for the defence of Britain in WWII was conducted here.The shroud of secrecy, which the military had thrown over this location continued as experiments that would help develop Britain’s first atomic bomb took place in the laboratories here. And in 1967 as Cold War tensions and the threat of nuclear war increased, to counter any Soviet aggression, British and US military scientists started developing a next generation radar system called Operation Cobra Mist. To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we come face to face with a chilling reminder of just how close Hitler came to conquering Britain. During World War 2 he got a toe-hold on British territory when his army captured the Channel Islands – the first time they’d be wrestled from British control in over 1000 years.This week Neil travels to Alderney, one of the islands in the archipelago, to witness the terrifying atrocities carried out by the Nazi occupation force. Here they brought in an army of slave labourers to build defences aimed at keeping out liberation from the British. And the horror meted out to them is a satin on all humanity.To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Operation Overlord is go as Allied troops begin practicing for D-Day.The plans to invade and liberate Europe are drawn up with amphibious landings on 5 beaches in Normandy - Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Hitler's defences are well prepared, ready and determined, so allied training rehearsals are vital, and it's crucial they are as realistic as possible.Neil heads to Slapton Sands in Devon to watch Exercise Tiger unfold - a heady, dangerous mix of live ammunition, miscommunication, German E-boats, secret documents and tragedy. To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we meet Winston Churchill, a man who has helped define the British Isles: a luminary figure, complex, charismatic and inspirational. Prime minister of Britain during World War II he was a man who inspired a nation in its time of need. Neil travels to Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, where was Churchill was born, and to the village of Bladon next door, where he is buried.To help support the making of this podcast series sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we hear the deafening roar of industry and see the spark fly as some of the world’s great ships are built. We’re on the banks of the river Clyde, a river that powered a city; as the say goes, ‘Glasgow made the Clyde and the Clyde made Glasgow’.At one time the Clyde shipbuilders build a fifth of all the ships in the world - everything from luxury transatlantic flagships that crossed the world’s oceans to the legendary battlecruisers that would soon face a determined enemy in the coming Great war.To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & Comment - New Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we set sail with Neil to visit one of the world’s great natural harbours, Scapa Flow in Orkney. This vast harbour is a beautifully bleak, windswept spot drench in drama, tragedy and power. For thousands of years, it played a vital role in maritime travel, trade and conflict. The Vikings anchored in its safe waters in the C11th. The British admiralty enlisted it in the Napoleonic wars. And in the First World War it was home to Britain’s Grand Fleet, before being pressed into service once again in the 2nd world war. In the First World War the entire, surrendered German navy was scuttled here in an extraordinary act of sabotage. To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & CommentNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we are walking down Whitehall, one of London’s most famous streets, to remember the dead of the First World War.Fabian Ware joined the British army at the outbreak of the war, but because he was 45 years old, the authorities would let him fight on the front line and put him in charge of a mobile ambulance unit instead.Appalled by the number of casualties and troubled that the dead were not being recorded properly he began keeping note. On account of his efforts, the organization now called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission came into existence. The process of remembrance began.11 November 1919 was the first anniversary of the war’s end. It was marked with the construction of a temporary memorial called the Cenotaph on Whitehall, a march of remembrance and the return of the Unknown Soldier. The outpouring of emotion at this event and the public’s actions demanded that the temporary Cenotaph be made permanent. And across the whole of the British Isles collective grief propelled the largest public art project ever seen as communities took it upon themselves to build their own local memorials to remember all the dead.  To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & CommentNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the secretary of state for war, declares, Your Country Needs You!The First World War meant that Britain had to raise a new army from volunteers, so the call was raised. Five strong, stout brothers from the Souls family, who lived in the Gloucestershire village of Great Rissington, signed up to join the army and become soldiers. After training they shipped out for France.Albert, the youngest brother, was the first to be killed. Fred was the second brother to die, he was killed at the battle of the Somme. Walter was killed next, soon followed by Alfred.The last of the five brothers alive was Arthur, he was Alfred’s identical twin, and won the Military Medal for valour at the fight to hold Villers-Bretonneux. But during the battle he was fatally wounded.Five brothers from the Souls family, all lost. A snapshot of a war like no other - tragedy writ large.To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & CommentNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re travelling over the sea to Skye, an island of ancient jagged crags and rare breath-taking beauty, which feels as though it’s washed in heaven’s tears.When the first world war was declared, there was a seismic shift and everything changed forever. All of Britain felt it’s pain and devastation, but it hit the Highlands the hardest. A conflict of such magnitude, billions of spent bullets and millions dead, the sorrow and suffering it cause is impossible to comprehend. I’m in Portree, exploring its impact on one small community, trying to come to terms with the magnitude of the Great War.To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & CommentNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we join Neil as he steps aboard the Titanic, one of the most iconic ships in the world. For Neil this a pivotal moment in history, which marks a point when the world changed forever.When the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage it was the largest human-made object that had ever moved across the face of the planet. 900 feet long (240m), 92 feet wide (28m) and weighing in at 50,000 tons. Built in Belfast it was one of a set of near identical triplets. With 2,200 passengers and crew aboard the Titanic heads out into the wild Atlantic ocean, sailing into tragedy as the band played on.To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverHistory & CommentNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, powered by their fabulous fecundity and political astuteness, the Stuart family line inherited the Scottish and English crowns and spread their power and influence right across the British Isles.The C19th saw a canny member of the Stuart clan spotted a gilt-edged opportunity in Cardiff. As the industrial revolution swept across the world, iron, steel and coal were in great demand and high-grade coal from the Rhondda Valley in Wales became a very valuable commodity. If you could control the supply of this precious resource, there were fortunes to be made.From his castle in Cardiff, John Crichton-Stuart developed the port of Cardiff, which become the busiest in Britain, and as the coal bonanza boomed, feeding an insatiable global hunger, vast quantities of the ‘black gold’ were ship out and incredible fortunes poured in.To help support the making of this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re putting on our best and strolling along a stylish promenade in Scarborough, the ‘Nice of the North’ to pay homage to the Great British seaside tradition.The tentacles of Scarborough’s history stretch back thousands of years. On it’s cliffs is an Iron Age Fort. The Viking also took a fancy to the place and much later in the C13th Henry III fortified what was then an important port. But it was the Victorians who made it the place we recognise today.Attracted by its restorative spa waters, the Victorians added the cast iron, glass, grandeur and glamour, and it becomes Britain’s first seaside town.Overlooking a stunning long curve of pale sand is what used to be the largest hotel in Europe – built in the shape of a V to honour Queen Victoria and designed to around the concept of time, this week we’re checking into the Grand Hotel in Scarborough.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we stride around the Elizabethan battlements of a town held ready for war!Berwick-upon-Tweed is a place packed to bursting with thousands of years of rich history.Celtic Britons made it their home, followed by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons.It was a wealthy, flourishing port before any of the modern nation states – England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland – even existed.Sitting on the border of what became Scotland and England it was coveted and fought over in a deadly tug of war lasting hundreds of years. It’s a place that sharply reminds us, that in the British Isles it’s more often than not the case that local rather than national identities have the deepest roots.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we travel with Neil to meet the man who split the atom!Ernest Rutherford’s father said to his children, ‘without money we have to think’ – and think Ernest did. Ernest’s brain took him from his childhood home in rural New Zealand to a scientific career that spanned right around the world. In Manchester he assembled a brilliant and diverse team of fantastic minds. He built one of the largest and best equipped laboratories ever seen in the world and with his team set about exploring the infinitely complex universe within the atom. Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear physicsTo help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re in the midst of the great Victorian engineering revolution as the dream to reconnect with Europe begins. 8,000 years ago the Storegga Slide hit and severed the British Isles from the European mainland. To thrive and prosper the new islanders had to develop a mastery of the sea, and those coming to the islands had to be determined and committed. For thousands of years the psyche of the people living on this archipelago was shaped and moulded by it’s ‘separateness’, but in the 1800’s people on both sides of the Channel began to dream of a reconnection.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we set sail with Neil and find ourselves at the centre of a devastating hurricane that’s intent on destroying a proud and hardworking fishing port. In the 1800’s Eyemouth’s fishing fleet found itself battling the elements, bureaucracy and the church. As the harbour remained dangerously inadequate a hated ecclesiastical tax was draining resources. One fateful day bad weather was looming, but under pressure to feed their families and pay the bills, Eyemouth’s brave fisher folk set sail. The whole fleet was out at sea when, sweeping across the North Sea, a hurricane hit, pounding boats to matchwood. To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we set sail with Neil, past Fasnet Rock, fleeing the horror of famine. The Vikings called it Hvasstann-ey, ‘the island shaped like a sharp tooth’, the Irish knew it first as Carraig Aonair, ‘the Lonely Rock’, then as Fastnet, ‘Ireland’s Teardrop’.A treacherous island, little more than a jagged rock, it has been responsible for countless shipwrecks and deaths at sea. It was the last part of Ireland many emigrants saw as they sailed to North America to escape the Great Hunger and many a teardrop was shed over it.A rock wreathed in sadness and tears, standing as a fitting memorial to lives lost at sea and the lives driven off to be lived elsewhere. To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every Week Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode a dark shadow falls across all of Ireland. A time of unimaginable pain and suffer, which has caused a deep wound between the British Isles ever after. It is known as An Gorta Mor or The Great Hunger. For years starvation stalked the land and over a million people died of hunger as ships fully laden and brimming with food left the Irish ports.Standing on the edge of a mass grave in Skibbereen Cemetery Neil comes face to face with the human tragedy.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every WeekPlus a video archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs. Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode as machines begin to flex their muscles the spectre of human poverty rises darkly and menacingly across the whole of the British Isles.In C19th Dorset a small group of workers came together to dream of a better future. But for daring to stand up straight, demand dignity and call for a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work they were crushed by the authorities: arrested, tried and transported to work as slave labour in the penal colony of Australia. In their defence a public outcry swept across the country as people fought to save this group who became known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNew Videos Every WeekPlus a video archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs. Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil travels to the breathtakingly picturesque seaside side town of Lyme Regis. Sitting on the rugged Jurassic Coast the town was home to a determined, fearless woman called Mary Anning who battled the convention of the day to stake her claim in scientific history. The Jurassic coast is famous for fossil dinosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Ammonites, Belemnites, and plesiosaurus. Often working in foul weather and precarious locations Mary was a fossil hunter extraordinaire whose great skill and formidable intelligence helped further the scientific understanding of the time.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on PatreonNew Videos Every Week plus an archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs.https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil strides across the beguilingly beautiful, wild Yorkshire moors to meet three sisters whose brilliance would shape and change the world of literature.Tough, strong-willed survivors, the Bronte sisters laid bare the crippling social conventions of the day with perfect prose. Their own lives were edged with hardship and tragedy, but their imaginations, stubborn genius and dazzling creativity lit up the world. The episode is from the Bronte parsonage in Haworth, west Yorkshire. To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on PatreonNew Videos Every Week plus an archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs.https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil spends time on one of the most notorious lighthouses in the world – a place with a profound sense of isolation and a dark history.The British Isles are home to an island race, and to survive and thrive its people have depended on a mastery of the seaways and protection from its dangerous coasts. Ever since King Henry VIII Britain have made lighthouses their own. Dotted around the coastline these engineering marvels have become part of the landscape, sentinels and beacons of hope.In this episode Neil weaves the history of lighthouses, the story of the courageous lighthouse keepers who protect lives at sea, with the tragic events that took place on Smalls Lighthouse, off the Pembrokeshire coast.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on PatreonNew Videos Every Week and an archive packed full of history, comment and current affairs films.https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter  https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en Neil Oliver YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re stepping aboard a legend. A ship built from 6,000 trees, 27 miles of rigging and 4 acres of sail. She fought in the American and French Revolutionary Wars and came to symbolise the Britain’s dominance of the world-ocean as she battled to keep them free. But it was in 1805, with Admiral Nelson at the helm, that she sailed into the history books. With her 104 guns fully loaded and at the ready she led the Royal Navy into action at the world defining Battle of Trafalgar.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is packed full of history, comment and current affairs videos. Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re walking with a hero of mine, Admiral Nelson – a man with a life full of high drama and adventure, violence and great passion.He was born near the North Norfolk coast in 1758, in the sleepy village of Burnham Thorpe. His father was the local parson and at the ripe old age of 12 he set off to join the Royal Navy and sail the world’s oceans.Horatio Nelson was an ambitious and fearless naval commander always in the tick of the action; he lost his right eye during the siege of Calvi on Corsica, and the use of his right arm three years later at the battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. A master of naval warfare, back on dry land he was swept up by a grand romance to Lady Emma Hamilton before sailing to his most famous victory at the battle Trafalgar in 1805. To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is packed full of history, comment and current affairs videos. Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us on an emotional journey that affected hundreds of thousands of people and systematically destroyed an ancient way of life – the Highland Clearances. Driven by greed the aristocratic landowners brutally cleared people from what they claimed as their land and replaced them with sheep in one of the biggest mass movements of people in all of British history. To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is packed full of history, comment and current affairsInstagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=enYouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to walk side by side with William Wilberforce, one of the unwavering bright lights who stove to abolish slavery in the British empire.Nations throughout history have plagued the world with this abhorrent trade, but the British took it to another level in the C18th, growing fat on the colossal profits to be made from African slaves. As opposition to slavery in this country grew immensely powerful forces battled tooth and nail to defend the trade and the riches it brought them. Amongst the people who fought to end this abhorrent practice was the tireless Member of Parliament for Hull, William Wilberforce.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairsInstagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=enYouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we join Neil in1796 as a heavily armed French invasion fleet is spotted off Fishguard in south-west Wales.Seven years earlier revolution had swept across France. Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and a great swath of the French aristocracy found themselves on the sharp end of the guillotine. Europe’s royalty reeled in horror and Britain and others sent forces to try and crush the new French Republic. Now in a well-planned and heavily armed, three-pronged attack France strikes back as soldiers of the Black legion land at Carregwastad Point in what is the last invasion of BritainTo help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairsInstagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=enYouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us on a very personal journey around his old stomping ground, the Merchant City district in Glasgow. It was built by the mighty Glaswegian Tobacco Lords, men whose trading fortunes made them the Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates of their time. In the late C17th and into the C18th their trading ships ensured great wealth poured into Glasgow and they built huge warehouses, veritable cathedrals to commerce, to store their goods . But these riches came at a deadly human cost, every pound and dollar was made on the backs of African slaves. The Triangular slave trade transported men, women and children from Africa to the American colonies, then tobacco, cotton and other commodities were brought back to Europe on the return trip. To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairsInstagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=enYouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to the beautiful coast of Cumbria as it’s attacked by a warship from the United States of America. Angry and dissatisfied with the punitive taxes and harsh rule of the British monarchy the people of America rise in rebellion. Intent on helping his new adopted country throw off the shackles of colonial rule, John Paul Jones captains an American naval ship of war, and in an audacious move crosses the Atlantic to attack Britain.Guns primed and at the ready he sails with his crew to the thriving industrial port of Whitehaven on the northwest coast of England, and under the cover of darkness launches his attack. This first shot across the bow caused panic in government and gave a bloody nose to the British King.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairsInstagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=enYouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we travel with Neil around the world with the words of Robert Burns, a poet and lyricist whose work has touch millions and directly helped to shape Neil’s own life.Robert Burns was born in Ayr, lived in Dumfries and went on to be the national bard of Scotland. His brilliant body of work stretches from Auld Lang Syne to his famous epic poem, Tam o’ Shanter – work that continues still to bring people together. With his genius for words he has managed to exert an influence and make the world a better place.To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairsInstagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=enYouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to age simmering with the steadily building heat of technological change and advance. We stride across a landscape of great beauty, full of the things needed to kick start a profound transformation; the natural energy of powerful rivers, land rich with minerals, coal and iron ore. Here in Coalbrookdale, in Shropshire a heady mix of human ingenuity, innovation and the commercial drive of entrepreneurs, built a bridge of mesmerising beauty which was forged in the first fires of a coming Industrial revolution that would transform the whole world!To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverNeil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairsInstagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=enYouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to the top of one of Scotland’s most beautiful mountains – Schiehallion in Perthshire.Following in the footsteps of Isaac Newton and a group of intrepid C18th scientists we set off to the wonderful wilds of Rannoch moor to measure the weight of the world.To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to new videos packed with history, current affairs and a whole lot more sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil climbs the hill to the Royal Observatory and finds himself at the centre of time & place.Henry VIII’s hunting lodge where he kept his mistress of the moment once stood here. Then in 1675 Christopher Wren was commissioned to build the Royal Observatory in this spot, a building that stood at the forefront of astronomy and mapping for centuries. It’s here that the prime meridian bisects the planet and a legendary soldier, General James Woolfe, looks out over one of the greatest cities in the world and through thousands of years of history.To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to new videos packed with history, current affairs and a whole lot more sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast Neil enters a city fizzing with new idea. In the late C18th and early C19th Edinburgh was the beating heart at the centre of what many people have called the Scottish Enlightenment. The intellectual thinking generated here was recognised around the world with men and women of genius said to be on every street with new ways of thinking bussing around every part of the city.It was here, inspired by the city’s physical location - sat on a volcano - that James Hutton developed revolutionary ideas about how the world was created. Ideas that went counter the accepted thinking of the day. Hutton became known as the father of geology and was one of the first thinkers to contemplate deep time and confront us with our insignificance in the face of eternity.To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to new videos packed with history, current affairs and a whole lot more sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re setting sail on a legendary voyage of exploration with the greatest navigator ever to come out of the British Isles - Captain James Cook. We follow James from the beginning of his adventure, when he leaves his job as a grocers lad in Staithes and travels to the hauntingly beautiful port of Whitby to pursue his dreams of a life a sea. It’s here, as a merchant seaman transporting coal up and down the eastern seaboard that he learns his trade. His ambition, dedication and yearning for adventure drive him to sign up and join the Royal Navy where he soon rises through the ranks to become captain of the valiant vessel, HMS Endeavour. Aboard the ship he would make famous he sets off on a number of extraordinary voyages of discovery that would help shape the future of the British Isles and the direction this great seafaring nation would present to the world. To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to new videos packed with history, current affairs and a whole lot more sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast, it’s 1745 and we’re walking along the cobbled streets of a busy, bustling fishing port, off to buy groceries from a young lad named James Cook. Staring out at the sea every day from his shop window in Staithes, North Yorkshire the teenage grocers boy, James Cook, dreamt of future that would take him around the world. Staithes is a striking fishing port, filled with beautiful clear light, sharp air and constantly changing weather. It’s full of picturesque higgledy-piggledy houses and has the power to buoy the spirits of anyone who visits. This is the place where Britain’s legendary explorer, who would go on to help shape the future of the British Isles, fell in love with boats and the sea. To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to new videos packed with history, current affairs and a whole lot more sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast I’m taking you to a place that’s part of my ‘origin myth’, it’s a location that witnessed a bloody and brutal battle which is famous around the world. As a wee lad, it was here, that I discovered many of my ancestors from Clan Cameron were killed and buried. This realisation clicked a switch in my young brain and I realised that if I was connected to this part of history then I was connected to every part of it. The build-up to this battle begins less than a year before when Bonnie Prince Charlie, the dashing young pretender, lands on the Scottish island of Eriskay, striding onto the bloody historical stage. He raises his standard and builds an army around himself, determined to claim the British crown by force. On 16th April 1746, on the beautiful moorland of Culloden his Jacobite army fought what would prove to be the last pitched battle ever to take palce on British soil – the Battle of Culloden.  To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to new videos packed with history and current affairs every week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast we’re walking down the aisle with a couple who fought like cat and dog for years, but are now about to be joined in union. The Act of Union came into force in 1707 and England and Scotland were finally brought together by the pen and not the sword. The independent parliaments of Scotland & England were united and a prosperous new beginning was promised, but as the Act that would legally bring them together was signed the bells of St Gilles’ Cathedral, on Edinburgh’s royal mile, rang out with the mournful lament, ‘Why am I so sad on this my wedding day?’To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to new videos packed with history and current affairs every week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast we’re landing in Lyme Regis with a swashbuckling Duke who is determined to be the King.Charles II’s eldest illegitimate son, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, lands in the west country with a small army of soldiers intent on deposing his catholic uncle, King James II.The duke’s uprising gains momentum and his army swells to around 8000 strong. Because the majority of the Duke’s new raw recruits are agricultural worker, rather than trained soldiers, it becomes known as the pitchfork rebellion.The Duke’s and the King’s army meet at Sedgemoor in what is the last battle of any note ever fought on English soil.Sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon to help support this podcast and get exclusive access to New Videos Every Week.https://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast we’re travelling the sharp end of a war which ripped the British Isles apart.King Charles I went head to head with increasingly bold Parliamentarians. Bitter, internecine politics and deadly powerplays led to opposing armies being raised, and a bloody civil war swept across the whole of the British Isles. Families, neighbours and lifelong friends were pitted against each another as people were compelled to pick a side and face each other in the blood and gore of lethal combat.In the beautiful rolling hills of the west country, near the city of Bath, a brutal battle was fought that throws the personal tragedy of civil war into sharp relief - horror and heroism side by side with the intimate heartbreak of friends fighting against each other to the death. The battle of Lansdown Hill fought in 1643.Sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon to help support this podcast and get exclusive access to New Videos Every Week.https://www.patreon.com/neiloliverThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.