Neil Oliver: News, Comment, History

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.

In this podcast we’re teetering on the brink of a war that would rip the three kingdoms apart. In what is one of the most significant moments in Scottish history the National Covenant was born. King Charles I of England and Scotland, an imperious and domineering monarch, went heat to head with the Presbyterian Scots who were in no mood to listen to new ideas, not even from a king.Riots and rebellion swept the country and the King found himself at war with the nation. A resounding clash of religious faiths, a ground-breaking document, rebellion and a blood-soaked island. Sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon to get exclusive access to New Videos Every Week and to help support this podcast.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 prowling the beautiful coves and bays of the Irish coast with Barberry Corsairs.On a dark night in 1631 a notorious Dutch pirate known as ‘Captain Murat’, who operated out of Morocco with the blessing of the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul, sailed ashore to Dunashad castle in Baltimore, County Cork. On this one fateful night Captain Murat and his pirates left a dark shadow of violence and slavery over the whole town. All the inhabitants, every man, woman, and child were taken aboard their pirate ships and transported to north Africa to be sold into slavery.Sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon to get exclusive access to New Videos Every Week and to help support this podcast.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 Neil takes us to a place where all our modern senses and sterile sensibilities are thrown into shock. London at the turn of the C17th was a major metropolis, a city teeming with life, where pestilence and poverty sat cheek by jowl with great wealth and riches. A major industrial centre it was ripe with every stink of animal and human imaginable, streets crowded and claustrophobic, some lined with the rotting body parts of dismembered criminals.Striding into this world came William Shakespeare, a man who had the power to entertain the thongs. Conjuring and conceiving magical words and language he became one of the pillars of the English language. His plays and poetry, that have moved and shaped the whole world, were written, read and performed on Bankside at the Globe theatre.To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.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 Neil takes us with him, setting foot into a building whose history is inextricably woven into the story of the British Isles.A landmark building, that’s as beautiful as it is beguiling. In 1944 General Dwight Eisenhower camped beside it and planned the D-Day landings, William Shakespeare and his troop of actors performed in it’s Great Hall, but Henry VIII’s bloated and corrupt shadow falls most darkly on its red bricks.It’s a palace with panache, a building that’s full of intrigue, politics and high drama. It’s a place that gave birth to a book, but not just any book, a book whose poetic words, cadences, and rhythms made it a cornerstone of English literature – the King James Bible. The elegance of the humanity expressed within its pages helped empower the formation of modern democracy, and this book was conceived within the walls of the magnificent Hampton Court Palace.To help support this podcast and get access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re witnessing the final destructive crescendo that put paid to a powerful, but ill-fated invasion fleet bent on conquering England. Queen Elizabeth I stood firm against the mighty Spanish Armada, and the elemental forces of nature came to her assistance.The Spanish ships sent to invade England were bristling with the latest weapons of war and full of men and treasure. After being attacked by Sir Francis Drake in the channel they were scattered by a powerful storm. Pushed by the weather right around the eastern seaboard of the British Isles, around the tip of Scotland some of the remnants of this once formidable invasion fleet ended up at the Giant’s Causeway on the Irish coast. Here, at this this world-famous stage of staggering natural beauty, they were hit by another deadly storm and finally destroyed leaving Elizabeth I and England safe.To help support this podcast and get access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil takes us along an Elizabethan jetty to hear one of history’s great speeches.In 1588, as Sir Francis Drake sailed to meet the mighty Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth I travelled down the river Thames to Tilbury fort where she addressed her army. If the powerful Spanish force landed and invaded England these are the men who would defend the country and its queen. Dressed in white and surrounded by her soldiers, Elizabeth delivered a legendary speech that put steel resolve into their hearts and helped define England as a nation. Stirring stuff indeed!To help support this podcast and get access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil is taking us aboard the Golden Hind, a legendary ship that sailed around the world and into history.In 16th century Aldeburgh, which was then an important east-coast port, shipbuilders set to work building a vessel that was to have a profound influence on British history.Once completed and seaworthy Francis Drake and his crew climbed aboard and set sail on an epic 3 year voyage to circumnavigate the globe. On its return the ship was full to bursting with gold, silver and precious jewels, and Francis Drake received a hero’s welcome and the thanks of his queen, Elizabeth I.To help support this podcast and get access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil marches with us across the wild beauty of Northumberland to a battleground that broke Scotland’s heart.In 1513 Margaret Tudor watched as her husband, the glamours renaissance king, James IV of Scotland, set off to invade England and do battle with her brother, Henry VIII. When Henry invaded France James felt duty bound to honour the Auld Alliance, a treaty of mutual assistance between Scotland and France. In retaliation he led the largest Scottish army ever to invade England across the border. James' powerful force bristling with the latest military technology met an English army led by the Earl of Surrey at Flodden. It was a brutal and bloody battle, fought with formidable pikes imported from the continent, cannon fire, slaughter and a deadly arrow to the King’s face.To help support ‘Neil Oliver’s Love Letter To The British Isles’ podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon – history, commentary and a whole lot more. New Videos Every WeekThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Week Neil’s on his home turf delving into the deep history of one of the most glorious castles in the British Isles.They say Stirling castle is the silver brooch that hitches the Highlands of Scotland to the lowlands. Neil very much regards it as his personal touch stone. It’s a place that was already well trodden by our ancestors when the Roman road builders turned up around AD80.The castle, which sits atop a geological formation known as a crag and tail, has always been strategically vital, playing a crucial part in the history of Scotland and the British Isles.Kings and queens have been born and raised there, battles fought, and scores settled in and around it. Jaw-dropping grandeur and beauty, it’s a place full of drama and passion, it’s a place Neil knows & loves well. Check out, the Neil Oliver Patreon site for new history and commentary videos every weekThe series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil follows the money!By the C13th the Hanseatic League had crystalised its power base and was busy spinning lucrative trading routes right across northern Europe, from the Baltic to the British Isles. Neil travels to the Norfolk town of Kings Lynn, which thanks to the Hanseatic League became the third richest port in England. Two building survive from this time, St George’s Guildhall and the Hanse House, structures that are stunning testament to the wealth and international trade that flowed through Kings Lynn during the League dominance. The Hanseatic League was an ultra-powerful trading bloc, not adverse to dabbling in national politics, that lasted for almost three centuries.Check out, Neil’s history and commentary Videos on his Patreon site - Neil Oliver. The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, side by side with Neil, we’re striding across a vast, treacherous bay where one false move could see us paying for it with our lives.Almost 500 years ago, in 1548, the people of Morecambe Bay Sands asked for help, because crossing this vast tidal expanse was so treacherous many lives were being lost. The tides race across the sands faster than a horse can gallop and the bay is dotted with patches of deadly quicksand known locally as Melgraves, which have caught and dragged many to their deaths.Morecambe Bay is surround and suffused with history, from the C14th Piel castle, which was the Yorkists mustering point in the last hurrah of the Wars of the Roses, to the Midland Hotel, an art deco masterpiece bursting with glitz and glamourous guests, which was opened in 1933. Above everything, it’s a breath-taking landscape that plays its part in our history and reminds us of our place in the powerful natural world.Check out, Neil’s history and commentary Videos on his Patreon site - Neil Oliver.The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil comes face to face with the mighty walls of an almost impregnable castle, which down through its history inspired many heroic ‘last stands’ and a song that famously features in one of Neil's favourite films.On the orders of Edward I, Harlech castle was built between 1283 and 1285 by James of St George a military engineer of unsurpassed genius. It’s clever design, a castle within a castle with it’s back protected by the Irish sea, made it a truly formidable fortress.During the Wars of the Roses in 1460 Margaret of Anjou, queen and wife of the Lancastrian King Henry VI fled to Harlech castle. For the next eight years the castle was besieged by Yorkist forces determined to capture her. Eventually an army, 10,000 strong, starved the castle into submission. Although unsuccessful this heroic, ‘Last Stand’ was immortalised in the song ‘The Men of Harlech’.It was this song, which was used to such great effect in Zulu, the 1964 film starring Michael Caine, about another legendary ‘Last Stand’, the defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Anglo-Zulu War.Check out, Neil’s new Video Podcasts on his Patreon site - Neil Oliver.And the series Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.