Travels Through Time

Prof. Jonathan Phillips: Saladin (1187)

Saladin and the capture of Jerusalem: Professor Jonathan Phillips (1187)
For the Christian crusaders of the twelfth-century, Jerusalem was the ultimate prize. The holy city had been captured from the Muslims in 1099 as part of the First Crusade to the Holy Land. In 1187, the counter-crusade, led by the Sultan Saladin, was at last poised to wrest it back.
In this latest episode of Travels Through Time, Professor Jonathan Phillips of Royal Holloway University becomes our guide to the bloody events of the high Middle Ages. He takes us to watch Sultan Saladin’s decisive victory at the Battle of Hattin, which culminated in the dramatic capture of the True Cross. Then we look on as Sultan Saladin - one of the supreme military leaders of any age – marches on Jerusalem to complete the return of the sacred city.
What happened next, over the months of September and October, was surprisingly magnanimous. The events of 1187 brought to history not only one of the pivotal moments of the Medieval Age, it also established the reputation that Saladin has enjoyed ever since.
Scene One: The evening of 2 July 1187, the tent of Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem. Guy makes his fateful decision to march out to try to lift the siege of Tiberias. This is the prelude to the Battle of Hattin.
Scene Two: The Siege of Jerusalem, September 1187
Scene Three: Saladin's entry into Jerusalem on 2 October 1187
The Life and Legend of Sultan Saladin by Professor Jonathan Phillips: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/109/1093190/the-life-and-the-legend-of-the-sultan-saladin/9781847922144.html
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Professor Jonathan Phillips
Producer: Maria Nolan

Kassia St Clair: Apollo 11 (1969)

Fifty years ago humankind stepped on the moon for the first time. This is the story of the space suit that allowed them to do it.
Millions of Britons stayed up through the night of 20/21 July 1969 to experience one of the most iconic moments of the twentieth century. They watched on their TV sets, part of a global audience of 528 million, as Neil Armstrong edged down a ladder from the lunar module to become the first human to set foot on the moon. It was a definitive moment in the history of humankind and, for those watching, it became a shared experience like few others.
This latest episode of Travels Through Time begins at the moment Armstrong’s foot presses down onto the powdery surface of the moon. Most people have a vivid image of the scene: the grey lunar surface, the total blackness of space, the white lights and the fluttering Stars and Stripes. But what about the space suits that enabled Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to survive in such a hostile environment?
In three scenes the writer and cultural historian Kassia St Clair takes us from that iconic moment back to the JFK Space Centre and a sewing room floor in Delaware to show how these space suits – quiet wonders of technology themselves – were made, often using traditional techniques.
Scene One: Sea of Tranquillity, Lunar Surface, 2.56am GMT July 21st 1969
Scene Two: John F. Kennedy Space Center, US, 3.30am local time, July 16th 1969
Scene Three: Sewing floor of Playtex (ILC) Dover, Delaware, early months of 1969
Kassia St Clair’s website: http://www.kassiastclair.com/
Social:
Presenter: Peter Moore (@petermoore)
Guest: Kassia St Clair (@kassiastclair)
Producer: Maria Nolan
Audio extracts from the NASA archive. Used under the terms of their media use guidelines for educational purposes.

Andrew Roberts: Winston Churchill (1940)

Walking with Destiny: Winston Churchill becomes prime minister in May 1940
In seventy two hours in the middle of May 1940, Britain’s political leadership was transformed. Out went the undistinguished, dithering government led by Neville Chamberlain, known for its failed policy of appeasement. It was replaced by a new regime of ‘growling defiance’, headed by the pugnacious and polarising Winston Churchill.
This political change coincided with the NAZI ‘blitzkrieg’ invasion of western Europe. In this latest episode of Travels Through Time, the historian and biographer Andrew Roberts takes us back to those tense and dramatic days, 8-10 May 1940. We watch as Chamberlain suffers the humiliation of the Norway Debate in the House of Commons and as he attempts to cling to power in Number Ten Downing Street the following day.
On 10 May 1940 Churchill was summoned to meet King George VI. This event, Andrew Roberts argues, Churchill had foreseen as he destiny many decades before.
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Scene One: The Norway Debate, the House of Commons, 7-8 May 1940
Scene Two: Number Ten Downing Street, 9 May 1940
Scene Three: Buckingham Palace, 10 May 1940
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Andrew Roberts’s website: https://www.andrew-roberts.net/
Churchill: Walking with Destiny: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/284916/churchill/9780241205631.html
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Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Andrew Roberts
Producer: Maria Nolan

Aanchal Malhotra: Partition (1947)

An unholy rush: the cavalier, chaotic and catastrophic sequence of events surrounding Indian Independence in the summer of 1947
In the immediate aftermath of World War Two it became clear that the British Raj was no longer sustainable. But how should the British leave the Indian subcontinent after such a long period of colonial rule? Should the territory be divided? How could this be done?
The long-contested answers to these questions were finally delivered between June and August of 1947. In this episode of Travels Through Time the writer and artist Aanchal Malhotra ventures back to the bewildering and traumatic events of that summer. We meet British officials like Sir Cyril Radcliffe, the man responsible for drawing the border line between India and Pakistan, and many of the individuals whose lives were altered irrevocably by his decisions.
Scene One: 3 June, 1947 India – the announcement of Indian independence and subsequent Partition called the Independence of India Act, 1947 or the Mountbatten Plan. 
Scene Two: 8 July, 1947, arrival of Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who goes on to draw the "Radcliffe Line".
Scene Three: The days of Partition – roughly, the middle of August, 1947. The northern belt of present-day India and Pakistan.
Follow Aanchal’s work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aanch_m
Or get your copy of Aanchal’s book: Remnants of Partition https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/remnants-of-partition/
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Aanchal Malhotra
Producer: Maria Nolan

Prof. Armand D’Angour: Socrates (450 – 416 BCE)

The philosopher who changed the way we think about the world and the woman who changed him
Bertrand Russell wrote that ‘the achievements of Athens in the time of Pericles are perhaps the most astonishing thing in all history.’ And of all Athens’s great figures at this time, few are better remembered than Socrates. Commonly acknowledged as the founder of Western philosophy, he pioneered a new method of constant questioning, famously arguing that ‘the unexamined life' is not worth living at all.
In this episode of Travels Through Time we venture back to meet Socrates with the Oxford academic Professor Armand D’Angour. We meet Socrates as the young son of a stonemason, as the intelligent scholar and as the wise old philosopher. Most of all Armand introduces us to a revolutionary new figure into the story of Socrates’s younger life. This is the lover and partner of the statesman Pericles: Aspasia.
Scene One: Ancient Athens in 450 BCE when Aspasia, aged 20, arrives from Miletus.
Scene Two: The Temple of Apollo at Delphi in 445 BCE, when Socrates visited and was told by the prophetess that no one was wiser than him.
Scene Three: The Symposium in 416 BCE when Socrates and his friends discuss the meaning of love.
More about Armand D’Angour at his website: https://www.armand-dangour.com/
Armand’s book: “Socrates in Love” https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/socrates-in-love-9781408883914/
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Professor Armand D’Angour
Producer: Maria Nolan

Matt Biggs: George Forrest (1905)

A Botanical Odyssey: the (mis)adventures of the plant hunter George Forrest
In this episode of Travels Through Time writer, gardener and panellist on Gardeners' Question Time Matt Biggs travels back to 1905 to see the plant hunter George Forrest as he begins an ill-omened expedition into the mountains of Yunnan. For centuries plant hunters like Forrest had been tempted out into the margins of the landscape in search of prize new specimens. They often travelled at significant personal risk through hostile environments and contested political spaces. George Forrest's 1905 expedition was one of the most fraught of them all. In this episode we watch Forrest in three scenes as the drama of his story unfolds.
More about Matt Biggs at his website: http://matthewbiggs.com/
Matt's book: "Secrets of Great Botanists" https://www.amazon.co.uk/RHS-Secrets-Great-Botanists-Gardening/dp/1784724971
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Matt Biggs
Producer: Maria Nolan

Dr Kate Fullagar: Voyagers (1776)

Worlds Colliding: the Warrior, the Voyager and the Artist
In this episode of Travels Through Time the Australian historian Dr Kate Fullagar travels back to 10 December 1776. She visits Old Somerset House on the Strand in London to watch the painter Joshua Reynolds delivering his annual lecture to the Royal Academy; she crosses the Atlantic to the home of the diplomat Ostenaco in Cherokee Country; and she steps aboard HMS Resolution in the mid-Indian Ocean, as the much-travelled Pacific Islander Mai heads home on Captain Cook’s third great voyage. Set just months after the Declaration of Independence, Kate’s is a panoramic travel at a time of empire and great political and social change.
More about the book: https://katefullagar.com/faces-of-empire/
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Dr Kate Fullagar
Producer: Maria Nolan

Dr Diane Atkinson: Suffragettes (1914)

Radical Resistance: the rise of the suffragettes, 1914
1914 is a year most commonly associated with the beginning of a world-changing war. But as hostilities broke out on Continental Europe, in the towns and cities of Britain a different kind of conflict was already well-underway. In this podcast Dr Diane Atkinson takes us from the squares of England’s industrial towns to the gates of Buckingham Palace, following in the footsteps of Britain’s radical suffragettes as they squared up to the establishment.
March of the Women by Ethel Smyth is performed by the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir, conducted by Katy Lavinia Cooper, and is used with permission.
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Dr Diane Atkinson

Sir Michael Palin: HMS Erebus (1841-8)

From Pole to Pole: Sir Michael Palin and HMS Erebus 1841-1848
The 1840s were crucial years in the history of British exploration with speculative voyages towards the North and South Pole. One ship, HMS Erebus, made the journey to both ends of the earth. Here the explorer, writer and ex-Python Michael Palin travels back to join the officers on HMS Erebus’s quarterdeck to witness the action at first-hand.
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Michael Palin