Shows / Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
Weekly News & Comment
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Neil Oliver's Love Letter to the British Isles & Neil Oliver's Love Letter to the World are both FBF Podcast Productions
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Episodes
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History80 A Deadly Tug of War! Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
79 Splitting the Atom, Rutherford building, Manchester
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
78 Great Victorian Endeavour, White Cliffs of Dover, Kent
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
77 Disaster at sea! Eyemouth, Berwickshire
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
76 Ireland’s Teardrop, Fastnet Rock
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
75 The Great Hunger - An Gorta Mór, County Cork
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
74 The Tolpuddle Martyrs, Dorset
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
73 Discovering Dinosaurs, The Jurassic Coast, Dorset
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History72 The Bronte Sisters, Haworth, Yorkshire
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History71. Saving Lives at Sea, Smalls Lighthouse, Pembrokeshire
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History70 Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory, Portsmouth
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History69 Admiral Nelson, Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk.
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History68. The Highland Clearances, Bettyhill, Sutherland
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History67. Abolition of Slavery, Kingston upon Hull
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History66. The Last invasion of Britain, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History65. The Tobacco Lords & the Slave Trade, Merchant City, Glasgow
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History64. The United States of America attacks Britain, Whitehaven, Cumbria
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History63. Auld Lang Syne & Robert Burns, Dumfries
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History62. The Birth of the Industrial Revolution, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History61. Isaac Newton & Weighing the World - Schiehallion, Perthshire
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
60. General James Wolfe and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History59. Sat on a Volcano! Edinburgh
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History58. Captain Cook Sets Sail, Whitby, North Yorkshire.
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History57. Captain Cook - Where Dreams Are Made, Yorkshire
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History56. The Jacobites Last Stand, Culloden
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History55. England & Scotland United! St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh.
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History54. The Pitchfork Rebellion, Somerset.
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History53. Civil War! Lansdown Hill, Bath.
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…
- Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History
52. Civil War Coming! Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History51. White Slavery, Dunashad Castle
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History50. Shakespeare & the Globe Theatre, London
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History49. Hampton Court Palace
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History48. The Spanish Armada, the Giant’s Causeway
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History47. Elizabeth I & the Spanish Armada
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History46. Francis Drake and the Golden Hind, Aldeburgh
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History45. The Battle of Flodden, Northumberland
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History44. Scotland’s Silver Brooch, Stirling
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History43. The League of Legends, Kings Lynn
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History42. Lost in the Mire, Morecambe Bay Sands, Lancashire
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History41. Last Stands of the Brave, Harlech Castle
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…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History40. The Wars of the Roses, Westminister Abbey
This week Neil steps into the middle of a brutal family feud - the Wars of the Roses. The warring family, the Plantagenets, have been described as ‘a race…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History39. Making A King, Robert the Bruce
This week Neil steps foot into Cambuskenneth Abbey, a place that was to prove crucial in the making of a legendary king - Robert the Bruce. The Battle of…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History38. Europe’s Oldest Living Thing, Perthshire
This week Neil’s journey takes us to one of the most beautiful glens in Scotland where we discover, what is believed to be, the oldest living thing in Europe -…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History37. Glastonbury, Somerset
This week Neil takes us to a place of legends, a place where, with a glint in his eye, he proudly tells us he was once the warm-up act to Bono and U2 on the…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History36. Robert the Bruce and the Declaration of Arbroath
This week we travel with Neil to Angus where the glowing red eye of Arbroath Abbey casts a watchful look over us. It was here at the Abbey in 1320 that the…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History35. St Nectan’s Glen, Cornwall
This week Neil takes us off the beaten track to St Nectan’s Glen in Cornwall. It’s one of a number of enchanted places that are dotted all over the British…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History34. The heart of the British Isles, Snaefell, Isle of Man
This week Neil travels to an island at the heart of the British Isles. Snaefell is the highest mountain on the Isle of Man. On a clear day, from it’s peak…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History33. Magna Carta
This week, Neil travels to see an iconic document that shook the world. In 1215 a battling king squared up to his rebellious barons in a power struggle…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History32. Durham Cathedral
This week Neil travels back in time, almost 1000 years, to what became the city of Durham and the construction of a majestic building whose beauty and power…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History31. The Great War
This week Neil’s journey takes us in search of the battle whose ferocity, violence and savagery shocked the whole of the British Isles and shaped its borders…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History30. A Great King, Hyde Abbey, Winchester
This week Neil takes us in search of the remains of one the greatest Kings ever to reign in the British Isles. Not far from Winchester’s city centre, in…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History29. King Alfred the Great versus the Viking, The Alfred Jewel
This week Neil takes us back in time to meet a king who stopped the Vikings in their tracks. Sitting in the Ashmolean museum in Oxford is a precious golden…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History28. The Vikings Great Heathen Army, Repton, Derbyshire
This week Neil winters with the Great Heathen Army, the mighty Viking force that was poised, ready to sweep across the British Isles. After the Vikings…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History27. The Vikings Are Here! Brough of Birsay, Orkney.
This week Neil takes us with him to a place of stunning beauty with a dark and brutal past. For years the Vikings well-deserved reputation for violence and…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History26. The Vikings, Lindisfarne, Northumberland.
In this episode Neil takes us to an island stained with the first bloody fingerprints of an invader who would change the British Isles forever. Heading to the…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History25. King Arthur, Northumberland
This week, on his journey around the British Isles, Neil takes us to Northumberland to meet the legendary, King Arthur. Climbing the battlements of the…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History24. Iona, Inner Hebrides
In this episode Neil’s journey takes us to a magical island where the landscape, the light and the very air you breath come together to soothe the soul. This…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History23. Lullingstone Roman Villa, Kent
In this episode Neil steps into an opulent Roman Villa grand enough to have housed the governor of Roman Britannia and maybe even put up a visiting emperor or…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History22. Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland
In this podcast we’re walking with Neil alongside the largest Roman artefact in the whole world, Hadrian’s Wall, the boundary of Empire. And we comes to a stop…
Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History21. The Roman Baths, Bath, Somerset
In this episode Neil travels across the channel with legions of heavily armed, well trained Roman soldiers and heads to Bath in Somerset In AD 43 a conquering…